To Say Nothing of the Dog

Rating:
Summary: First class blend of sci-fi and comedy
Review: 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:
Summary: Made for Disney
Review: The reviews are so widely split on this one because the book is not listed in the right section. It is a well-written story, historical settings, more fantasy than sci-fi action, slapsick comedy throughout, a book I would have enjoyed immensely if I'd read it when I was 11. Reading this book reminded me of watching Disney films like "The Absent Minded Professor", with prepostrous events and cliche characters. This is a humourous fantasy, but certainly not science fiction for grownup readers or good historical fiction.

I recommend this for young readers interested in the concept of time travel or the Victorian era.

Rating:
Summary: More great SF comedy
Review: I was anxiously awaiting this book, having heard Connie read the first chapter of it twice: once at a reading at the Little Bookshop of Horrors in Arvada, Colorado and again last year in San Antonio at the World SF Convention. It promised to have everything I loved in a Willis story: screwball antics, quirky characters, and an undercurrent of something serious. The book was not a disappointment for me, although I have noticed that many reviewers have not been as accepting. Considering Willis' last full-length novel, Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog is quite a departure in style, although the SF elements are the same. Doomsday Book was all about the plague, and, frankly, there's not much to laugh about in those dark days. The new book is set mostly in the fin-de-cycle of England, those glorious days of men in spats and church socials. The actual time period never existed, or existed only for a few people, but the books that have been set in this period are legion, among them almost all of P.G. Wodehouse's oeuvre and the direct ancestor to the book in question, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.

The central plot device is a missing item called the Bishop's Bird Stump. It somehow disappeared from the Coventry Cathedral around the time of the Cathedral's demise in the Blitz of World War II. But wrapped up in the Bird Stump hunt is Willis' time travel conceit, in which history refuses to be changed, and morphs itself back in line no matter what visitors from the future try to do. One of the ways it accomplishes this is to refuse to "open a window" into a time period that is a deciding moment of history, say, the battle of Waterloo or Kennedy's assassination. It also will "slip" a traveler's entry point by time or space to prevent them from interacting to the detriment of history.

As an SF novel, this is abject failure, I feel. I found it absolutely impossible to believe in the "great men, great moments, great ideas" version of history--that, as long as these were constant, the rest of history continues to fall in place. It is a little easier to believe in than the Everett-Wheeler-Graham model that says infinite worlds are being created constantly in an ever-growing tree of decision branches. Perhaps I feel it doesn't address Ray Bradbury's elegant look at time travel in "A Delicate Sound of Thunder," in which things go to hell because a time traveler kills a butterfly in the past.

Willis' SF was never of the hard type, though, so criticizing her novel on the basis of technical mumbo-jumbo is silly. Because as a humorous novel, this book truly shines. Her SF concepts are merely the stage props that allow her to mix an unlikely cast of characters together. Earlier this year, John Kessel paid homage to Preston Sturges in Corrupting Dr. Nice; herein, Willis worships the very text on which Jerome K. Jerome blotted his fountain pen. Both authors work in concepts that keep their books tied to the field, but whereas Kessel achieved great results in philosophical metaphysics on the nature of ethics and time travel, Willis never really abandons the humor. Her's is the more tightly constructed, plot-wise, and is as perfect in its humor construction as those carefully constructed "musical comedies" that Wodehouse wrote. In contrast, Kessel's has some deep concepts that stay with the reader after the last page is finished. Aw, why deny yourself--enjoy both!

Rating:
Summary: Best Book Ever
Review: A man *Ned Henry* goes back in time to the Victorian era for what he thinks is a little bed rest (he is time lagged (like jet lagged)) and gets instead a small mission which turns into a catastrophe! He meets a girl *Verity* who is also from the future. They're chasing all over for the Bishop's Bird Stump and a cat, meanwhile trying to correct all the incongruities they've caused.

Incredibly funny, thoughtful page-turner. It was absolutely wonderful.

If you also like serious books, and enjoy this book, I suggest you read other books by Connie Willis, and 3 Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, which is constantly referred to.

Could not put this book down. Loved it SO much. Hilarious...I was laughing constantly. Pick this book up ASAP.

