Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) in MobileRead Book Challenges

Dec 23, 2014 Bjorn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Doomsday Book is by no means a perfect novel; though it may just be the perfect novel for Christmas 2014.

It's tempting to say, like some reviews here do, that it really needs an editor. Not because there's anything wrong with taking your time to set things up, but because for the longest time, almost nothing happens - and it does so in an annoyingly self-assured way. She establishes her two separate timelines and then spends ages describing both without much happening, endlessly repeating jokes Doomsday Book is by no means a perfect novel; though it may just be the perfect novel for Christmas 2014.

It's tempting to say, like some reviews here do, that it really needs an editor. Not because there's anything wrong with taking your time to set things up, but because for the longest time, almost nothing happens - and it does so in an annoyingly self-assured way. She establishes her two separate timelines and then spends ages describing both without much happening, endlessly repeating jokes that weren't very funny the first time, and while I actually kind of like that her future version of Oxford is painfully 1970-ish (land lines! No indoor heating! Computer terminals that take up entire wings!), at times it's like an unfunny take on Pratchett's Unseen University. The 14th century timeline is more interesting, but again, repetitive as fuck and frustrating in that the plot is entirely about our heroine waiting to get the chance to talk to this one guy who always seems to be otherwise occupied. And sometime around page 300, you start wondering if the person who wrote the blurb on the back simply got bored and made something up.

But stick with it. Because Willis is playing a long game, and the thing about the world ending is it never arrives with trumpets and a huge banner saying "TURN BACK NOW".

Because this is a novel about the black death, and if you need spoiler warnings to tell you that things are not going to end up as cutesy as they start out, then I'm sorry but why are you even bothering reading this? The black death wiped out half of Europe. There were villages, entire towns, that simply ceased to exist and were forgotten for centuries - but that's the historical perspective, which completely ignores how the people themselves saw it. Our safe, trauma-avoiding 21st century culture has no tools for handling that kind of carnage; we have monuments with the names of every victim of 9/11, the Boxing Day tsunami, etc. (Every victim from where we're from, that is.) They number in the thousands. We panic when a single (white) ebola patient is discovered. When we get to the shoah, our minds balk; six million dead? An anomaly; evil; incomprehensible, even though it's so clearly delineated. It becomes a statistic, safely out of range. We may pity the people of 1348, so clueless, so uninformed, so savage in their reactions - witch burnings! Pogroms! "Medicine" that only made things worse! All so very different, of course, from our society (just yesterday someone, cheered on by politicians who talk about the necessity of listening to the concerns of the common man, burned down a mosque in Sweden). The people of 1348 didn't know what a germ was; what's our excuse?

Yes, Willis openly invites those comparisons, and not subtly, but there's nothing subtle about the topic of fear of the unknown, of our need to find something to blame. That joke was never funny in the first place. And if you stick with it, Doomsday Book might just break your heart. ...more

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Jul 29, 2013 Richard rated it liked it

I've noticed that this book really divides people. It is divided against itself. One part of the story is set In the 14th century and has some good characterisation, some nice plot twists, an effective sense of darkness and foreboding but tends to be a trifle slow-moving. The other setting is in the mid-21st century and is simply boring.

It is in the latter setting that the novel fails badly. Science-fiction set in the future should involve some amount of believable extrapolation. Connie Willis I've noticed that this book really divides people. It is divided against itself. One part of the story is set In the 14th century and has some good characterisation, some nice plot twists, an effective sense of darkness and foreboding but tends to be a trifle slow-moving. The other setting is in the mid-21st century and is simply boring.

It is in the latter setting that the novel fails badly. Science-fiction set in the future should involve some amount of believable extrapolation. Connie Willis gives us an Oxford which--other than the perfected methodology of time-travel--seems to be technologically behind the present!

The Oxford characters tend to be two-dimensional. Gilchrist, Mrs Gaddson, and her son William are little more than comic book figures. Even Dunworthy, the main character in the Oxford setting, isn't altogether convincing.

The medieval setting is altogether much more convincing. Kivrin Engle is very well portrayed. She grows and develops as a character and at the end we realise how much her experiences have deepened her, Kivrin forms a maternal relationship with Agnes, the young daughter of the Lady of the manor and this child is completely successful as a character--unlike young Colin in the modern setting. The saintly Father Roche is another great success. In fact, there is no weakness at all in the characterisation of any of the significant figures in this setting.

The Medieval world is far more convincing and vivid than the modern setting--probably because Willis was working with material that didn't require any scientific extrapolation (clearly her weakness as a science-fiction writer).

This book has the substance of a deeply moving story but it is spoiled by the section set in the 21st century. It is certainly far too long and there is a danger that a reader may become so utterly bored with the Oxford setting that s/he may not bother to give the other part of the story a chance,

While Willis is a competent writer and though this novel has some saving graces, I am amazed that it won both the Hugo and Nebula Science fiction awards. ...more

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