Play Book Tag discussion

If you haven't read Blackout, I would recommend strongly that you read it before reading this one since both should be read as one book. If you have read Blackout, you know that our intrepid time travelers from mid-21st century Oxford have found themselves trapped during WW2 with no available portal back to their time. The three are attempting to find another time traveler with a "drop" that works or to leave another time traveler clues in local newspapers where the marooned are.

Although I gave the incomplete first volume a four out of five star rating but after reading the complete diptych I would have to give it five stars. I thought Willis's plotting of the story skillfully done. Each chaptered being titled with the date and location helped in navigating the order of events since you were dealing with time travel. I fell in love with many of the supporting characters who aided in transporting the reader to this time, especially Alf and Binnie Hodbin, brother and sister street urchins. These two are instrumental in advancing the plot. Cameos in the two books included Gen. George Patton, Agatha Christie, and Alan Turing. However, the bulk of the books is about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances in the backdrop of war. The themes of this diptych include friendship, loyalty, love, and sacrifice. Even if you don't like time travel books, I would recommend these since the technology plays a minor part to the historical fiction aspect.

I loved this "duopoly" - It's really one book divided into 2 parts since there's zero recap, You just go from one chapter to the next. The audio was excellent. Even though I am generally tired of WWII stories, this was very different because of the home front emphasis. I adore the theme of how everybody makes a difference - shop girls, fire wardens, even obstreperous children.

This is the "history" part of the Oxford Time Traveling Historians books, with Doomsday Book the tragedy (though not totally tragic and still uplifting) and To Say Nothing of the Dog the comedy. All of them are terrific, in my opinion.

Either one or both of these made my favourites lists the years I read them.

ETA: I believe "The Doomsday Book" also made my favourites list.