Customer Reviews

The Winds of Marble Arch

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Ask 25 different Connie Willis fans which short stories should have been included in this collection and you will get 25 different answers. But all of us will probably agree that Willis did a good job picking the stories included here, even though we might have picked a little bit differently. We also might have changed the order in which these stories are presented which is not, to my mind, the best it could have been as the better stories come in toward the end. With the exception of the title story, these are all pieces that have been published before. Many of these I was rereading for the first time in a long time and I am pleased to say that most of them held up quite well and some of them I liked even better than the first time I'd read them. One of the only real disappointments in the bunch is, in fact, the title story, the Winds of Marble Arch, which is the only totally new story in the collection. For this one it feels like Willis threw a lot of elements she's used before into a blender and pulled out a story. Hang in there, though and you will be rewarded. The stories just keep getting better and better. If you're not familiar with Connie Willis, you should know she likes screwball romantic comedies, the London blitz, time travel, Christmas, Chaos theory, romances that almost were, animals and Christianity, but not necessarily the way you think. Here, then, is a rundown of each:

1. "The Winds of Marble Arch": something strange is happening in the London Tube - weird smells and weather phenomena that only a few people can sense. Kathy just wants to go shopping by taxi but Tom, her husband wants to find out what's happening underground, preferably before losing his marriage. The first of the three stories in this book devoted to the London blitz.

2. "Blued Moon": waste emissions from a chemical plant have a strange effect on people's luck. Another one of Willis's stories in which the wrong people have to break up and get together with the right people. In this one, the right man will have to find a young woman who can "generate language." And yes - hilarity will ensue.

3. "Just like the Ones We Used to Know": Freak worldwide snowstorms change people's lives at Christmastime. Sweet, if not Willis's best.

4. "Daisy, in the Sun": One of the stranger stories in the book. The sun seems to have fizzled out for good and Daisy is avoiding puberty as hard as she can. Is she in a mental institution or somewhere else?

5. "A Letter from the Cleary's": Danger in a post-apocalyptic world. What's in the post-office that may change things for one fourteen year old girl?

6. "Newsletter": A fun mix of an alien takeover and those newsletters people seem to send out every Christmas. What would you do if everyone suddenly turned as nice at Christmas as everyone always says they should be?

7. "Fire watch": One of the best stories in the book and one that will ultimately make you cry. A history student from the future is assigned to help out with the fire watch at St. Paul's during the London blitz. This story is incredibly heartaching and really brings home what was lost in World War II. Easy to understand why it's won so many awards.

8. "Nonstop to Portales": This is Willis's homage to writer Jack Williamson. A little piece of time travel fluff that will either bore you or amuse you as a tour group travels through a tiny little town in New Mexico looking for signs of its favorite writer.

9. "Ado": This was at one time a very cutting-edge story about political correctness involving the elimination of lines that parents might find objectionable in Shakespeare. A statement in general about the relevance of arts and the dumbing down of college curricula and, although it feels a bit dated, it's one to which we can all relate.

10. "All My Darling Daughters": Willis has a tendency to write G and PG rated stories that are really rather wholesome. Here she slides firmly into the R camp, writing a story so disturbing you just want to cry at the end when you find out what a group of teens at a college in the future will do to get sex or to avoid it. One of the few truly dark and disturbing things Willis has ever written.

11. "In the Late Cretaceous": A sometimes fun little romp comparing a college paleontology Department with the survival of the dinosaurs they study. Just another story like "Ado" in which Willis gets to decry what she might call the stupidification of our educational system. A bit dated, but nevertheless entertaining.

12. "The Curse of Kings": This is the one story in here that I truly don't get. Arguably, a story about genocide, it's way too confusing, tries too hard, and never quite sucks you in. There are other stories I would have put in this collection instead, such as the beautiful "Time Out" from "Impossible Things," which deals with time travel in a unique and interesting way. Sadly we get this confusing story instead.

