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Oxford Time Travel #0.5
Fire Watch
Winner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards, Connie Willis is one of the most acclaimed and imaginative authors of our time. Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction. Here in one volume are twelve of her greatest stories, including double award-winner "Fire Watch," set in the universe of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, in which a time-traveling student learns one of history's hardest lessons. In "A Letter from the Clearys," a routine message from distant friends shatters the fragile world of a beleaguered family. In "The Sidon in the Mirror," a mutant with the unconscious urge to become other people finds himself becoming both killer and victim. Disturbing, revealing, and provocative, this remarkable collection of short fiction brings together some of the best work of an incomparable writer whose ability to amaze, confound, and enlighten never fails.
Contents:
Fire Watch (1982)
Service for the Burial of the Dead (1982)
Lost and Found (1982)
All My Darling Daughters (1985)
The Father of the Bride (1982)
A Letter from the Clearys (1982)
And Come from Miles Around (1979)
The Sidon in the Mirror (1983)
Daisy, in the Sun (1979)
Mail-Order Clone (1982)
Samaritan (1978)
Blued Moon (1984)
Contents:
Fire Watch (1982)
Service for the Burial of the Dead (1982)
Lost and Found (1982)
All My Darling Daughters (1985)
The Father of the Bride (1982)
A Letter from the Clearys (1982)
And Come from Miles Around (1979)
The Sidon in the Mirror (1983)
Daisy, in the Sun (1979)
Mail-Order Clone (1982)
Samaritan (1978)
Blued Moon (1984)
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1982
About the author
Connie Willis
252 books4,727 followersConstance Elaine Trimmer Willis is an American science fiction writer. She is one of the most honored science fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s.
She has won, among other awards, ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for All Seated on the Ground (August 2008). She was the 2011 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).
She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband Courtney Willis, a professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado. She also has one daughter, Cordelia.
Willis is known for her accessible prose and likable characters. She has written several pieces involving time travel by history students and faculty of the future University of Oxford. These pieces include her Hugo Award-winning novels Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog and the short story "Fire Watch," found in the short story collection of the same name.
Willis tends to the comedy of manners style of writing. Her protagonists are typically beset by single-minded people pursuing illogical agendas, such as attempting to organize a bell-ringing session in the middle of a deadly epidemic (Doomsday Book), or frustrating efforts to analyze near-death experiences by putting words in the mouths of interviewees (Passage).
She has won, among other awards, ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for All Seated on the Ground (August 2008). She was the 2011 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).
She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband Courtney Willis, a professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado. She also has one daughter, Cordelia.
Willis is known for her accessible prose and likable characters. She has written several pieces involving time travel by history students and faculty of the future University of Oxford. These pieces include her Hugo Award-winning novels Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog and the short story "Fire Watch," found in the short story collection of the same name.
Willis tends to the comedy of manners style of writing. Her protagonists are typically beset by single-minded people pursuing illogical agendas, such as attempting to organize a bell-ringing session in the middle of a deadly epidemic (Doomsday Book), or frustrating efforts to analyze near-death experiences by putting words in the mouths of interviewees (Passage).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 453 reviews
April 12, 2026
“But I’m not ready,” I’d said. “Look, it took me four years to get ready to travel with St. Paul. St. Paul. Not St. Paul’s. You can’t expect me to get ready for London in the Blitz in two days.”
“Yes,” Dunworthy had said. “We can.” End of conversation.
A novelette in the Oxford Time Travel series, Fire Watch is a stunning introduction to the world of the historians, who not only study history but also travel back in time to experience it firsthand. The story follows a young man as he scrambles to survive the bombings of St. Paul's London in the second world war and parse all the events happening around him.
‘Silence and humility are the sacred burdens of the historian.’
A very deserving recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards, the story describes the world of the Fire Watch and the people in it very vividly. The character arc of the historian, going from studies of the era and events, to actually witnessing and living the events is unforgettable. Connie Willis' succinct writing does justice to the stark premise, the characters and the story.
Nothing is saved forever, Dean Matthews, and I knew that when I walked in the west doors that first day, blinking into the gloom, but it is pretty bad nevertheless.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
[One star for the premise; One star for the characters; One star for the plot; One star for the world-building; One star for the writing - Five stars in total.]
“Yes,” Dunworthy had said. “We can.” End of conversation.
A novelette in the Oxford Time Travel series, Fire Watch is a stunning introduction to the world of the historians, who not only study history but also travel back in time to experience it firsthand. The story follows a young man as he scrambles to survive the bombings of St. Paul's London in the second world war and parse all the events happening around him.
‘Silence and humility are the sacred burdens of the historian.’
A very deserving recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards, the story describes the world of the Fire Watch and the people in it very vividly. The character arc of the historian, going from studies of the era and events, to actually witnessing and living the events is unforgettable. Connie Willis' succinct writing does justice to the stark premise, the characters and the story.
Nothing is saved forever, Dean Matthews, and I knew that when I walked in the west doors that first day, blinking into the gloom, but it is pretty bad nevertheless.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
[One star for the premise; One star for the characters; One star for the plot; One star for the world-building; One star for the writing - Five stars in total.]
June 4, 2020
I'm a Connie Willis fan, and this Hugo and Nebula award-winning novelette is one of my favorites, and the first work she wrote about her Oxford University time-travelling historians. And bonus! this story is free online here: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories...
Bartholomew is a history student at Oxford who's assigned to travel back in time to London during the WWII Blitz for his practicum, to work as part of a team that protects St. Paul's Cathedral against Nazi incendiary bombs. Bartholomew is NOT thrilled about this assignment: he studied the apostle St. Paul for years at Oxford, planning to go back in time and join Paul in his travels, but instead the history department assigned him to St. Paul's Cathedral. It looks like a bureaucratic mistake, but it's one that the history department isn't willing to undo.
