Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Jun 27, 2020 Roxanne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobooks

Recommended by NYT podcast. It was wonderful. Fantastic narration. Don't quit too early. It really pulls you in. Perfect for now. I'm going to listen to the second in the series To Say Nothing of the Dog ...more

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May 27, 2009 Jennifer rated it really liked it

I chose this book because of Michelle Kern the book examiner at examiner.com who lists it as her favorite book of all time.

So here it is--why I didn't think this was the best book I've ever read. The first 100 pages were a hard slog. There were too many characters introduced too quickly and I did not understand their role for a LONG time. I felt like I needed a glossary. And because there were so many characters that I could not keep track of in the beginning, I was ticked off when the story ke I chose this book because of Michelle Kern the book examiner at examiner.com who lists it as her favorite book of all time.

So here it is--why I didn't think this was the best book I've ever read. The first 100 pages were a hard slog. There were too many characters introduced too quickly and I did not understand their role for a LONG time. I felt like I needed a glossary. And because there were so many characters that I could not keep track of in the beginning, I was ticked off when the story kept staying on the folks in 2048 instead of the Middle Ages. I think the people I was vacationing with were happy when I was finished reading it so I would quit complaining.

But once I got over that, it got a lot better.

This is supposed to be in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, but I have a hard time defining it as such. And it isn't quite historical fiction. But I don't mind when a book transcends the neat little buckets we try to put anything into.

The characters are great. And the premise is great. And the double crisis is great. And I got a bit teary at the end. Did I mention the characters are great? Sheesh, I loved just about all of them despite their personality flaws. Or is it because of them? And I love seeing people rise up against incredible odds--even when they don't end up winning. And I like an author who is willing to let characters die in the story because not everything ends up pretty in real life (hear that, Stefanie?). This is the Black Death we are talking about here. Any other outcome and it wouldn't ring true.

If you can get through the first slog, this is a great book (thus, the four stars instead of five). I also think she could have told the story in 300 pages. A little less of the "I can't get ahold of anyone and the tech guy still is incoherent." It won both the Hugo and Nebula awards so much more literate people than I thought it was pretty wonderful throughout. Though there are some obvious flaws and parts where you are pretty frustrated, the premise is compelling and I keep thinking about it.

So, do you like time travel books? Do the Middle Ages interest you? Do you like a cast of interesting people and are willing to sort them out? Do more than 500 pages not frighten you? Do you like jokes about lavatory paper? Are you willing to let your favorite characters die?

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Jan 18, 2008 MJ rated it liked it

Shelves: idiots-ultimate-reading, sci-fi, liked-it

Kirvin is a historian of the future. Her goal to travel back to the 1300s to more accuratley study what life was really like. When the oppurtunity presents itselfs to go back to 1320 she jumps even though her mentor protests its to dangerous. Kirvin is not be stopped and go back she does. But there is a problem (of course there has to be or the book would be very dull). The tech running the "jump" tells them something is wrong and then passes out. The discover that he has some viral infection an ...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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