I’ve definitely slipped again in posting on that Book Booty list from January, but I hope to have two more done and dusted very soon — starting with today’s candidate, To Say Nothing Of The Dog by US author, the famed Connie Willis.

To Say Nothing Of The Dog is the second in the Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis. To give you an idea of its credentials, it was first published in 1997 and won Hugo and Locus Awards in 1999. It’s now published as part of Gollancz’s SF Masterworks series.

Ostensibly, the Oxford Time Travel series is Science Fiction because of the time travel element, but as the time travelers usually/almost-always end spending a long time within a certain period of history, the stories I’ve read are as much, if not far more, historical than science fiction. When it comes to this particular story and tags, Comedy must also be included — not surprisingly, since the title is derived from the subtitle of JK Jerome’s enduring classic, the humorous  Three Men In A Boat: in full, Three Men In A Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog (1889).

Jerome’s three men and boat do make a cameo appearance in Ms Willis’s novel: how could they not? Otherwise, the chief similarity between the two is that a group of three men and a dog (in this case, Cyril, a bulldog) embark upon a journey down the Thames, along much the same section of the river. In both cases, humor ensues, but it’s not at all necessary to read or know the Jerome in order to enjoy the Willis. 😀

First Edition

If you’re wondering where, exactly, the science fiction comes in, it is (of course!) because an Oxford time traveller (in this case a very time-lagged time traveller), one Ned Henry, is catapulted into the midst of a late-Victorian (ca. 1888) aquatic adventure. Now, I believe I mentioned that this was comedy, so you will be prepared for the essentials of the plot, which is that Ned, along with the rest of the Oxford time travel (History) department, has been dragooned into helping a (very!) rich American woman rebuild Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed in WW2.

Lady Schrapnell (think ‘shrapnel’ meets Wilde’s Lady ‘Bracknell’, with a lot of “scrap” thrown in) has the time travelers working overtime to garner every detail of the original (hence Ned being timelagged), to the extent historical “slippage” (when the time continuum corrects itself) is starting to occur on a concerning scale. Ned’s particular mission is to track down details of an artefact called the “Bishop’s Bird Stump.” During the course of which he gets caught up in the boating trip downriver with two companions and dog; the various romantic, familial, and professional entanglements of his companions; and falls in love himself — fortunately with another time traveller (Verity): phew!

E-book Cover

In other words, it’s a romp, with a myriad of characters and interwoven plots. And no, you don’t ever find out exactly what the “Bishop’s Bird Stump” is, only that it’s probably the single ugliest and most tasteless piece of Victoriana lost to the Blitz — or is it? Yes, there are also two main mysteries for our intrepid (and time-lagged) travellers to solve (with a number of subsidiary mysteries thrown in): one involving a mysterious “Mr C”, while the other is the fate of the (un)lamented bird stump itself. In the course of resolving both, Ned and Verity must wrestle with slippage that sees them crossing timepaths throughout the history of the cathedral’s construction, from the Middle Ages to the Blitz.

This being a comedy, all is finally resolved, but there are twists and turns until the end. Needless to say, I enjoyed it, although I did need to pay attention at times because of the sheer number of secondary conundrums, and characters, that Ned and Verity encounter in pursuit of the two main quests. I was very impressed, in fact, by the author’s ability to keep all these balls in the air simultaneously without dropping a single one.

So if you like time travel, historical adventures, and plenty of comic fun, along with mysteries and romance (star–or time–crossed and otherwise), then you’ll like To Say Nothing Of The Dog. Similarly, if you’re a fan of Three Men In A Boat, the Victorian era, and/or the ridiculous or over-the-top* characters in Oscar Wilde’s plays, then you’ll almost certainly find a lot to enjoy in this story.

I think this is the first time I’ve done a “Who may *not* like” assessment — but I do think this may be a more challenging read for those who prefer their narratives spare and slim. This is definitely not that story in terms of either plot or characters. I think readers who prefer their science fiction to clearly detail the mechanisms of critical technologies such as time travel may also prefer “harder” works in the genre.

Clearly, though, a lot of SF readers enjoyed To Say Nothing Of The Dog a lot, to vote it the Hugo and Locus Wards, so these mild cautions should be read as exactly that.

Disclosure: I read the 2023 paperback edition, published by Gollancz as part of its Masterworks series; 528 pages — which, yes, I bought m’ownself at a local bookshop.

Posts on Other Books By Connie Willis:

Blackout and All Clear

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*Yes, I did notice that the initials for Oxford Time Travel
and over-the-top are both "OTT" -- but I'm sure it's
complete coincidence. :D