Doomsday Book
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Book Details
Written by Connie Willis.
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($7.99)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
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.
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pyrogyne thinks this book is Excellent.
Let me say straight off that Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis is one of the most amazing novels I have ever read.
The novel, which takes place in Engand in the not-so-distant future, follows Kivrin, a history student, as she journeys into Britain's past. Something goes terribly wrong, and she finds herself near Oxford just as the Black Death first strikes there.
The characterization and the attention to historical accuracy and detail are what make this book so well reading. The characters, whether they are winsome, irritating or infuriating, are always real, and this is what drives the narration forward. The horrors of the Black Plague are stark and detailed, as is the time in which the bulk of the novel takes place.
If I have one negative comment, it's that Willis tends to repeat herself; I didn't notice this on the first or even the second reading, but as this is one of those novels that I return to again and again, it becomes more noticeable with each reading.
Overall, though, a truly excellent read.