To Say Nothing of the Dog

or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last

Hardcover, 434 pages

English language

Published Jan. 16, 1998 by Bantam Spectra.

ISBN:
9780553099959
OCLC Number:
36954540
ISFDB ID:
11471

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4 stars (1 review)

In her first full-length novel since her critically acclaimed Doomsday Book, Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, once again visits the unpredictable world of time travel. But this time the result is a joyous journey into a past and future of comic mishaps and historical cross-purposes, in which the power of human love can still make all the difference.

On the surface, England in the summer of 1888 is possibly the most restful time in history—lazy afternoons boating on the Thames, tea parties, croquet on the lawn—and time traveler Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling back and forth between the 21st century and the 1940s looking for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's only the latest in a long string of assignments from Lady Schrapnell, the rich dowager who has invaded Oxford University. She's promised to endow the …

16 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.