Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing on so many levels
Review: Many reviewers have covered the book's slow pacing, the anachronistic 1950s technology, the fact that the characters in 2048 are much less vibrant than those in 1348. I agree with all of this; had I not been on an 11-hour flight I would have given up on this book after 200 dragged-out pages.Willis' setting of modern Oxford was laughable. (One five-star reviewer raves about her marvelous setting of Cambridge, so I'm not sure he even read the same book I did.) Her geography of the area around Brasenose College is sketchy and incorrect, and I had no sense whatsoever of this city where so much of the book takes place. I cannot believe she visited even once. And although she spen an lot of time on the research, she only thanks one librarian in the acknowledgements, which seems awfully suspicious for a 600 page novel steeped in history. (Look at the acknowledgements page of any historical non-fiction book and you'll see what I mean.) Just as I dislike Convenient Weather (i.e. the plot is stormy and therefore it is lashing with rain), I despise Convenient Deaths. The clerk drags out for days and days in an ugly manner, finally dying with an ulcerated eye, having said nothing coherent. Roche, on the other hand, dies swiftly and gracefully, whispering beautiful last words. Much of the plague section reads realistically (the cows wandering around unmilked), though it's all very repetitive and heavy-handed. Why wasn't Kivrin's translator working in the early parts of her visit to 1348? Was it because the language had shifted so dramatically (something that was, in fact, well foreshadowed) that her language training literally had that little use? The fact that the translator adapted to the spoken language, figuring it all out from context, was a nice bit of SF. But if the language difficulty was due to it being the wrong year, I wanted some mention of it. And with all the repetitive infodumping, I would have liked some attention paid to how a language could shift so much as to be unrecognizable. Perhaps it could--I have no idea--but it isn't so obvious as to be glossed over without mention. Finally, some reviewers have commented on the fact that Basingame is searched for throughout the book, then forgotten. Others have suggested that Roche should have been a future time traveler (else why state THREE TIMES that he prays in the SAME WAY Kivrin talks into her own corder). I was waiting for Roche to *be* Basingame. Alas, that's more of a plot twist than this book could provide.
Rating:
Summary: Another bad time travel book.
Review: I don't really understand how this book got the Nebula award. On what grounds? The science fiction is just not there. We never get to learn about the Net. Time paradoxes are never explained to us. On the other hand, the book fails even in common sense issues. Consider for a minute the possibility of time travel becoming a reality. You 'd agree it 'd be the most spectacular achievement in the history of human race. Every mission in the past would be much more special than any mission NASA has ever undertaken. However, in this book, we are supposed to believe that trips in the past are actually run by "techs" in universities. Have you ever thought of MIT or Cambridge launching a manned mission to Alpha Centauri? Moreover, we are supposedly living in a future where time travel is "old news". And instead of learning the truth about the really important issues of the past (Who was Jesus Christ for example?) the writer focuses on the Middle Ages Black Death. As anyone cared! On literary grounds, the characters are as cardboard as you can get, and the jokes about "running out of toilet paper" etc are at least pathetic. And one can't fail to notice that only 10 years after, the book is already dated when it comes to communications. Page after page, people are desperately trying to find a phone. I wonder, weren't there cell phones back in the medieval year 1992?
This book is exactly as disappointing as Crichton's Timeline. If you want to read a gem on time travel, try to find the masterpiece "The end of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov.
Rating: 
Summary: Laughing at the Black Death
Review: While at first glance Doomsday Book seems assembled from classic science fiction tropes -- time travel plot, eccentric scientists, tech-based mysteries to be solved, brave young protagonist coming up against the cold realities of existence -- author Connie Willis has assembled from these well-worn parts a riveting and surprisingly fresh read. This is one of those rare books that once begun is very difficult to put down. This is partially due to the incisiveness of the writing and the book's seriousness of purpose: this is not a SF book of paradoxes and puzzle-solving, but a harrowing tale of plague in two centuries. It is also due to the vivid and memorable characters populating both time periods. But the most striking and original quality of Doomsday Book is its pitch perfect blend of trauma and comedy. The book opens like an academic screwball comedy and as events darken, the sparkling, laugh out loud wit becomes an integral part of the characters' reaction to tragedy. In a genre not overly reknowned for its sense of humor, Doomsday Book, brutal and funny in equal measure, is a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Audio Verison Helps with Old English
