Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Kivrin knows everything about the Middle Ages - she's read all the books. She knows it's dangerous: cutthroats in the woods, witch hunts, cholera, and millions dying in the plague. For a young historian, it's fascinating.

When Kivrin's tutors in Oxford's history lab finally agree to send her on an on-site study trip, she jumps at the chance to observe medieval life first-hand. But a crisis that strangely links the past and future leaves her stranded in the most deadly and terrifying era in human history, face to face with the heart-rending reality behind the statistics. And while she fights for her own life, Kivrin finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope in this dark time.

Five years in the writing, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the timeless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

One of my all-time favorites :)

Another fabulous time travel book. This one takes place in the future (after time travel has been perfected), and at the onset of the Plague in England. A history student ends up in the wrong time, and then can't get back to her present.

This is a book that for some reason is highly regarded, yet for me, it fell flat in pretty much every way. For a start, the one good thing I can say about it is that it is not a book that's too hard to get through. It is long, horribly paced, and in dire need of an editor, but my experience reading it was not all that awful, as it is written in a matter-of-fact tone that lent itself well to the short bursts in which I read the novel. But yeah, it lacks style and does not make up for it in the story department.

The cast of characters is entirely made up of one-dimensional plot movers who do not have a life outside of the main plot, who do not have interests outside of the main plot, and whose main characteristics are laid out pretty much in the first few pages they are introduced in. We're talking about a science fiction story centered around time travel, but the author made no effort in making it in any way believable. The mechanics of its science are not explained and feel like a poorly done magic system that has limitations because the plot demands it. It feels especially laughable to read about a near future in which time travel exists, but mobile phones were not invented.

In all fairness, I find it hard to call this a time travel book, as that never became the main point, and any sci-fi elements present here are paper thin. It is more of a medical soap opera (though I think any medical student could poke holes in the story every two pages they turn) that has the gimmick that it operates on two different timelines. It's a drawn-out, under-researched, annoyingly simplistic, and unfulfilling story full of lazy character tropes and amateurish writing that doesn't have much to say, but takes a lot of pages to say it.

A book about the people who sent a girl to the past. What are their days like? What do they wear? Who are their relatives? What do they think about each other, and what might be happening to the girl they sent to the Dark Ages?

- slow paced
- slow old narrator
- overly descriptive to the smallest details
- repetitive
- british accent
- the male voices were not good
- the reviews did not encourage me to continue going

Read 2:05/26:22 8%