So off he goes to the London Blitz. This story is written in the form of his personal journal, as Bartholomew tries to figure out WWII-era British slang and whether his co-worker Langby is a Nazi spy and WOW, look at the cat! (Cats are inexplicably extinct in modern times in this universe. I believe Willis explains in a later book that there was some kind of feline epidemic.)
It's a little slow and you have to take time to kind of sink into this world. Willis's stories and novels often meander around but she makes it up with fantastic endings. She knows how to stick the landing better than almost any other SF author I know. Like All Clear (a later book in this series), the ending of "Fire Watch" makes me sniffle every time.
Bartholomew is a history student at Oxford who's assigned to travel back in time to London during the WWII Blitz for his practicum, to work as part of a team that protects St. Paul's Cathedral against Nazi incendiary bombs. Bartholomew is NOT thrilled about this assignment: he studied the apostle St. Paul for years at Oxford, planning to go back in time and join Paul in his travels, but instead the history department assigned him to St. Paul's Cathedral. It looks like a bureaucratic mistake, but it's one that the history department isn't willing to undo.
So off he goes to the London Blitz. This story is written in the form of his personal journal, as Bartholomew tries to figure out WWII-era British slang and whether his co-worker Langby is a Nazi spy and WOW, look at the cat! (Cats are inexplicably extinct in modern times in this universe. I believe Willis explains in a later book that there was some kind of feline epidemic.)
It's a little slow and you have to take time to kind of sink into this world. Willis's stories and novels often meander around but she makes it up with fantastic endings. She knows how to stick the landing better than almost any other SF author I know. Like All Clear (a later book in this series), the ending of "Fire Watch" makes me sniffle every time.
July 27, 2025
This was a mixed batch of short stories, most of which left me rather disappointed. Admittedly, I loved a couple of them, and also enjoyed a few, but would rate most of them either forgettable or outright boring.
The Masterpieces
Samaritan
In a post-apocalyptic world, where most of the Christian churches have been reunified, a priestess gets it into her head to baptize an orangutan. One specific orangutan, who learned sign language and has been working as a handyman for the church. The congregation at large is of course against it, much to the priestess' annoyance.
Blued Moon
A bug in a new weather-controlling device releases an insane amount of unlikely coincidences on the universe (the city-wide area, at least). Like once in a blue moon kind of coincidences. While some of it is harmless, or mostly hilarious, the president of the weather controlling company is starting to outright fear for his life.
The Thoughtful and the Satisfying
All My Darling Daughters
In a far off future, parents who're unwilling (or unable) to properly raise their children, can send them to off-planet boarding schools. Forced to deal with the subpar terraforming and a cult-like atmosphere, most of the children resort to unsanctioned sex... until the guys suddenly get more interested in their new creepy pet slugs.
And Come From Miles Around
A harried young mother, her daughter and her husband go on a cross-country drive to witness a long awaited solar eclipse. As the husband is busy attending seminars and preparing for the event, the mother is relegated to her child minding duties. Nevertheless, she still manages to pay enough attention to save the day. Unbeknownst to anyone but her.
The Disappointing
Fire Watch
This is essentially the same story as Doomsday Book, just much shorter and set in WWII London, instead of early 13th century Oxford. Despite having been written in the first person, I found it rather impersonal and dull. Possibly not a fair comparison to make, as the latter has been written several years later, is much more fleshed out, and (probably) fixes a lot of issues the author encountered while writing this story.
The Sidon in The Mirror
I loved the intriguing concept of "inherited" revenge, but the exposition took up way too much time, and the world building was not fleshed out enough, so I kept having to reread sections to try and understand the sequence of events.
Final score: 3.57/5 stars
For all that I am a firm believer in good writing style, over ground-breaking content and larger page-count, I'm still wary whenever it comes to getting into short stories. Oh, I may resort to them when my yearly reading goal is threatening to break down my door. I wish I could say that I'm often wrong, but that's rarely the case when it comes to anthologies. So I'll at least try to be less nitpicky.
The Masterpieces
Samaritan
In a post-apocalyptic world, where most of the Christian churches have been reunified, a priestess gets it into her head to baptize an orangutan. One specific orangutan, who learned sign language and has been working as a handyman for the church. The congregation at large is of course against it, much to the priestess' annoyance.
Blued Moon
A bug in a new weather-controlling device releases an insane amount of unlikely coincidences on the universe (the city-wide area, at least). Like once in a blue moon kind of coincidences. While some of it is harmless, or mostly hilarious, the president of the weather controlling company is starting to outright fear for his life.
The Thoughtful and the Satisfying
All My Darling Daughters
In a far off future, parents who're unwilling (or unable) to properly raise their children, can send them to off-planet boarding schools. Forced to deal with the subpar terraforming and a cult-like atmosphere, most of the children resort to unsanctioned sex... until the guys suddenly get more interested in their new creepy pet slugs.
And Come From Miles Around
A harried young mother, her daughter and her husband go on a cross-country drive to witness a long awaited solar eclipse. As the husband is busy attending seminars and preparing for the event, the mother is relegated to her child minding duties. Nevertheless, she still manages to pay enough attention to save the day. Unbeknownst to anyone but her.
The Disappointing
Fire Watch
This is essentially the same story as Doomsday Book, just much shorter and set in WWII London, instead of early 13th century Oxford. Despite having been written in the first person, I found it rather impersonal and dull. Possibly not a fair comparison to make, as the latter has been written several years later, is much more fleshed out, and (probably) fixes a lot of issues the author encountered while writing this story.
The Sidon in The Mirror
I loved the intriguing concept of "inherited" revenge, but the exposition took up way too much time, and the world building was not fleshed out enough, so I kept having to reread sections to try and understand the sequence of events.
