I love this book. Its witty, smart, fun, loving, and includes one haughty kitty and a good natured bull dog.

I read this book shortly after high school, and I didn't get it or I missed large parts of it. I finally got around to reading it again, and the book did not disappoint. Its a well crafted tour of Victorian England. The book pays homage to Three Men in Boat, 1930 English Mysteries, and a couple of books I still need to read. ( )

I enjoyed this so much more because I had recently read Jerome K. Jerome's 'Three Men in a Boat'. I didn't really realize how much of an homage Willis had created until I paired the two -- even the visual formatting (chapter headings, etc.) is a la Jerome, and yet Willis manages to achieve her own unique style within the homage. And, though its set within the same future as Willis' 'Doomsday Book', which I read immediately prior, Willis' second foray is dramatically different from its predecessor (not a prequel/sequel relationship, but it is helpful in smaller details to read them in order). Where the first was grim, this is light and laughable and perpetually enchanting. Jolly good -- I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Despite all the great reviews, I couldn't get into it. I really didn't care what was happening in the story. ( )

In the future, we will have invented time travel. But since it is impossible to use this technology to exploit the past, it has ended up as a tool for historians, to investigate at first hand important events in history. Or, to be bullied by ladies of the realm into making excessive trips into the past, trying to ascertain minute details about Coventry Cathedral before its destruction during the bombing of Britain in World War 2, so that said lady of the realm can have everything exactly perfect for the dedication of the rebuilding of the cathedral. In particular, whether a Victorian atrocity known as the "bishop's bird stump" was in the cathedral when it was bombed.

Suffering from time-lag (my favourite symptom was excessive sentimentality), our historian Ned Henry gets sent back to Victorian times to escape Lady Schrapnell's demands and to get some rest. And to help fix a potential rip in the space-time continuum, only he was so time-lagged he has no idea what he's supposed to be doing in the 19th century.

Cue boating down the river in Oxford, rescuing eccentric dons who would drown each other over opinions, meeting the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, being introduced to Victorian morals, rigging seances, meeting the inventor of the jumble sale, and trying to rescue Princess Arjumand, a very cat-like cat.

Another delightful adventure from the mistress of time-travelling tales, Connie Willis. ( )

Why I liked the book boils down to one simple aspect: the characters. I like Ned Henry and Harriet "Verity" Kindle, the time traveling historians. What’s obvious from when they meet is that this is their love story, but without the schmoop. I like love stories without schmoop. Perhaps that’s because, while I am fairly romantic myself, I’m not given over to maudlin acts of affection. So watching these two interact is quite fun.

Full review at my blog: http://reading.kingrat.biz/reviews/to... ( )

Laugh out loud funny ( )

Three Men In a Boat is my favourite book, bar none. This isn't, but it's damn close. A companion to Doomsday Book, it's very different; although it has the same setting, Oxford in the 2050s, in a world where time travel has been invented by the Oxford history faculty, it's a delicate comedy overlaid on an intellectually satisfying, immaculately executed whodunit. The narrator and protagonist, Ned Henry, is tired beyond belief, having been sent on innumerable drops to the 1940s by a crazed American called Lady Schrapnell, who is currently trying to build a life-size replical of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid a hundred years earlier. As nowhere in Oxford is safe from her, Mr. Dunworthy sends Ned to the Victorian era for two weeks' rest and relaxation on the river, and also, as it turns out, to prevent the collapse of history.

He is helped in this task by the divine Verity, who is smart, competent and beautiful. It's love at first sight. And such is the wonder that is Connie Willis, this is not formulaic but rather, a bemusedly romantic counterpoint to the time travel intrigue. It happens in and around a Greek chorus of hilarious, demented Victorian aristocrats, ornamental fish, kittens, cats, spiritualists, over-earnest curates,and jumble sales, to say nothing of the dog. The plot, also, meanders through jumble sales, romance and philosophical historiography, and although it took me a couple of re-reads to get it, it all comes together in the end to make up a neat, seamless whole. As science fiction goes, it's an achievement, and it's also funny, engaging, and sad, in the right proportions at the right times.

One minor oddity that struck me on the first read is Dunworthy, Balliol's much put-upon history tutor - he gets a surprising amount of characterisation in this book, is a regular feature in Ned's interior monologue as well as having a memorable cameo as a skinny, long-haired undergraduate - but gets a few pages of actual screentime at the most. In a stand-alone novel, I'd call it a flaw, but it makes sense in light of Doomsday Book, and the much larger role he plays in that. ( )

One of the benefits I’m reaping from doing an in-depth read in the SciFi/Fantasy genre for 2009 is the discovery of Connie Willis. The first book I read this year was Doomsday Book and it became one of my top ten favorite books of all time. [To Say Nothing of the Dog] is entirely different in mood and character but just as enjoyable. The one thing they have in common is the use of “the net” at Oxford University but the former one has a serious tone to it while the latter is just a wonderful and sometimes hysterical roller coaster ride. The plot is impossible to describe without giving too much away but it is a comedy of manners that involves chaos theory, literary and historical allusions, mystery references, and a plot that keeps you guessing. And for cat lovers, there is a fabulous cat, too. One of the few books that have made me laugh out loud! Highly recommended

