Following a suggestion in a recent thread, I just finished Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing Of The Dog. I really enjoyed it, and wanted to read more of her work, so I randomly selected Passage. Which I couldn’t finish. Hated it, gave up on it early on.
Can anyone tell me which of her books might be more likely to float my boat, considering how much I liked TSNOTD?
Thanks.
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Yeah, not Passage. It was LONG. Willis does have a tendency to be very very long.
The companion to TSNOTD is Doomsday Book, but it’s not funny. At all. Then there’s Blackout and All Clear, set in the same universe–really good, but they do suffer from being too long.
You might like Bellwether. That’s quite fun. And her short stories.
I read The Doomsday Book, and it was very inconsistent. The parts that took place in the past were totally gripping, the parts that took place in the present were totally uninteresting, primarily due to a comically over-the-top villain who did everything but twirl his mustache.
Willis is very much a hit-or-miss author for me.
I also dislike Passage. I only recently got hold of Lincoln’s Dreams, and fortunately, due to having slogged all the way through Passage waiting for it to get better, I knew to give up on it early on.
I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog. I liked Doomsday Book. Another good one with humor is Bellwether. Remake and Uncharted Territory aren’t bad.
Her recent double volume time-travel stories, Blackout and All Clear, are in the middle somewhere. I wasn’t enthused enough to buy them, but I’ll probably check them out from the library to reread someday.
Look for her short stories, too. Some of those are quite good. Again, hit-and-miss.
I really enjoyed Bellwether, and an anthology of her short stories. Other than that, I’ve liked some, and disliked others, though I can’t remember off the top of my head which is which.
TSNOTD is one of my favorite books. I read at a time and place where the humor provided a place of comfort.
Blackout and All Clear I am partially finished with in audiobook format. They are not good. Yes, too long, but so much more. The crazy antics that were funny in TSNOTD, and that were supposed to be funny in that book, are now just stupid. The characters are dumber than a sack of hammers. Its obvious she wanted to write about WWII and the role of the average English citizen. She should have done that. If I had not already paid for the audiobooks I would not be finishing them.
I have never read anything by Connie Willis that I didn’t enjoy. For the OP, I suggest Remake. It’s lighthearted and clever, and it moves along at a nice pace (unlike Passage, which sometimes feels as if it’s imbedded in molasses).
Yes, try Bellwether and perhaps try Doomsday, if you’re not looking for something funny. These are both (to me) pretty genius.
I also didn’t really like Blackout and All Clear. They were both extremely long and not very interesting. The story didn’t seem to have anything to say, the characters were bland and insipid, and it was all very predictable. It sucks because I always look forward to her books, and since I know she can be excellent the poor efforts are really disappointing, a waste of time to write and read.
If you liked To Say Nothing of the Dog, try Three Men in a Boat 
Of the ones I’ve read “To Say Nothing of the Dog” is definitely my favorite (and if you haven’t read it already, you should check out Jerome K. Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat”).
It’s been a while but I remember thinking “Passage” was OK; I found “Blackout” pretty much unreadable for the reasons given above, and gave up 3/4 of the way through - a big dissapointment, I really wanted to like it…your best bet is probably “The Doomsday Book”.
Incidentally right now I’m reading the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, which I think is the sort of thing fans of TSNOTD might enjoy.
Yeah - I’m working through this right now and am finding that things drag a bit. I just finished Blackout and am waiting for my turn at All Clear (sequel - utterly shameless cliffhanger in Blackout). Library only has a few e-copies and I have to wait. Oh well.
All of these are set in the same “universe” - late 21st century historians, travelling back in time to observe and learn.
I really, really liked Doomsday Book, but MaxTheVool’s spot on. The 13th century part of the story is totally absorbing and fantastic, the 21st century part fell totally flat.
I actually really liked Passage…granted, it was one of the oddest books I ever read but I truly enjoyed it on multiple levelsw and it really resonated with me.
I liked Passage–but it was too long. And I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to a Willis newbie.
MANY thanks for all the input. I’m going to read some of the recommendations that have been offered.
Quite honestly, I generally don’t much care for SciFi literature, but TSNOTD just plain blew me away. It worked so well in so many different ways. Now I’m afraid I’ve already read her finest book.
Which raises my new question: Which one of her books do you consider her very best?
Thanks again to one and all.