chirson's review against another edition
4.0
There are so many thoughts I have about this but very little energy to put them into words, so I'll just signal. I mostly read this in waiting rooms in hospital and then hospice, surrounded by actual death and illness - I think most novels would hardly stand up, but this one, through its affirmation of compassion, mercy and humanity, did quite well. It's also why I liked it so much: it was one of those books that read like their authors don't delight in the suffering they describe but rather refuse to look away from it. It was the opposite of grimdark, even if it was dark and grim at times.
1) It's really interesting how future ages. This version - where time travel exists, but seems to be used by historians rather than, say, spies or the military, but where cell phone technology (already extant at the time of publication!) never caught on and instead you need a regular cord, but get both video and audio - quite obviously requires some suspension of disbelief, but the writing absolutely makes it work.
2) On a related note, I'm curious if it's a little bit of an American thing that church and faith are depicted as so very important in 2050s UK. I get that the religious imagery is extremely central to the novel, and figure centrally in the book's 14th century characters' lives, but for the sake of symmetry, we end up with a UK where everyone seems to know the Bible and the university and church (very ecumenical church) go hand in hand.
3) The first half could really use slightly better pacing. I get that the repetitions are supposed to be immersive, but they were a bit much.
4) Speaking of symmetry - I loved how the reactions to the plagues were depicted. 21st century characters, despite all the achievements of science, reduced to superstition and blame-game, and petty ways of asserting authority in face of cataclysm. I loved the references to EC/EU too.
4.5) If this is not one of the most terrifying post-apocalyptic visions I've ever read, I don't know what is. (I wish we could have read this for Apocalypse in fiction course at Uni instead of The Road.)
5) NHS!
6) So many lovable characters.
7) I am so going to read through Willis's backlist now.
1) It's really interesting how future ages. This version - where time travel exists, but seems to be used by historians rather than, say, spies or the military, but where cell phone technology (already extant at the time of publication!) never caught on and instead you need a regular cord, but get both video and audio - quite obviously requires some suspension of disbelief, but the writing absolutely makes it work.
2) On a related note, I'm curious if it's a little bit of an American thing that church and faith are depicted as so very important in 2050s UK. I get that the religious imagery is extremely central to the novel, and figure centrally in the book's 14th century characters' lives, but for the sake of symmetry, we end up with a UK where everyone seems to know the Bible and the university and church (very ecumenical church) go hand in hand.
3) The first half could really use slightly better pacing. I get that the repetitions are supposed to be immersive, but they were a bit much.
4) Speaking of symmetry - I loved how the reactions to the plagues were depicted. 21st century characters, despite all the achievements of science, reduced to superstition and blame-game, and petty ways of asserting authority in face of cataclysm. I loved the references to EC/EU too.
4.5) If this is not one of the most terrifying post-apocalyptic visions I've ever read, I don't know what is. (I wish we could have read this for Apocalypse in fiction course at Uni instead of The Road.)
5) NHS!
6) So many lovable characters.
Spoiler
(D: D: D: D: most of whom die.)7) I am so going to read through Willis's backlist now.
isabellarobinson7's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 5 stars
Ok people, listen. Even if you ignore everything else I have ever said, at least pay attention to this: Doomsday Book is incredible. It's so good. It's amazing. It's brilliant. Fantastic. Geronimo. Allons-y. Oops, no that's just Doctor Who phrases. But back my original point: this book is... it's just tremendous. What else can I say. (Well, there's obviously a lot more I can say due to this being the first paragraph of a 179346476038257 paragraph review.)
I have had this book on my radar for quite a few years now because of two buzz words - time travel and black death. Man, I knew that this was a book for me. But I was also hesitant. The last time I picked up a time travel-centered book based not on franchise or author, but purely on premise (plus the cover may have had something to do with it) was Doing Time by Jodi Taylor and as you can see that did not go so well. But Doomsday Book leaves Doing Time in. The. Freaking. Dust. And then some. If you like Doing Time (and I don't blame you if you do) then prepare to meet your new favourite book.
Now let's get into the nitty gritty of the review. I will avoid spoilers as best I can, but for the majority of the book the characters know less than we do (Kivrin doesn't know she's in plague times until part three of three) so it is kind of a hard book to spoil. Anyway, let's start with that: the readers knowing more than the characters or, if you were awake at that point in English class, dramatic irony (I got taught this through Orwell's Animal Farm - we can see Napoleon manipulating everyone, but none of the other animals notice). Usually, I hate dramatic irony. I just want to slap every character I come across. I suppose this is due to me being a plot reader and dramatic irony can halt the story (because characters don't know why something is happening and spend a bunch of time trying to discover the something we already know). But in this case, I didn't. I can't tell yet if this is a testament to Connie Willis's writing ability because this is my first, hopefully of many, book of hers so I don't have as firm a grasp on her as an author.
