Passage

ISBN: 0-553-11124-8 Order from: Amazon.com

An excellent and thoughtful, if slightly overlong exploration of a fascinating phenomenon, with humor, sadness, kindness and courage.

Reviewed by David on August 25, 2001

Genre: Science Fiction (Near Future, Medical)

Synopsis: Joanna Lander is a scientist working on Near-Death Experiences. Why do so many revived people report common elements—tunnels, bright lights, bright beings, etc.? Is it all due to suggestion, or is there some physiological explanation for this? Joanna works in a large city hospital, plagued by a successful and overly imaginative writer, gets deeper and deeper into the research.

Full Review: Note, an interesting interview with Connie Willis regarding this book is at here.

I don't think Willis can write badly. This novel can make you laugh and cry nearly at the same time. Her rare skill with humor is unmistakable, and occasionally goes a bit over the top—but is still effective. One of Willis' typical methods—a character on an urgent mission beset by petty frustrations—from beauracracy to impossibly complicated set of hallways, to a smarmy writer—work well if occaionally too frequently.

Willis also has friendship, and a mild romance. In all, her ordinary people are plausible and sympathetic enough to grab you by the heart. And to bleed when they hurt—as hurt they do.

Willis does not pull her punches. While not as dark as her wonderful Doomsday Book, this novel is not just laughter. This is a real hospital—with patients dying in the emergency room, terminally ill children, and Alzheimer's.

The science-fictional part is very slight, with no easy theories and constant change in hypotheses. This book is impossible to predict, with plot twists, and foreshadowing so subtle as to be visible only in hidnsight.

I was not happy with the epilogue, and the book was a bit repetetive and overlong in the middle. These problems notwithstanding, the book is clearly the work of a Master, with one's admiration for her skill restrained only by the laughter and the sadness so effortlessly invoked.

Overall: 6; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 6.5; Style: 7; World-building: 6; Originality: 8;

ISBN: 0-553-11124-8 Order from: Amazon.com