Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Bantam Books 1999
ISBN 0553575384
Monika says:
In the 21st Century a procedure was developed at Oxford
University that makes time travel possible and eliminates the danger of
changing the time-space-continuum because it is impossible to bring
anything from the past to the future. Travels are only allowed for
research purposes and limited to people associated with the university.
After repeated jumps, however, the traveler begins to suffer from a kind
of time disease that makes him quote classic literature incessantly and
makes him fall in love with the first person he meets. To cure this
unpleasant condition the traveler needs lots of rest. Therefore Ned Henry,
exhausted after frequent jumps, is sent to the Victorian age, to be exact
to the year 1888, to take a vacation and correct a small inconsistency
that occurred in spite of all the security measures after somebody brought
a cat to the year 2057. Apart from that he is to join his colleague Verity
Kindle in her search for an artifact from the cathedral of Coventry known
as the Bishop’s bird stump. Lady Schrapnell is having the cathedral
rebuilt in the 21st Century and wants every little detail to be
just right. The Bishop’s bird stump vanished after the German bomb
attack of 1940 and nobody knows anymore what it looked like.
During the hunt for the Bishop’s bird stump the time-space continuum
is shaken up considerably to the great pleasure of the reader. All the
confusion ensuing from the search doesn’t let the story get boring even
for a minute. Finally all the loose ends are tied neatly and the world
(seemingly) is returned to order. Or is it?
Time travel stories are a matter of taste. It all depends on whether
you are willing to just accept the existence of such an impossible
technology. Although I don’t believe time travel will ever be possible I
like to read about it in a well-written book. Connie Willis’s novel TO
SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG is a particularly entertaining variation of the old
theme. If you regard the time-space-continuum as a chaotic system you can
understand that here, too, the butterfly effect plays a part: tiny changes
in the original conditions can have major long-term effects that were
impossible to foresee even with complicated computer simulations. Our
heroes have to learn that the hard way while they are busy saving the
continuum.
TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG is not just a book for science fiction fans
but should appeal to a wide range of readers. I can even recommend it as a
gift for somebody you want to show that science fiction is not just about
space fights and robots. |
