Rating: 
Summary: Good historical stuff, terrible SF
Review: This book has two basic stories: one about England in the 1300's and the other in the future. I found the middle ages stuff pretty interesting and rather well researched. The future stuff is laughable in its stupidity. The characters spend the bulk of the book on a problem that anyone could have solved with a simple email message. Just skip any chapter about stuff that takes place in the future and this book might be enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Save yourself: skip this book.
Review: Because I ordered this book on the virtue of its awards and not simply picked it up at random from a bookshop, I forced myself to last through it, hoping to find _something_ rewarding. Eventually (after about 200 pages) I found out that it is safe to just skip pages at a time and read two paragraphs, and not miss anything. The characters are imbeciles, the dialogue is not even filling enough for a soap opera, the technology is quite unconvincing (e.g. having a time machine and not having phones that work, having a state of medical emergency and not having enough toilet paper, etc), the plot is simply depressing for lack of any development. I cannot believe how some other people have liked this book, it is not unthinkable that they are relatives of the author or employees of the publisher. To sum it up: You cannot have read every other book, skip this one and read Reality Dysfunction or Hyperion instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful story, I even learned a lot
Review: I loved this book. I happened to be reading it on a trip to Europe, so it had an even greater impact on me. I remember standing at a 14th century church right after I finished the book,and I felt much more connected to the people and the time the church was built. This is a wonderfully researched, gripping story. It is populated with real (not Monty Python like) characters. I learned a lot reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Sloooowwwww read
Review: Doomsday Book was very difficult to get into, a really slow read. This book had a depressing story line with no payoff.
Rating:
Summary: a classic: interesting story and compelling characters
Review: A landmark like Leguin, Gibson, Brin. In additional to being a great story this novel performs the classic sci-fi mission of preparing us to deal with possible futures.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine tale blending the distant past and the near future
Review: Willis weaves the Black Plague, mediaeval sexism, university bureaucracy, pandemics, and time travel into a engaging tale of vibrant characters about whom we quickly come to care and in whose shoes we tread days soon to come as well as days long past. Her portrayals of ancient England are rich with colors and textures that bring the reader into the scene. Wonders and horrors lurk in every corner as the plot builds delicious tension with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. If there is a failing here, it is with the too facile resolution of things. A bit more trouble in setting things right might have seemed more real, but by the last page our heroes have been through enough. An easy recommendation for any fan of speculative fantasy, this book makes me curious for more of Willis' work.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea, bad book.
Review: This book won both Nebula and Hugo award. Why, i don't know. 250 pages into the book i started skipping pages... the last 150 pages i skipped completly. It was really paintstaking to wait for them to find out the cause of the disease. A pain. Avoid this one and ready Hyperion instead.
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy becomes reality
Review: I've recently re-read this book and have found it to be quite amazing. The author has made her characters very real and has managed to include an impressive level of detail without weighing the story down at all. This book deserves the awards it has won - it's a pity some people have rated it lowly. Connie has made the university setting seem very realistic and the medieval setting is well suited to the emotive theme of the story. Kivrin and Mr Dunworthy are characters that seem so real that I can easily compare them to people I meet at my university every day. Well done Connie.
Rating:
Summary: dry and boring
Review: It's really dry and boring; I cannot see why it's a hugo and nebula award winner. The way the author is trying to create suspense is really frustrating. Please don't waste time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Weak characters, poor SF
Review: I find it very hard to believe this won both the major SF prizes. The main character is reasonably well portrayed, but the rest of the cast spend their time hamming it up in a way that reminds me of some particularly poor amateur dramatics. Particularly bizarre are the characters that seem to have been thrown in to provide a bit of comic relief among all the desolation. They simply manage to provide further irritation with their irrational and unconnected activities, which are neither funny nor contribute in any manner to the plot. The scenes dealing with the plague have been fairly well researched, but the author's vision of the future is laughable and idiotic. I doubt whether she has spent more than a couple of day trips in Oxford. Her rendition of the area is extremely sketchy and confined to a rather trite round-up of the major tourist attractions. Write what you know, Ms Willis, not what you've seen through the dirty window of a tour bus. Unfortunately, this lack of reserach is found in many other areas of the book. Her monolithic notions about the British NHS are a case in point. She obviously has never heard of Regional Health Authorities and has no idea of the actual procedures that would be followed in an epidemic. One of the key elements of her vision of the future is that the human race has developed an incredible susceptibility to infectious diseases. Yet the author does not deign to inform us of how this sad state of affairs has come about. Instead, we are supposed to believe that the world of 2050 lives in daily fear of widespread pandemics caused by rogue viruses. Those who wish a bit of perspective might consider the zero mortality rate in the Hong Kong flu "epidemic" at the end of 1997. Unfortunately, the book's entire plot hangs from this spurious thread, which makes it very difficult to overlook its other failings. This book is suitable as a light read for an airplane, but little else. It most certainly did not deserve the awards it received.
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