Doomsday Book

Rating:
Summary: Truely transcends genre.
Review: Along with Orson Scott Card's _Ender's Game_, _Doomsday Book_ is the kind of Science Fiction book I'd give to a person who hates Science Fiction. Willis has researched Medieval England extremely well. Her characters, even the minor ones, are real people, with quirks, weaknesses and humour. There are suspence, mystery, history, archeology, computers, science, religion and medicine intricately weaved into the plot, but it is all clearly done, with no boring spots. It is rare to find a work of fiction so enjoyable, and rarer still to find one where one learns something as well. This is exactly the type of book I, as a librarian, like to give out to teens and to those adults looking for something unusual.

Rating:
Summary: Science Fiction and Medieval History Combined
Review: In "Doomsday Book", Connie Willis has managed to combine my two favorite subjects - science fiction and medieval history. The title itself is a pun on a famous survey of medieval English property commissioned by none other than William the Conqueror! Willis postulates the development of a time machine, whose use is restricted to carefully prepared history students. Things begin to go wrong when a modern 'plague' of flu virus parallels the medieval bubonic plague, which an over- eager graduate student is trying unsuccessfully to avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Time travel tale focusing on people, not technology
Review: Connie Willis has written an incredibly realistic story of life and death in two parallel societies, one in a not-too distant future and the other in the Medieval timeframe. Brilliantly researched and artfully written, Ms. Willis draws the reader into the lives of the characters in a manner that few SF authors today can match. And if you thought "The Hot Zone" or "Outbreak" was scary, wait until you meet the Black Plague face-to-face!

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding intertwining of the past with the future.
Review: These characters are real people. You will come to know them and love them, and share their experiences with them as they face their challenges in their own respective time lines. You will come away feeling as though you spent time in the Middle Ages along with Kivrin. This was my first exposure to Connie Willis, but will definitely not be my last.

Rating:
Summary: A tale of the Black Death comes alive!
Review: Time travel at its best. The story shows what life was like at that time when disease and sanitation were concepts that did not yet exist.The characters of the young girl and the priest are ones I will never forget. Well done

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.

Rating:
Summary: Wish I could put SIX stars...
Review: After finishing this book all I could say was "WOW"!!!! I was at a loss for words. I haven't read anything quite like it before or since.
If you ever wanted to travel back in time to see what it was really and truly like back then, here's your chance. Willis has not only thoroughly researched that time period, she has created three-dimensional, live, fleshed-out people within it. She recreates not only the culture and speech, but also the smell, the feel, the temperature, the sound of that place and time. YOU ARE THERE!!
This book is not perfect, but it's a flawed emerald rather than a perfect rhinestone. The modern-day goings-on ("back at the ranch" in 2048) are often dull and tedious. But they're worth skimming through in order to immerse yourself in history (without actually catching the plague).
I've read a few of Willis's books - some were disappointing, some good, and one ("The Dog") extremely funny. In my opinion, Doomsday Book is her best. It would make an awesome movie.

Rating:
Summary: I think Connie Willis has just become my favorite author
Review: Having found "To Say Nothing of the Dog" to be one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read, I decided to try another of Connie Willis' books. This turned out to be "Doomsday Book". All I can say is "Wow!" This is an incredible book. Much darker and more serious than "To Say Nothing...", the book is gut-wrenching, thrilling, thought-provoking, and ultimately quite touching (and at times, there's even a little humor). The basic plot: time travel puts a young researcher in the Middle Ages, perhaps on the eve of the Plague. Willis gives us two parallel stories, both involving epidemics, and the reader races toward a finale that I found sobering and uplifting at the same time.

The characters are well-defined (a couple of them even reappear in "To Say Nothing..."), with some you are truly rooting for and some who you would like to slap across the face. You gotta love the Finch character! Willis does a great job making the 1300s come alive.

How much did I like this book? I finished it on a roundtrip flight between Seattle and WDC. I almost always fall asleep on airplanes, if even just for an hour. I didn't fall asleep at all while reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Full past and thin future
Review: With 300+ reviews, maybe it has all been said. But just in case....

The parts of this book that deal with the middle ages are wonderful. The author really brings to life a small but fascinating English time and place. If one is interested in learning about life in the middle ages, the plague, and religious issues then this book will have much to offer.

The future the author describes, however, is another story. Her 2048 feels more like 1958. The book shares that odd quality that one gets from certain viewing certain British films, like Day of the Trifids or even the Avengers series, i.e. the total population of England is about 500 persons, and 50% of them are eccentrics in a shawl or odd hat. One can picture the hospital ward right out of a black and white movie, bare iron beds, shiny tile floors, women nurses with pointy white hats and starched uniforms jotting things down in the chart.

OK, this is supposed to be science fiction, so foreseeing that mobile phones might be in our future should not have been such a huge stretch even for a book written in 1993. This is especially vexing since the plot leans heavily on main characters running off to find a phone, or just missing a key phone call, etc. And, in 2048 will one comely and kindly local doctor and a few nurses be expected to handle an epidemic of SARS proportions on their own? It seems so at odds with the bureaucratic and journalistic frenzy that such things cause. The future in this book just seems very thin on people and new technology (not even new by 2004 standards). Oh, but a time machine? Well in 2048 THAT you can find in the basement of just about any ivy covered history dept. building. Just no cell phones.

I did, however, like the way that the author handled the time paradox issues (e.g. you prevent your grandfathers birth, etc.) Basically she just assumes there cannot be one - and that's that! Physics problem solved! Probably that is the most unassailable approach I have seen to this always pesky problem in any time travel story.

My advice - read the parts of this book that take place in 2048 quickly, but save time to relish the more carefully wrought and well researched sections on the middle ages.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but abridged would be better
Review: I don't like Willis's writing style. I'll say that right up front. She repeats herself constantly, and feels the need to tell us everything her characters are thinking, even when they are just thinking again about the same things they've been thinking about for several chapters. She tries to use this repitition to build up suspense when instead she is building up annoyance. More than once, while listening to this story in my car, I yelled at her to just get on with it.

That having been said, this is a compelling story with engaging characters. I can't actually say I enjoyed reading it, but in places it was deeply moving. Whereas I'm more typically drawn to the fantastic action-oriented heroism of works like _The Lord of the Rings_, this book is more about the much more realistic and desperately-needed heroism of people like Mother Theresa: the heroism that doesn't save the world so much as just try to ease as much of the pain as it can.

It's a good book, and I can recommend it, though I'd recommend an abridged version more if it's available. My only complaint story-wise is one unanswered mystery: where did Basingame go? I still don't know, but I guess it really doesn't matter.

I can't find it in Amazon's catalog, but I was actually listening to the Recorded Books edition of this book, narrated by Jenny Sterlin, who did a superb job of bringing the story to life.