13. "Even the Queen": A fun little story about the change in attitudes toward menstruation. Yes -- a menstruation science fiction story. Silly, but entertaining.

14. "Inn": This is one of the two stories that asks the question what would we do if Joseph and Mary or Jesus appeared amongst us. Homeless people keep arriving at Reverend Farreson's church during a snowstorm and Sharon must decide what to do with them.

15. "Samaritan": Do monkeys have souls? You may not have decided by the end of this story, but you will be moved to tears by what happens to one orangutan named Esau.

16. "Cash Crop": Homesteaders on a satellite away from Earth aren't getting the medical supplies they need. Can any of them survive long enough to grow a cash crop they can sell to Earth?

17. "Jack": Another story set in the blitz, this one first appeared in "Impossible Things." Jack seems too good to be true when he arrives to help put out incendiaries with Mrs. Lucy's fire watch. But is he? He certainly seems to know where the bodies are buried. Not quite as moving as Fire Watch, but a darn good story nevertheless.

18. "The Last of The Winnebagos": One of Connie Willis' best, this novella won several awards. Although Willis seems to have a blind spot when it comes to predicting technology, particularly phones, this story about the end of the existence of dogs and about the people who loved them works from start to finish. You will care about everybody in this story and believe that there will be a time when animals are so revered the Humane Society constitutes the major police power. Holds up incredibly well despite Willis's failure to have seen some of where technology would go.

19. "Service for the Burial of the Dead": Willis's ghost story is one of the weaker stories in the book but still worth reading.

20. "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" is one of the funniest stories Willis has ever written, a mock critical paper explaining how the Martian invasion actually happened in Amherst and was repelled by Emily Dickinson from the grave. Makes great fun of the habits of well-known English poets and writers, particularly Emmy Dickinson and her non-rhymes. Despite not getting all the references, I laughed out loud with this one.

21. "Chance": When I first saw that this was included I wondered why Willis didn't instead include "Time Out," which was also published in "Impossible Things." Although I prefer the time traveling craziness of Time Out to that of Chance I have to say that this time around I did really appreciate the wistful "could have been" "should have been" message of "Chance" more than I did when I first read it. This is the story in which Willis really began examining the wrong turns we take and the tiny little things choices we make that send our lives in a certain direction. What if we had dones things differently? This is an incredibly moving story and one of Willis' all-time best.

22. "At the Rialto": Although this one feels a little dated this is a great romp through Hollywood at a conference on quantum physics. As the physicists run around seemingly at the fate of Heidelberg's uncertainty principle, the theory of chaos emerges, but even more importantly love does as well. Great silly fun, despite the obvious exaggeration of just how stupid people in Hollywood are.

23. "Ephiphany": A fitting closing for the book as three people try to go west during a terrible snowstorm, not realizing that they may be the modern version of the three wise men setting out to find Jesus. It won't matter what your religion is -- you'll be pulling for Mel, B.T. and Cassie to find what they're looking for, which seems to be a small town carnival on the move, leaving them signs all along the way, if only they were open enough to pick up on them.

Reading this book reminds me why I love Connie Willis so much and why I'm always first in line for anything she writes. On her worst day she does better than just about anybody else. If you haven't read most of the stories in here you could do a lot worse than get this compilation. It will make you think, laugh and cry and want to tell all your friends. Yes it is that good and I'm glad it's all together in one place.