Rating:
Summary: This is a novel to read aloud (if you can stop laughing)!
Review: My only regret about this novel is that I didn't read it aloud . I got it for Christmas a few years ago and laughed through almost the whole thing. The book is well-crafted, has plausable restrictions on and care taken with the time-travel in it (as with Ms. Willis' other books that involve time travel). It is in every way a respectable science fiction novel. It also has riotously funny humor ranging in subject from lovesickness, to pompous fools, to the oddnesses of Victorian England.

Reading TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG did have one unforseen side effect: after I read it, I went out and got a copy of THREE MEN IN A BOAT by Jerome K. Jerome (the book whose subtitle Willis borrows along with some ideas and atmosphere). I would recommend that if you're getting TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG because you're sure you'll like it, go ahead and get a copy of THREE MEN IN A BOAT at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: ". . . a harmless, necessary cat"
Review: "To Say Nothing of the Dog" is set in the same near-future world as Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book", a 21st century England where time travel is a nearly routine tool for historical research. A team of historians are set to the task of researching the Coventry Cathedral so that it can be reconstructed accurately, right down to the elusive Bishop's Bird Stump. The time travel "net" they use has safeguards built-in to prevent historical incongruities from occuring. But when when Verity, one of the historians, rescues a nearly drowned cat and brings it back to the present, she creates an incongruity -- or does she? And it's Ned's job to fix the incongruity, but how can he when he's so time-lagged from his other missions that he can't remember what he's supposed to do or where he's supposed to go?
It's a delightful romp through Victorian England, contriving to get the the right people to the right place at the right time and falling in love with the right people (we hope!) -- to say nothing of the dog.

Rating:
Summary: entertaining, lovable and hilarious
Review: I laughed aloud throughout this book. Ned is such a truly likable character that you just can't help but empathize with what he must go through to survive 19th century social life.Some of the characters were purposely flat and so well written that even the characters who were supposed to be shallow were vivid. Time is torn upside down by the obsessive Lady Schrapnell but all poor Ned wants is to take a nap. We can all empathize with that.

Rating:
Summary: Time travel comedy novel that defies genre
Review: To Say Nothing of the Dog is a comedy of manners, a comedy of errors, time travel, a touch of romance, and Victorian history lessons; all with a wit so sharp it could skewer Oscar Wilde himself.

Connie Willis sets her protagonist Ned Henry on a time-travel induced goose chase through Victorian England for an obscure artifact known as the Bishop's Bird Stump. Originating from the late 21st Century, when the use and laws of time travel are well established, Mr. Henry is nevertheless poorly prepped for the culture shock he experiences. He must interpret a set of instructions he doesn't remember receiving in order to replace something that was taken from its timeline so that history doesn't self-destruct into chaos 60 years later...and do so while never revealing his ignorance of Stilton spoons and the correct way to refer to a pregnant cat in the presence of ladies (that would be never). Along the way are several literary tributes and thoughtful debates on the nature of history: character or unseen forces? ...to say nothing of a plethora of gut-wrenching hilarity.

To Say Nothing of the Dog manages to draw from several literary genres without watering down its verbal potency or losing focus of the essentially sci fi plot. And although it won a Hugo award in 1999, this book will not alienate readers who are not normally into science fiction in general (the publisher persists to this day in classifying it as general fiction). In fact, I will have no trouble recommending To Say Nothing of the Dog to my charmingly '50's mom as well as to a trekker friend.

-Andrea, aka Merribelle.

Rating:
Summary: Thouroughly Enjoyable
Review: Don't read this book expecting another "Doomsday Book," but do read it expecting a thourougly enjoyable and satisfying romp through Victorian England, not to mention other noteable centuries. The tone of "To Say Nothing" is so completely different from "Doomsday Book" that I was mildly shocked to see it shared not only the same universe, but several of the same characters. Yes, Mr. Dunworthy, Badri, and the intrepid Secretary Mr. Finch (who clearly missed his calling as a Buttler!) all make a second appearance, although the main characters are new to us.
Regardless, there's just enough mystery and danger to satisfy the less frivolous part of me, and plenty of (occasionally very subtle) humor to keep me laughing.
If you read Doomsday Book and need a spirit-lifter, than by all means read "To Say Nothing." If you didn't, read it anyway!

