Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 08, 2017 Pinar Celebi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2017, american-lit, sci-fi, own, book-club-reads

Müthiş keyif alarak okuduğum, türü bilim kurgu diye geçse de bu türe yabancı olanların ve hatta bu türü sevmeyen veya önyargılı olanların dahi rahatlıkla okuyacağı bir kitap. Çünkü kitaptaki tarihi kurgusal boyut bilim kurgusal boyuttan çok daha baskın. Kitabın uzunluğu (580 sayfa) kesinlikle gözünüzü korkutmasın. Su gibi akıyor. Özellikle 14. yüzyıl İngiltere'sinin yaşama koşulları ve 1348 yılı veba salgını açısından da oldukça bilgilendirici bir kitap. Bilim kurgu meraklılarındansa ortaçağ vey ...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Linda C rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2012

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I liked this book a lot. It was well-written and I liked the story lines alternating between the present (although the present was really the future, about 2062, I believe) and the middle ages. There was also a diary written in the first person by Kivrin after she is catapulted back into the past.

However, I did feel at the beginning that I had wandered into the middle book of a series and that I was supposed to know who all the characters were. I checked the author's other books before buying th I liked this book a lot. It was well-written and I liked the story lines alternating between the present (although the present was really the future, about 2062, I believe) and the middle ages. There was also a diary written in the first person by Kivrin after she is catapulted back into the past.

However, I did feel at the beginning that I had wandered into the middle book of a series and that I was supposed to know who all the characters were. I checked the author's other books before buying this one-- although it is designated as an "Oxford Time Travel", there isn't a number attached, so it wasn't clear if there was something that should have been read first. It wasn't a critical component, but it was annoying to feel like you were supposed to already know something when you clearly had no idea what was going on. It took the first 100 pages to sort out who the players were, and I kept having to flip back, which isn't particularly easy on an e-reader, despite what the ads say.

Other reviewers have said that the book was too long-- too much time spent with people trying to make telephone calls and sitting around waiting for something to happen, then all the action happens in the last third. That is somewhat true; the book was long, but it was easy to read. It didn't feel overly long to me, although the author probably could have cut 100 pages out without doing any damage to the story.

The other thing that annoyed me was that the author didn't allow for anything to be unpredictable. She spent a lot of pages discussing the "parameters" and the "space-time continuum" of time travel (again, making me think that there must be another book somewhere that I missed) and that it has to be done "this way or the net won't open."

While Kivrin is trapped in the Middle Ages, she becomes attached to the family who is sheltering her, especially the little girl, Agnes. (There is also an unexplored attraction to the village priest.) When the family is decimated by the plague, I wanted to see Kivrin try and bring Agnes back with her. The parameters won't allow for anything that will interfere with the lives of the "contemps" (apparently that is shorthand for contemporaries), but why not??? Since time travel rules aren't real scientific principles, Willis didn't have to stick to them. They're her rules, so she can change them as she wishes, and I thought it would have made the book more compelling if there was a way for the family to escape the Black Death. Conversely, she could have had Kivrin's rescue fail, leaving her stuck forever in the 14th century. (I suppose this is a "spoiler", but it doesn't feel like it, because you never believed that she wouldn't get rescued in the end.) ...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Moondance rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, time-travel, plague

I think this may be my favorite book of all time! I became so involved with Kivrin that I felt I was actually living the horrors of the 14th century. I've read reviews that have issues with the dual narrative, but it did not distract me in the least. This is a definite re-read. I'm sure that I missed key information in my rush to devour this book. 5 stars! ...more

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