In a sentence: short stories of mystery and mayhem in settings of Science Fiction.
Willis has a distinctive style. Plots build quickly to a fast pace whereby the main character is pressed for time, has too many tasks, runs up against dead ends, follows false leads and has hairbreadth escapes from any number of pursuers who might vary between deadly villains or boring relatives. There is always a strong central mystery or problem of baffling nature with a simple yet frustratingly elusive solution.
Settings are subtly SF; if futuristic, it is usually the `foreseeable' future of a few years but many stories are set in the present or, indeed, the past. "Fire Watch" and "Jack" take place during The Blitz, the former courtesy of Oxford University's time travelling History Department, familiar from novels "Doomsday Book" and "Not To Mention The Dog", while the latter simply follows a rescue team in which the central figure has a strong inkling that one of his team-mates is a vampire.
Another of Willis' strongest traits is the compassion, which gradually builds up to an often startling final effect. Compassion for her characters, yes; but also for humanity and life in general, one suspects. "Inn" takes place during a church group's rehearsal of their Nativity Play as one of the choir discovers the real Joseph and Mary - lost in time and space - seeking admittance (and directions!) at the back door. The resolution of the plot is heart-warming enough in itself but Willis continues and concludes the story by focussing momentarily on one of the minor characters, providing a mental image which encapsulates the simple human love which is both the spirit of Christmas and of this particular Christmas story.
Last, but far from least, Willis is funny - at times uproariously so. "Newsletter" is a satire on those awful family newsletters which some feel prompted to send out to even casual acquaintances, as well as a parody of the typical `Attack of the Pod People' movie, with a wry O'Henry ending to boot. "At The Rialto" not only makes the service at `Fawlty Towers' look 5 Star but provides a paradigm for quantum physics worthy of the Marx Brothers.
Readers as yet unaware of Connie Willis could do no better than take a tasting here, and even if you've read most of her work already, there's all the more reason that you'll want to reread the cream of the crop in this collection. With 23 stories and 700 pages, this isn't just a good anthology; it is a big, fat chocolate box of some of Connie Willis' best short stories.

The Winds of Marble Arch is Connie Willis at her best. The collection of short stories includes several oldie but goodies easily availble in other books (Last of the Winnibagoes, Firewatch) as well as several short stories I have not been able to find (Even the Queen). She has romance, tragedy, horror and comedy in this omnibus. A definite must buy for all her fans.

Connie Willis is a certified treasure, whether she's writing a time travel novel that puts you squarely in medieval England, or whether it's a story that starts out like it came from REDBOOK, and then slaps you in the face. This monster volume isn't cheap, but it brings together twenty-three short stories and novellas plus an introduction, and that works out to $1.67 per story -- or less than six cents a page. A very good deal for writing of this quality. Some of these, like the award-winning "Fire Watch" (which set the tone for so much of her later work) and "Even the Queen" (about a civilization-changing liberation half the world's population can get behind) and "The Last of the Winnebagos" (about yearning and extinction), you've probably read before. Others, like the soul-satisfying title story about what came before and what comes after, may not be so familiar. "Blued Moon" is a very funny love story, "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know" is an equally funny possible-end-of-the-world story, and "Daisy, in the Sun" is a quietly desperate piece that finally settles into resignation and acceptance. "A Letter from the Clearys" is a much less settled after-the-holocaust story, while "Nonstop to Portales" is a lovely little tribute to one of sf's nicest people. "Newsletter," on the other hand, leads you down the alien invasion garden path and then zings you right at the very end, and "Ado" has some pointed things to say about identity politics and social censorship. "Inn" is a slightly strange story about Joseph and Mary and what Christianity has become, and "Samaritan" is about the fine line between humans and nonhumans . . . and what Christianity has become. "Jack," one of the best in the book, is a poignant and somewhat spooky piece about the Civil Defense during the London Blitz. (Willis obviously has a thing for the Blitz.) "Service for the Burial for the Dead" is a ghost story right out of Poe (with an idea swiped from Twain), while "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" is a generally successful academic pastiche about Emily Dickinson's penmanship. "Chance" is a slightly depressing investigation of the consequences of bad personal choices, while "At the Rialto" is a dryly funny piece about personal quantum physics. Finally, "Epiphany" is a definite keeper. Connie isn't afraid to write stories with a religious theme, though always from a very particular point of view, and this tale of the Three Kings (pay attention to the names) traveling through the Midwest in search of a carnival is one of her best. Finally, for me, the weakest stories in the volume (relatively speaking) are "All My Darling Daughters" and "The Curse of Kings" and "Cash Crop," all of which are all setting and not much plot. All in all, though, this is a terrific book.

