Doomsday Book by Connie Willis Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Doomsday Book
Book Review: A Good Story Smothered by Insufficient Editing
Summary: 3 Stars
Connie Willis keeps snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. She's clearly got talent. Even at her worst, her work is compulsively readable, with compelling characters and thrilling plot hooks. Why, then, does she insist on smothering her talent with unnecessary verbosity?
At half its page count, Doomsday Book would have been a masterpiece. Willis' time travel scenario is elegantly and simply introduced. This isn't hard SF and Willis doesn't pretend that it needs to be - she recognizes that to everyday people, the workings of technology are a mystery not worth unravelling. What matters is how we use the technology available, and Willis' historians, squabbling over how to allocate machine hours and where to send research teams, are a perfectly credible stroke of genius.
Which is why it's such a disappointment to see how far Doomsday Book falls of perfection. Willis is either convinced of her readers' stupidity or of her own ability to evoke suspense, because she takes forever to move the plot, which reveals itself in tiny increments and repeats itself ad nauseum. Most readers will have figured out the major plot twists hundreds of pages before Willis' characters do, and be left, not with mounting tension at the rapidly disintegrating situation, but with mounting boredom.
The characters are another problem. While the main characters - Kivrin, Dunworthy, Mary Ahrens, Roche and even Colin - are compelling if not particularly original or deep, the secondary characters start off one-dimensional, move on to gross caricatures and get progressively worse from there. The mother of one of Dunworthy's students constantly harangues him over her son's health. This is midly funny, but not when she becomes a Bible-wielding harpy whose every word is a shrill complaint. The son is robust undergraduate with an eye for the ladies. An amusing juxtaposition, but by the end of the book he seems to have Dracula-like powers and is able to charm the wits out of anything in a skirt. Worst of all is Dunworthy's antagonist, a university official so stupid and short-sighted that it is impossible to believe he would have gotten a management position at a garbage dump, much less a university. If Willis had toned down the so-called humor by a few notches, all of these characters could have been believable and perhaps even funny. The characters Kivrin meets in the past are all gross stereotypes, unsalvagable by anything other than a complete rewrite, but at least they don't offend the reader's senses.
Willis' problem seems to be one of moderation. She knows how to write humor, albeit of the low, slapstick, Flinstones variety, and she knows how to write about things that are dark and grim. She seems unable, however, of toning either one down, or juxtaposing them in any way that doesn't make Doomsday Book seem like two different books sewn together. Occasionally there are glimpses of her original intention - humor that leavens the darkness, descriptions of sadness that truly affect - but these are few and far between.
All that said, there is much to recommend in Doomsday Book. It earned its third star from me for its final segment, in which Willis finally gets the plot moving, tones down the humor, and lets the story and the characters shine through. It's still too long, with too much repitition of already familiar themes, but the ending is quite affecting. And there's no denying that the book held me in its grip - I ended up staying up until 2 AM to finish it.
Ultimately, I found Doomsday Book disappointing, mainly because of the glimpses of the better novel it might have been. It's not a must-read novel, and not any better than Willis' frothy and insignificant To Say Nothing of the Dog (which, for all its froth and insignificance, is a better book than this one). Read it if you must, but don't get your hopes up.
Book Review: A Good Suprise!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll be honest I had never heard of the author or anyone who had read the Doomsday Book. I bought the book based soley on the exciting title and the awards. Turns out I made a really good choice! Through the compassionate yet resolved Kivrin, the reader vicariously experiences the dark and fearful era of 1348. I love how the future of 2048 and the past of 1348 are used to explore the universal nature of beliefs, fears and inner strength. Even in such different eras, similarities between characters exsist ( as seen through Mrs. Gaddson and Lady Imelyne, as well as Kivrin and Father Roche, especially)Book Review: A Masterpiece of science fiction and faith!
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in the year 2048, this science fiction fantasy religion masterpiece, tells the story of an English history student--Kivrin--in a world where time travel has finally become a possibility.
The phenomenon is limited by the fact that nothing significant can be changed in the past, limiting its usefulness and delegating it almost entirely to research and academic types. Kivrin secures permission to travel to and study a 14th century English village. When she arrives, her situation is exponentially complicated by the unexpected arrival of the Black Death, the great plague which killed half of Europe, and which should not have reached England for another 20 years.
This gripping story won both the Nebula and Hugo awards, and has a theological appeal that extends beyond the realm of science fiction. This is one of the finest works of fiction I have ever read.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: A Moving Look at the Continuity of the Human Spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
Well-dressed as a sci-fi/historical fiction novel, this story is actually one which looks at faith and the human condition. The book is a little slow to get started but once in about 100 pages you'll never put it down. The 14th century characters dealing with the Black Death are as modern and poignant as any in contemporary fiction. As the disease progresses, even the time-traveling 21st century student is left awestruck by her inability to save one village. The moving and desperate story of the traveler's account of the events of 1348 brought on tears more than once. All at once, the book is an examination of faith and the continuity of crisis and death which links all centuries. I was deeply affected by this book and I found it difficult to not to get caught up in the unimaginable horror of the largest biomedical disaster of all time.Book Review: A Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not just a good book; it's a great book. I'm sure that in times to come this will be hailed as a classic such as War and Peace and Moby Dick. Connie Willis's portrayal of what life was like in the Medieval Era is realistic and detailed. Her heroine, the time traveling Kivrin is one of the best portrayal of a brave, resourceful but ordinary woman in a calamitous circumstances. If you never read another novel, you must read this one.