Doomsday Book

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%

Got mixed feeling regarding the book. The protagonist experience during the medieval age was riveting. It got you involved with the characters, and imagining what it must have been like was at times heart wrenching. Unforunately the “present” story line in which the pandemic supposedly took place was utterly annoying to read, for me at least.

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.

The Doomsday Book is a beloved sci-fi classic blending thrilling time travel with sobering history. A university student named Kivrin journeys back to the Middle Ages, eager to study this bygone era firsthand. But a mistake lands her in the year 1348—at the very onset of the Black Death, the devastating plague that will decimate medieval Europe. Back in the present day, an eerie plague emerges just as Kivrin's adventure goes awry.
Given our recent brushes with pandemic, it's striking how Connie Willis imagined people grappling with plague back in this 1992 tale. Yet more captivating than the danger is Willis' rich worldbuilding and character crafting. From intrepid Kivrin to ingenious Professor Dunsworthy, stalwart Father Roche, and courageous youngsters Collin and Agnes, the memorable characters linger as much as the tension.
Three decades later, The Doomsday Book still enthralls, thanks especially to its richly crafted world and people. More than just time-travel excitement, this sci-fi classic contemplates human resilience and purpose in the most dire adversity.

I almost consider my aversion to spoilers as an integral part of my identity, but there is a point where I am so desperate to want to read a book but find myself so unable to that I voluntarily spoil myself so I'd be more motivated to find out how the characters get there.Doomsday Book was just such an example.And guess what, after reading the spoilers, I decided just to DNF it.This was the first book from Connie Willis I purchased because I was so intrigued by the ploy synopsis and it had every element that usually interests me - fantasy, historical fiction, time travel, academia-setting. Well, I found myself DNF'ing it within 10% of the book. At that time, I attributed it to my lackluster knowledge of and interest in the Middle Ages.In the intervening years, two things happened to motivate me to give Doomsday Book another go: 1) I purchased To Say Nothing Of The Dog and thoroughly enjoyed myself. 2) I started learning much more about the Middle Ages and got interested in that period of history.I excitedly started Doomsday Book again, convinced that I would enjoy myself this time. After all, it had 4 stars on Goodreads, right?!I struggled so hard to get to the 25% mark that I find myself at. With any other book, if I find myself thoroughly uninterested and unengaged by the plot and the storytelling by 10-15%, I'd just DNF it and not waste my time. It's reflective of how much I wanted Doomsday Book to work out for me that I persevered past the boring first 10-15% and even at 25%, I was still on this page reading all the raving reviews about how awesome the book was, trying to convince myself to get back to it. At this point, though, I was so bored by the book that I allowed myself to get distracted by a random 400-page book in the library which I snapped up in less than 2 days.After finishing that one, I found myself dreading the prospect of returning to Doomsday Book. Why can't I get through it!? What am I missing about this book that everyone seems to be getting?That's when I decided to read the spoilers and, well, while I'm curious about how certain events unfolded, I decided that the payoff for all the boring build-up is just not enough and I'm probably going to DNF this book for good now.But no shade on Connie Willis though. For anyone who feels the same way as I do, don't write her off as an author and try [b:To Say Nothing of the Dog 77773 To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2) Connie Willis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469410460l/77773.SY75.jpg 696]. Now that was a great book with the same time travel premise, and I would gladly re-read.

The premise of this book is that an historian is sent back to the Middle Ages to do some research. As the Middle Ages are a ‘10' (presumably meaning they haven't been declared safe) the project is rushed through while the head of faculty is away. This of course leads to mistakes being made. So instead of sending our heroine back to the relatively safe 1320s, they miss by 20 years and send her to the outbreak of the Black Death (a far more interesting time from an historical standpoint, I would have thought).

So, I liked the book because

??? it was an interesting idea for a story
??? Kivrin was a person and not a cardboard cut out, she had her compassion and her fear
??? I enjoyed her acceptance of her situation and her attempt to save the village in the foreknowledge of what was about to happen

What I didn't like so much

??? the events in the future seemed rather contrived
??? the author hadn't done enough research: the descriptions of Oxford seemed like they had been taken from a 1950s movie, and cholera did not exist in the Middle Ages (I wouldn't have picked that up myself had I not read the introduction but the slip is unforgiveable given the amount of times the author mentions it during the story)
??? the 12 year old boy (I forget his name) seemed much older.

Despite my criticisms, I really enjoyed the book. It was well paced and the scenes in the Middle Ages were quite involving. However, I don't think it deserves its awards. I've given it a four star rating for pure entertainment value and I will be looking into reading more from Connie Willis.

All that was irritating in the end outweighed that which was good. Had she set this book in an alternate mid 20th century instead of he 21st century then I would have got less annoyed at the fact that she could not foresee Cell phones especially as cell phones already were in existence in 1990 when she wrote it. But the fact that the telephone occupies a huge chunk of the book elevates it to be scrutinized. But therein lies much of the problem with this book, it is simply un-edited. The narrative is full of inconsequential characters that are caricatures without being interesting, and the repetition of facts and actions is screaming for an editor the tell Willis that we understood there were 3 kinds of plague or that it never reached Scotland after the third time. She writes about it at least 5 or 6 times. Some things work: Willis is not sentimental and the most sentimental and interesting character of the book (Father Roche) is perfect. She is not scared in killing off characters. But at the end I kept thinking i enjoyed Jodi Taylor more.

Half way through I almost gave up on it as it was so slow and plodding. All of the ‘twists' were so telegraphed from the start and the contrivances conjured up to stop the protagonist from finding out too early what we all knew already was maddening. However, around half way through the book became more about the characters and how they cope with such a distressing situation instead of the paper thin plot and at that point it started draw me in to the point I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. First half 2 stars, second half 4.

