The Good: WWII, bombs, and an unlikely suspect digging up survivors
The Bad: None, I love it!
The Literary: A bold reference to a classic literary horror story

Jack Harker works long hours with an raid rescue squad during the height of the Blitz in London in World War II. But when new volunteer Jack Settle joins the close-knit squad, his odd behavior begins to concern Jack. He doesn't eat cake or drink alcohol; he disappears every morning before sunrise for an unknown day job; and he has an uncanny ability to find people buried alive in the rubble. Everyone else seems to love Jack for being such a good bodysniffer, but Jack begins to suspect he is hiding something.

This reissued 1991 Hugo and Nebula nominated novella is similar to Willis' follow up World War II novels, but it's a perfect little story unto itself. It has all the wonderful world-building and historically accurate details that make the setting come alive, which is something fans of Willis have come to expect. She deftly maneuvers the emotional strain on the stiff upper lip of the Brits searching for bodies every night after the bombings, hoping to find live ones instead of corpses.

But this stands apart in its dark, moody, paranoid tone, and I love it! As narrator Jack loses out on more and more sleep, his suspicions and biased perspective increase. How come Jack found those people when no one else heard them yelling? Why doesn't the office have an address or ration card on file for him? Something is amiss, and it's not like how Renfrew thinks the air raids are targeting him because of a letter he once wrote to the Times. It's fantastic!

Recommended for fans of genre-bending historical drama and fantasy horror!

Thanks to Net Galley and Subterranean for the e-ARC. I'm not sure why I had never read this story before. It's recommended, but I can't say much about it so as not to spoil anything. At first I was thinking it was tied to her Oxford Time Travel series since two others have been set during the London Blitz, but something different is going on in this story. Just told my son the title might lead you to suspect one thing, but you'd probably be wrong.

Jack is a classic novella for a reason - Willis does a masterful job of digging deep into the psyche of those living through the Battle of Britain, willing to sacrifice themselves for the common good. You begin to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, evoking rage and fear and helplessness and hopefulness all at once. Definitely a quick read that everyone should enjoy, fan of SF or not.

So into this. Oddly this is my first by this author, but I can’t wait to dig into her backlist. Thank you!

In this novella, Willis revisits the London Blitz with the focus on Jack Settle, a new volunteer for London’s air raid rescue squad. Jack raises suspicions among the rest of the crew because of his uncanny ability to find victims. In addition, he claims to have a day job, and always leaves before the sun rises. Nor does Settle ever drink or eat with the other members of the squad. One of those others, Jack Harker, decides to look into who Settle really is. Of course readers who are familiar with Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror story “Dracula” will recognize the resemblance of Harker to Jonathan Harker of that book, who meets and becomes suspicious of Count Dracula.

I enjoyed the information in Willis’s historical fiction triad about the same time period: “All Clear,” “Blackout,” and “Fire Watch.” While I love Willis’s writing, I wasn’t so enamored of this dark variation on her previous books. It could be that my expectations from the other books colored my reception to this twisty tale.

This is an interesting novella about the blitzing during World War 2 in London. I enjoyed the book. It's a fast paced read.

Loved it! Connie Willis returns to the well she has drawn from so successfully in the past .... the angst that the English incurred during the World War II Blitz of London .... including the gems: All Clear, Blackout, and Fire Watch. This time out she explores the plight of the rescue crews during and after each night of bombings. The all pervasive stress and strain of hoping to find survivors, rather than corpses. Along comes volunteer Jack Harker, who joins Mrs Lucy's rescue team during the evening, only to quickly depart before dawn, to return to his mysterious "regular" job. Jack has an uncanny and unbelievable knack of finding survivors buried beneath the rubble ... undetectable to any other. Is there perhaps a significance to his name ... which invokes remembrance to one of the main protagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 masterpiece: "Dracula" ???
Connie Willis miraculously weaves a compelling tale shrouded in mystery in this slim 112 page gem. Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press (@SubPress) for providing an Uncorrected electronic proof in exchange for an honest review. ( at readersremains.com)

This is my second read by the author and I’m yet to find myself in love, so far it’s just middle level like all the way. The writing is perfectly nice, but the story itself just didn’t really grab me. The novella format was perfect for the level of interest and emotional engagement for me. Set during the same time as some of the author’s other longer works, this is a story about rescue workers during WWII in London, England. One of the new volunteers seems to be extraordinarily good at locating victims, almost as if by supernatural means. Or so his colleague suspects and tries to figure out. The readers will probably figure out Jack’s deal even sooner, the author makes it entirely too obvious, the clues are bullet train sized and just as subtle, where more subtlety might have actually made for a more exciting and surprising narrative. Other than that, the writing is perfectly decent, there’s a good amount of details to bring the era to life with all its danger and devastation, so on a historical fiction level it certainly works. It’s just the Jack in Jack that’s underwhelming somewhat (possibly due to my person indifference to his specific kind of being…to say more would be too much), possibly because he is by far the most interesting character in the story, but somehow not the main one, in fact all we know of him is what is being observed and speculated by his coworker. So yeah, a good enough quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

Jack by Connie Willis-This is a novella, first published in 1991, in Willis's Blackout story line, following a group of volunteer wardens during the London Blitz of World War Two. In the story, a man named Jack Harker narrates, another Jack joins the close-knit group to help rescue people buried in the rubble of constant bombings. This new Jack has an uncanny ability of finding people still alive underneath the debris, but can only assist them during the night and quickly disappears at daylight, leading the narrator Jack to suspect the new Jack's true intentions. The characters are all well drawn and each is given his or her own place in the chaos that surrounds them. This definitely makes you want to search out the other stories in this setting. Subterranean Press is re-releasing this story in a special collector's edition, with the usual high-end quality and illustrations they are famous for. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me this ARC to review.

This is quite good. It a strong level of historical detail and it is quite well written. It also includes some interesting points about war and its effect on people, and is more subtle than normal Willis stories. Probably one of her better short stories.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

A short novella by the always inventive Connie Willis, who takes us once again to London during the Blitz. This time we're in amongst the ARP wardens, spotting bombs, putting out fires, and rescuing trapped victims from the rubble. When Jack Settle, a new volunteer, becomes part of the team, it becomes obvious that he has a knack for locating victims, raising the suspicions of another warden.
A nice companion to her other works set in the same period.