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Doomsday Book (S.F. MASTERWORKS) by [Connie Willis, Christopher Gibbs]

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Connie Willis

Doomsday Book (S.F. MASTERWORKS) Kindle Edition

by Connie Willis (Author), Christopher Gibbs (Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition

1,363 ratings

Part of: Oxford Time Travel (2 books)

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For Kivrin Engle, 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.

Winner of the Hugo Award 1993
Winner of the Nebula Award 1993

"A tour de force" - New York Times Book Review

"Ambitious, finely detailed and compulsivly readable" - Locus

"It is a book that feels fundamentally true; it is a book to live in" - Washington Post

Print length

608 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Gateway
Publication date

8 Nov. 2012
File size

1392 KB
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Product description

Review

A tour de force ― New York Times Book Review

Ambitious, finely detailed and compulsively readable ― Locus

It is a book that feels fundamentally true; it is a book to live in ― Washington Post --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book Description

A Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel of plague and time travel by an SFWA Grand Master of Science Fiction. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Amazon Review

Connie Willis laboured five years on this story of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century. The student arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague. Her dealings with a family of "contemps" in 1348 and with her historian cohorts lead to complications as the book unfolds into a surprisingly dark, deep conclusion. The book, which won Hugo and Nebula Awards, draws upon Willis' understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

Introduction by Adam Roberts.

A woman travels back through time to complete her doctoral thesis - but, due to an accident, she lands in the middle of the Black Plague of 1348. The Oxford she left behind is laid low by a mysterious strain of influenza and, with no-one willing to risk arranging her rescue, time is running out...

Quotes:

"a tour de force" - New York Times Book Review

"ambitious, finely detailed and compulsivly readable" - Locus

"it is a book that feels fundamentally true; it is a book to live in" - Washington Post

Bio: Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (1945-) has won, among other awards, ten HUGO Awards and six NEBULA Awards for her writing. She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband Courtney Willis, a professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis has won, among other accolades, ten HUGO Awards and six NEBULA Awards for her writing, and was recently named an SFWA Grand Master. She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband Courtney Willis, a professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Synopsis

Journeying back in time to the year 1320, twenty-first century Oxford woman Kivrin arrives during the outbreak of a deadly epidemic. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

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. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009S8AUIC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gateway; 1st edition (8 Nov. 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1392 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 608 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 29,588 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 117 in Time Travel Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 181 in Time Travel
- 463 in Science Fiction Adventure (Kindle Store)

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1,363 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		60%
4 star		19%
3 star		11%
2 star		5%
1 star		5%

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Mrs_Schofield

Major Letdown

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2020

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This book was a major letdown. The only reason it gets two stars is that the start of the book is pretty good - it's tense, exciting, and I found the sections on the process and rules of time travel to be really interesting.
Then all of sudden it's about someone's great-nephew's train journey, and a group of bell ringers from America. The same conversations about running out of eggs and bacon are had so many times and huge chunks of the book are taken up with people missing each other on the phone. Considering this is advertised as a book about The Black Death, the plague doesn't even show up until about 400 pages in. The sections on the plague may well have been good, but by the time I'd waded through all the previous bloated chapters I had very little interest in continuing. I started skimming the last third of the book.
There was some interesting stuff about life in the 1300's, such as how a time traveller might want to have their sense of small dampened while there, but even the sections set in 1348 dragged on. I think the main character Kivrin is supposed to be a fearless and independent woman but she comes across as moany and helpless.
A massive letdown of a book...I have no idea why it's in the "Sci-Fi Masterworks" set.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

The book shows a great deal of promise, but fails to deliver.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 August 2020

