If your exposure to time-travel is limited to "Lost" and "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," you really have to read To Say Nothing of the Dog. Here's the publisher's blurb:
Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier.It has everything: mystery, suspense, time travel, romance, parody, and cats.But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right--not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.
I'd never heard of Connie Willis before; turns out she's a multiple Hugo (10!) and Nebula (6!) award winner. I'm going to be looking for more of her books.
Posted by Linkmeister at April 28, 2009 01:13 PM | TrackBackThe book is on my list of things to read. Thanks.
Posted by: cassie-b at April 29, 2009 05:42 AMI was browsing at the library and saw the title, and snapped it up based on my undying love for "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)." It's one of my favorites.
You have read "Three Men in a Boat," right?
Wasn't it someone at Making Light who quoted Willis as saying that she wrote science fiction because it was the only way she could write her screwball comedies?
Posted by: Juli Thompson at April 29, 2009 05:52 AMConnie Willis is a terrific writer; I had not known about "To Say Nothing About the Dog" until one day when I was browsing the shelves of Powell's and came across it. I grabbed it, took it home, and read it in a rush of delight.
If you liked this book, you should also read "Doomsday Book" and "Passage". Be prepared, "Doomsday Book", while not a comedy exactly, is romantic, but "Passage" is neither, and doesn't pull its punches. You keep thinking its going to, but it doesn't.
Posted by: Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers) at April 29, 2009 06:24 AMAlso, I forgot to add that "Three Men in a Boat" plays a minor role in Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel."
Bruce, I second your recommendations. I think that "Doomsday Book" is set in the same universe as "To Say Nothing of the Dog," but it's much darker. And romantic, yes, but not in the sense of the books that Serge's wife writes.
I haven't read "Passage." I'll have to look it up.
Steve - Connie Willis is the writer who was the recipient of Harlan Ellison's bad behavior at Worldcon a few years ago. You might remember some of the kerfluffle at the time.
Posted by: Juli Thompson at April 29, 2009 08:44 AMBruce, after reading this one I have both of those on reserve at the library.
Juli, same with "Three Men in a Boat." I don't remember the Worldcon behavior. Off to Google.
It was janetl at Making Light who mentioned it, and based on that I borrowed it. I'm glad I did.
Posted by: Linkmeister at April 29, 2009 08:48 AMSteve,
After I got home last night and caught up on ML, I realized that Doyle and Fragano had already strongly recommended "Three Men in a Boat." Late again!
(After I told you all that stuff you already knew about Rev. Baring Gould, I promised myself I would keep my mouth shut until I knew you hadn't already heard it elsewhere. Obviously not succeeding on that one!)
I'm blaming Comcast. I STILL can't get to your site from home, which drives me nuts. I had to wait until I got to work this morning to post this, and I can't really justify it as work related.
Posted by: Juli Thompson at April 30, 2009 05:45 AM