Wonderful stories, always taut with suspense, Connie Willis's unique stamp all over them. This book still haunts my notion of World War II.

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.

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.

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 skyService for the Burial of the Dead - 3/5 - love and life are deepLost and Found - 3/5 - let's tell the world we're in that crazy moodAll My Darling Daughters - 3/5 - I just wanna have some kicks, I just wanna get some chicksThe Father of the Bride - 2/5 - behind...

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

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.

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...

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 ne...

Review of title story only:http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/fw.htm"Fire Watch" by Connie Willis won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novelette presented in 1983; it also won the SF Chronicle Award. "Fire Watch" is set in almost the same universe as Willis' later novels Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog; a future Oxford whence students are sent back in time for research purposes. It was the first of the three to be written, and indeed the first story by Willis to win either Hugo or N...

12 short story gems from author Connie Willis.Fire Watch (1982) - 5 Stars Service for the Burial of the Dead (1982) - 4 Stars Lost and Found (1982) - 3 Stars All My Darling Daughters (1985) - 4 Stars The Father of the Bride (1982) - 2 Stars A Letter from the Clearys (1982) - 3.5 Stars And Come from Miles Around (1979) - 3 Stars The Sidon in the Mirror (1983) - 3.5 Stars Daisy, in the Sun (1979) - 3 Stars Mail-Order Clone (1982) - 3 Stars Samaritan (1978) - 3.5 Stars Blued Moon (1984) - 4.5 Stars...

This is a 1998 reissue of a 1985 collection of short stories by Connie Willis who has won six Nebula and five Hugo awards for her sci-fi fiction. Her "Doomsday Book" of 1992 was one of the best science fiction novels I've ever read. There are a number of interesting stories among the 12 in the book, including the title story, a precursor to "Doomsday Book." "Blued Moon" is a humorous look at language and coincidence, and "A Letter from the Clearys" is a story that slowly transforms itself from

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

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 thi...

Three and a half stars rounded up to four. I always enjoy Connie Willis and I really liked this, but I prefer her novels.

I have already read some of these stories, but it was very nice to re-read them. Connie Willis is a master of storybuilding, and while, the longer stories are much better than the short ones, some of the short ones do pack a punch.I liked best "A letter from the Clearys" and "All my darling daughters", two very uncomfortable stories, that will stay with me for a while, and "Blued moon" was very, very fun to read. I also can add that the titular story, while very good, is not the best I've seen f...

How had I missed knowing about this book? I am most of the way through Fire Watch, the first story, and have put down my Kindle because I don't want my fictional world to end. (Well, the Blitz can end - let say not even start, but I want the Historians to stay around.) Why did it take so long to read this book? I read the stories around library books. The time involved is not a quality indicator.What a wonderful and varied collection from this marvelous author. Fire Watch, the historian story, o...

I really enjoyed most of these short stories, but there's one I strongly dislike-- "All My Darling Daughters." I would say definitely skip that one. It's gross. Otherwise, these are clever. I like how Willis gives a little origin-of-the-idea description before each story. I'm definitely a fan of Willis and look forward to reading more of her work.It took me a while to read this one because I used the stories as rewards. I read a hundred pages of a difficult book and then allowed myself to read o...

To say the least, I was disappointed. I read the first short story in this collection, the title work, for its affinity with the Blackout series. It was OK. As I read further I became less and less pleased with the stories. A few were OK, a few were really terrible. I even skipped one. I didn't find this collection up to the author's standards.

A bit all of the place. There was one story that was very. very profoundly disturbing, but the other few were just 'meh' at best

Willis is one of the finest storytellers ever. She can pack a hell of a lot into a tight little story.