To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

This is the first and only Sci-Fi Victorian Romance I have ever read. I doubt I will ever have the chance to read another; I’d say it’s a bit of a niche genre.

If you look it up in the library, it’s officially listed as a sci-fi novel; the main characters are time-traveling historians. They are involved in a project to restore Coventry Cathedral to its pre-WWII glory. Nate Carruthers has

done so many time drops into the past he that is disoriented and exhausted. In this state, he stumbles right into the middle of a problem involving a beautiful fellow time traveler and something she has accidentally done that could potentially destroy history itself.

His mentor and boss shuttles him off to Victorian England post-haste to get some rest from the demands of the Coventry Cathedral project—and also to solve the

problem. Only Nate is so disoriented by his time traveling that he arrives in the Victorian era with no idea what the problem is or what he’s supposed to do to solve it. What follows is a hilarious romp downriver in a boat, a mystery, several romances, two modern people wading through all the confusing layers of Victorian customs, and a desperate race to stop history itself from unraveling.

I giggled all the way through this book. I’d heartily recommend almost anything Connie Willis writes (except Lincoln’s Dreams. That one was…. weird.) but To Say Nothing of the Dog is by far her best.