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Doomsday Book

By Connie Willis

(34)

| School & Library Binding | 9780613922555

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Book Description

For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstakingContinue

For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin -- barely of age herself -- finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours.

Five years in the writing by one of science fiction's most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

Critics

  • Book Review: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

    Dear readers of this blog: I write this review from a Place of Sorrow where I have been here ever since finishing this book last week. In this Place, I grieve for the characters in this book and what they went through as this might well be one of the ... (read full critics)

    thebooksmugglers published on Mon, 31 Jan 2011

  • Doomsday Book

    Desert Isle Keeper Review Doomsday Book Doomsday Book was actually written six years before To Say Nothing of the Dog, and it features the same method of time travel. But While TSNOTD is a light-hearted send-up of the Victorian Era, Doomsday Book pro ... (read full critics)

    likesbooks published on Tue, 31 Aug 2010

2 Reviews

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  • 2 people find this helpful

    review

    In the year 2525, there are women… sorry, about that interuption from Cleopatra 2525, it was really out of place, considering that this book isn’t even set in 2525, but in the year 2054, when historians could travel back in time to really study their subjects. Kivrin is one such historian. But she d ... (continue)

    In the year 2525, there are women… sorry, about that interuption from Cleopatra 2525, it was really out of place, considering that this book isn’t even set in 2525, but in the year 2054, when historians could travel back in time to really study their subjects. Kivrin is one such historian. But she doesn’t want to travel to the C20th, where most historians are sent, she wants to be the first to travel back to the Medieval period. And she succeeds in her aim, but something isn’t quite right. No one can ever be entirely certain as to where or when a historian will end up. A certain amount of slippage always occurs. But in Kivrin’s case her tech falls ill and so her fate is even more uncertain.

    Waiting for her in 2054 is Mr. Dunworthy, her tutor, a man who never wanted her to travel back so far. There was plague and robbers and cut-throats and almost uncountable ways to die back then. But the the Medieval department at Oxford decide to send her anyway. Without what Mr Dunworthy considers as enough tests.

    I really enjoyed this book. It is one you want to keep on reading, not addictively so, I didn’t stay up half the night because I needed to finish just one more chapter, but I did read it in chunks rather than flitting in for a chapter or two. At first the historical part was the more interesting to me, I wanted to find out how Kivrin was getting on in C14th England, but I was soon just as entertained by the future story, with the flu that threatens Oxford and the resulting quarantine. Of course having the two diseases in different times also allows the reader to see certain parallels between the two societies. The beaurocracy of the future against the ignorance of the past. Neither comes out as perfect but neither is villified. Both make mistakes, just in different ways.

    I also really liked the characters. Kivrin was a tad on the annoying side in her “I know all the dangers but want to go” but she was still fun to read about. And Mr Dunworthy with his constant worries about her. The characters from the C14th were more supporting characters than main ones, but they were still all individuals and it was easy to imagine back stories and histories for them.

    The one thing I did find that hit a wrong note was the way Oxford in the future actually seemed quite old-fashioned. With talk of trunk calls and spectacles, and sisters in the hospitals. Plus the lack of mobile phones really dates it. Still those are minor quibbles that can easily be ignored.

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    Dee said on Oct 17, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    A blend of history and science fiction

    I was engrossed the whole time I was reading. The characters are strong and the plot brilliantly imagined. I really appreciate Willis' attention to detail and her patience in telling the two stories. The descriptions of the plague are extremely powerful (and disturbing). It really makes you consider ... (continue)

    I was engrossed the whole time I was reading. The characters are strong and the plot brilliantly imagined. I really appreciate Willis' attention to detail and her patience in telling the two stories. The descriptions of the plague are extremely powerful (and disturbing). It really makes you consider the destruction and the suffering that a single disease can cause. In Colin's words: it's "apocalyptic."

    Is this helpful?

    Moirne Stark said on Jan 15, 2009 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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9780613922555 School & Library Binding $18.40 $16.56 bn.com
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