The first chapter had me hooked. You would think that with such a hefty page count, Willis would take her time getting into the actual time travel part of the story. Like in Timeline by Micheal Crichton, the characters don’t go back in time until half way through the entire book (I thought it was a bit of a drag when I was reading it, but in hindsight the setup was all worth it). In Doomsday Book, Kivrin goes back in time in the very first chapter. In under twenty pages. It wastes no time. (Hehe, time. That was unintentional I promise. I only noticed it in editing.)
Now I obviously have quite a history with time travel. The earliest experience with this trope I can remember is with Back to the Future, or maybe that OG Star Trek episode where they go "back" to the 60's and save that pilot dude. Or Doctor Who may have come before those. Who knows. Anyway, I am always on the look out for some new time travel theory, well, variation on the main three of fixed timeline (can't change past at all), dynamic timeline (kill your great great great grandparents, you cease to exist), and multiverse (kill your great great great grandparents, new universe where you don't exist). Something that is not only unique, but also works well with the story. Usually when the story is based solely around time travel, they pick dynamic or multiverse, because if the timeline can’t be disrupted (fixed), stakes are hard to build, whereas in a story that happens to involve time travel but is mainly focusing on other things, fixed is best because author doesn't have to deal with paradoxes as well as the threats of the story outside those of time travel. Yet, Connie Willis's use of the trope actually fits best into the fixed timeline theory, which is strange for a story known for it's time travel and whose plot centres around it. The book does still use paradox as a hurdle to get over, and it avoids them through "slippage", which basically means that when you go back in time the time stream puts you in a time where there is little to no risk of you mucking up history, or it simply won't let you travel to a period where the risk is too high. I quite liked this because sometimes trying not to change the time stream can take up too much of a time travel story that there is little room for anything else. There are obviously other problems in place in Doomsday Book (like language. I would not survive this kind of time travel with all the language stuff. I'd prefer the TARDIS’s translation matrix or maybe a universal translator); it is not a peaceful romp through history, but I just appreciated Willis's choice to focus more on those threats than trying to juggle the risk of a paradox as well. (Did anyone just understand me? Or was I too complicated.)
Ok that's the end of the sci-fi jargon I promise. Now I'll talk about other things. Like the perspectives. We follow a dual timeline in Doomsday Book, one in 2050's England and the other in 14th century plague-era England. In the "present day" timeline we have Dunworthy, who is an instructor in the history sector of Oxford (a sector which "now" involves travelling back in time... man, tenses are so confusing with time travel); Mary, a doctor who is close friends with Dunworthy; and... that's about all the characters I can say without spoiling. In the Middle Ages, we have Kivrin, the student from 21st century Oxford who was sent back, and the people she meets there, who, again, I can't go into because of spoilers (oh, I will say that there is a character named Gawyn in the past time. It was weird reading about a Gawyn that wasn't a Trakand. Whatever his description was, if there even was one, I was still imagining him as the blond haired idiot who thinks Galad is the bees knees). I loved them all. All the characters, both the timelines. You know a dual timeline/multiple perspective story is good when you’re reading one and you want to be reading the other, but then when reading the other you want to read the first one. You just want to stuff both flavours in your mouth at once. (Mmmm... hungry. Ok guess who hasn't had breakfast yet.)
It says so in the description, but there is a epidemic in both perspectives, one being the Black Death, the other being a deadly unknown strain of influenza. Obviously people die. That's no surprise (or a spoiler). It's a viral outbreak in both time periods. But can I just say the person who died in the modern/future time made me so sad! They did not deserve to die! (Well, many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. But we cannot be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends... If you know where that comes from you get a cookie. But it should be common knowledge if you ask me.) It is weird hearing all these infectious diseases protocols described to us like new pieces of information, such as "primary contacts" and "secondary contacts" etc. We all just went through it all in Covid. We’re still going through it. We know the difference and then some.
Hey, that actually ties into another point of mine. So I’m reading the negative reviews on this book and they are mostly people complaining about how in the modern/future timeline people are fussing too much over ordinary things like toilet paper - I wonder what they all would have to say now that we’ve all been through, and are still in the middle of, a pandemic of our own. I loved that dude running around trying to get basic essentials as they are getting low, because it was so relatable. Remember how (before vaccines) you would elect someone to go out to the supermarket once a week? And they had to wear all this protective gear, but we didn't really know which ones were the most effective so we kind of just chucked everything on? Ahh, I'm so glad we don't have to do that any more... until the next strain at least. Sigh.