I gave the Doomsday Book four stars out of five because I came into it with no expectations. I chose it at random from my library's combined sci-fi and fantasy shelves, and I found it striking. The dual narrative threads kept me curious through the story, and when the final act came down I discovered that I was invested in the characters.
Thus, three stars of the four are due to reader impact. I would not read this book again.
The technical side of the book is a mess; it is designed to be read once through, so there are constant repetitions and what feels like filler to the reader. Yes, it could be condensed down to a short story. No, it should not be, as the current length keeps the impact of the story.
I am not well-versed in history, but I definitely noticed what may be popular misconceptions. Yes, marriages were often at young ages in medieval times, but marriages pairing incredibly young teens with old men were rare. Small tidbits such as that gave the impression that the book was rehashing popular perception of the time; giving a theme-park version, if you will.
Take what you will, it's not for everyone. Now that I know what to expect I will not read any of the other books in the series.

Executive Summary: I liked the story overall, but not the execution of it. I found it very frustrating at times. 2.5 stars rounded down.

Audiobook: I thought that Jenny Sterlin was a really good narrator. Sometimes too good. Her voices for some of the characters got on my nerves. She was especially good at sounding like a whiny child. I think her narration helped me out at times when this book was annoying, but listening in audio frustrated me overall due to the author's repetitive dialogue, which is not Ms. Sterlin's fault.

Full Review
The best way I can think to describe this book is running joke of Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. Ms. Willis (Lucy) keeps holding that football out (revealing important to the reader) and encouraging Charlie (the reader) to kick it. Then she pulls it away. Over and Over.

She repeatedly says the same things over and over again, and rather than following through she just keeps dragging things out. I found it all incredibly frustrating.

The actual story was good. I think if the secrets had simply been teased at the start of the book, and then revealed in the same places in the book that she did without all the constant “taunting” of the reader, I'd have enjoyed this book far far more than I did.

There were some pretty great characters here. Some incredibly frustrating and downright unlikeable, but great nonetheless. It did at time seem like a comedy of errors though. If people actually talked to one another would have of this book even have happened? Hard to say.

Overall, I found this pretty disappointing. I've heard later books in the series are better, but if this is Ms. Willis's idea of how to build suspense/mystery then she's just not an author for me.

There are some books that are in a class of their own. This is one of them. The writing is outstanding, definitely a five star for writing style. This book reads so smoothly with naturally flowing conversation. The characters are so well developed, it felt like reading about actual people rather than fictional characters.

I thought Willis does a great job of showing how even through the passage of time and the development of technology, human nature doesn't change much. On a deeper level, the story depicts how our view of others changes when we stop to listen to their stories and try to understand them as people with real struggles, strengths, and short comings. Lastly, I see how caring for others can hurt. But caring brings strength that fear and hatred do not have not can understand.

I found myself enjoying this way more than I expected. The characters all grew on me, and I got totally wrapped up in the story by the end. I had a moment where I thought, wow I'm halfway done and nothing has really happened yet, but I also didn't really care, because I was enjoying it. The audiobook narration was awesome, which totally added to my enjoyment. I think If I'd read this in paper format I'd have rated it 3 Stars, but as audio I want to give it 5 Stars, so I averaged it out to 4 Stars.

This book is more ‘Historical Fiction' than ‘Science Fiction'. There were some sections of the book that I had trouble following due to the author's usage of words and phrases that I couldn't find in the dictionary. The characters seem somewhat mentally challenged because they spend two thirds of the book, looking for the answer to a mystery, that the reader can already guess at based on the clues they were given.

In general, I'm not a fan of time travel stories. I've been really waiting for the exception to that rule, and I've finally found it. The Doomsday Book was absolutely riveting. The time travel itself isn't the main draw, I found, but rather the dual apocalypses. I do love a good plague (though I think reading this with a slight cold was maybe not the best idea), and the parallel narratives kept the story engaging and the pacing moving despite the novel's length.

While a few characters were a little stock, the main two of Kivrin and Dunworthy as well as pretty much all the Middle Ages characters were interesting and made sensible if often wrong choices. Honestly, once I got over the initial silliness of sending a 19 year girl back to the Middle Ages by herself when no one had actually done it before, the rest of it flowed along well. Bonus: I got to dust of my own Middle English which I haven't gotten to use since undergrad.

I've never read Willis' work before, but I'm definitely game to keep going through her bibliography.

A little taste of post-apocalyptic during the Black Plague in jolly Olde England–that's the core driver of Doomsday.

Kivrin was a likeable enough character who has her whole gung-ho academic perception of turned on its head when she's popped back on assignment to the Middle Ages. She's capable takes all challenges in stride, but there's only so much she could do in the face of disease.

In light of Brexit this year, there was some interesting tidbits about the English xenophobia interwoven into the book.

My favorite character and arguably the most beautifully written character in the book was Father Roche. He never ceased to be practical and human in the face of pestilence. His reasoning and poetic leanings balanced out the cast in the Middle Ages and painted a picture of how much a leader of small parish meant to people of that era.

I could have done without so much of the annoying American bell-ringers, but solidly good time-travel sci-fi overall.

❤

Apparently two completely different books welded together without any editing oversight: the medieval portion of the story is engrossing and informative; the tortuous “futuristic” portion of the story feels like it was written in the 1950s (were mobile telecoms and computer networking really so unforeseeable when this was actually written in the early 90s?). You could have stripped out all of the Oxford story and been left with an excellent - much shorter - story about surviving the middle ages.