Impenetrable nattering prose. I understand that the main character is 'time lagged', but must we also be subjected to his utter blithering confusion? I could only stand to read about a hundred pages before I had to put it down. ( )

Well, that was 500 pages of weird. Ned works for a sort of time agency that sends people to the past for...well, probably research, but that's never quite made clear. He's trying to find a sculpture-thing (the Macguffin of the book, the bishop's bird stump) and then ends up stuck unprepared in Victorian times to recuperate from "time-lag" brought on by too many jumps in too short a time.

This book is well-written, impeccably plotted, and intriguing enough that even though I didn't actually like it all that much, it kept me reading to the end in order to figure out what the heck was going on. I did enjoy how (and why) things got tied up at the end. However, this is not a book I'm planning to reread. ( )

I quite enjoyed the first half and the setup of this one, but it lagged in the final third or so. Ned spends a lot of time just sitting around reviewing, yet again, the details of the situation. Could have been about 200 pages shorter. I enjoyed the literary references and the humour and I'm a sucker for Victorian settings, but the scifi & mystery elements were not really well done imo. ( )

Another adventure of the time traveling historians that Willis invented in the "Doomsday Book", this time a very funny one that deservedly received the 1999 Hugo Award! The title is the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerome's classic novel "Three Men in a Boat" which is constantly referred to. The rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in the exact shape it was in before it was destroyed by the Nazis takes a lot of guts from the scientists, and the final missing piece could be the so called "Bishop's bird stump" - but was it even there the day the Germans attacked? A really great read, funny, full of suspense, another winner by Connie Willis, one of my favorite SF authors. ( )

This book is very clever, witty and amusing, but it was an extremely slow starter for me. I almost gave up, but I'm glad I didn't. ( )

I don't know what it is exactly that I don't like about this book, but I don't like it. Maybe it's because of the era they time-travelled to (I don't like historical fiction and know and care nothing about British historical sites), or maybe because it tries so hard to be "clever".

Anyway, I'm sure it's well written, it's just too, err, complicated? clever? convoluted? for me to enjoy - and it would appear that I'm in the minority in this, so... ( )

It took me awhile to get into To Say Nothing of the Dog, but once I did, I thorougly enjoyed it. It has everything a reader could want: humor, romance, mystery and time travel. It's entirely different from the only other novel I've read by this author, Doomsday Book , which makes me think that Connie Willis is a very clever and talented writer. The plot is fast-paced and multi-faceted. It's purposefully written in the same style as Three Men in a Boat, of which there are several references, and I would recommend reading it first as it will add to the pleasure of reading To Say Nothing of the Dog. ( )

I didn't finish this, even though I was enjoying it. I will try it again sometime.

This book has a little something for everyone - it's part mystery, part time-travel yarn, part romance, and all funny. It's also chock-full of literary allusions and riffs off of Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men In a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog. Though the action was a bit slow in places, I thought it was great - even though I'd gotten it from the library, I felt immediately compelled to rush out and buy it. Read this book!

If you could travel back in time, would your very presence change the future? Connie Willis's novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, Or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last addresses this question and more. The book is almost impossible to describe: It's a farce, a mystery, and little bit sci-fi. And one of the mysteries is, Just what the heck is a "bird stump"?

In mid-21st-century England, historian Ned Henry is sent to the 1940s to track down the bishop's bird stump, which was lost during a World War II air raid. Because he begins to suffer time lag (similar to jet lag) as a result of making too many trips to the past, Ned is sent to the Victorian era for some R&R. But a good night's sleep and peaceful days are hard to come by in any time period.

Willis has written a brilliant take-off on Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (which I reviewed here). Ned Henry's misadventures begin with what should have been a relaxing boat trip up the Thames. The adventures of another time-traveling historian, the beautiful Verity Kindle, begin when she takes a cat through time to contemporary Britain. Ned and Verity must return the cat to its Victorian owner, Tossie Mering, before the whole course of history is changed.

At the Merings' country home, Ned and Verity do their best to set history back on track, but they can't seem to get it right. While trying to break up a mismatched couple, fit in to Victorian society, manipulate seances, and force the Mering family to visit Conventry, Ned finds himself getting hopelessly tangled in the nuances of the space-time continuum. Along the way, he uncovers the mystery of the bird stump, revealing the surprising source of the unraveling of history.

I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog. Willis's book is the perfect blend of madcap adventure, mystery, and history. The humor doesn't overwhelm the story, and the relationships and action kept me interested throughout. Although the frame story takes place in the future, this is not science fiction in the traditional sense, and although there is a mystery, the book is not a "detective" novel. The book will keep you laughing (or chuckling), guessing, thinking, and well entertained.

