Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

PASSAGE
by
CONNIE WILLIS
Passage USA hardback cover Passage (2001)
2002 Hugo Award Nominee

cover art by Royce M. Becker
US Bantam hardback 594 pages (left)
US Bantam paperback 780 pages

Voyager UK trade paperback (right)
594 pages 		Passage UK trade cover
From the inside cover of the US hardback:
       At Mercy General Hospital, Dr. Joanna Lander will soon be paged -- not to save a life, but to interview a patient just back from the dead. A psychologist specializing in near death experiences, Joanna has spent two years recording the experiences of those who have been declared clinically dead and lived to tell about it. It's research on the fringes of ordinary science, but Joanna is about to get a boost from an unexpected quarter. A new doctor has arrived at Mercy General, one with the power to give Joanna the chance to get as close to death as anyone can.
       A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near death experience using a psychoactive drug. Dr. Wright is convinced that the NDE is a survival mechanism and that if only doctors understood how it worked, they could someday delay the dying process, or maybe even reverse it. He can use the expertise of a psychologist of Joanna Lander's standing to lend credibility to his study.
       But he soon needs Joanna for more than just her reputation. When his key volunteer suddenly drops out of the study, Joanna finds herself offering to become Richard's next subject. After all, who better than she, a trained psychologist, to document the experience? Her first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined it would be -- so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why this place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid....

Read for group discussion on February 13, 2002
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan - Amy 8 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri 8 Barb 9
Aaron - Cynthia 9
Jackie 8 Ron 9
Shari 8 Sara 8.1
Our book group has also read the following books by Connie Willis:
-- Uncharted Territory  in August 1994
-- Doomsday Book  in September 1995
-- Bellwether  in August 1996
-- Lincoln's Dreams  in September 1996
-- To Say Nothing of the Dog  in February 1999
Bibliography:
Connie Willis (1945-    ) is a Colorado writer of short fiction and novels.

Awards
1983 Nebula Award for best short story "A Letter From the Clearys"
1983 Nebula Award for best novelette "Fire Watch"
1983 Hugo Award for best novelette "Fire Watch"
John W. Campbell Award for Lincoln's Dreams
1989 Nebula Award for best novella "The Last of the Winnebagos"
1989 Hugo Award for best novella "The Last of the Winnebagos"
1990 Nebula Award for best novelette "At the Rialto"
1993 Nebula Award for best short story "Even the Queen"
1993 Nebula Award for best novel Doomsday Book
1993 Hugo Award for short story "Even the Queen"
1993 Hugo Award (tie) for best novel Doomsday Book
1994 Hugo Award for best short story "Death on the Nile"
1997 Hugo Award for best short story "The Soul Selects Her Own Society..."
1999 Hugo Award for best novel To Say Nothing of the Dog
2000 Hugo Award for best novella "The Winds of Marble Arch"
2006 Hugo Award for best novella "Inside Job"
2008 Hugo Award for novella "All Seated on the Ground"

Willis's first two solo novels are serious in tone. Lincoln's Dreams (1987) features a woman suffering from dreams of the Civil War. Doomsday Book (1992) is a time travel novel in which a researcher from 2050 is accidentally sent back to 1348 and the Black Death.

Uncharted Territory (1994), Remake (1994), and Bellwether (1996) are short novels, really novellas, published as books. Uncharted Territory features two human explorers surveying an alien world. Remake is set in a future Hollywood where movie stars are digitized. Bellwether deals with tracing fads and chaos theory. Futures Imperfect (1996) is a SFBC omnibus of all three short novels.

To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997) is a humorous time travel book set in the same universe as Doomsday Book. Time travel researchers from 2050 try to fix an incongruity accidentally caused back in 1888 in Victorian England, which involves Coventry Cathedral and the Blitz in 1940.

She has books with collections of short fiction, Fire Watch (1985), Impossible Things (1993), Miracle and Other Christmas Stories (1999), and The Winds of Marble Arch (2007).

She has collaborated with Cynthia Felice on the novels Water Witch (1982), Light Raid (1989), and Promised Land (1997).

Connie Willis has edited The New Hugo Winners Volume 3 (1994), and Nebula Awards 33 : The Year's Best SF & Fantasy (1999).

Passage (2001) delves into near death experiences.

Links:
Aaron's review of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Willis on Fantastic Reviews
Our book club's page for To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
The Connie Willis Page
Science Fiction Weekly Interview: Connie Willis
Salon.com Books | Passage by Connie Willis
Salon Books | Tempting fate : Connie Willis and Bellwether
The SF Site Featured Review: Passage
Connie Willis: Passage - an infinity plus review
Rambles.net: Connie Willis, Passage
BookLoons Reviews - Passage by Connie Willis

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