Final score: 3.57/5 stars
For all that I am a firm believer in good writing style, over ground-breaking content and larger page-count, I'm still wary whenever it comes to getting into short stories. Oh, I may resort to them when my yearly reading goal is threatening to break down my door. I wish I could say that I'm often wrong, but that's rarely the case when it comes to anthologies. So I'll at least try to be less nitpicky.
December 2, 2020
Short story collection contains these stories, along with my rating for each and some song lyrics that may or may not be insightful or amusing:
Fire Watch - 3/5 - and the man in the back is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky
Service for the Burial of the Dead - 3/5 - love and life are deep
Lost and Found - 3/5 - let's tell the world we're in that crazy mood
All My Darling Daughters - 3/5 - I just wanna have some kicks, I just wanna get some chicks
The Father of the Bride - 2/5 - behind the wall of sleep
A Letter from the Clearys - 3/5 - yeah, watch the world die
And Come from Miles Around - 3/5 - it's a beautiful day, don't let it get away
The Sidon in the Mirror - 2/5 - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Daisy, in the Sun - 2/5 - Here comes the sun
Mail-Order Clone - 4/5 - my heart is broke, but I have some glue
Samaritan - 3/5 - you turn me every which way but loose
Blued Moon - 4/5 - and if your head explodes with dark forebodings too...
Fire Watch - 3/5 - and the man in the back is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky
Service for the Burial of the Dead - 3/5 - love and life are deep
Lost and Found - 3/5 - let's tell the world we're in that crazy mood
All My Darling Daughters - 3/5 - I just wanna have some kicks, I just wanna get some chicks
The Father of the Bride - 2/5 - behind the wall of sleep
A Letter from the Clearys - 3/5 - yeah, watch the world die
And Come from Miles Around - 3/5 - it's a beautiful day, don't let it get away
The Sidon in the Mirror - 2/5 - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Daisy, in the Sun - 2/5 - Here comes the sun
Mail-Order Clone - 4/5 - my heart is broke, but I have some glue
Samaritan - 3/5 - you turn me every which way but loose
Blued Moon - 4/5 - and if your head explodes with dark forebodings too...
February 19, 2012
Pretty good book, quick read, all that.
The main thing I wanted to talk about is time travel because I really do want to talk about what I want to talk about. That would make a great chorus for a pop country song.
What's cool about Connie Willis is that, for my money, she handles time travel well. It's not explained in this story, but I had a kindly office mate explain to me that Connie Willis' other books that take place in the same universe involve something called "slippage." Slippage is the thing that keeps you from going back in time and killing Hitler, for example. If you tried to go back in time to change a large historical event, you would find that your ability to travel accurately, to an exact time or place, would be limited. The larger your potential for changing history, the more time keeps you from placing yourself accurately.
I like that. It's a pretty decent explanation for the way in which time travel can still work in a narrative without answering the question of why someone didn't kill Hitler, which is really the ultimate time travel question (The Hitler Paradox, as I like to call it).
I've been thinking a lot about time travel narratives lately. At first I thought that the only way time travel narratives work was in comedies, such as Back to the Future. But that's not entirely true because it can also work in things like 12 Monkeys or (on a self-contained level) Memento.
So what is it that makes a time travel narrative work, if it's not about theme?
The answer, as far as I can tell, is that the time travel is the path the writer takes in order to talk about something that he or she is passionate about. In other words, Connie Willis uses time travel, but really it's mostly about the fact that she wants to write about the Blitz. Additionally, the beauty of time travel is that you can write about something like the Blitz from a modern perspective, which means that you can discuss it while still being respectful of it.
Because (as I understand it) characters are not allowed to time travel backwards within their own lifespans, the other problem of time travel is dealt with as well. You know, that whole thing where you run into yourself and then you explode or something? I call it the Hitler Paradox II, not because it has anything to do with Hitler but because I name all my time travel paradoxes that way just so I can index them properly.
And if you think about it, the idea of traveling back to see your own young self makes no sense.
Normally, it goes one of two ways:
Alpha Pete travels back in time. He runs into his young self (who is supposed to also be Alpha Pete) and then changes time somehow.
That doesn't make sense because what has happened there is, essentially, cloning. Because the universe now exists in such a way that there are TWO Alpha Petes, yet the only process that occurred was time travel, not cloning. So rather than being one consciousness that is Alpha Pete, there are two iterations of Alpha Pete. But why?
Okay, here's the other common scenario:
Alpha Pete travels back in time. He is wearing a red sweater. He sees his young self (Beta Pete). This fulfills a pattern that Alpha Pete remembers from his childhood (when he was Beta Pete), a time when a mysterious stranger in a red sweater (Alpha Pete) showed up.
This works a little better for me, although if this is the case time travel is very pointless because once young Beta Pete sees grown Alpha Pete, in this scenario, this event will ALWAYS happen for Petes Charlie through Zebra and on and on. Not only that, but it will have always happened in the past as well. In other words, this event is replicated infinitely in the "past" and "future" and is therefore kind of silly and pointless.
Anyway, time travel rant over, thanks to Connie Willis for figuring a decent workaround that's good enough to satisfy, yet nebulous enough that it's not fully explained. Because if you ask me, fully-explained science fiction is not only boring, it's not really science fiction anymore. It's just a fictionalized textbook.
The main thing I wanted to talk about is time travel because I really do want to talk about what I want to talk about. That would make a great chorus for a pop country song.
What's cool about Connie Willis is that, for my money, she handles time travel well. It's not explained in this story, but I had a kindly office mate explain to me that Connie Willis' other books that take place in the same universe involve something called "slippage." Slippage is the thing that keeps you from going back in time and killing Hitler, for example. If you tried to go back in time to change a large historical event, you would find that your ability to travel accurately, to an exact time or place, would be limited. The larger your potential for changing history, the more time keeps you from placing yourself accurately.
I like that. It's a pretty decent explanation for the way in which time travel can still work in a narrative without answering the question of why someone didn't kill Hitler, which is really the ultimate time travel question (The Hitler Paradox, as I like to call it).
