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| Started: March 24, 2018 Finished: April 8, 2018 Setting: England Publication Date: Sep 12, 2013 Pages: 493 (Kindle) |
Our April book is a rather well-known sci-fi... (TA DA) →→→→
Now I have to admit that the title certainly caught my attention, and a simple Google search gave me some basic information about the book, the plot, the author and even some of the references to other classic books and authors in English literature (such as Jerome K. Jerome's <I just LOVE that name 😊 > "Three Men in a Boat" and Golden Age mysteries such as Dorothy L. Sayers' "Gaudy Night" - neither of which I have read).
I am not going to repeat the plot summary of To Say Nothing - you can read it here - which is part of the Oxford Time Travel series of books by Connie Willis. But I will leave you with a few initial thoughts about the book (based on my reading as of March 18, 2018) including plot and characters.
First, this book was at a bit of a disadvantage from the beginning because the book I read right before it (as a fluke BTW) was Jodi Taylor's "Just One Damned Thing After Another." "Just One Damned Thing..." is part of the Chronicles of St. Mary's series, and the premise is virtually identical - in the future time travel is very possible and is used primarily by historians to allow them to go back in time and view historical events and monitor them to gather more details, observe and just be a part of them while remaining on the periphery. They can't change events or history (though one could argue that their very presence there does just that, even in very minute and (mostly) innocent ways). I really, really liked the pace of Taylor's book, as well as the characters, their backstories (to the extent revealed) and the plot. So when I discovered that I would be reading a similar book I was bemused, to say the least.
Sunday, April 8, 2018 UPDATE - Well, I finally finished the book. And just in time, as the book club that I am reading it for meets on Wednesday. Despite the fact that I found the concept of being able to go back in time and (possibly) being able to recover lost works of art and articles of historical importance in order to bring them back a very interesting plot device, I found her book, the characters, the use of comedic devices (which I did not find all that humorous) and the writing added up to a big "MEH."
Part of that may due to the fact that I could never quite understand the "logic" that Willis used to explain things, especially in the last two chapters of the book. I generally don't have any issue in suspending disbelief about something (like time travel) but in order to do that I have to have some basic, rudimentary understanding of the explanation being given. If it gets too scientific or too complicated, I think I start to shut down and can't recognize even the slightest possibility of the explanation being plausible. And that may be more my problem as a reader than the author's as a writer.
And that's what happened for me in the last two chapters. The ways that characters explained the incongruities that may (or may not) have happened; the events that may (or may not) have played a role in history; the way I felt that Willis tried to tie up what may (or may not) have been loose ends just did not make me feel satisfied as a reader.
Overall, I found "Just One Damned Thing..." which is part of the "Chronicles of St. Mary's" series much, much better. Better writing, better plot, better characters and better use of humor. Oh - and if I COULD go back in time, I would, if only to make the choice of not reading this book by Willis.
