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Product Description
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.
Amazon.com Review
Connie Willis labored five years on this story of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century. The student arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague. Her dealings with a family of "contemps" in 1348 and with her historian cohorts lead to complications as the book unfolds into a surprisingly dark, deep conclusion. The book, which won Hugo and Nebula Awards, draws upon Willis' 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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Marina Bonomi (Italy) (2008/03/12):
I love SF and historical novels and really tried to like this one, but really could not.the 'modern' part is set in 2048 but you'll never able to tell from the way people talks or behave, the constant difficulties they have in getting in touch with each other made me want to scream 'get a cell-phone, will you?', nothing is explained (or even hinted at) about how the time-machine works, characterization is laughable,the characters are two-dimentional and they get very tirying very fast (over-protective mother, tyrannical mother-in-law...you get the picture). The Middle-Ages part is even worse, I could not believe how preconceived and just plain ignorant those supposed historians are, 'They still burned people at the stake in 1320'...in fact, sir, they had almost just begun, the first to do so was Frederick the 2nd, in the century before.
"All she could think of was Joan of Arc, who had had short hair, whom they had burned at the stake'...well, that was in 1431, and the reasons behind the execution where way more complex that 'she had short hair'...
'Connie Willis worked 5 years on this novel', from the result, in my opinion she could have spent her time better. In short,if you want SF, look elsewhere, if you are interested in well-researched novels about life in the Middle-Ages I'd love to recommend Sharon Penman's 'The Queen's Man', 'When Christ and His Saints Slept', Candace Robb's Owen Archer series, Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael or Jeanne Bourin's 'La Chambre des Dames' and 'Le Jeu de la Temptation'... be warned,though, there are no burnings there...
ReadMyBooks (USA: MA) (2012/03/13):
This book is historical (medieval) fiction masquerading as science fiction. There is very little science in it at all. The author’s Britain of 2048 seems a lot like Britain of 1992 (when this book was written), and the British of 2048 are far too bureaucratic and incompetent to be able to run even a telephone network, much less a time machine. Fortunately the majority of the book takes places in the Late Middle Ages, during the time of the Black Death. This part is better written, and makes the book well worth reading.
Sarah (USA: MN) (2021/03/03):
It's a good book - slow in parts and reads like scifi written pre-cell phones. They do have video phones in 2048, though! The scenes in the past are much more colorful and have endearing characters.
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