Verified Purchase

The basic premise of this book is a good one: it opens in 2054, when we are asked to believe time travel has been developed as a means of researching historical events. The history Faculty at Oxford University has strict protocols for assigning a risk level to each century and only eras that are deemed sufficiently safe can be accessed. Against Mr Dunworthy’s better judgement, his student, Kivrin, obtains permission to visit the Middle Ages. The plan is for her to travel to 1320, well before the outbreak of the Black Death in Europe, but an accident results in her actually arriving in 1348, just as the plague reaches Oxfordshire.
At the same time as Kivrin is battling with the Plague in the14th Century, her colleagues have their own outbreak of a new flu virus to contend with. This puts Oxford into quarantine and lays low the technicians who might be able to rescue her from almost certain death.
The book shows a great deal of promise, but fails to deliver. The 14th century is well-described and the reader feels real empathy for the characters that Kivrin meets there. However, with the exception of time-travel and the ability to vaccinate against almost all diseases, Oxford in the 2050s appears more like Oxford in the 1950s than nowadays or even 1992 when the book was written. The author is an American and I have to wonder whether she has ever been to Oxford. Her depiction of it feels as if it might have been based on Brideshead Revisited or some similar works of fiction. It is very much a caricature and the language in particular is extremely dated – lots of references to “mufflers” and “trunk calls”. There seems to be some attempt at comedy in descriptions of a group of American bell-ringers, incensed that their trip to Ely is prevented by the quarantine and in the appearance of a youth who seems able to seduce every woman with who he comes into contact and his mother who endlessly reads from the Old Testament and accuses everyone of neglecting her son’s health. All these efforts at humour fall flat.
I found it hard to care about any of the 21st century protagonists, who all seemed to be mere caricatures. Those from the 14th century were much more convincing and rounded characters. The book was slow-moving at times (particularly in the 21st century) and could have benefitted from being edited down to a more manageable length. I’m tempted to say that the entire 2054 narrative could have been dispensed with, without any loss.
I read this book during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. There are lots of parallels between the situation now and the two different epidemics described in the book. It was interesting to see which things the author predicted correctly and where she was well off the mark. A striking example is the obsession with obtaining supplies of toilet paper, the accuracy of which contrasts markedly with the complete absence of any mobile phones in 2054.
An interesting book, which I’m glad I read, but not one that I’ll be coming back to time and again.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Francois van Rooyen

Very disappointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 August 2019

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because it seemed like a good story line... time travel to the middle ages and the black death... and it had an average rating of 4! What a disappointment! Its so slow... 80% of the book follows caracters running around confused, not being able to reach eachother on LAND LINE telephones, or describing a whole bunch of nonsence that adds no value to the story. The core of the story can be summarized in 20 pages without loosing any of the story. How on earth did this book get an average of 4???
The writer also did not think through the whole time travel principle... Do yourself a favour. Don't waste your time

13 people found this helpful

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Clark Morton

start at page 400

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2018

Verified Purchase

If you were a time traveler and you were sent to 1320 using a somewhat inaccurate time machine and you knew that being wrong by 30 years might land you in the middle of the black death, would you wait until page 392 before confirming the year? No, didn't think so. Worse, since this is the main 'reveal' of the book, I had to wait 392 pages for the main character to stumble across the problem when I knew about it from the start because the blurb on the back cover told me that we landed wrongly in 1348! To be fair, the final 180 pages are quite engaging.... Sadly, getting to them is a chore.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Vero

A brilliant and erudite novel, combining science fiction and medieval history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 February 2021

Verified Purchase

I consider the Doomsday Book to be Connie Willis' finest novel. She offers the reader a two-fold journey: forward into what the academic world might look like in not-too-distant future, and back into the long-distant past of medieval England. The first is easily believable; the second is obviously well-researched and utterly convincing. It's a book to make you smile: Connie Willis' wry humour shines through the parts of the novel taking place in the future. It's a book that moves me to tears - a haunting ending to the beautifully described medieval part of the story. A truly marvellous book. (I cannot speak to the spelling, etc. in the Kindle edition; I only bought it in case my much-read, falling-to-bits paperback version should get lost, stolen or strayed, and also because I need to know I can re-read this remarkable novel whenever and wherever I want to!).

3 people found this helpful

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Doomsday Book (S.F. MASTERWORKS) Kindle Edition

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Connie Willis

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