On my list of LJ posts to make when I have time is one about Blackout/All Clear. While I agree only somewhat with arcanology on the firing-your-editor problem, I agree more with some of his other points, and yours, e.g. the willful stupidity of the viewpoint characters and the artificial building up of the rushing about frenzy -- and also that I really liked the contemps and the story with them, while being disappointed with much of the time-travel plot. One of my gripes is that I think she's writing two different books/types of book that shouldn't be mushed together -- as arcanology pointed out in his review, the goofy chaos works well in To Say Nothing of the Dog but works against her attempt at serious emotional drama here and more so in Domesday Book (where there is at least less of it). Mr. Dunworthy in particular makes no sense as a character, because he exists in both goofy-universe and angst-universe, and he can't be the same person in both.