Blackout
and All Clear
by Connie Willis (unabridged audiobook read by Katherine Kellgren; 43 hrs on 36 discs): These are actually two separate books, but they are a continuation of the same story and you really can’t read one without the other, so I’m reviewing them together.
In the future, historians study history by traveling through time and witnessing events first hand. They go incognito, with false identities and backstories, and when their assignments are up they return to the “drop,” the portal back to their own time. This is the story of three such Oxford students in World War II: Mike visiting the rescue at Dunkirk, Eileen studying evacuated children, and Polly working as a shopgirl during the London Blitz. One by one, they discover that their drops will no longer open and they are stuck in the past, in a country under attack. Back in Oxford, young Colin and Professor Dunworthy are scrambling to figure out the problem with the drop and find their students. I fully admit to a lack of knowledge of the English homefront during WWII. I didn’t know anything about the Blitz or the shelters or the sheer extent of the bomb damage. And all that was fascinating (and distressing, of course), but what really kept me enthralled were the characters. I loved Sir Godfrey the slightly snobby Shakespearean actor, Earnest and his adventures inflating tank decoys, and the party-obsessed FANYs – and I loved to hate the horrible Hodbins. As in all of Willis’s books, there is plenty of suspense, drama, and humor, and I loved every minute of it. It really should have been one book, but I guess that would have made the binding rather unwieldy. Definitely recommended, even if you’re not a WWII buff (which I certainly am not).
A note on the audio: Kellgren’s narration was marvelous, but I was especially impressed with her American accent.
by H.G. Wells: The set-up to this story is somewhat unusual, as it begins with a stranger wrapped in bandages arriving at an inn on a snowy night. Everyone assumes he’s horribly disfigured, and the text goes on a bit as if that is indeed the case, but given the title we the reader are well aware that he is in fact invisible. That said, I did very much enjoy this story. It’s more of a horror story than I expected, with the titular character unquestionably playing the part of the villain (as opposed to a mostly well-meaning scientist cursed by his own hubris, as with Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll). The pitfalls of invisibility (such as being able to see through one’s own eyelids, for example) added a certain spark to the narrative, and parts were surprisingly suspenseful. The Invisible Man’s motivations were sort of vague and unsatisfying, but in general I recommend this book.
by Justin Somper: “Vampirates” is one of those ideas that people tend to both roll their eyes at and wish they’d thought of first. When orphaned twins Connor and Grace are separated at sea, Connor finds himself on a more traditional pirate ship, while Grace is taken in by the Vampirates who are – as you may have guessed – vampire pirates. It’s easily as silly as you expect it to be, but it’s also a heck of a lot of fun. If you like your pirates to be of the 
by Erec Stebbens: Ambra Dawn has a brain tumor, but instead of removing it, “doctors” take her away from her parents to become a Reader for alien overlords most people don’t even know exist. After multiple surgeries to expand her cranium to make room for this tumor that provides her with such a powerful sixth sense, Ambra is taken to become a navigator for spaceships using the “Orbs” – a network of hyperspace jump locations. Human beings as a species are largely seen as only useful for their large percentage of Readers. This all sounds terribly complicated (and it is), but it’s not too confusing since we the audience are learning about this universe as Ambra does. Ultimately, Ambra learns to harness her power to the point where she can spearhead a revolution against these galactic oppressors. It’s an interesting piece of science fiction, part Ender’s Game, part something quite new. I liked the very non-human aliens and the attention to small details, like aliens having little understanding of what would be an acceptable atmosphere for human beings. I was less impressed by the “audience involvement” aspect of things near the end, but I am curious to see where the series goes. It is certainly unlike most other science fiction I have read, so if you’re looking for something different from much of the rest of the genre, give this a try.
by Cleolinda Jones: I’ve long been a fan of the original 
by Catherine Fisher (unabridged audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest; 11 hrs 37 min on 10 CDs): So there’s this gigantic prison, enclosed to the point where its inhabitants aren’t even sure the outside even exists, where everyone is poor and savage. Finn believes he was born outside, though he cannot prove it. Elsewhere, Claudia lives in a world of “protocol” that forces everyone to live like it’s sometime in the 1800s. She’s the daughter of the highly political Warden of Incarceron, and as such she is betrothed to a bratty prince she hates. While I kind of enjoyed not knowing who all was telling the truth or what exactly was real (Is Claudia really outside or is she in Incarceron without knowing it? If not, where is this gigantic prison located?), the characters were kind of flat and the plot was kind of boring. Maybe someone else might get swept up in this world, but I spent much of my time waiting for everyone to just get on with it.
by Jen Lancaster: Thirtysomethings Mia and Mack fall in love with “Jake Ryan’s” house (the character from 
by Janet Lee Carey (unabridged audiobook read by Bianca Amato; 9.25 hrs on 8 discs): Princess Rosalind is born with a dragon’s talon where her ring finger should be. This is a potentially devastating secret in a land often tormented by dragons. To hide her deformity, her mother makes her wear gloves at all times as she desperately searches for a cure. When Rosalind is taken by the dragon to become nursemaid to his children, everything changes. This was a pleasant fairy tale with plenty of action and sympathetic characters. I liked it as an adult, but I would have loved it as a child. It has all the makings of an excellent legend. Glad I picked this one up.
by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (unabridged audiobook read by Sandra Burr; 15 hours on 13 discs): If you miss the companions from the first DragonLance novels, this is the book for you. They’re all back, as this takes place between the first and second books of the original 
by Rayya Elias: This is a memoir by a woman born in Syria, raised in Detroit, and educated on the streets of 1980s New York City. She is a hairdresser, a musician, a lesbian, a drug addict. Elias’s descriptions of her life are completely unflinching: her talents as a stylist and musician are devoid of any humility, but her moments of weakness and crimes against her loved ones are presented without any excuses or pleas for sympathy. Her world is one of her own making, for better or for worse. I would have appreciated more physical description of the world she lived in, so I could really picture it, but Elias is clearly not that kind of writer. Photographs would have been nice too. All the same, this was an interesting portrait of a life so completely unlike mine, and a good cautionary tale about drug use.