I've been thinking a lot about time travel narratives lately. At first I thought that the only way time travel narratives work was in comedies, such as Back to the Future. But that's not entirely true because it can also work in things like 12 Monkeys or (on a self-contained level) Memento.
So what is it that makes a time travel narrative work, if it's not about theme?
The answer, as far as I can tell, is that the time travel is the path the writer takes in order to talk about something that he or she is passionate about. In other words, Connie Willis uses time travel, but really it's mostly about the fact that she wants to write about the Blitz. Additionally, the beauty of time travel is that you can write about something like the Blitz from a modern perspective, which means that you can discuss it while still being respectful of it.
Because (as I understand it) characters are not allowed to time travel backwards within their own lifespans, the other problem of time travel is dealt with as well. You know, that whole thing where you run into yourself and then you explode or something? I call it the Hitler Paradox II, not because it has anything to do with Hitler but because I name all my time travel paradoxes that way just so I can index them properly.
And if you think about it, the idea of traveling back to see your own young self makes no sense.
Normally, it goes one of two ways:
Alpha Pete travels back in time. He runs into his young self (who is supposed to also be Alpha Pete) and then changes time somehow.
That doesn't make sense because what has happened there is, essentially, cloning. Because the universe now exists in such a way that there are TWO Alpha Petes, yet the only process that occurred was time travel, not cloning. So rather than being one consciousness that is Alpha Pete, there are two iterations of Alpha Pete. But why?
Okay, here's the other common scenario:
Alpha Pete travels back in time. He is wearing a red sweater. He sees his young self (Beta Pete). This fulfills a pattern that Alpha Pete remembers from his childhood (when he was Beta Pete), a time when a mysterious stranger in a red sweater (Alpha Pete) showed up.
This works a little better for me, although if this is the case time travel is very pointless because once young Beta Pete sees grown Alpha Pete, in this scenario, this event will ALWAYS happen for Petes Charlie through Zebra and on and on. Not only that, but it will have always happened in the past as well. In other words, this event is replicated infinitely in the "past" and "future" and is therefore kind of silly and pointless.
Anyway, time travel rant over, thanks to Connie Willis for figuring a decent workaround that's good enough to satisfy, yet nebulous enough that it's not fully explained. Because if you ask me, fully-explained science fiction is not only boring, it's not really science fiction anymore. It's just a fictionalized textbook.
February 23, 2015
The last story, Blued Moon is the star - very much in the same vein as To Say Nothing of the Dog (my favourite Willis novel). It's a sparkling celebration of coincidences and technical jargon. The kind of story that makes me want to shout, "Yes, Connie! Yes! Write more stories like this!"
As with all short story collections it's a mixed bag. Despite kicking off Willis' superb time-travel series (which I love), I was surprised that the title story, Fire Watch didn't do all that much for me.
All My Darling Daughters however, was genuinely VERY creepy and will (unfortunately) live long in the memory... *shudder*
I also enjoyed The Sidon In The Mirror - a fascinating setting and character concept with far more potential that Willis had the chance to mine (no pun intended if you've read the story) here.
Mail Order Close was fun - and just perfect for the short story length.
Daisy In The Sun reminded me a lot of another Willis book - Passage with it's use of dreamscapes and memory echoes - actually more effective here than in Passage
The rest... were a little lightweight for me - all well written, but without the spark to really make me want to talk about them!
Overall, I'm actually very impressed. I'm a tough audience for short stories, but there were enough gems here to keep me happy and, like I said, Blued Moon was a 5-star smash hit and worth the £3 I paid for the book all by itself :-)
After this I read: Goliath
As with all short story collections it's a mixed bag. Despite kicking off Willis' superb time-travel series (which I love), I was surprised that the title story, Fire Watch didn't do all that much for me.
All My Darling Daughters however, was genuinely VERY creepy and will (unfortunately) live long in the memory... *shudder*
I also enjoyed The Sidon In The Mirror - a fascinating setting and character concept with far more potential that Willis had the chance to mine (no pun intended if you've read the story) here.
Mail Order Close was fun - and just perfect for the short story length.
Daisy In The Sun reminded me a lot of another Willis book - Passage with it's use of dreamscapes and memory echoes - actually more effective here than in Passage
The rest... were a little lightweight for me - all well written, but without the spark to really make me want to talk about them!
Overall, I'm actually very impressed. I'm a tough audience for short stories, but there were enough gems here to keep me happy and, like I said, Blued Moon was a 5-star smash hit and worth the £3 I paid for the book all by itself :-)
After this I read: Goliath
July 8, 2019
Не дивно, що це оповідання отримало і Hugo, i Nebula 1983 р. Звісно, тут є демонічні комуністи, які підірвали пів Лондона наприкінці ХХ чи на початку ХХІ ст. Але оповідання написано в розпал "зоряних воєн", тому нічого не зробиш з цим контекстом.
Оповідання ж показує, як Вілліс може писати оповідання водночас іронічно-сатиричні й дуже серйозні - майже пафосні.
Але опис сюжету зовсім хибний. Не просто студент-історик чергує в пожежній варті, щоб скидати з даху собору св. Павла запалювальні бомби. Це студент-історик з майбутнього проходить практику. Так, практика в майбутньому - це жити в досліджуваній епосі. Не те, що тепер ;) і от головного героя відправляють рятувати собор св. Павла, бо в навчальній частині наплутали. Він мав супроводжувати св. Павла в подорожах - спеціально вчив латину, грецьку, арамейську, закони і звичаї східного Середземномор'я. А тут в скеруванні написали замість "св. Павла" - "собор св. Павла". І от наш герой має 2 дні, щоб підготуватися. Ясна річ, йому це не вдається. І от він потрапляє в кумедні ситуації: не знає, як розшифровуються абревіатури, якими сиплють лондонці, не знає, як поводяться коти, бо тих в майбутньому немає тощо.
