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)

Overall a very good listen.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book to a friend if he/she were interested in history.

What did you like best about this story?

I felt the best part of this story was the way the author took a global tragedy (the Plague) and showed its affects, physically and emotionally on a single household. An interesting aspect of this story is the way Kivrin, from the future, reacts differently than the way the Middle Ages characters do to the events happening all around them.

Which character – as performed by Jenny Sterlin – was your favorite?

Kivrin is the character we get to know best in this book and the compassion she shows to the people afflicted by the Plague is very well written. Father Roche is also notable for the way he cares about the people and the risks he takes in trying to help the people who become ill.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No.

Any additional comments?

When I started listening to this book, I didn't realize that this book is part of a series centered around time travel by historians in Oxford around the year 2054. Because of this, I felt that there was too much time devoted to the future Oxford at the start of the story. In any case, as the book progresses, more time is devoted to the Middle Ages, which I found more interesting. As I mentioned before, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Middle Ages or even time travel in general.

Great story!

well done all around. the characters were developed so well that I could feel some of the sorry and joy. totally satisfying!!!

Pretty good story, but...

The story was pretty good overall. There were several things about it that drove me crazy though. First the narrator was extremely difficult to listen to when she was doing some of the characters. I kind of felt like I was being nagged at.

More frustrating for me, was some of the incongruities with the setting. This book takes place in a future where they have the ability to travel back in time. In other words it's technologically advanced. Yet, constantly throughout the book the characters are having trouble finding each other and talking to each other because not only do they not have mobile phones, apparently they don't have voicemail. The technology they use to communicate sounds like FaceTime, but without the mobile device, and without the ability to leave a message. Oh, and no texting. It's just a little hard to swallow.

There are several things like that, but that was the most annoying. A few of the characters are a little hard to believe. That's just one example, there's a kid in the book who is young enough to be super excited about receiving Christmas presents and checking the mail every day, but acts like a responsible adult at other times. I couldn't figure out if the kid was supposed to be 8 or 18. I'm guessing he was supposed to be a not very believable 12?

Overall, I think the story was enjoyable. Listen to the sample and make sure you can handle the narrator first though.

overall good but drags a bit

The narration is good. Great idea, good world building concept of time travel, and good character development. I appreciated the realism applied to the pandemic situation in both the present and past events. however three stars for story because it really does drag out a lot of background elements like descriptions of what's going on what everyone's possibly thinking especially as it relates to characters thoughts about what they're going to do next and plot development. I think it could have dropped a lot of the exposition and move the pacing of the story along faster which would have been welcome. I found myself fast forwarding in 30 second increments in the audible book just to get to the end of a chapter and not really losing any of the plotter character development toward the latter half to third of the novel.

fun blend

I love reading about time travel and post apocalyptic novels are awesome. so here they are blended together. well done.

Tedious at times

Overall, this book was a tad above just OK. The premise is intriguing but got bogged down. There were endless hours at first where absolutely nothing happens except Kivrin moaning about how to find "the drop" and trying to figure out why her translator doesn't work. Meanwhile, there is zero explanation about how "the drop" works or "the net" or "the fix".

Good ideas, much too long

A good story, but needed half to a third trimmed out. Many pointless, one dimensional characters and very repetitive. Story is a slog while characters wait and wait for key info. Instead of building suspense the space is filled with boring business. Final act should have taken up much more story, badly underdeveloped

Captivating

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the performance. I look forward to the other books in the series!

100% great

Top to bottom, this is an excellent book and read very well. I recommend it.

Powerful, moving and fascinating

What a journey. It takes its time, building its parallel storylines gradually. You get to know these people... be prepared for a rough ride. A magnificent voice performance.