Doomsday Book

De: Connie Willis

Narrado por: Jenny Sterlin

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

• 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)

Interesting but could have used editting

The Doomsday Book is an interesting journey both back and forward in time. Written in the 1990s, the writer's projection of 2050 is a little silly, and underscores the massive technological changes that have swept our society since the book was written. Her look back at the environs of Oxford in the 14th Century is more interesting. However, the writer is not the most talented crafters of prose. Many of the characters are clunky, the dialogue is sometimes very laboured, and the narrative structure of twinned epidemics with a slight religious undertone is somewhat hamfisted and a little irritating because of it.

It's neither terrible, nor very good. The ponderousness of her writing takes a little getting used to. The reader is good but has a slightly nasal quality to her voice that some might find irritating.

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It's like watching a history channel documentary, she keeps repeating the same information over and over. This was a very long and gruesome tale with no point to it. There is some description of life circa 1350 and a lot of descriptions of how awful being sick can be. The science fiction part, time travel, is weak. I get the impression she didn't want to be repetitive on this part of the story. As for the story, it is very predictable and I found no one interesting outside the damsel in distress and by the end just wished they'd all hurry up and die.
The narrator is very good, but, in keeping with the story, goes very slowly.

Excellent story for long commutes

I really enjoyed the premise of this story. I also liked that I could easily get right back into it after a weekend away or a long day at the office. I use my audio books to ease the frustration of my commute and the pace of this story really took me away. There were even times when I sat in the parking lot or driveway to get through the last part of a chapter or scene! Other reviewers are right, that sometimes it's a little slow and I find myself wanting to get back to the action, but really it just imitated life. Sometimes we hurry up to wait. Loved it! and really enjoyed the narrator's ability to distinguish each character so well that I always knew who was 'speaking'.

Interesting story, great reader

Although at times this story can get a little repetitious, on the whole was well worth the time it took to listen..the reader was excellent - the phrasing and emphasis were all natural and the characters were narrated believably. This was the second audio book i downloaded and was considerably better than the one I'd listened to previously.

Outstanding depiction of the 12th century.

Not so outstanding depiction of life in the mid 21st century. This book was a very enjoyable read...or listen. my only criticism is the lack of future technologies. No mobile phones!?! Instant messenger, emails or texting.

Meandering and awkward

The narration was ok--good distinction between character voices. But it was a bit slow. There were many parts where the story repeated itself with no progress made and no new information. Probably could have told the same story in a quarter of the time with better effect. It was all illness and misfortune with no redemption.

Great story idea but falls flat

I thought this would be the perfect book for me. Time traveling historians? Yes, please! Unfortunately this was too long, drawn out and repetitive. I listened to this on audiobook which probably didn’t help but the performance was good. It was varied and kept me listening. The dialogue and certain ideas were so repetitive. A person would have a train of thought and then one thing would change and the whole thing would go again, with the same thought just being repeated again. It was also excruciatingly detailed. He walked to the cart. He plugged up the electric kettle. He opened the tea bag. The story idea was great and it did pick up here and there but it was very slow in between.

Horrible. Grating. Dull.

I wanted badly to enjoy this book, but I'm over 12 hours in and about to give up. Most have mentioned the redundancy of the plot and dialogue, but few have mentioned the worst of the worst: the grating, ear clawing, tooth ache inducing children's voices. God help me--I want to throttle the obnoxious Agnes, who I fear is supposed to be cute or endearing or something. But the way the narrator renders her only highlights how whiny and tedious she is, and makes me hope she'll die of plague as soon as possible. I've had to skip ahead whenever she speaks to avoid a crushing migraine. Since the book is so bloated and repetitive, very little is missed skipping large swaths of the tedious, grating exchanges between characters. Pretty disappointing for an award winning book by an excellent author.

a little repetitive

This has the makings of a good story, but the author is too repetitive for my taste. The characters are maddeningly stubborn and constantly defy sound advice. The narrator is an older woman, which is at odds with the POV characters who are a young, headstrong woman, and an older grandfatherly figure. I think the whole book could have been cut down by half with some good editing (I normally avoid abridged versions of anything, but would recommend it in this case). Having said all of that, it's amusing to hear the "future" described from a position in the past - not sure what year this was written, but the author could imagine telephones with video feedback, but not wireless cell phones!

Interesting at times

I enjoyed the history of the plague parts and made me want to learn more about it but the overall book was not that good for me. I almost didn't finish it. Jenny Sterlins narration was slow, I had to check to see if it was on slow motion. My main complaint is that the characters didn't seem well developed. I like to be able to picture them in my head but their appearances weren't described nor any personal information.