The problem with this Andrew Wheeler review

[james_davis_nicoll]

Is picking which short section to quote to entice you to click on the link. I think I will go with

Perhaps because of my day-job, I also found myself wondering about -- well, let me be more honest: complaining bitterly and repeatedly about -- is the internal governance and organizational control of this unnamed "Oxford" time-travel organization. It's clearly not ISO 9000 compliant, nor is it compliant with any type of internal-control scheme, hitherto invented or yet to be born: it's an utter mess, run by one man out of his own head with no backups, no written procedures, no organization, and not a lick of sense. There are start-ups run by thirteen-year-olds and their dogs in a garage in San Mateo that have a clearer governance structure and lines of communication than Willis's supposedly world-class research and technology facility.

Comments

[pip-r-lagenta.livejournal.com]

San Mateo? Really? San Mateo?

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Yes, San Mateo.

The 19-year-olds have their start-ups in garages in Santa Clara.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Well, I did click the link, so well done there...

[kayshapero]

Link clicked, review read, reminded of the curate's egg... Oh well, thanks for the link.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

It's much worse for a British reader. Trust me on this.

[chrysostom476.livejournal.com]

I've heard it's a little tone deaf.

[florbigoo.livejournal.com]

How did Willis' do any of her research? I mean, I'm an American born 35 years after the Blitz, with no real gut-sense for predecimalization British currency, but I've read _Bombers and Mash_ and _How We Lived Then_, watched John Boorman's _Hope and Glory_ and even a short perusal of Willis' books sends me into maddeningly-unwilling-suspension-of-disbelief

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I can't speak to any other problems, but the 5-cent stamp thing looks like a momentary lapse of the kind any author will make in full flow and miss on re-reading, but which should have been picked up by an editor or reader or someone — anyone — else.

[ckd]

I'm sure there are many errors I would miss, but the Jubilee line would definitely give my suspension of disbelief a fatal gravitic effect. (Why doesn't she have her time travelers watch for bombers from the Post Office Tower while she's at it?)

[redbird]

The lines of communication between one thirteen-year-old and her or his dog are usually pretty clear. (Either or both parties may be thinking "I told her what to do, why isn't she doing it?" but that's a different issue: the dog knows the person wants it to stop barking, the person knows the dog wants to go for a walk or be given her sandwich.)

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Most thirteen-year-olds know enough not to make their dogs Chief Financial Officer, also.

[rosefox]

Connie Willis is our last surviving Victorian novelist is a pretty genius line.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

It may be that Oxford has a time machine because Cambridge Has One. (More programs than I care to think about started this way.) After that, you need to run it and one thing leads to another...

Alas, I think I'll give this one a miss.

[tanac.livejournal.com]

Read the first half (not realizing it didn't end so much as stop), haven't been motivated to pick it back up. The review does not increase that motivation. :)