Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I cannot believe I am giving one star to a book written by Connie Willis. Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog are two of my all-time favorite novels--and I'm not even narrowing that down to sci-fi. But this was just a mess.

One of the recurring themes in Willis' novels seems to be institutional and technological dysfunction. In Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, this is kept within bounds and is mildly amusing. People keep missing each other, playing endless telephone tag, etc. But in Passage the confusion goes on for hundreds--and I mean HUNDREDS--of pages.

Passage is like one of those tiresome dreams where you are wandering around lost, looking for something or someone, having that feeling that you are running late but you can't remember for what. And you can't wake up. Maybe that's a deliberate commentary on dying and life after death ("...for in that sleep of death what dreams may come....") but I kept thinking it it was all just a crashing bore.

I kept going hoping for the clever twist the jacket blurb promised me. *Sigh* J.K. Rowling put it all far more concisely and effectively in the famous scene with Harry and Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“Tell me one last thing,� said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?�

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry’s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.

“Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?