Relaxed and amusing

Admittedly, it takes some time to get used to the real slow pace of the story. But the story is full of wunderfully odd caracters and absurd dialogs and the plot is nicely twisted. All very laid-back and amusing. Enjoyed it.

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Harmless Fun, '3 Men in a Boat' reloaded

Connie Willis is one of my favorite science fiction authors and most of her work resonates deeply with me. This book is probably not the best book, she ever wrote, the story is pretty harmless, but it is a good read nevertheless.
The plot is simply told. 2 young historians, Ned Henry and Verity, are sent to the Victorian Era to find the bishop's bird stump, which somehow seems to be important for the reconstruction of the Coventry Cathedral.
Unfortunately the presence of Ned and Verity changes critical events and the course of history is at risk to change for the worse. The harder they try, the worse it seems to get.
The story is quite funny at times. The glimpses at the Victorian Era and its peculiarities, the similarities to the Victorian novel '3 men in a boat', the strong and bizarre characters and of course the dog and the cat make the story quite charming and unique.

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4 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Humorous and meandering tale through Victorian times

Well what a rollicking ride this book was! I won’t even attempt to summarise the plot but it’s about Oxford historians in the 2050s who use a Time Machine to go back and observe and record history. One overworked historian, Ned Henry, now suffers from time lag after too many visits to WW2 bombings and is sent to Victorian England to recover. That’s where the fun and complications start. The book in its language and storylines leans heavily on “Three men in a boat” by Jerome K Jerome (which I would recommend reading beforehand!) and is equally humorous, meandering and full of happenings which may or may not be relevant to anything. Satire of the Victorian times is mixed with love stories, peppered with Latin quotes, poetic declarations from Shakespeare, Tennyson et al and Darwinian observations on nature and self-:determination, with strong references to Agatha Christie’s crime novels - all the while being about futuristic time travel and the philosophical dilemmas this brings: can the course of history be altered?
I didn’t understand the convoluted plot fully but totally enjoyed the experience. The narrator was marvellous.

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Not my cup of afternoon tea

If you like Jane Austen (which I don’t) then this is probably worth 5 stars. I found this book utterly boring, as more than 50% of the novel consists of nerve-wrecking, irrelevant, Victorian age style conversations. I did like Connie Willis‘ The Doomsday Book, but this one was lost on me.

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