І ось ця комедія ситуацій виявляється зав'язкою до дуже серйозного оповідання. Де кумедного стає мало, а от важливого та сумного - дуже багато. Але як так - цього не поясню, бо це будуть спойлери.
Оповідання ж показує, як Вілліс може писати оповідання водночас іронічно-сатиричні й дуже серйозні - майже пафосні.
Але опис сюжету зовсім хибний. Не просто студент-історик чергує в пожежній варті, щоб скидати з даху собору св. Павла запалювальні бомби. Це студент-історик з майбутнього проходить практику. Так, практика в майбутньому - це жити в досліджуваній епосі. Не те, що тепер ;) і от головного героя відправляють рятувати собор св. Павла, бо в навчальній частині наплутали. Він мав супроводжувати св. Павла в подорожах - спеціально вчив латину, грецьку, арамейську, закони і звичаї східного Середземномор'я. А тут в скеруванні написали замість "св. Павла" - "собор св. Павла". І от наш герой має 2 дні, щоб підготуватися. Ясна річ, йому це не вдається. І от він потрапляє в кумедні ситуації: не знає, як розшифровуються абревіатури, якими сиплють лондонці, не знає, як поводяться коти, бо тих в майбутньому немає тощо.
І ось ця комедія ситуацій виявляється зав'язкою до дуже серйозного оповідання. Де кумедного стає мало, а от важливого та сумного - дуже багато. Але як так - цього не поясню, бо це будуть спойлери.
May 5, 2020
This collection contains 12 stories.
The title story, "Fire Watch" is a bittersweet tale set in the same universe as Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, but written earlier. It was published in 1982, and won the 1983 Hugo & Nebula Awards for Best Short Story. The narrator is a time-traveling grad student from a future Oxford University, who is sent to the London Blitz due to a clerical error. (He was supposed to travel with St Paul for his practical exam, but instead ends up assigned to the Fire Watch for St Paul’s Cathedral.) Of course, he is completely unprepared and has no idea what’s going on. The epigraph for this story comes from Sir Walter Raleigh: "History hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over."4 stars ****
This story is available online here: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories...
"Service for the Burial of the Dead" is a ghost story from the perspective of the former girlfriend of a dead man who attends his funeral. She meets him there, apparently still alive.***
"Lost and Found" - The end of the world, and the search for the Holy Grail. Like "Samaritan" below, this is a religious story. I don’t have much to say about this one. **
"All My Darling Daughters" is the most disturbing story in the collection. Set on a boarding school in L5 orbit, it is told by a female narrator who has just been assigned a new roommate. The story revolves around the mystery of her roommate and the strange animals (“tessels”) that the boys are carrying around… this is much nastier than the other stories, but I thought it was powerful. ****
"The Father of the Bride"- Sleeping Beauty’s father reacts to being awoken in the Middle Ages. Short and clever. ***
"A Letter from the Clearys" - This tale of a family in a post-apocalyptic world won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1982. It’s hard to describe this one to someone who hasn’t read it, so I’ll just say that the 14-year old girl is an excellent unreliable narrator. Like "All My Darling Daughters" this is a slowly unfolding horror story, although it’s not quite as dark as that one.***
"And Come from Miles Around" - A family watches a solar eclipse.**
"The Sidon in the Mirror" - A 'Mirror' - a mutant with the uncontrolled ability to become other people - tries to discover who he’s copying, as he can’t tell while he’s doing it. ***
"Daisy, in the Sun" is another apocalyptic story, told in a series of flashbacks. In the introduction to this story, Willis writes, "During the London Blitz, Edward R. Murrow was startled to see a fire engine racing past. It was the middle of the day, the sirens had not gone, and he hadn’t heard any bombers. He could not imagine where a fire engine could be going. It came to him, after much thought, that it was going to an ordinary house fire, and that that seemed somehow impossible, as if all ordinary disasters should be suspended for the duration of this great Disaster that was facing London and commanding everybody’s attention. But of course houses caught fire and burned for reasons that had nothing to do with the Blitz, and even in the face of Armageddon, there are still private Armageddons to be faced." ***
"Mail Order Clone" is about, well, a mail order clone, and the problems it causes for the man who orders it.**
"Samaritan" - A young assistant pastor plunges the church hierarchy into a storm of controversy when she brings forward an orangutan who can use sign language to be baptized.**
"Blued Moon" - A romantic comedy interwoven with an sf plot which involves a controversy over a project at chemical plant to restore the ozone layer and a series of coincidences with a scientific cause.***
The title story, "Fire Watch" is a bittersweet tale set in the same universe as Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, but written earlier. It was published in 1982, and won the 1983 Hugo & Nebula Awards for Best Short Story. The narrator is a time-traveling grad student from a future Oxford University, who is sent to the London Blitz due to a clerical error. (He was supposed to travel with St Paul for his practical exam, but instead ends up assigned to the Fire Watch for St Paul’s Cathedral.) Of course, he is completely unprepared and has no idea what’s going on. The epigraph for this story comes from Sir Walter Raleigh: "History hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over."4 stars ****
This story is available online here: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories...
