To Say Nothing of the Dog | |||||
Connie Willis | |||||
Bantam Spectra Books, 434 pages | |||||
A review by Steven H Silver
What To Say Nothing of the Dog did was highlight one of the problems I noticed in
Doomsday Book but couldn't put my finger on. In both books, the main characters are,
ostensibly, historians. However, none of the characters, whether it is Kivrin from Doomsday Book, or
Ned Henry and Verity Kindle from To Say Nothing of the Dog think like historians. Nor do they seem
to know anything about history beyond what they learn after they leap into the past. The historical
arguments Willis portrays in To Say Nothing of the Dog, most notably Peddick's debate with
Overforce over whether history is the result of grand forces or individuals, is extremely watered down
and none of Willis' twenty-first century historians involve themselves in the debate or even bring any
advanced arguments to the topic when listening to the nineteenth-century Oxford dons argue.
The novel, as indicated by the subtitle, has a loose plot as the time travelers search for an artifact
known as the "Bishop's bird stump." However, little progress is made in the search, and the
nature of the bird stump is never clearly understood. The scavenger hunt never really grips the reader.
In her earlier novel, Willis inflicted her modern Oxfordians with a plague
to get them to behave irrationally which, in turn, permitted them to act in a manner
consistent with the plot. Here, in To Say Nothing of the Dog, Willis vests Ned Henry with
time-lag, a sort of version of jet-lag, and nearly everyone else with an almost unnatural fear and
loathing of Lady Schrapnell. Her project to restore Coventry Cathedral is the catalyst for all
the action in the novel.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is heavily based on Jerome K. Jerome's classic novel
Three Men in a Boat (1889). Instead of being subtle about her novel's lineage,
Willis uses the Victorian novel's sub-title as her title, mentions the novel in the dedication,
and has Ned Henry, who seems to know about as much about Victorian literature as he does about
any history, often quote Jerome's novel. It causes the reader to wonder why he has so much
of the work memorized.
I have read several stories by Connie Willis which I have enjoyed. However, these have all
been short stories or novellas. At longer lengths, based on the three Willis novels I've read,
I'm afraid I subscribe to the minority opinion that her work is vastly overrated. While I'm sure
To Say Nothing of the Dog will sell well and may even garner Willis another Hugo or
Nebula, it is another Willis book which adds to my opinion that she should stick with short fiction
and stay away from time travel.
Steven H Silver is one of the founders and judges for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. He sits on concoms for Windycon, Chicon 2000 and Clavius in 2001 and is co-chair of Picnicon 1998. Steven will be serving as the Programming Chairman for Chicon 2000. In addition to maintaining several bibliographies and the Harry Turtledove website, Steven is trying to get his short stories published and has recently finished his first novel. He lives at home with his wife and 3200 books. He is available for convention panels. |
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