Anyway. I loved this book. Doomsday Book is good. Really good. Sooooooooo good. Think of you favourite book. Yep, that one. No, not you second favourite, the other one. Yeah. That is how good Doomsday Book was. For me at least. I was going to wait until I had read it a second time to add it to my favourites list, but I finished it ten days ago and my opinion of it has only improved over time. So who cares. This is my new 19th favourite book. Read it. It good. Ok review done.
Ok people, listen. Even if you ignore everything else I have ever said, at least pay attention to this: Doomsday Book is incredible. It's so good. It's amazing. It's brilliant. Fantastic. Geronimo. Allons-y. Oops, no that's just Doctor Who phrases. But back my original point: this book is... it's just tremendous. What else can I say. (Well, there's obviously a lot more I can say due to this being the first paragraph of a 179346476038257 paragraph review.)
I have had this book on my radar for quite a few years now because of two buzz words - time travel and black death. Man, I knew that this was a book for me. But I was also hesitant. The last time I picked up a time travel-centered book based not on franchise or author, but purely on premise (plus the cover may have had something to do with it) was Doing Time by Jodi Taylor and as you can see that did not go so well. But Doomsday Book leaves Doing Time in. The. Freaking. Dust. And then some. If you like Doing Time (and I don't blame you if you do) then prepare to meet your new favourite book.
Now let's get into the nitty gritty of the review. I will avoid spoilers as best I can, but for the majority of the book the characters know less than we do (Kivrin doesn't know she's in plague times until part three of three) so it is kind of a hard book to spoil. Anyway, let's start with that: the readers knowing more than the characters or, if you were awake at that point in English class, dramatic irony (I got taught this through Orwell's Animal Farm - we can see Napoleon manipulating everyone, but none of the other animals notice). Usually, I hate dramatic irony. I just want to slap every character I come across. I suppose this is due to me being a plot reader and dramatic irony can halt the story (because characters don't know why something is happening and spend a bunch of time trying to discover the something we already know). But in this case, I didn't. I can't tell yet if this is a testament to Connie Willis's writing ability because this is my first, hopefully of many, book of hers so I don't have as firm a grasp on her as an author.
The first chapter had me hooked. You would think that with such a hefty page count, Willis would take her time getting into the actual time travel part of the story. Like in Timeline by Micheal Crichton, the characters don’t go back in time until half way through the entire book (I thought it was a bit of a drag when I was reading it, but in hindsight the setup was all worth it). In Doomsday Book, Kivrin goes back in time in the very first chapter. In under twenty pages. It wastes no time. (Hehe, time. That was unintentional I promise. I only noticed it in editing.)
Now I obviously have quite a history with time travel. The earliest experience with this trope I can remember is with Back to the Future, or maybe that OG Star Trek episode where they go "back" to the 60's and save that pilot dude. Or Doctor Who may have come before those. Who knows. Anyway, I am always on the look out for some new time travel theory, well, variation on the main three of fixed timeline (can't change past at all), dynamic timeline (kill your great great great grandparents, you cease to exist), and multiverse (kill your great great great grandparents, new universe where you don't exist). Something that is not only unique, but also works well with the story. Usually when the story is based solely around time travel, they pick dynamic or multiverse, because if the timeline can’t be disrupted (fixed), stakes are hard to build, whereas in a story that happens to involve time travel but is mainly focusing on other things, fixed is best because author doesn't have to deal with paradoxes as well as the threats of the story outside those of time travel. Yet, Connie Willis's use of the trope actually fits best into the fixed timeline theory, which is strange for a story known for it's time travel and whose plot centres around it. The book does still use paradox as a hurdle to get over, and it avoids them through "slippage", which basically means that when you go back in time the time stream puts you in a time where there is little to no risk of you mucking up history, or it simply won't let you travel to a period where the risk is too high. I quite liked this because sometimes trying not to change the time stream can take up too much of a time travel story that there is little room for anything else. There are obviously other problems in place in Doomsday Book (like language. I would not survive this kind of time travel with all the language stuff. I'd prefer the TARDIS’s translation matrix or maybe a universal translator); it is not a peaceful romp through history, but I just appreciated Willis's choice to focus more on those threats than trying to juggle the risk of a paradox as well. (Did anyone just understand me? Or was I too complicated.)
