Back in August 2022, I read the novelette, "Fire Watch," by Connie Willis. It was published in a collection with the same title, and was part of the same universe as Willis's Oxford Time Travel series: Doomsday Book (1992), To Say Nothing of the Dog (1995), Blackout (2010), and All Clear (2010). I liked "Fire Watch" a lot but I did think that it might not be too clear if the reader had not read at least one of the books in her time travel series.
After reading an additional three stories from Fire Watch last week, I hesitated to write a post about them. Mainly because I found the stories confusing, and two of them I did not really understand at all.
"Service for the Burial of the Dead"
This one was pretty good. It is a ghost story, set in the 1800s (I am guessing). A young woman is shunned by her neighbors because she has had an affair with a young man. He dies and she dares to attend the funeral. Embarrassed, she leaves the chapel and goes into a room nearby. To her surprise her lover is there, and says he won't reveal himself to any one else until the father of his fiancee settles his debts. The story is somewhat open ended.
"Lost and Found"
An apocalyptic story about cults and the state stealing treasures from the churches. It isn't that this story is totally unclear, it is more that I wanted some more concrete information on what is going on.
"All My Darling Daughters"
This story was long and very icky, but I could not stop reading it. I was hoping there would be some resolution that would make it worth reading. It is science fiction and it concerns a school (on a large space craft). It was about sex and fathers and implied rape and incest. Some reviewers loved this story and others hated it, so don't take my reaction too seriously.
"Blued Moon"
I did not want to give up on the stories in this book and only report on ones that I had mixed reactions to. The fourth story I read was "Blued Moon." It was a highly recommended story by Willis. It was undoubtedly the best story of these four. It is a romantic comedy and a fun and humorous read. It involves a project to restore the ozone layer, which may or may not have disastrous results.
There are seven more stories left in this book and I will persevere, plus I have two more books of Willis's short stories to read.
14 comments:
This sounds like a sort of mixed bag of a collection, Tracy. I'll be honest; I don't think it's for me. But I can see how other readers might find it interesting, or enjoy the stories.
Just by chance, I just bought a Connie Willis short story collection. Your fine review motivated me to move it up on the Read Real Soon stack.
That's the thing about short story collections. So often there are weak ones included and it all depends on how they're placed in the book as to how it can affect me. I prefer to have a couple of good ones right at the beginning as well as a good one to close out a book.
I am with Margot. I don't think it's for me either.
Margot, this is an unusual collection so far. One story is time travel, one is humorous science fiction, one is a ghost story, and the other two are very weird science fiction. I think in all cases reviewers were mixed on their reactions to the stories, but most felt like it was a mixed bag, as you say.
George, I hope you enjoy the stories in the Connie Willis collection. The two other books of short stories I have by her are Impossible Things and A Lot Like Christmas.
Kelly, I think I found it daunting that the first three stories I read just did not suit me. I often find that short stories written by an author are not as good as their novels, or vice versa. I have not read all of Willis's novels but the ones I have read are very good.
Neeru, I can understand that. I don't like to write an overall negative review but on the other hand it is better to evaluate the stories as I see them. Others may have different experiences.
I'm reading a collection of science fiction short stories that include some I really like a lot and others that have left me confused all the way through them. I hate when that happens because it's hard to feel good about investing that much time on a group of stories when half of them just end up leaving you cold. But on the other hand, without sticking with the mediocre/confusing stories, I would have missed out on some brilliant ones. But the reviews are tough to do. lol
Sam, the confusion factor in two of the stories was really irritating, but you are right, you have to read all them to find the good ones. My husband experienced that when he tried a new author (of weird stories, I think) and mostly did not like the stories, but the last one was really, really good. He thought it was worth it.
I read her To Say Nothing of the Dog and quite liked it but because time travel is not my favourite sci-fi trope I've not read any more in the series. These days I'm not keen on reading things which confuse me and I have a lot of other things on my tbr pile, so I will probably give this one a miss.
Connie Willis is definitely attempting to be challenging with stories such as "...Darling Daughters" is icky by design, since the reality it deals with, now and through history, is that much worse. One really does have to pick up on the vernacular and tropes in different fields of fiction, or they will seem weird or confusing (to say nothing of boring as well as confounding), and to some extent that's true of the brilliant examples as well as for the passable/mediocre ones.
All sympathies on the diagnosis...hope your case is as mild and quickly over as possible. Sorry about missing the charity sale.
I am not usually into science fiction but I have my eye on Connie Willis' Doomsday Book because it fits my medieval historical fiction challenge and I will definitely check out your review. Of the short stories Service For the Burial of The Dead sounds very interesting and I would like to give it a try.
You're brave to read sci-fi stories, lol. Some can be tricky to understand. I don't know Connie Willis but she seems well known and an multiple award winner ... I don't read sci fi much ... but I might try Ted Chiang sometime.
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