Rating: 
Summary: Boring and trite, like slogging through a 600 page mud bog
Review: Boring, boring, boring, and poorly written to boot.I always enjoy a good sci-fi read, and looked forward to reading this, especially since I saw it had won some awards... This book was boring and shallow. It seems promising at first, and the story line has potential (sending a historian back in time to the 1300's) , but it is really a huge disappointment. The historian is sent back to the Middle Ages within the first 15 pages, and the next 350 pages are agonizingly boring, filled with one dimensional characters ( the hateful mother in law, the overprotective mother, the self-important bureaucrat, the good scientist... and on and on) Not one of these characters ever does anything out of character. And worse, the author tackles themes that prove to be light years beyond her ability: Life and Death, Goodness and Evil, God and Man. I urge readers not to waste their precious time and money on this book. There are too many well-written sci-fi books that one could read instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant! Perfection incarnate!
Review: Hi Doomsday Book lovers, I love Doomsday Book so much,I am constructing a site just for it and its characters at http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/winterforest.html which is totally dedicated to this beautiful book. If you loved it as much as I do, then I hope my site is going to be satisfactory!For queries please email me ( Louise ) Thankyou readers and Amazon!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting combination of history and sci-fi
Review: I found this book a quick read - good pace - interesting characterizations. It combines an engrossing story of what life may have been like during the Black Plague with an interesting futuristic element.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but could've been more
Review: In all, a good read. The medieval parts, especially, seemed pretty realistic. I enjoyed Kivrin's struggles with Middle English before the translating device finally kicked in. The characters in the 2ist Century were mostly meant to be droll, I know, but I didn't find them all that amusing. Yeah, the ending was sad. Too bad Kivrin's rescuers couldm't have gotten there in time to save one or two of her friends. Actually, for a while I thought Father Roche was going to turn out to be a time traveler, too. The way he prayed was similar to the way Kivrin talked into her 'corder. Moreover, we have to suppose that the art of time travel was pursued and refined way past the 21st Century--in fact, into the indefinite future. So why could Roche not have been a traveller from, say, the 25th Century? It would have made for a more interesting book....
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: Our teen book discussion group is reading this book right now. Everyone that has read has enjoyed it. It has caught several of the high school teacher's eyes beacuse it cover the Bubonic Plague, a section in World History I. I enjoyed the book and even learned a thing or two form it.
Rating:
Summary: here's why
Review: Why people are calling this book a frustrating, miserable read is beyond me. I, for one, believe that if a person is going to give a low review that they should know their stuff. First of all, this book *is* SF (not Sci-Fi. That is just a condensed version of Science Fiction and is literally wrong). A Science Fiction story does not have to be filled with clanking robots, spaceships, and metallic surfaces. A Science Fiction story is that which speculates on today's science and creates a reality that *may* and could happen. That is the only stipulation for Science Fiction. Now, for the people kvetching about cardboard characters and a slow story. Why have you not looked at the subtext? All good readers must notice and see the subtext. The cardboard characters were created as an allegory. They were created as a stunning reprose directed towards the University Community. For those that know nothing of Connie Willis, she is the wife of a professor at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. She hears, daily, about the rediculous and incredible manners of University headman, that she wrote them into her story. That is why they are cardboard. She is commenting and attacking the University system. Kivrin and Dunworthy are the only *human* characters. This is because they are the only *honorable* characters in the story. Everyone else is worrying about toliet paper, their dig, his mother, Christmas, etc...there and only Dunworthy and Kivrin are worried about something deeper, therefore making them real. The headman of the University are more worried about budgets and money rather than the student. The professors, most of them, are concerned for the students. Connection! The parallel of the virus in modern day to the Plague is representative to man's weakness. Here we are in the 21st century where disease is all but wiped out. Yet, an influenza appears and causes a pandmeic. People are infected and panicking....whereas, in the 14th century, the Plauge appears. People are infected and panick.... hmmm..... it seems to me that this points out the weakness and egotistical manner of man. We have the technology to irradicate illness, and yet are susceptible to the same diseases that infected the "boorish" Middle Age man. We prance around with our antibiotics, feeling invincible. But what happens when something comes around that is invunerable to antibiotics? What happens when an unknown virus starts to spread across a nation and the health professionals do not know how to cure it? What if the healers are the ones infected? We become like the people in the Middle Ages. Powerless, and ignorant to what is happing to us. And this is only on the surface level of the book. It is in my opinion, that a book that makes you think deeply and question modern day humanity, is a good book. Whereas, the Star Trek and other SF books are there to tell a *story* and not questions ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting book that stains your soul