Connie Willis is a very readable writer. Short stories often tend to be tedious yet hers never are. But at the same time, this anthology was poorly organized, full of typos, and many of the stories leave you wondering what the point was. Had half the stories been left out this would have been a far stronger collection.

I'm not usually a big fan of short stories, but of course I'll read anything Connie Willis writes. Even the ones that have been published before are fun to read again. I was thrilled to see "Firewatch" included in this collection, and felt the ending as strongly this time as I did the first time I read it. Other stories, like "Blued Moon" and "At the Rialto" carry Willis' trademark corporate stupidity and mangled language, but others, like "A Letter from the Clearys" and "Nonstop to Portales" are so subtly written, it's both a joy (because you can finally see how well Willis works her craft) and a sorrow (because the story's over!). Some endings are a bit overdone (title-story "The Winds of Marble Arch", "The Last of the Winnebagos"). Others endings are a bit muddled ("The Curse of Kings", "Daisy, In the Sun", "Cash Crop"), but some endings ("All My Darling Daughters") are all too clear. The inclusion of such hilarious gems as "Even the Queen" and especially "The Soul Selects Her Own Society..." (pay attention to the footnotes!) more than make up for any flaws. Overall, the collection is a must-read for any Willis fans, and anyone else who just wants to read a broad collection of well-done stories.

This is a wonderful collection of stories by Ms. Willis. Engaging from beginning to end. So like her other stories, so full of life and research and astonishment. A collection of stories to be cherished.

Kudos to fellow reviewer J. Fuchs for the detailed story-by-story account elsewhere in this list. If you read that list of stories, you'll have a rough idea if this is a book for you. I'm writing to recommend this to all writers out there for two principal features of Willis' wonderful style. Number one, the ease with which she starts a story. That's no mean feat. These stories already seem to be in motion and events are underway when us lucky readers join the fray. This creates a terrific sense of forward-motion and tension. Number two, the breezy, casual dialogue. In a big thick book of rich stories, the dialogue jumps out as brilliant. In the title story in particular, not a word seems stiff or forced. Finally, the stories here are imaginative, quirky and occasionally dark. My favorites were "At The Rialto" and "Non Stop to Portales" for how their underlying concept was so deftly revealed. For the last year, I've read one of these stories in between full-length books and there were many times I couldn't wait for the books to finish up so I could return to the musings and descriptions of Connie Willis. Final note: the hardback itself is very well produced; quite high quality paper and binding (though I don't know much about this). So, well worth the price.

This is a wonderful collection of short stories/novellas by Connie Willis that fall in the fantasy/science fiction/speculative fiction genres. The title story "Winds of Marble Arch" keys off of the London Underground where Tom experiences flashes from the past from the Blitz and other horrors which seem to be affecting his current life but finds that hope is present, if he looks hard enough. She makes fun of the Christmas newsletter in "Newsletter" adding in an alien takeover that makes everyone nice and wear hats. "Firewatch" returns to the London Blitz, this time with a history student returning in time to help protect St. Pauls. One of the more disturbing stories is "All My Darling Daughters" which deals with cruelty and sexual abuse in the teenage set. On a different note, "Samaritan" deals with the issue of the soul and in particular, can an orangutan have one and be brought into the church. There are several cracks at the education system in "The Late Cretaceous" and "Ado". Also, she has a predecessor to the current trend of mixing english literature with monsters (zombies/vampires/etc) in her story "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" involving aliens and Emily Dickinson. Overall, it was a highly entertaining collection.

Yes, it's true Connie Willis is a great writer and just gets better. This collection of her earlier short works is brilliant and this edition from Subterranean Press is a fulsome tribute to her skills. Read on and be spellbound and highly amused. A wicked wit. Highly recommended.