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3.5 

Doomsday Book

By Connie Willis
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

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.

“A tour de force.”—The New York Times Book Review


For Kivrin, preparing to travel back in time to study 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.

936 Reviews

3.5
“*Maybe 2.5?* It was an interesting concept, and I did enjoy some of the build-up. But there was almost too much build-up, because after a while the story became very repetitive. It felt like every chapter the same thing was happening just in a slightly different way, and after a while I just got very bored. I think had this been even a hundred pages shorter it would have caught my attention a little more, but alas, it felt kind of a chore to get through this. I didn't realize when I started this that this book was a start of a series, which would explain why the ending felt a bit open-ended, but unfortunately I don't think this series is for me.”
“The beginning of this book lacked a lot of tension because I already knew what the big “end of Act 2” twist was going to be, and I was just frustrated that the characters were too stupid to realize what should have been obvious. At this point, it actually felt as though the author had somewhat insulted my own intelligence, if I was supposed to be shocked by this. I almost DNFd. Thankfully, I didn’t. The remaining third of this book was fantastic. It had the faster pace and higher tension that I’d wanted much earlier in the book, along with several touching character moments from people that I’d previously felt somewhat indifferent about. The book’s greatest strength was Worldbuilding/Atmosphere, since Willis did an excellent job at exploring the setting of Medieval England. It felt like I was there (for better or worse).”

About Connie Willis

Connie Willis has won six Nebula Awards (more than any other science fiction writer), six Hugo Awards, and for her first novel, Lincoln's Dreams, John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Her novel Doomsday Book won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and her first short-story collection, Fire Watch, was a New York Times Notable Book. Her other works include To Say Nothing of the Dog, Bellwether, Impossible Things, Remake, Uncharted Territory and Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. Ms. Willis lives in Greeley, Colorado, with her family and is hard at work on her next novel, Passage.

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