Review: This is a very moving book. Yes, some of the characterizations of the modern day characters are sterotypical. Yes, the book starts out rather slow. I had heard these criticisms before I read this book. But don't let them prevent you from reading one of the best reads around. This book is richly detailed with period nuances that make you smell the stink and feel the hardships of medieval England. You will be drawn into this haunting time. This book has made a lasting imact on me. I read it over a year ago, and I still think of the pitifully described people often. I've never written an endorsement for a book, but I had to come back to pitch this. You'll be glad you bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Over characterization
Review: I liked the premise of the book, however, I found the characters too stereotyped and unbelievable. You have the overbearing and overprotective mother, a overly incompetent back stabbing Assistant Head, a secretary that complains constantly about a lack of toilet paper, visiting Americans that obsess about missing their bell concert in the middle of a epidemic, a Casanova undergraduate who seems to have a affair with every woman in the book including much older nuns! The rest of the minor characters seem to be living in a fantasy world without realizing what is going on. Only the two major characters seem realistic. The plot of the story is okay, rescuing the heroine from the past. The actual time the heroine spends in the past is spent rather blandly, but I like the historical background. If you're looking for a SF book this isn't it. Other than the fact that the story occurs in the future and time travel is involved there is very little science. The story runs on the plot of the rescue and I really wouldn't call this an adventure novel. If you like history, especially Medieval England, and fiction, you'll like this book. If you want believable characters that you don't roll your eyes at every statement, avoid this book.
Rating: 
Summary: IF YOU DON'T FALL ASLEEP YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU READ IT.
Review: D.B. is a well written novel, written by someone who did all of her homework on Medieval England during the Bubonic Plagues. A history scholar from the twenty-first century is sent back to the fourteenth century for a brief field study. Things go wrong and her clinical study gets too close and personal and her safety and emotional impartiality are compromised. I wanted to give it fewer stars but, grudingly, I had to admit that D.B. was indeed well written. Judging just from this book, I would rather take my chances against the Black Death in England during the fourteenth century than be forced to live in a pedestrian modern British town filled with boring, uninteresting characters. I attribute the over the top praises for this book to the anglophilic biases of book reviewers. Whenever the book focused on the predicaments of the characters in the twenty-first century, I asked myself, "Who cares?" Read the Diamo trilogy by R.A. MacAvoy instead.
Rating:
Summary: Not your average SF, thank God. (Warning, some spoilers.)
Review: "Doomsday Book" is probably the best book I've ever read. It occasionally still drives me nuts waiting for the real action to start, but every time I re-read it I discover something I missed. The writing alone is worth reading just to be enjoyed, even during the slow beginning. I read an incredible amount of historical fiction, and Doomsday Book is one of the only books I've ever read that sounded authentic. For once the medieval characters really seemed medieval, not just 20th century people in costumes. Also about the characters, the reviewers who say they seemed flat must not have been paying enough attention! Sure, a lot of the characters (Gilchrist and Latimer especially) were archetypal. But they all still had enough personality of their own to be very real people. Gilchrist and Latimer almost became sympathetic characters at the end when you realize that they were vulnerable too, which is quite a feat considering how they start out. Several, like Father Roche and Eliwys, are not easily categorized at all. Father Roche was a typical saint-like figure but still was human enough to have carnal thoughts about Kivrin and shout at Imeyne. Eliwys was a loving mother but, firstly, never resolved her feelings about Gawyn (notice the scene where she sends him to Bath to get Guillame) and, secondly, had her own problems and priorities and could sometimes be snobbish or cruel, unlike most stereotypical good mothers. You can also see the family resemblance between her and Rosemund just clearly enough to make it interesting. Connie Willis's people are *human*. They do make dumb mistakes and have personality flaws, just like the rest of us. But what really makes the book great isn't the characters or the story, but the writing. Anybody can write a book about a bunch of medieval villagers, but only Connie Willis could have written the scene where Rosemund dies. It just rips me apart every time. Also the scene where Father Roche quotes Romans to Kivrin after they bury Agnes, when he tries to help her stop being angry at God. And who can read "You are here in place of the friends I love" without crying? What a great book. Everyone should read it. It really does a great job of showing how much all people have in common. It's a nice change to read a SF book with real people and themes in it, not just stereotypes of good and evil and everybody getting exactly what they deserve in the end.
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