"Service for the Burial of the Dead" is a ghost story from the perspective of the former girlfriend of a dead man who attends his funeral. She meets him there, apparently still alive.***
"Lost and Found" - The end of the world, and the search for the Holy Grail. Like "Samaritan" below, this is a religious story. I don’t have much to say about this one. **
"All My Darling Daughters" is the most disturbing story in the collection. Set on a boarding school in L5 orbit, it is told by a female narrator who has just been assigned a new roommate. The story revolves around the mystery of her roommate and the strange animals (“tessels”) that the boys are carrying around… this is much nastier than the other stories, but I thought it was powerful. ****
"The Father of the Bride"- Sleeping Beauty’s father reacts to being awoken in the Middle Ages. Short and clever. ***
"A Letter from the Clearys" - This tale of a family in a post-apocalyptic world won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1982. It’s hard to describe this one to someone who hasn’t read it, so I’ll just say that the 14-year old girl is an excellent unreliable narrator. Like "All My Darling Daughters" this is a slowly unfolding horror story, although it’s not quite as dark as that one.***
"And Come from Miles Around" - A family watches a solar eclipse.**
"The Sidon in the Mirror" - A 'Mirror' - a mutant with the uncontrolled ability to become other people - tries to discover who he’s copying, as he can’t tell while he’s doing it. ***
"Daisy, in the Sun" is another apocalyptic story, told in a series of flashbacks. In the introduction to this story, Willis writes, "During the London Blitz, Edward R. Murrow was startled to see a fire engine racing past. It was the middle of the day, the sirens had not gone, and he hadn’t heard any bombers. He could not imagine where a fire engine could be going. It came to him, after much thought, that it was going to an ordinary house fire, and that that seemed somehow impossible, as if all ordinary disasters should be suspended for the duration of this great Disaster that was facing London and commanding everybody’s attention. But of course houses caught fire and burned for reasons that had nothing to do with the Blitz, and even in the face of Armageddon, there are still private Armageddons to be faced." ***
"Mail Order Clone" is about, well, a mail order clone, and the problems it causes for the man who orders it.**
"Samaritan" - A young assistant pastor plunges the church hierarchy into a storm of controversy when she brings forward an orangutan who can use sign language to be baptized.**
"Blued Moon" - A romantic comedy interwoven with an sf plot which involves a controversy over a project at chemical plant to restore the ozone layer and a series of coincidences with a scientific cause.***
November 27, 2010
I decided to finally read this, the first of Connie Willis's books about a group of hapless time-traveling historians. I picked today because my library copy of her new book, All Clear, is very large and heavy and impractical to haul around New York on my back along with two dozen bagels, which is impractical enough on its own. I had expected that she might have given some background in this first novella that I had been missing ever since, but I should have known better. She tells us what we need to know, then concentrates on the real story at hand, which has nothing to do with time travel and everything to do with human resilience and the true costs of history.
January 10, 2023
The title story of this collection is a prequel to Willis' classic Doomsday Book and is well-worth reading to learn about Kirvin before her middle ages adventures as well as seeing a younger version of some of our other favorite characters from this series. I found several of the other stories really great as well.
January 25, 2011
I just read the title story, not the whole collection. I've been meaning to read Connie Willis' stuff for a long time, since several friends in one of my groups are very enthusiastic about her work. Fire Watch was easy and fun to read -- available online, here, by the way. You get thrown in at the deep end a bit at the beginning: it helped me to know that it was a story about a history student going back in time as part of their studies. But it was very readable, and reasonably easy to catch on to once I'd read a couple of 'entries'.
Emotionally, I didn't engage with it until the end, until the narrator saves Langby -- and suddenly I cared, quite a lot, and was hurt that Langby gets everything wrong...
I liked the glimpses of the 'modern' (for the narrator) world. Looking forward to hopefully seeing more of it? We'll see.
Emotionally, I didn't engage with it until the end, until the narrator saves Langby -- and suddenly I cared, quite a lot, and was hurt that Langby gets everything wrong...
I liked the glimpses of the 'modern' (for the narrator) world. Looking forward to hopefully seeing more of it? We'll see.
July 7, 2015
Good work. Not quite a four, but it was her first Oxford Time travel story and one of her first. A straight, clear, hit-you-in-the-solar-plexus kind of tale.
References to Kivrin's Doomsday Book adventures are especially interesting as the novella Fire Watch was written almost a decade before Doomsday Book.
References to Kivrin's Doomsday Book adventures are especially interesting as the novella Fire Watch was written almost a decade before Doomsday Book.
November 17, 2014
Pretty good short that introduced us to the time-traveling historians of Oxford. When comparing this to Blackout/All Clear, you can really see how much Willis has honed her craft over the years.
December 26, 2017
Interesting story about a time-traveling historian trying to save St. Paul's cathedral during the blitz in London during World War II.
February 12, 2018
Рука не поднимается поставить меньше, я так рыдала в конце. Кошка, 1.
August 26, 2016
This novelette which won the both Hugo and Nebula, serves as a good primer to Connie Willis' works.
I just read To Say Nothing of the Dog a few days ago, so I thought it would be good to read this novelette before reading Doomsday Book.
But my advice to anyone interested in her books would be to start directly with To Say Nothing of the Dog or Doomsday Book. Arguably, these two books could be considered to be her best efforts.
I just read To Say Nothing of the Dog a few days ago, so I thought it would be good to read this novelette before reading Doomsday Book.
But my advice to anyone interested in her books would be to start directly with To Say Nothing of the Dog or Doomsday Book. Arguably, these two books could be considered to be her best efforts.
September 28, 2023
Willis is one of the finest storytellers ever. She can pack a hell of a lot into a tight little story.
September 4, 2016
Very good, but damn if the bit about Russia/Communists (who, you know, bombed places left and right) didn't age. The moment I got to it I knew when it must have been written.
October 21, 2015
After reading the titular novella of this book, I was sure it would be five stars all the way through... but, not surprisingly as this goes with the territory for short story collections, it was a variety of hits and misses. The first and last stories stand out: "Fire Watch" is a breathtakingly well-constructed narrative that withholds just the right amount of information, giving the reader glimpses at a future world through the protagonist's interactions with the past. Of all the stories in this book, this one had the best reveal and narrative tension. "Blued Moon" comes close, though it falls into humor more than drama. After those two, "Daisy, in the Sun" has the next strongest ending.
