Doomsday Book

By: Connie Willis

Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin

Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the most respected and awarded of all contemporary science-fiction writers, Connie Willis repeatedly amazes her many admiring fans with her ability to create vivid characters in unusual situations. With Doomsday Book, she takes listeners on a thrilling trip through time to discover the things that make us most human.

For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong. When an accident leaves Kivrin trapped in one of the deadliest eras in human history, the two find themselves in equally gripping - and oddly connected - struggles to survive.

Deftly juggling stories from the 14th and 21st centuries, Willis provides thrilling action - as well as an insightful examination of the things that connect human beings to each other.

©1992 Connie Willis (P)2000 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1993
• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1992

"Ms. Willis displays impressive control of her material; virtually every detail introduced in the early chapters is made to pay off as the separate threads of the story are brought together." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A stunning novel that encompasses both suffering and hope....The best work yet from one of science fiction's best writers." (The Denver Post)

5-star book hiding within a poorly edited 3-star

There is a 5 star book hiding inside this poorly edited 3 star one. The plot is compelling once it gets into full swing. The characters are well-drawn, some interesting, some annoying. There is good build up and several moments of high emotion.

However, this book should have been at least a hundred pages shorter. I have never read/listened to a book that is so repetitive. What one person says, he'll say at different points to five different people, and then those people will recall through an inner voice what he said throughout the rest of the work, so that many phrases echo seemingly infinitely throughout the novel. This sort of thing happens with so many things said that it became not just annoying, but made me think at times I had made a mistake and was accidentally re-reading/re-hearing a place in the book that I had already read/heard.

One more thing that wore on me after a while was the vast number of times a character would say in their head something that they wanted to say or what was actually true before saying out loud something completely different. To say this device was overused would be an understatement.

I'm glad I read/listened to the book, but have to wonder if this is one of the few times an abridged version might be even better. By the end you really do care about the characters and are affected by the things that happen to them. While some of the plots twists were guessable , other guesses I had made turned out to be wrong and there were some interesting surprises.

For the basic story I gave 5 stars, performance was excellent so 4.5 there (rounded to 5), but overall I gave a 3 because of the annoying repetitiveness that I simply could not ignore.

Grim, depressing, and far too long

I am a Connie Wills fan. The Bellweather is one of my favorite books so I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, the Doomsday Book is nowhere near as good a novel as her others.

The real problem is the length - it is not that I don't like a long saga, but about 1/3 of this book could have been edited out without loosing ANY of the story. There is a character who remain unconscious for hundreds of pages while the reader - and the rest of the characters wait to hear vital information from him - while nothing else happens in the story. There is a really well developed bad guy character that you will love to hate, who basically disappears from the story without receiving his comeuppance. Then there is the endless description of illness and death.

I am sorry Connie Wills - you may have done some fabulous historical research for this book, your characters may be well developed and your story original - but I would rather die quickly of the plague than wade through three volumes of this novel.

Almost gave up

The story is really slow to get moving and the dialog is very repetitive - but I eventually got into the story and was glad I continued.

I don't understand the hype

I was expecting to love this book but sadly it fell short. The story line was very simple and predictable. It was repetitive in places, and some parts were completely unnecessary and could have been cut out. At the same time, I feel like there was a lot missing, it lacked substance. There was a good basis for a great story but it wasn't developed well, which left me feeling a little frustrated by the end. Overall it was ok, I didn't hate it and there were some interesting parts in amongst the superfluous material, but nothing special. I wouldn't recommend this to a friend.

I am so happy I found this book

I have finished this book in July of 2023. 3 years after the covid pandemic. It was astonishing to me, the correlations between the writing from he 1990’s and the trip back to the 14th century. The denial. The protests. Finger pointing and refusing to listen to what science and medicine knew would curb or even fend off illness. Quarantine creating vaccine after sequencing the virus. Masks. The British, 1990’s version of what in America we called PPE during covid.

I loved the performance. The story. The back and forth between times. I shall from now on refer to disagreeable people as gallstones.

I’m glad this crossed my path when it did.

Loved it.

love the Oxford series of TIME travel.

This time traveling historians from Oxford series is fantastic. Well researched and really makes you feel like you are in another era completely lost in the story of the other world..a time gone by. it doesn't seem to matter what order you read then in either. TIME travel is really funny like that. Blackout and ALL Clear need to be read in order though and thankfully the author has a warning in the beginning of All Clear stating "hey if you happen to have come across this book first, you should read black out first. but, if you don't want to, here's where we left our hero's at the end of the other story." Time traveling has always been a fascinating idea for me. Connie Willis is a great author catching my attention in the first pages and keeping it well past when I think the story would have concluded. In the Three titles I've read so far, Doomsday, Blackout and All Clear, the timelines are fantastically woven together and keeps you enthralled the whole way through. I can't wait to read the rest of the Oxford series!

Good Epidemic Depiction, Awful Psychology

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's an interesting depiction of epidemics as experienced "simultaneously" in the middle ages and modern day. However, most characters lack credibility in their actions and interpretations. They tend to repeat moronic, simple, phrases, as though befuddled, to give up after very little effort despite their goal being a life and death matter, and to put too much emphasis on meaningless, mundane, things that are NOT of life and death importance. In a sense, it's a good parody of self absorption and the lack of critical thinking that frustrates me in society every day, but there's do much of it that the book starts to just seem poorly written. There are also a couple of major plot lines left unresolved (where the heck is Bassingham?). On the up side, there are also funny or poignant moments of humanity-- both internal reflection and interaction. The "future" presented in the book looks more like the 1980's with a few fantastical pieces of technology inserted (hard wired phone systems, books, very basic computers, supply shortages during a quarantine with no apparent way to just drop supplies in.....), but the sci-fi aspect of the book is more or less just a literary device to let the author use the future as a counterpoint to the plague-filled past anyway.

one of my top 10 books now

elegant writing, developed characters, moving plot. one of my top 10 books now. recommedning it to all my friends.

awesome story kind of drags on and on though

love the narrator, she does Howl's Moving Castle. simply amazing! the book is good, but takes forever to get anywhere and when it does you wish it would hurry up.

English time travel... with lots of stops for tea.

A fine story- rich character development- light on actual science and very low on action. This will not be for everyone