Rating: 
Summary: A well-crafted, well-paced, absorbing book
Review: I think those who criticize the pacing of THE DOOMSDAY BOOK miss what makes it so powerful, which is the time Willis takes to define her characters, so that their lives and deaths truly mean something to the reader. This book may not be perfect, but it's very strong, and better than 99 percent of other science fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: A potentially good story mangled by banality.
Review: The author takes an interesting idea and nearly ruins it with sloppy, egregiously repetative suspence devices, a la a hackneyed day-time drama. Some characters with vital information are able to ramble on at length, only to faint just before revealing the information they should have in their first utterance. Other characters are unable to piece together information until long after the reader has, resulting in a "page turner" only to the extent that the reader wishes to find the point where the auther gets on with it.The book also suffers from being published some eight years ago. It describes a future (2054?) that seems technologically stunted given our current reality of the internet/WWW and cell phones. While the author brings us a future capable of time travel this same future lacks cell phones, call waiting, answering machines, pagers and, apparently, personal computers and the Internet. Characters have to wait by the phone for hours fearing they will miss an important call. Other characters cannot be reached because they don't happen to be sitting by the phone. I found this maddening! The author's 2054 felt more like 1954. The story line that takes place in the 14th century is, by comparison, much more enjoyable. However, for all I know, an history major may be has apoplectic about these sections as I was about the "future" sections. Nonetheless, I was glad that it was intended to be historical and not fanciful. Some tight editing and a good screenwriter and this could be an interesting, character driven film. But I'm sure the studios were throwing money at Crichton before his "Timeline" was even published.
Rating:
Summary: Humanity-oriented Science Fiction; excellent read
Review: I bought this book not knowing what to expect. Typically, hard SF is more interesting to me, but I found the character development and human sympathy throughout the book to justify giving it five stars. While there is the issue of time travel, the paradoxes are cleverly avoided by a Net that ensures no meaningful deviation in the future. The ending, however, could have been a bit more thought-provoking, yet overall, the book was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional!
Review: This is the only the second sci-fi book I've ever read (the first was Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog"). Doomsday Book is absolutely exceptional. I couldn't put it down. Easily the best book I've read in years. Highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Doomsday Book
Review: Awsome book. One of the best time travel books I have ever read. I immediately bought every one of her books after reading this one and I have not been disapointed yet.
Rating:
Summary: Bought it Again
Review: I had to read The Doomsday Book for a college class on Science Fiction novels. I was never a science fiction fan, but I found this book to be exceptional. I leant it out to a friend(who selfishly never returned it)and I am buying it again right now. I do not normally buy a book more than once, so this one obviously impressed me. It was well written, placeing me in the future and the past with little questioning on my part.
Rating: 
Summary: View from a SF nonaficionado
Review: As did many other reviewers, I found this book rather "messily" written. I, too, was frustrated with the pace, with characters seemingly always on "the verge", but never quite getting the words out, the deed done, etc. Maddening. However, I recall the name of all the 14th century characters, a rarity for me. I've no idea how well researched this era was, but it was nonetheless convincingly and poignantly portrayed by the author. All in all, an interesting "paradox" of a novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have been better
Review: The book conssists of two intertwined stories, that of the student going back to study the Middle Ages and the 21st century academics trying to rescue her. The former is outstanding. The characters are real, the detail is fine, but even more, the unspoken inferences about medieval life and society drawn by the reader are the most fascinating part of the book. However, the latter is disappointing. It is at times plodding and clumsy. Attempts at comedy are misplaced and the characters are two dimensional. This 21st century portions really took away from the meat of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely recommended
Review: This novel held me in its grip for the better part of 3 days and some of the scenes and images still haunt me nearly two years after having read it. Connie Willis has certainly done her research on conditions in the Fourteenth century and the plague, as well as creating some intriguing characters. This novel is also more emotionally intense that some of her other work, which tends to be lighter and more entertaining. Although time travel is necessary to set up the plot, the sci-fi aspects of the work are actually pretty minimal. Life in the 21st century doesn't seem all that different from today, with a few technological exceptions. It seems like Willis has concentrated most of her energy on making the scenes from the 14th century as vivid as possible and in this lies the real strength of the book. The book's beauty and horror are only accentuated by the Christmas season setting.
Rating:
Summary: I have some reservations
Review: This is book is really two stories, One that is not really adequate, the future. And one that is so powerful that it makes the story unforgettable, the plague. Attempts at comic relief are rather woeful, and she can be as manipulative as Spielberg. But the power of the desperation in Village is palpable. I have given this book to friends. A keeper. It took me a couple of weeks to get over it.
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