Rating:
Summary: What time is it?
Review: <b>To Say Nothing of the Dog</b>, by Connie Willis, is a Victorian time travel romp with some touching moments as well. This is my first Willis, and it's very different from what I've been led to expect from her. That's why it took me a little time to really get into it, because I was expecting a science fiction opus. Instead, I got a comedy of Victorian manners with heavy doses of Chaos Theory thrown in. It was definitely worth getting into, though, as it's a very enjoyable book in its own right.

I greatly enjoyed this book. I wasn't really expecting to, though. I picked this up on the strength of Willis' name, but it seemed so different from what I was expecting that I almost put it down. After finishing it, I was glad I didn't. I laughed out loud quite a few times, and had to restrain myself a few other times as I was in a public place. Willis did a good job of showing the hilarious tension between our 21st century heroes and the cultural traits of the late 1800s. Ned sees a straight razor used for shaving, and thinks that he's going decapitate himself trying to use it. They see the courtship rituals of high society, so vastly different from their own time (and even ours!), and they can't believe them. Once they get involved with the Mering family, things move at a comic pace that is breathtaking. Even before that, though, things are wonderfully timed. Ned's boat ride down the Thames with Terence, Professor Peddick almost literally falling into their laps as they row, the Professor's obsessions with history (as well as his ongoing argument with Professor Overforce about historical forces versus the individual in the study of history). All of these subjects are addressed in a wonderfully comic manner by Willis.

The main characters are wonderfully drawn by Willis. Ned is so time lagged that he doesn't know if he's understanding anything correctly, as well as getting overly sentimental about everything (that's one of the effects of time lag). He doesn't know whether he's so drawn to Verity because of the lag or because she truly is the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. He tries very hard not to let Verity know how he feels, just in case it is the effects of the lag. He's a very dedicated man, who's willing to do anything to get the job done. He's very bright and interesting to read about. Verity is not a viewpoint character, but you see enough of her through Ned's eyes that you know she's intelligent, even though she's fairly new to this time travel business. She's a quick thinker, though, which makes getting the job done easier. She's definitely Ned's equal, and has many good ideas of her own. The small love story that develops between them is a nice parallel with the romantic ideals of the Victorian era.

The Victorian characters are just hilarious. The Mering women (Tessie and her mother), are very heavily into the spirit world with very funny results (the séance that takes place at the Mering home where Ned and Verity have to out-charlatan the mystic results in at least four pages of utter hilarity). Mr. Mering is a stodgy old colonel who believes that it's all a bunch of hooey. Terence, the besotted Victorian man who has fallen in love at first sight with Tessie. Professor Peddick, the eccentric history professor who's always going on about his fight with Overforce, even Baine the butler and Jane the maid. All of these characters are wonderfully done, not quite three dimensional but definitely fulfilling their roles with wit and humour.

The plot is very straightforward, but filled with complications that make it interesting. The bird stump makes a nice macguffin, driving the plot forward while not being seen until the end, in a truly surprising manner. Chaos Theory is discussed all the way through this book, and it can get a bit heavy with it at times, but it doesn't prove too distracting and if you don't like that sort of thing, you can skim those parts. There is a lot of repetition for affect, with the characters constantly referring back to the Battle of Waterloo, and what might have happened if some seemingly insignificant change had occurred. Peddick's argument with Overforce about the affects of individuals on history, versus the inevitable forces that drive history and minimize the impact of individuals, makes a nice parallel with the actual events in the book. This argument gives the narrative a lot of its drive and makes an intriguing philosophical question in its own right. Can we as individuals affect events, or are we just carried along like a bit of flotsam in a raging river?

The nice thing about <b>To Say Nothing of the Dog</b> is that you can read it on either level, or even both. If all you want is a nice Victorian comedy, you can read it as such. You may have to skim a lot of the theory as it presents itself, but it can be done. If you like heavy science fiction, though, with discussions of history and Chaos Theory, you can read it for that too. It becomes a truly fascinating book in that light, and I think Willis does a great job in sugarcoating it for the masses to be able to swallow.

If you don't like science fiction, this book will probably be too heavy for you, even though it is a comedy. But if you're a science fiction fan in need of a little humour to brighten your day, you can't go wrong with this one.