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Title: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, Connie Willis ISBN: 0-553-57538-4 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.46 (181 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting Mix
Comment: This is one of the most interesting literary mixes I've ever come across, all the more surprising as it appears in the form of a science-fiction time-travel book. The book itself is a mix of hard sci-fi, Victorian comedy of errors and manners, and cozy mystery. Literary homages (most notably to Three Men in a Boat) and references abound, including P.G. Wodehouse's Beeves books, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, not to mention Tennyson's poetry and Herotodus (who are both quoted throughout). The story has to do with a project in 2057 to rebuild the Coventry Cathedral, and time-traveling historians sent back to study its contents prior to the bombing of 1940. The story is set in motion when one of the historians somehow brings a Victorian-era cat through the time-travel "net", contravening the natural laws governing time-travel. The heroes must then return the cat in order to correct any "anomalies", but this gets them enmeshed in a matchmaking fiasco with loads of fun and well-drawn archetypes of the era (the ditzy girl, the absentminded Oxford don, the seance-loving matron, and miscellaneous butlers). And of course, by the end, all mysteries are revealed, everyone is paired off, and everything neatly dovetails. Truly a wondrous feat of writing and imagination.
Rating: 5
Summary: First class blend of sci-fi and comedy
Comment: I thought that this was an excellent book, both imaginative and original, a perfect blend of sci-fi and comedy. Not to be taken too seriously, it none-the-less creates a story complex enough to keep you interested throughout, yet remains both light and pleasurable to read.
The story centres on the journey of Ned Henry into the Victorian era with a task that he can't quite remember, and which results in him attempting to blend in and do as little damage to the past while he tries to find out exactly what he's meant to be doing and why. As the story unfurls you realise that it isn't quite as simple as you first expected, and Willis' notion of time as a self-correcting force that attempts to remove damage to the timeline by using the hapless time travellers to alter key events is truly inspired.
Anyone wanting hardcore sci-fi may be dissapointed, but the book is light-hearted and funny and doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't. In my opinion there is just the correct blend of science fiction intermingled with a breezy and witty story of love, cats and destiny. My only criticism is the strange need the book seems link itself to Three Men in a Boat. Aside from being set in the same time and JK Jerome lived and supposedly took his river journey, it has nothing to do with it, and is certainly a strong enough story to do without it. Overall, though, it is a first rate book. Read and enjoy.
Rating: 5
Summary: Screwball comedy and Chaos theory in the Victorian era
Comment: Connie Willis' books tend to combine her love of history, literature, chaos theory and Preston Sturges-type screwball comedies to varying effect. In "To Say Nothing of the Dog," her sort-of-squel to "The Doomsday Book," she finally perfects the combination. Following the format of Victorian era books such as Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)", from which she takes the books name, Connie takes us on a romp through time to locate an urn called the Bishop's Bird Stump, which a wealthy American crackpot wants for her true-to-the-tiniest-detail 22nd century reconstruction of Coventry Cathedtral, which was bombed during World War II. But a time traveller coming back from the Victorian era has made a critical and previously thought impossible mistake by bringing something back through with her, something that must be returned or the entire space time conintinuum might fall apart.
Ned Henry is sent back to the Victorian era to rest and recover from a bad case of time lag, and to return the object before it's absend can rip apart the fabric of time and causality. But almost from the moment of his arrival, things go wrong, and Ned and the beautiful time-travelling Verity have to think on their feet, while juggling an overbearing Victorian matricarch, a possibily murderous butler, thieving mediums, a bulldog, a cat that likes exotic fish, and Verity's ditzy "cousin" Tossie, an ideal example of Victorian womanhood and the nexus around whom everything turns.
History, science, math, poetry, chaos theory, time travel and animal husbandry all come together in a terribly clever way to help Ned and Verity solve a mystery, while several young loves blossom in spite of a host of obstacles. A clever, engaging and literate adventure that just gets better everytime I read it.
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Title: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis ISBN: 0553562738 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 August, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Bellwether by Connie Willis ISBN: 0553562967 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Three Men in a Boat : To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome ISBN: 0765341611 Publisher: Tor Classics Pub. Date: 14 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Passage by Connie Willis ISBN: 0553580515 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis ISBN: 0553270257 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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