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A review by cellardoor10
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
5.0
Somewhere between Much Ado About Nothing, Agatha Christie, and Monty Python, this is an *extremely* British humor book, worth the time to read. The audiobook is wonderfully read, as well. I'm in love with the fact that when Willis conceived of her time travel premise (at Oxford, with the parameters and rules of The Net), she clearly came up with two primary ideas:What if everything went wrong and it was dire and people died (Doomsday), and also, what if everything went wrong and ultimately, it was all just very funny (To Say Nothing of the Dog)?
This is lighthearted British farce based on misunderstandings and macguffins and it is extremely well done. It is ... slightly confusing in terms of emotional whiplash from Doomsday, but once you get into the swing of things, it's very entertaining. There are a couple familiar faces who show up again, and the humor about academic infighting and departmental dynamics is once again on full display here. There's a particular debate about the nature of history that will ring *extremely* true if you've ever read social science papers going back and forth debating on a topic. Upstairs/downstairs dynamics also come into play, as the majority of the book is spent in the Victorian era.
We also learn a lot more about the theory, controls, and mathematical consistencies of Willis's version of time travel, including a detailed analysis of conditions at Waterloo. And in some ways, Willis's meta-narrative is an answer to the in-text debate about the nature of history - is it driven by individuals, larger forces, or is it a chaotic system? The ending seems to imply her conclusion.
This book will utterly spoil the end of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, so read that first if that's important to you.
This is lighthearted British farce based on misunderstandings and macguffins and it is extremely well done. It is ... slightly confusing in terms of emotional whiplash from Doomsday, but once you get into the swing of things, it's very entertaining. There are a couple familiar faces who show up again, and the humor about academic infighting and departmental dynamics is once again on full display here. There's a particular debate about the nature of history that will ring *extremely* true if you've ever read social science papers going back and forth debating on a topic. Upstairs/downstairs dynamics also come into play, as the majority of the book is spent in the Victorian era.
We also learn a lot more about the theory, controls, and mathematical consistencies of Willis's version of time travel, including a detailed analysis of conditions at Waterloo. And in some ways, Willis's meta-narrative is an answer to the in-text debate about the nature of history - is it driven by individuals, larger forces, or is it a chaotic system? The ending seems to imply her conclusion.
This book will utterly spoil the end of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, so read that first if that's important to you.