Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

May 26, 2020 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, sci-fi-and-fantasy

Connie Willis' Doomsday Book is probably the only 5 star book that had me wondering, at the midway point of the novel, as a character worried over his dislike of Brussel sprouts, whether I would even finish the book. For one thing I was under the gun, since I had checked out the e-book version of the novel from our pandemic closed library, and someone was waiting to read it. But the main issue was I having some difficulty with was Willis' excruciating pacing. Still, I sense something greater goi Connie Willis' Doomsday Book is probably the only 5 star book that had me wondering, at the midway point of the novel, as a character worried over his dislike of Brussel sprouts, whether I would even finish the book. For one thing I was under the gun, since I had checked out the e-book version of the novel from our pandemic closed library, and someone was waiting to read it. But the main issue was I having some difficulty with was Willis' excruciating pacing. Still, I sense something greater going on under the surface, and it was at about this point the novel really took off for me.

Domesday Book is a book of time travel, as anyone reading the book blurbs can see. As the novel opens, Kirvin Engle, a young Oxford historian (Medieval), is in the last minutes of preparation before departing to the year 1320. This particular trip (Oxford has been engaged in numerous other time travels) is a rush job, as the acting head of the History Department, Mr. Gilchrist, seeks to take advantage of his temporary "acting" position by sending Kirvin back to a time that the History Department had designated as too dangerous for time travel. Professor Dunsworthy, who has been something of a mentor to Kirvin, is worried for her. Dunsworthy feels Gilchrist is endangering Kirvin by sending her to a century that included the 100 Years War and the Black Plague. Gilchrist (a pompous ass) waves it off, claiming that the year Kirvin is being sent to is 1320, not 1348 (the year the Plague arrived in England). She should be safe (though Gilchrist sees this particular trip as establishing a foundation for a future trip to the actual Plague year). Something of course goes wrong.

This one element of story is a murky one. I think deliberately so, given the careful layering and thought Willis has given the novel with its parallel stories of Oxford, 2054, and the England of 1320 (1348). We are told the technician handling the "drop" is the best, but there is no satisfactory explanation for the precision of the 1348 "mistake" brought on by the technician falling suddenly ill with a dangerous new form of the influenza. One could even call it Providence (I will), though Willis wisely leaves that up the reader to ponder. And the worlds she recreates are not ones with clear lines, especially when it comes to religion and faith.

Speaking of those worlds. The Medieval one obviously gets the most buzz since Kirvin is the central and favorite character, as well as the chief focus of five years of research by the author. The reader will learn, through Kirvin's eyes (and her implanted recorder) a wealth of information regarding Medieval England. How people dressed, what they ate, how they smelled (yuck), how they prayed, are all noted, but not in a heavy way that turns into an information dump. In particular, I enjoyed how Willis displayed Kirvin's slow understanding what people were actually saying. Kirvin is equipped with an internal translator that allows her to understand what people are saying (as well as to assist her in speaking), but even the translator (which she at first wonders if it was damaged during her "drop") can not initially bridge the differences in its Middle-English data base, and the reality of everyday speech and dialect. Sounds boring, but it isn't. Trust me, I hated Linguistics, but this was fascinating. The reason it's fascinating is this dilemma (like every other dilemma in the novel), which eventually corrects itself, is rooted in character. Not just Kirvin's character, but the people she grows to know, and love. In particular, two children of the family that takes her in, and later, Father Roche. What happens to them all ripped my heart out.

The other panel to the story, Oxford, 2054, is the one where the pacing can wear on the reader. However, if you're patient, and keep your eyes peeled, there is plenty to enjoy here as well, and the connections between the two worlds, and its characters (as well as diseases), become more apparent. Basically it boils down to whatever the time, people are people; selfish, stupid, petty, but also kind and generally good. The Oxford of2054 may strike current readers as an overly religious one, if only in form. All the characters have a sharp sense of the Church calendar and the Bible. Not so much as that they live in a theocracy, or that Willis (an American) sought to apply a quaint and distinctly English High Church lens, or that the 1992 novel is dated (it actually holds up quite well). No, instead, scattered throughout the modern sections of the novel are passing references to a devastating pandemic, one that states that 60 million in the U.S. alone, would die from. It would be a mistake to view this world as our world. The characters are all conditioned by a history that may seem similar, but is also distinctly different than our own. (But one has to admire their swift response to an influenza epidemic.) Similar familiar worlds and histories (though more radically different) can be found in Paul Park's Princess of Roumania series, or Philip Pulman's Golden Compass series.

Doomsday Book is a very sad book, but it's also one that has comforting moments of transcendence, even in one the darkest moments in History. Father Roche probably says it best: "Be not afraid." ...more

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Jul 31, 2009 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it liked it

Shelves: adventure, sci-fi-fantasy, travel

I read two Connie Willis books before I read Lincoln's Dreams. They were To
Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. Both dealt with time travel.
To Say Nothing of the Dog was a fresh book for me and I recommended it to
others. The Doomsday Book, an older book of Willis, was very similar and I
did not like it as much..

I did look forward to reading Lincoln's Dreams. Very disappointing. I did
not want to finish it. I kept wondering why this book was published. It
seemed poorly edited. Lots of probl ...more

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Feb 12, 2018 Diane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, historical-fiction, pop-sugar-challenge-2018, time-travel

Time travel from Oxford England, 2054. Kivrin, a student at Oxford is determined to travel to the fourteenth century. Kivrin heads off to the early 1300's, but due to some time travel miscalucation lands in 1348 England just as the Black Death arrives. Willis brings those fourteenth century townspeople to life as they face the unexplained and unrelenting pandemic of the Black Death. ...more

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