Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

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 05, 2007 Tracey rated it really liked it

Shelves: re-read

Previously read Jun 2003

The Doomsday Book was another SDMB and/or UB recommendation -- I've already read To Say Nothing of the Dog and Promised Land, so I figured I was in for something good.

Boy - was I right! I read the bulk of it in one sitting, which I would recommend, as the story is very absorbing. Kivrin, a history student at Oxford, travels back to Mediaeval England - she thinks to 1320. One of her teachers, Mr. Dunworthy, has misgivings about her making this trip, but is basically power ...more

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Aug 24, 2008 Ross rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, owned, fiction, 2009

I stayed up to read almost 100 pages of this book last night to finish it off. Doomsday Book is a very entertaining read, but it started off so SLOW that it took me almost 6 months of reading in fits and starts to get through it. It wasn't until about halfway through the novel that I found myself drawn back into the book with a desire to put off doing other things to finish the novel. This is the only reason I gave it 3/5 stars instead of a higher 4/5 stars rating.

In one sense, Doomsday Book cou ...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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Jul 08, 2012 Andrea rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, time-travel

Another great Connie Willis book. Great story, great characters, great writing. (I would have given almost everything I've read by her 5 starts now, except for I always run out of patience with the fretting in the middle and want to hurry toward the resolution. You think I am being impatient, but the fretting is looooong.) Times are terrible in this book and the ability to hope is immense, and it was wonderful. ...more

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May 12, 2014 Allison rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi-speculative-fantasy-dystopian, 2014, historical

Started out mostly humorous, turned heartbreaking, with a big dose of "this is meant to be in the future but they're still using wired (albeit video) phones and barely using computers?" throughout. I suspect the author was trying to write her version of Wodehouse and it was a conscious choice (since computers and cell phones both existed when she wrote it), but it was certainly odd. Despite this and a few other quibbles, I really enjoyed it. ...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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