Title:
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Author:
Connie Willis
Publisher:
Bantam Spectra, 1998
ISBN
0-553-09995-7

There are many reasons why I don't particularly enjoy "alternate history" stories. Not the least of them is that I'm no historian, and for me a troubling consequence of indulging in "alternate history" stories is that in the end I no longer know which history was the alternate, and which was the real one.

Then there is the tedious "old lady that ate the fly" chaining of events. Most alternate histories suppose that some often insignificant event was in fact a turning point in history. From this supposition the story tellers spin marvellous yarns about how even the tiniest thing makes a difference. I find it all remarkably uninteresting.

Finally, the alternate histories tend to wander into truly strange realms in their explorations of what might have happened. In truth, after the first few pages there is practically no resemblance between the real history and the alternate one, and I start to wonder what exactly the point is in supposing this was an alternate history, as opposed to, say, a real history, just removed to another (future) point in time, or to another planet. I mean, this is science fiction, after all.

Connie Willis's time travel story To Say Nothing of the Dog isn't so much a science fiction story, or an alternate history story, though it includes elements of both, as it is a fun filled Victorian mystery romance. I was immediately caught up with the main character, a young man whose life is being drawn into a web of events that are the heart of the story's mystery.

Most of the story takes place in 1888, where our hero, Ned Henry, has to deal with the people and customs of Victoria's time. I have no idea how competently Willis treats the real conditions of the nineteenth century's tag end, and it doesn't really matter, since the point of the story is observing how Ned Henry deals with circumstances that lie, in fact, almost 200 years in his past. Whatever (to me invisible) awkward oversights might have been committed I can easily forgive on the grounds that what Willis has written is utterly charming and really very funny.

Meanwhile the mystery unfolds before the reader. This mystery is not one of bodies and finger prints, but one of science. Willis presents one of the more coherent notions of what time travel might be like, and what its limitations and uses might be. In the process she puts together a satisfying bit of scientific sleuthing, in the best tradition of Roentgen or Curie. There's even a suspect who is finally brought to bay by our hero.

In all, the story is a great read, and comes highly recommended.

Oh, did I tell you about the romance?