The rest are somewhat weak, which could just be me - I have a strong preference for longer-form stories in terms of narrative structure - or it could be that the seeds of explanation are planted too early (making the 'reveal' obvious) or too late (making it seem shoehorned). Though actually, reflecting, I think this is a case where one of Willis's biggest strengths is also a weakness. Her worldbuilding in these stories is fantastic, filled with offhanded little details that flesh everything out and make it feel more real - but this often ends up detracting from the emotional content of the story. "A Letter From The Clearys", for instance, was an emotional story related in a detached manner which robbed the ending of much punch. "Samaritan" gave information on the world's background, but seemed to lack crucial details about its present. "Lost and Found" felt like more of an exploration of concept than a real story; had it had fewer characters, it might have come off a little better.
That said, I'm definitely going to read more Willis. I picked this up as a manageable (compared to Doomsday Book, I mean) introduction to her work, and I'm thoroughly impressed despite my specific misgivings.
(necessary warning: the reason this gets shelved as 'trigger warning' is for the story "All My Darling Daughters". you can put the title + shelf together to guess why it goes there. It's a very, very unpleasant reading experience and I recommend skipping it if you're wavering.)
The rest are somewhat weak, which could just be me - I have a strong preference for longer-form stories in terms of narrative structure - or it could be that the seeds of explanation are planted too early (making the 'reveal' obvious) or too late (making it seem shoehorned). Though actually, reflecting, I think this is a case where one of Willis's biggest strengths is also a weakness. Her worldbuilding in these stories is fantastic, filled with offhanded little details that flesh everything out and make it feel more real - but this often ends up detracting from the emotional content of the story. "A Letter From The Clearys", for instance, was an emotional story related in a detached manner which robbed the ending of much punch. "Samaritan" gave information on the world's background, but seemed to lack crucial details about its present. "Lost and Found" felt like more of an exploration of concept than a real story; had it had fewer characters, it might have come off a little better.
That said, I'm definitely going to read more Willis. I picked this up as a manageable (compared to Doomsday Book, I mean) introduction to her work, and I'm thoroughly impressed despite my specific misgivings.
(necessary warning: the reason this gets shelved as 'trigger warning' is for the story "All My Darling Daughters". you can put the title + shelf together to guess why it goes there. It's a very, very unpleasant reading experience and I recommend skipping it if you're wavering.)
October 2, 2020
3.5 stars
"Fire Watch" is a science fiction novelette first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in February 1982 and later included in the short-story collections Fire Watch in 1984 and The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories in 2013. The beginning of the Oxford Time Travel Series, "Fire Watch" features [John] Bartholomew (only mentioned on the page by his last name) whose time-traveling portion of his course of study at Oxford University has been accidentally assigned to the fire watch at St. Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz in 1940 London.
Having requested "St. Paul" and done all his preliminary preparations for visiting Paul the Apostle — the computer seemingly autocorrected and his assignment was switched to St. Paul's Cathedral —Bartholomew is severely distressed to discover not only his location change, the upgrade in danger, but also that he now only has two days to properly prepare for his new location and year. Once there, Bartholomew only allows his growing distress, lack of sleep, and uncertainty about his purpose for his practicum to cause him further alarm and increase his suspicions in a fellow volunteer for the fire watch.
What is so interesting in this reread (I read this short story previously from Fire Watch) after having experienced all the other time traveling stories to date, is seeing the early broad strokes Willis had already for her Oxford series. And she allows cross-connections to help maintain this anchor even when the stories later get a little beyond what began here.
For instance, Kivrin is Bartholomew's roommate (in their present time, not 1940) — the precise date is not mentioned, but she is the main character in Doomsday Book, which takes place in 2054 and those events have already happened at the start of this story, as alluded to at the beginning of "Fire Watch." The character of Professor James Dunworthy plays a role in every book/story. And even dear Bartholomew is mentioned again in All Clear, which is actually where you finally learn his given name is John.
What Bartholomew learns by the end is what all the historians learn at Oxford, in each book or story— that history and its events are not (just) about the data, numbers, and statistics, but history is about the people and their stories — especially the everyday people and their small stories.
The story won both a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a Nebula Award for Best Novelette.
"Fire Watch" is a science fiction novelette first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in February 1982 and later included in the short-story collections Fire Watch in 1984 and The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories in 2013. The beginning of the Oxford Time Travel Series, "Fire Watch" features [John] Bartholomew (only mentioned on the page by his last name) whose time-traveling portion of his course of study at Oxford University has been accidentally assigned to the fire watch at St. Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz in 1940 London.
Having requested "St. Paul" and done all his preliminary preparations for visiting Paul the Apostle — the computer seemingly autocorrected and his assignment was switched to St. Paul's Cathedral —Bartholomew is severely distressed to discover not only his location change, the upgrade in danger, but also that he now only has two days to properly prepare for his new location and year. Once there, Bartholomew only allows his growing distress, lack of sleep, and uncertainty about his purpose for his practicum to cause him further alarm and increase his suspicions in a fellow volunteer for the fire watch.
What is so interesting in this reread (I read this short story previously from Fire Watch) after having experienced all the other time traveling stories to date, is seeing the early broad strokes Willis had already for her Oxford series. And she allows cross-connections to help maintain this anchor even when the stories later get a little beyond what began here.
For instance, Kivrin is Bartholomew's roommate (in their present time, not 1940) — the precise date is not mentioned, but she is the main character in Doomsday Book, which takes place in 2054 and those events have already happened at the start of this story, as alluded to at the beginning of "Fire Watch." The character of Professor James Dunworthy plays a role in every book/story. And even dear Bartholomew is mentioned again in All Clear, which is actually where you finally learn his given name is John.
What Bartholomew learns by the end is what all the historians learn at Oxford, in each book or story— that history and its events are not (just) about the data, numbers, and statistics, but history is about the people and their stories — especially the everyday people and their small stories.
The story won both a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a Nebula Award for Best Novelette.
June 7, 2013
I read this after I finished Blackout and All Clear. There are some minor discrepancies but nothing that a little willing suspension of disbelief won't cover up. It was nice to see Kivrin again.