I read Jerome's Three Men in a Boat before reading Willis's book, but there is really no need to do so. Some scenes in Willis's book are derived from the earlier book, and familiarity with Jerome enhances the humor in those places. On the other hand, To Say Nothing of the Dog stands firmly on its own. I highly recommend it.

I listened to the Recorded Books version of this book. Steven Crossley did an amazing job: Each voice was distinct and recognizable, and the inflections, pauses, and expression were near perfect. ( )

Brilliant! This book is laugh-out-loud hilarious all the way through, and manages to include lots of clever references to Victorian novels, mystery novels, and history. I was shocked to discover that Willis is American - this novel is classic British humor.

I was surprised to realize that this is a mystery novel as much as a science fiction novel - I'm generally not much of a mystery fan, but I enjoyed the problem-solving involved in this book.

There is also a constant theme of the forces of causality in history. A doddering old Oxford don is always muttering about how history is caused by individual actions and personalities, not major forces. Meanwhile the time-traveling characters are trying to figure out if they've screwed up the course of history, and whether minuscule actions have an effect on history or not.

A really really fun read, with some good food for thought in it as well. It made a great book to read out loud as well - it was fun to share it with someone else. ( )

This is by far and away my favorite novel by Connie Willis. Poor Ned Henry is need of some serious sleep after being sent on a wild goose chase through time. His boss is sending him to the Victorian era to allow him a chance to get some sleep...and also to return something that was accidentally taken from the past. The assignment seems simple enough but it doesn't take long before Ned finds himself in a whole heap of trouble and fears his actions may have serious consequences on the space-time continuum. With the help of another time-traveler, Ned must set the past to right in order to protect the future. Will he ever get any sleep?

This book is absolutely hilarious! I laughed until my sides hurt. This is a book I read and reread several times a year. I highly recommend! ( )

I'm not a fan of science fiction, but this book isn't very science-y. It's as if Barbara Pym had written sci-fi: in other words, awesome. This book is so much fun. Imagine a future in which the Oxford time travel lab is staffed with historians and all their effort is going toward restoring a cathedral that was destroyed in WW II. One historian inadvertently sets forward a chain of events that threatens to change the course of history and it's up to two historians to try and undo the incongruity. What's not to love? ( )

One of the funniest, wittiest book I have read recently and deliciously genre-defying. It is set in different timeperiods (e.g. in the near future), but it is not proper sf. Partly it is a spoof of the Victorian novel, but it is also a comedy of manners, a cheerful reflection on chaos theory & the unfolding of history - and a love story. Chief character is Ned Henry who in 2056 is sent back to the England of 1889 - presumably to recover from a bad case of time-lag, but also to get something or someone back. Because of his timelag he has not quite grasped what or whom, but it is to prevent the Germans from winning WW II. I know, it sounds completely ridiculous, but this novel is really enormously funny and clever, especially if you know your Victorian classics. ( )

Not exactly a sequel to "Doomsday Book" but a novel set in the same universe with the appearance of several minor characters from the original Ned is suffering from time lag, a condition brought about by making too many jumps to the past to try and find the bishop's bird stump. In the future, a rich benefactor is restoring the Covington Cathedral at great expense and wants every detail perfect. She has promised the University funding if she can utilize their time travel technology to make sure everything is exact, something which seemed like a good idea at the time but comes with unintended consequences.

To escape the nagging of Lady Shrapnel, Ned is sent back in time to a different era to restore history. Seems a fellow historian brought back an artifact, something that should never happen. Ned's goal is to return the artifact before history is set completely off course.

Willis' book is a fun, entertaining read that has a tendency to wander down the primrose path at times. For the middle third, Ned is trying to figure out what his assignment is and not having a good go of it. The book also starts at a deliberate pace, setting up the universe and the characters. However, the final third that examines the nature of time and the implications of time travel is fascinating and will please most sci-fi fans ( )

Light-hearted time travel mystery that takes place between 1940's and 21st century England. Hugo & Nebula awards.

What do I like in a book? Time travel, alternative history? Check. Humor, adventure, travelogue? Check. History, religion, literature? Check. Cats, beautiful women, eccentric behavior? Check. This book has it all. To say nothing of the dog. Okay the repetition of that phrase got a bit irritating, but it has convinced me I should read the 19th century novel by Jerome K. Jerome which inspired this book. Connie Wills makes a sequel of sorts to the excellent Doomsday Book but makes it a much more comic story of time travel run amok. From Oxford in the 2050’s to Coventry in the 1940’s to Oxford’s suburbs in the 1880’s. The Victorian culture is the main target of the humor, a soft target no doubt, but nonetheless leads to some hilarious results. Also every time travel paradox situation in sci-fi history is parodied in the ultimate time travel mix-up of this book. ( )