Rating: 
Summary: A Delightful Trip Back in Time
Review: The Doomsday Book is set in the future, when time travel is a frequent practice for scientific study. A daring young college student named Kivrin travels back in time to the period of the Black Plague. I was expecting this book to be about castles, kings, queens, maybe even a dragon or two, but not so. The activities of the Middle Age characters are very realistic, and extremely detailed. I felt as though I was really there, thanks to Connie Willis' excellent characterization, and easy-to-follow plot. I recommend this book to any sf fan, or anyone wanting to learn more about the Middle Ages.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but the plot frustrated me
Review: Doomsday Book's strengths include the well-researched and plausible setting of 14th century rural England, a good portrayal of epidemics and how to deal with them, a variety of themes and imagery (try figuring out each character's analogue in the other time period), and of course Willis' fine writing and dialogue. Rarely resorting to exposition, her characters and lively and vivid, and you care for them.The book's problems mostly stem from its plot, which disappoints: Some characters behave willfully stupidly and for no apparent reason than to keep the plot moving. One character is off-stage from the very beginning to get the plot started and his absence is never satisfactorily explained. Finally, there's no unification of the plots in the seperate time periods; I kept waiting for the grand explanation of what was going on, and was sorely disappointed. The book also needed another chapter or two of denouement; it ends rather abrupty. So while the middle of the book is quite a page-turner, and I wouldn't tell anyone NOT to read it, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this novel to someone, either.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT - but not for everyone
Review: _The Doomsday Book_ is one of the most unusual pieces of science fiction I think I've ever read. It's not what you'd typically expect in a science fiction novel - most of the action takes place in the very low-tech world of England's Middle Ages. It's also not really historical fiction. While well researched, the book doesn't flesh out the details enough to qualify in that category either. I guess this book is really just about people and how they react in a crisis. I don't think I've ever been as moved by fictional characters as I have by Ms. Booth's in this novel. No, there's not a lot of adventure here. If that's what you like, you'll hate this book. If you enjoy rich characterization & a moving story, though, you'll love it, even if you don't usually enjoy sci-fi. I read this book perhaps four years ago, and it still sticks out in my mind as one of the best I've ever read. I've bought four copies over the years, because I'll loan it to a friend who will love it so much they'll loan it to someone else, who in turn loans it out...
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Read
Review: Doomsday Book is my first Connie Willis book, but certainly not my last. I found it intelligent, meticulously researched and fun. It is rare to find good, well-written science fiction, despite this I keep trying. On this occasion I was very pleasantly surprised, although some might debate whether Connie Willis should be classified as strictly a " science fiction" writer. Certainly there are some science fiction elements, a semi-futuristic or alternate setting and time-travel, on the other hand this work is as much, or even more, a historical novel. Dooms Day Book is more serious than "The Bellweather" or "To Say nothing of the Dog" (both very good by the way) , nevertheless, Ms Willis, always a keen observer of human (and animal) behavior, finds room for her sharp sense of humour, which by now is as much a trademark as her wonderful writing.
Rating:
Summary: Doomsday book
Review: After reading Ann MacCaffreys PERN series, I never thought that I would find a book again that I would collect, and read, and read, and read again. Now I have. I loved this book. My two favourite types of books are Historical novels and scifi. This book met both criterea.
Rating: 
Summary: This story follows you even after you put it down
Review: "The Doomsday Book" is an astonishing, gripping, stunning intertwining of time travel with two possible doomsday scenarios, one in the mid-21st century, the other the real Black Death of 1348-49 in England. The student historian Kivrin Engle wants to go to the Middle Ages, and she's supported by a thwarted medievalist, Gilchrist, who finally gets his hands on the power to send her there. Willis kills off quite a few sympathetic characters, in the remorseless fashion of Renaissance tragedy. Others survive, though changed by the action, in the best tradition of comedy. In some ways it's frustrating to read, because almost all the "good" characters are themselves terribly frustrated, but after the first hundred pages this thing is almost impossible to put down. On the 21st century side there are a lot of light, even farcical, touches (for example, the pressing need for "lavatory paper,' and William Gaddson's ability to attract any number of young women) that relieve some of the inevitable grimness enjoined by the circumstances. I read this book, despite its length, in a 24-hour period, and cannot get it out of my mind. The detail is wonderful, the plots are wonderful, the morals strike deeply. What a book!
Rating:
Summary: fabulous!
Review: this is one of my all-time favorite books. everyone should read it. it was breathtaking. you were in the fourteenth century with her. michael chrichton's "timeline" is very similar, but nowhere near as good a story. his was much more technical.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, provocative, and beautifully written
Review: A friend repeatedly begged me to read this book and I kept dismissing him, claiming I didn't have the time. Well, he finally just BOUGHT the book for me and I settled down to read it. I didn't put it down until I reached the last page. Doomsday Book's brilliant prose and erotic lure of time travel reached me deep inside and suddenly I wanted to be one of those characters. Although the pace of the book is evenly timed, Doomsday Book's "slow start" has put off several readers. Don't be one of them. Everything in this novel is crafted very specifically, even those seemingly throwaway characters. It will all make sense in the end. So, to make a long gushing review short, if you enjoy historical fiction and time travel, this is your ideal novel. And after you finish Doomsday Book, pick up To Say Nothing of the Dog, which deals with historians going back to Victorian instead of Medieval England. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: OK, but slow beginning
Review: I found the pacing frustrating, she slowly moved through material I thought relatively unimportant, and then I thought the ending was rushed.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a Read
Review: I rarely read fiction for historical accuracy. If the errors are glaring and remove me from the story then it affects my enjoyment of the book. But I found none of that in "The Doomsday Book". Connie Willis brought the Middle Ages to life for me and made me feel the difficulty in living during this dark time. Kivrin, the time-traveling historian, is the perfect go-between, explaining for us, living for us, observing for us. On the other side of the time tunnel is Mr. Dunworthy, her instructor. He, too, is an observor, guiding us through a 2048 not so distant from our present time. In fact, I was surprised at how similar this future was to the one envisioned by Terry Gilliam in the film "Brazil" - futuristic, yet archaic at the same time. They can travel through time, but they are still gulping down pills to treat illness. They have videophones, but the concept of a cell phone seems foreign. I finished this book this morning, as I walked to work and I found myself weeping at the hopelessness of life during the Plague. I got to know the characters, to feel for them, to root for their survival, but Willis knows better than to give us a false happy ending. It's not a completely depressing ending, but the happy is mitigated, as it should be. Willis takes a long time to get going, keeping us in suspense through artificial means, but they payoff is great. Enjoy.
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