I think Connie Willis has it correct. How often have you romanticized about traveling to the past? I never really take into consideration language differences - let alone differences in norms and folkways - in my flights of fancy.
I looked up The Battle of Britain on 29. December 1940 on the internet and found this link. What a time! Living in the United States where, until September 11th 2001, there has been no enemy invasion or destruction; it is hard to imagine what life in London would have been like in the fall and winter of 1940. As I scrolled through the images of the destruction it really hit me how much of a psychological punch that must have been for the whole nation night after horrible night. And then I got to the image with the little boy - not much older than my son - sitting on a pile of rubble clutching a misshapen stuffed animal looking as if he is either too scared to cry or he is summoning every last bit of his fortitude in effort not to cry. I completely lost it and started crying myself. I am tearing up right now just thinking about that image.
I think Connie Willis has it correct. How often have you romanticized about traveling to the past? I never really take into consideration language differences - let alone differences in norms and folkways - in my flights of fancy.
I looked up The Battle of Britain on 29. December 1940 on the internet and found this link. What a time! Living in the United States where, until September 11th 2001, there has been no enemy invasion or destruction; it is hard to imagine what life in London would have been like in the fall and winter of 1940. As I scrolled through the images of the destruction it really hit me how much of a psychological punch that must have been for the whole nation night after horrible night. And then I got to the image with the little boy - not much older than my son - sitting on a pile of rubble clutching a misshapen stuffed animal looking as if he is either too scared to cry or he is summoning every last bit of his fortitude in effort not to cry. I completely lost it and started crying myself. I am tearing up right now just thinking about that image.
April 2, 2020
4.3 ⭐
I first read this many years ago, though I did not remember that. The best stories: the eponymous ' Fire Watch ,' ' Daisy in the Sun,' 'A Letter From the Cleary's,' 'And Come from Miles Around have all been anthologized several times (mostly being Hugo and Nebula winners or nominees.)
Many of the lesser stories in the collection were forgettable and, indeed, forgotten. It wasn't until I reread the introductions that I realized I had, in fact, been here before.
But it's worth the return trip. Even Willis' minor efforts usually have some "redeeming social content," in terms of imagination or originality, such as her screwball rom- coms ( Blued Moon) or her Christian moralizing (Samaritan).
My least favourite story was 'Mail Order Clone.' Willis openly confesses her love of True Confessions type stories, of which she has penned a few. In the introduction to the story she says "whenever (she) can get away with it" she still writes them. It's not gaggingly awful, just not my cup of tea. Too silly, mostly, with a somewhat patronizing view of poverty.
When Willis is firing on all cylinders however, as with the first stories mentioned, she's one of the best writers in science fiction today.
I first read this many years ago, though I did not remember that. The best stories: the eponymous ' Fire Watch ,' ' Daisy in the Sun,' 'A Letter From the Cleary's,' 'And Come from Miles Around have all been anthologized several times (mostly being Hugo and Nebula winners or nominees.)
Many of the lesser stories in the collection were forgettable and, indeed, forgotten. It wasn't until I reread the introductions that I realized I had, in fact, been here before.
But it's worth the return trip. Even Willis' minor efforts usually have some "redeeming social content," in terms of imagination or originality, such as her screwball rom- coms ( Blued Moon) or her Christian moralizing (Samaritan).
My least favourite story was 'Mail Order Clone.' Willis openly confesses her love of True Confessions type stories, of which she has penned a few. In the introduction to the story she says "whenever (she) can get away with it" she still writes them. It's not gaggingly awful, just not my cup of tea. Too silly, mostly, with a somewhat patronizing view of poverty.
When Willis is firing on all cylinders however, as with the first stories mentioned, she's one of the best writers in science fiction today.
July 7, 2015
Quite possibly the best bit of time-travel fiction I've ever read. 'Scuse me while I devour the rest of the series...
April 16, 2020
Powerful time travel story.
Apparently, this is only the beginning of a series of huge books. If this is any indication, it going to be good.
See you at the other end of Doomsday Book.
Apparently, this is only the beginning of a series of huge books. If this is any indication, it going to be good.
See you at the other end of Doomsday Book.
March 29, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up, due to Fire Watch and a couple others. You can see elements in these stories of the style Willis has honed and improved over time.
October 3, 2021
Otra gran historia de Willis sobre los Historiadores de Oxford. Gran reflexión y cuestionamientos sobre el tiempo, la historia, los historiadores, los catedráticos, la Universidad, el conocimiento y los seres humanos:
"Las preguntas no tenían sentido. Tras cada pregunta solo dejaban un pequeño espacio, como mucho para una cifra corta [...] ¿Cómo iba a ponerlo todo en un espacio tan pequeño? ¿Dónde estaban las preguntas sobre Enola, Langby y el gato? [...]
-¿No les importan nada?
-Son importantes desde un punto de vista estadístico -ha dicho-, pero como individuos no son muy importantes para el desarrollo de la historia
-¡Claro que son importantes! -he gritado-. Ellos son la historia, ¡no esos malditos números!"
"Las preguntas no tenían sentido. Tras cada pregunta solo dejaban un pequeño espacio, como mucho para una cifra corta [...] ¿Cómo iba a ponerlo todo en un espacio tan pequeño? ¿Dónde estaban las preguntas sobre Enola, Langby y el gato? [...]
-¿No les importan nada?
-Son importantes desde un punto de vista estadístico -ha dicho-, pero como individuos no son muy importantes para el desarrollo de la historia
-¡Claro que son importantes! -he gritado-. Ellos son la historia, ¡no esos malditos números!"
March 16, 2024
לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/fire...
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/fire...
October 10, 2018
JESUS FUCK THAT ENDING THOUGH.
"Of course they're relevant!" I shouted. "They are the history, not all these bloody numbers!"
November 15, 2020
Short story
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