Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) in SciFi and Fantasy Book Club

Nov 28, 2010 Mike rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, xcharity-2011

I am very concerned. I read “The Doomsday Book” time travel saga, eagerly anticipating it based on the many Goodreads reviews that highly praise this story. Many reviewers whom I trust rave about this book. I just didn’t see it at all, not a bit. Not only was it supremely boring, but annoying. The first 120 pages can be summarized: “something is wrong”. During the next 180 pages, the rest of the characters realize there is “something wrong”. Yawn! I felt like slapping virtually every character i ...more

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Sep 10, 2008 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: speculative-fiction, time-travel, favorites

Considered reserving one star for the fact that I didn't expect it to be a downer. I usually equate Connie Willis and humor. It's a beautiful book, meticulously researched and full of the best of human nature (and a few jerks for contrast). The Oxford side of things did get a little repetitive at times, but I suppose that was an honest reflection of the situation. The portion set in the Middle Ages was riveting, as evidenced by the fact that I've been reading all day.
I did have an issue with two ...more

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Dec 04, 2008 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In this time travel novel, a historian (Kivrin) is inadvertently sent back in time to a medieval English village at the beginning of the black plague. A modern pandemic occurs just as her time travel commences, making Kivrin's return to modern times uncertain.

This is my second Connie Willis book - the other one, To Say Nothing of the Dog, was also set in a futuristic Oxford University where time travel "drops" to the past are established methods of historical research.

I had the same difficulties In this time travel novel, a historian (Kivrin) is inadvertently sent back in time to a medieval English village at the beginning of the black plague. A modern pandemic occurs just as her time travel commences, making Kivrin's return to modern times uncertain.

This is my second Connie Willis book - the other one, To Say Nothing of the Dog, was also set in a futuristic Oxford University where time travel "drops" to the past are established methods of historical research.

I had the same difficulties with suspending my disbelief with the time travel concept in this book that I had in To Say Nothing of the Dog. For me, the time travel was just a vehicle for the author to explore the modern pandemic and the ancient epidemic. Both would be horrible.

Some random thoughts inspired by the Doomsday Book:
1. Putting a modern character in the middle of the Black Death inspires some really serious questions about caregiving. Kivrin, having been vaccinated, is not in danger of dying from the plague....and she doesn't have any ability to go anywhere else, so her role in tending to the dying is plausible. Her role is roughly parallel to the role of Father Roche, the medieval priest who provides physical and spiritual care for the ill and dying. There are emotional and physical risks to all caregivers. They are magnified by an epidemic, but how is Kivrin's role that different from a nurse on a cancer or geriatric ward today?
2. It was horrible for me as a reader to have so many characters die...how hard must that be for an author to write? There's that balance between making a character real and believable and yet still not making the death too horrible to bear for the reader. In the scope of the tragedy, this book resembles The Book Thief.
3. There were effectively orphaned children in both time periods...Kivrin becomes a parental figure to the two young girls in the Middle Ages, and Dunworthy and Mary are poor substitute parents for Colin in the future Oxford.
4. People are people..some are selfish, some are heroic, no matter what time period they live in.

For me, this read was not as enjoyable as To Say Nothing of the Dog. The Doomsday Book was a very bleak, very serious, and sad book, despite the moments of humor. I also read To Say Nothing of the Dog just after reading Three Men in a Boat, so I really enjoyed the literary parallels between the two books. ...more

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May 02, 2011 Adrienne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, post-book-withdrawl, favorites, characters-that-feel-real, science-fiction, borrowed, historical, time-travel, winter, owned-ebook

And to think I probably would not have read this book if one of my friends hadn't handed it to me and said, "Here. Read this."

I'd heard many people talk about their love for Connie Willis (or maybe it was just a few people with lots of love?) over the past few years, but for some reason I didn't think the premise looked all that interesting. Now I look back on my initial misconception with skepticism. Really, self? It was super interesting!

I can't really say what it was that drew me in so strong ...more

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Dec 26, 2008 Roger rated it liked it

Nice time traveling story about a historian who was supposed to visit 1320 England and unfortunately got shipped to 1348 - smack into the middle of the great plague that killed about half of Europe.

The story has some lengthy parts in the middle but it does a fine job keeping the reader a) hoping that she'll save the village (or at least parts of it) where she found shelter and b) that someone please come from the future and pick her up again and bring her back to a place and time where the flu ...more

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Jan 07, 2008 Caryn rated it liked it

Shelves: sf, historical-fiction

I really enjoyed this book...up until the end. I won't spoil the book or ending for anyone, so I won't say what really annoyed me. I did like the back and forth between the plague and the "present" day and Kivrin's time in the past, but the end just killed it for me... ...more

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