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)

A Marvelous Story--If Approached Correctly

This story can at times feel as if it is dragging interminably, and veering unpredictably from farce to tragedy and back. And this is not helped along by the narration, which seems to proceed at half speed. But after a while, if one is patient, one comes to realize that this is the point--and allow the plot and characters to develop at their own pace.

This story is set in the future--about thirty years from now, but about 50 years from the time it was written. As a result, such developments as cell phones, GPS, the web, social networks--were all unanticipated. Obviously, the future is not what it used to be! But again, if the author's vision is accepted for what it was, the story and the characters become more and more compelling.

Time travel--at least for academic research--has arrived, and the heroine is dropped into a past, that through incompetence and ignorance, she is ill-prepared. The roots and consequences, and the effects both farcial and tragic, can be taken as parable for our present time, suspended between the time of writing and the times of the story. If this is allowed to play out at its own pace, the result was, at least for me, richly rewarding.

Epidemiology through the centuries

I am more than midway through this book, and while it is a bit unfair to judge until the end, I felt the need to input my review.

The narrator does an excellent job at creating the characters voices and I haven't noticed a slip between characters - which does help carry the story along.

The beginning of the book is a little dull, but as with all books of this size the premise and character history are important enough to merit this. I like the way the author does a comparative of the middle ages people reacting against the plague and modern humans reacting to an epidemic of influenza. The differences in behavior are remarkably similar - even with modern knowledge of germs, vaccines, anti-virals etc. People tend to do the same exact thing. The only thing that breaks the suspension of disbelief for the future present in the book is the complete lack of internet, cell phones or other sophisticated computer electronics. I realize that this was written just as the internet was being born but it does take some getting used to being that our world is absolutely flooded with those things (cell phones, tablets, computers, consoles etc). Half of the characters are running about trying to call each other using land lines (no cell phones?) or get hard-copies of information (email?), when even in 1992 it wasn't that difficult (faxes were at least present and I know that some colleges had closed circuit LAN even without internet, plus cells were around but blockier). But beyond those few points it isn't too bad and the descriptions of some of the characters is beyond charming. The young boy is the funniest and there are some really good bits that show what a trooper he is in the midst of confusion.

It is a good listen/read and it does a good job enveloping the reader into each time period.

Slooooooow

Put the playback speed at 1.5x and you're much more likely to enjoy the book. The plot is unique. The characters are well developed. The book suffers from a great deal of repetition. The reader has two speeds, slow and very slow. The reading pace appropriately varies depending on whether the fourteenth century or twenty-first century part of the story is being read and the reader is dramatically effective. Nonetheless, she was just too slow for my taste. Recommended for the unique and heart-rending nature of the story.

excellent

great story with all the feels, tragic but lots of feeling, with a great ending 😊

Apocalyptic!

This has to be one of the most engaging and entertaining books I've ever read. Connie Willis' storytelling and Jenney Sterlin's performance combined to bring each character to vibrant life.

If you love history, if you love science/historical fiction, if you love an incredible story well told, this is the novel you've been waiting for.

Absolutely brilliant.

Wonderful ~ original and well done

Where does Doomsday Book rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of my top 50 favorites so far - and I've listened to many!

Any additional comments?

The characters come to life, thanks to good writing but also a wonderful narrator. Quirky, original and yet traditional in the best sense of a good story.

Great Great Great!!!

What made the experience of listening to Doomsday Book the most enjoyable?

I bought this book because I love time travel (and it was on one of those $4.95 sales), but the unexpected perk was that this was a truly great book have listened to it twice now and would again just found the other 3 books in this series, didn't know that it was a series....

great listen

if you like time travel genre this is one of the best. brought the black death to life in all its terrors.

Off the beaten trail for me

I tripped across this book from reviews by other readers and instantly become enthralled with every word and could not wait to listen. I felt as if when I stopped listening the character was "stuck" somehow where I left them and didn't want to stop at some points just because of that. ha. The narration was pitch perfect for me and each character came to life with their own personalities.

Repetitive, frustrating and anticlimactic

This book was disappointing. I was excited to listen to it because of the reviews I read and the awards it won but in the end I felt it was a mildly entertaining waste of time.