Female Authors

Review: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of the funniest science fiction books I’ve ever read. It isn’t a silly, knee-slapping romp like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but a calmer story that relies more on character interactions than external craziness.

Time travel exists but is primarily a method for historical research. It’s also exhausting, and Ned Henry has done far too much of it. But instead of getting some much-needed rest, he’s sent to Victorian England to recover something called a bishop’s bird stump. He gets help from Verity Kindle, a fellow time-traveller who has shuffled a cat between timelines, an act that has the potential to completely upset all of history.

Ned and Verity are a great team as they try to patch everything up, and the eccentric Victorians they run across are hilarious.

Recommendation: Buy it. This Hugo-winner is a great book.

Dan

View Comments

  • Without a doubt, 'To Say Nothing of the Dog' was one of the most entertaining and laugh out loud books I've ever read. Connie Willis is a delight. 'Doomsday' was also totally awesome. Anyone who likes SciFi and Time Travel absolutely has to read these.

  • Can't agree more with the review. I love this book, just as I did almost anything I read written by Connie Willis. I was only bewildered by the lack of reference to the origin of the book's name (Jerome K. Jerome's masterpiece), or to P.G Wodehouse - another great influencer on Willis's work

Share
Published by
Dan

Recent Posts

Review: <em>Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia</em> by Jason Pargin

Author Jason Pargin has made a career out of hilarious and fast-moving books with surprisingly…

2 years ago

Review: <em>The Tusks of Extinction</em> by Ray Nayler

The Tusks of Extinction is a short novellette/novelito (smaller than a novella) where mammoths have…

2 years ago

The Best Silkpunk Books

There are a couple of science fiction books in this list, but right now, most…

2 years ago

Review: <em>Venomous Lumpsucker</em> by Ned Beauman

In the near-future world of Venomous Lumpsucker, everything has continued to get worse, to the…

2 years ago

The Best Dark Science Fiction Books

Calling a book "dark" can mean many things, and the books on this list mean…

2 years ago

The Best Science Fiction Books with Gas Giants

Gas giants are wonderfully weird, mysterious, and incredibly dangerous. It's surprising there aren't more gas…

2 years ago