Review: "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis, Audio Edition recorded by Jenney Sterlin, 2000. An excellent, prize-winning book enhanced by the talents of the reader in the Audio Version. Connie Willis is an established author who has turned her talents to common sense approach to time travel. Since I have recently received my MA in History, I am intrigued by her proposition that future historians will be "hands-on" workers, actually travelling to the era they are interested in, which requires them to develop an in-depth understanding of that time. This means that the time-travelling historian must know the language, understand the era's technology and be able to fit right in. Tall order! For example, I could not even order a soda in the 1957-1958 US South, when I was stationed there in the US Navy. My New York English was not understood in Memphis. Besides her common sense approach, Connie Willis has done some fine writing, as for example, she describes the starry night sky on Christmas Eve in 1348. I am certain that she has read Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Bells", since she uses the word, "crystalline" to echo his use in that poem. Personally, I have not seen the word "crystalline" used outside of Poe and electronic engineering texts on transistors. The author's irritating British bureaucrats, (e.g. Gilchrist), of the 21st Century are reflected in the rigid class system of 1348, and I wonder if Willis did this on purpose. She does develop interesting characters, more in 1348 than in the future, and it is sad to see the pouting, almost spoiled young girl, Agnes, come down with the Black Plague. The author could do a wee bit more research on the Catholic Church (which, by the way, is alive and well in 2002), as she has Kivrin saying that she "..said the Mass for the Dead" for Fr. Roche. Only an ordained priest can "say" a Mass, in 1348, or 2002, or 2054, so Kivrin might have prayed for Roche, but not by saying a Mass. Her comic relief characters, (we are running short of lavatory paper!) could be minimized, but the boy, Collin, moves things along. Her almost causal announcement of the deaths, due to flu, of Dr. (Great Aunt) Mary and the protagonist bureaucrat, Gilchrist, seemed too easy a way to eliminate them. The Audio Tape version was easier than reading the actual book, since Jenney Sterlin does such a good job of pronouncing the Old English texts, so you almost could understand the words. Especially if you had studied German. Sterlin's reading of this book helped me through many an hour on Interstate 495, the ring road around Boston. Good book!
Rating:
Summary: First-Class Time-Travel!
Review: _The Doomsday Book_ is the dark flip side to Willis' _To Say Nothing of the Dog_. Where the latter is a lighthearted romp, this _The Doomsday Book_ is a dark trudge through historical comparisons of medieval and near-future interpretations of death and disease. However, theses thematic elements, while present and wonderfully rendered, do not get in the way of the driving plot and sympathetic characterizations. Willis is a world-builder extraordinaire, convincingly reproducing two distinct and flawlessly real depictions of Cambridge, one future, and one distant past. If you pay attention to the prologue, you will know how this books ends. Nevertheless, Willis maintains exquisite tension throughout the novel, making the protagonists' discoveries all the more poignant as the realization of what is happening dawns in each of her characters. Connie Willis is the science fiction writer I recommend to those who say they don't like science fiction. The praise that has been heaped upon _The Doomsday Book_ is thoroughly well-deserved.
Rating:
Summary: I also recommend...
Review: If you liked this book, then I recommend to you Michael Crichton's TIMELINE (author of Jurassic Park, etc). It's very similar. Conversely, if you read TIMELINE and liked it, then you will definitely like DOOMSDAY BOOK. After reading both you'll certainly understand medieval times better than ever. Both books are extremely engrossing, and you'll read them quickly even though they are long.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous story though not for the feint of heart...
Review: I came to this book expecting a fairly lighthearted story, such as what Ms. Willis wrote in "To Say Nothing Of The Dog". While this book is anything but frivolous, I still found it to be a very entertaining read. I found the characters believable and the dualistic plot very well done. I highly recommend it with one word of caution: the book gets very dark at times. If you dislike that sort of fiction, you will likely not enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Yay! Non-moronic scifi.
Review: Connie Willis presents a world that is entirely cohorent
and self-consistent. Her mannered study of British life
in the 1300s lives alongside the time travel story which proves
that even the most tried and true scifi tropes can be redone well
in the hands of a capable writer. And that she is. The tension
builds with a tempo that will keep you turning the pages even
though you know roughly how the details all get worked out.
However, the dramatic tone does float towards overtly and overly
melodramatic once in a while. It's a small smudge on an otherwise
well paced book that convinces the reader that seriously good
scifi can also be a page turner. It's also just a tad longer than
it deserved, but honestly only by 10%. Also check out To Say
Nothing of the Dog- a book set in the same Willis universe,
but is not a direct sequel. If anything, that may be a better
book than this one. I read them in backward order, accidentally,
and there is no reason you have to read these in order.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible, horrible book
Review: I will never again use the Hugo or Nebula awards for reading recommendations. As has been said by many reviewers, pages of pages of silly miscommunications and characters continually passing out mere moments too early made it an utterly miserable experience. Yet, many, many liked it. I am fascinated by this.
Rating:
Summary: Doomsday Book- A Travel Through time
Review: This book deals with time travel to the past. The heroine is the victim of a malfunctioning time machine, which accidently sends her back to a time when the plague was rampant in the communities near Cambridge, England.
Her translator also malfunctions at first, causing her to misunderstand the middle English spoken by the natives of the new time(written phonetically for the reader's benefit), but eventually she is able to communicate with them, though she's unable to make much of a difference in their lives.
This is a worthy read, to which I return at least once a year(as I do with other fond friends of literature). A good read for a rainy weekend at home!
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