To Say Nothing of the Dog

Mass Market Paperback, 512 pages

English language

Published Dec. 1, 1998 by Bantam.

ISBN:
978-0-553-57538-5
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4 stars (3 reviews)

In the second of Connie Willis' brilliant Oxford trilogy, Ned's holiday in Victorian England becomes a mad struggle to put together a historical jigsaw puzzle involving a cat, a diary, young lovers, and the mysterious bishop's bird stump.Ned is suffering disorientation, maudlin sentimentality and a tendency to become distracted by irrelevancies: classic symptoms of excessive time travel. And no wonder. Oxford's history department has just pulled him out of World War II and Ned's barely had time to wash off the gunpowder when he has a straw boater shoved on his head, a carpetbag in his hand and is thrown straight into Victorian England. For a holiday.But an impossible accident makes it hard to relax. Ned's holiday becomes a mad struggle to put together a historical jigsaw puzzle involving a cat, a diary, young lovers and the mysterious bishop's bird stump. If he can't make all the pieces fit it …

5 editions

What a great, fun read!

4 stars

I read her short story "Blued Moon" back in the eighties in Asimov's magazine, and it stuck with me every since as some of the funnest and funniest sci-fi I've read. This book is all that, in novel form.

The romance is weaved right into a great time travel story that pokes fun at everything and everyone. I confess I'm going to have to go back and read it again just pick up the clues I know were there the first time, that I missed while zooming through.

Unless you hate Victorian England, romance and time travel (and maybe even if you do), this is well worth reading.

Review of 'To Say Nothing of the Dog' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I like time travel books, I liked the earlier Connie Willis book Bellwether - but something here was less than ideal. The too-much homage to Jerome K Jerome? The length? Not sure. I still want to read Doomsday Book, and maybe at that point I'll have an answer to the Connie Willis question.

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4 stars

Subjects

  • Modern fiction
  • Science Fiction - General
  • Fiction - Science Fiction
  • Fiction
  • Fiction / Science Fiction / General
  • Action & Adventure

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