Fire Watch (Mass Market Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fire Watch collects 12 stories from one of science fiction's most decorated authors. Although the stories are thematically unrelated, an undercurrent of mortality weights many of the tales with a powerful sense of humanity's frailties. Two of the best pieces are "A Letter from the Clearys" and "The Sidon in the Mirror," both of which show people reacting to death in characteristically odd (and disappointingly human) ways. Fans of Willis's time-travel books, The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, will be delighted to find that the title story tells of another hapless Oxford history student sent back to World War II Britain to learn a hard lesson. Just when the book threatens to leave you morose and depressed, Willis reveals her wonderfully absurdist side in "Mail Order Clone" and "Blued Moon." Willis is a master of the novel, but her short stories are superb reading as well. This is a nice collection for a fan's library and a great introduction for those unfamiliar with her work. --Therese Littleton

Review

"One of science fiction's best writers."--The Denver Post

"Connie Willis deploys the apparatus of science fiction to illuminate character and relationships, and her writing is fresh, subtle, and deeply moving."--The New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; 1st THUS edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553260456
• ISBN-13: 978-0553260458
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #351,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Searing, November 9, 2000

By	hecabe "hecabe" (San Francisco, California USA) - See all my reviews

I love Willis' work, and this collection of short stories is perhaps the best intro. She writes with a laser sharp clarity that can devastate you. The language is flowing and easy and basic in some of her stories, and so complicated and playfully perverse in others that I couldn't help but think that this is a writer that loves language and its manipulation.

"All My Darling Daughters" and "Sidon in the Mirror" are searing. There is no other words for these stories. The first time I read "Daughters" I was in a mild daze for hours afterwards. It's about the nature of sex and sadism and abuse. And the way that people like to give pain, to hurt others. The words Willis uses in the story are slangy and musical in a terrible way. "Sidon" is about genetic future, love and revenge and horrific uncertainty and identity confusion. The main character's pain made me want to cry -- reading it was like watching a child feel pain, all unknowing and ignorant of what was causing it.

Showing her lighter side are "Mail-Order Clone" and "Blued Moon." The first is about a man who orders a clone in a catalog and doesn't realize what he's gotten. "Blued Moon" is a romantic comedy about language, coincidences and the connection between understanding and love. It's a little like a Hollywood screwball comedy.

"A Letter from the Clearys" and "Fire Watch" are calm stories about the world ending and how unrelieved despair makes people a little shell-shocked. "Fire Watch" disappointed me somewhat because I guessed the ending almost first thing into the story. "Clearys" feels a little conventional. "Daisy, in the Sun" is a dreamy little story about growing up in a strange time and environment, and a little bit confusing. Dreamy and surreal. "Lost and Found" is about the end of the world coming, and really, what is there to do but wait for Heaven.

All in all, one of the best single-author short story collections out there.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willis displays an amazing range!, July 1, 1999

By A Customer

I was so pleased to see Bantam re-release Fire Watch. I feel it is the definitive Connie Willis. It features the first of her Oxford Time Travel universe stories (Fire Watch), which ranks up there with the best time travel stories ever. But what really impresses me about this collection is the wide variety of the stories. They range from the poignant (A Letter from the Clearys) to the comic (the brilliant Blued Moon) to the profoundly disturbing (All My Darling Daughters). I worry that most readers will limit themselves to Willis's novels, and miss out on the short stories, which I believe are Willis's forte.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark science fiction short stories, June 20, 2005

By	Ashley Megan "amazonfox" (Vernon, CT United States) - See all my reviews

A much darker set of short stories than "Impossible Things". Some of these stories are almost horror, and (almost) all of them are shot through with regret, grief, remorse, anger, or fear. Yet all in all, I enjoyed this collection much more than I did "Impossible Things." For one, it's more consistent in tone. Sure, that tone is dark as hell, but at least you're not being plunged into despair after just reading an absurdist comedy. The stories feel much less dated, and are more sci-fi oriented.

The title story is set in the same universe as Willis' popular "Doomsday Book", which I haven't read yet. It's a great advertisement for that book, raising questions about the nature of history that this history major couldn't resist. Others, like "Daisy, in the Sun" or "Father of the Bride", seem more sketches than fully fleshed-out stories, but at least they're interesting sketches. You just wish she had spent a little more time with them. "Sidon in the Mirror" and "All My Darling Daughters" are so dark they're practically horror stories, despite their sci-fi settings (a burned-out star mine and an L5 orbital college, respectively). These sent delicious chills down my back, and were my favorite out of the whole collection, sticking in my memory long after I was finished.

"Fire Watch" restored my faith in Willis, and made me once again eager to seek out more of her full-length novels. Readers turned off by "Impossible Things" should give this collection a shot, as it displays Willis' considerable talent much more favorably.