Ok that's the end of the sci-fi jargon I promise. Now I'll talk about other things. Like the perspectives. We follow a dual timeline in Doomsday Book, one in 2050's England and the other in 14th century plague-era England. In the "present day" timeline we have Dunworthy, who is an instructor in the history sector of Oxford (a sector which "now" involves travelling back in time... man, tenses are so confusing with time travel); Mary, a doctor who is close friends with Dunworthy; and... that's about all the characters I can say without spoiling. In the Middle Ages, we have Kivrin, the student from 21st century Oxford who was sent back, and the people she meets there, who, again, I can't go into because of spoilers (oh, I will say that there is a character named Gawyn in the past time. It was weird reading about a Gawyn that wasn't a Trakand. Whatever his description was, if there even was one, I was still imagining him as the blond haired idiot who thinks Galad is the bees knees). I loved them all. All the characters, both the timelines. You know a dual timeline/multiple perspective story is good when you’re reading one and you want to be reading the other, but then when reading the other you want to read the first one. You just want to stuff both flavours in your mouth at once. (Mmmm... hungry. Ok guess who hasn't had breakfast yet.)
It says so in the description, but there is a epidemic in both perspectives, one being the Black Death, the other being a deadly unknown strain of influenza. Obviously people die. That's no surprise (or a spoiler). It's a viral outbreak in both time periods. But can I just say the person who died in the modern/future time made me so sad! They did not deserve to die! (Well, many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. But we cannot be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends... If you know where that comes from you get a cookie. But it should be common knowledge if you ask me.) It is weird hearing all these infectious diseases protocols described to us like new pieces of information, such as "primary contacts" and "secondary contacts" etc. We all just went through it all in Covid. We’re still going through it. We know the difference and then some.
Hey, that actually ties into another point of mine. So I’m reading the negative reviews on this book and they are mostly people complaining about how in the modern/future timeline people are fussing too much over ordinary things like toilet paper - I wonder what they all would have to say now that we’ve all been through, and are still in the middle of, a pandemic of our own. I loved that dude running around trying to get basic essentials as they are getting low, because it was so relatable. Remember how (before vaccines) you would elect someone to go out to the supermarket once a week? And they had to wear all this protective gear, but we didn't really know which ones were the most effective so we kind of just chucked everything on? Ahh, I'm so glad we don't have to do that any more... until the next strain at least. Sigh.
Anyway. I loved this book. Doomsday Book is good. Really good. Sooooooooo good. Think of you favourite book. Yep, that one. No, not you second favourite, the other one. Yeah. That is how good Doomsday Book was. For me at least. I was going to wait until I had read it a second time to add it to my favourites list, but I finished it ten days ago and my opinion of it has only improved over time. So who cares. This is my new 19th favourite book. Read it. It good. Ok review done.
maddiemm920's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
savagebean's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book in January/February of 2020. I really loved it, it was a great introduction to Willis's time-traveling historians.
I'm torn.
It was a great painting of what happens when a novel respiratory virus shows up somewhere, and a demonstration of devastation that is too real right now. I'm glad I read it in the before times, because I'm not sure I can recommend it to anyone right now. Maybe in another decade or so.
I'm torn.
It was a great painting of what happens when a novel respiratory virus shows up somewhere, and a demonstration of devastation that is too real right now. I'm glad I read it in the before times, because I'm not sure I can recommend it to anyone right now. Maybe in another decade or so.
caseymalsam's review against another edition
1.0
I had to give up on this one. It may have been that I wasn't able to focus like normal, but I felt that the book was really repetitive and slow. I also didn't care much for the characters, the development was slim and stilted. I made it 34% through and just didn't care to keep going.
war76wick's review against another edition
I read half of it , and I like the story, but I was waiting for it to kick in
nclcaitlin's review against another edition
3.25
Kivrin Engle, a young historian, is sent back in time to the 14th century whilst the modern day scientists who operate the machine are suddenly faced with an influenza epidemic. From there, the narrative switches between Kivrin in the 14th century and 21st-century Oxford as they both struggle to adapt to their new circumstances.
Kivrin’s chapters started off quite domestic, taking a role as a governess in the past as she tries to fit in and escape suspicion.
It takes a long time to get going, the true plot only getting going about 50% of the way through when the revelation of the wrong five travelling date and the reality of the Black Death becoming discovered.
Interesting, long, tedious, compassionate, faithful. These are all words I would use to describe this book.
I think the audiobook really helped me get through it!
Kivrin’s chapters started off quite domestic, taking a role as a governess in the past as she tries to fit in and escape suspicion.
It takes a long time to get going, the true plot only getting going about 50% of the way through when the revelation of the wrong five travelling date and the reality of the Black Death becoming discovered.
Interesting, long, tedious, compassionate, faithful. These are all words I would use to describe this book.
I think the audiobook really helped me get through it!
holl3640's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
m_mentu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
rachelenna's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0