Science fiction writer Connie Willis is the winner of numerous Hugo and Nebula awards, including one of each for The Doomsday Book. This novel is an ingenious combination of themes such as time travel, pandemics, and faith. Her characters, whether Oxford University researchers in 2054 or English villagers in the 14th century, are fully realized individuals, with responsibilities, fears, jealousies, and loves. They will all be put to the test when tragedy strikes, and we see that, despite a 700 year time divide, people are […]
I actually went to bed early tonight, so I could lay in bed and finish this book!
I unabashedly loved this book. I borrowed it from the library as an ebook. I couldnt wait to climb into bed each night and read it! I thought that the characters were all well written and realistic. The two time periods were also very different and well explained. I’m not sure how to write a review of this book without being spoilery, so here’s your warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!! Kivrin is one of the main characters in this story. She’s an historian, and in the future […]
Cannonball Book Club Reads Science Fiction – Book Announcement!
Our Cannonballers have made their voices heard, and we will be reading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis for our June 1st Book Club Reads Science Fiction. From the first twenty-four hours of the vote this book has been in the lead, but books two and three; Lagoon by Nnedi Okarafor and The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin gave chase. I’m adding all three to my to read list, and hope that if your choice wasn’t our final choice, that you’ll make the time to […]
On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. ‘Tis a silly place.
Fun fact: the ‘doom’ in ‘doomsday book’ has little to do with the word ‘doom’ as in ‘gloom and doom’, but comes from the Latin ‘domus’ or house. I have to admit, though, that it sounds wonderfully creepy, which I suppose is the only reason Connie Willis chose it as the title to her novel as it has nothing to do with the early medieval document. It’s not even set in the same period of time. The year is 2055, the place is Oxford. Historians […]
I very badly want to quote Monty Python here but I’m afraid it would be a spoiler.
Well, I can safely say this is the best book I’ve ever read about time-traveling historians and deadly diseases that kill a shit ton of people. And no, it’s not the only book I’ve read about that! I read Timeline about ten years ago, although I barely remember it. Anyway, I love Michael Crichton books, but Connie Willis’s writing is on a whole other level. Although they both write science fiction, Crichton was first and foremost a thriller writer, and judging by Doomsday Book, Willis is […]
Conning the Con, Spiriting the Spiritualist
Inside Job was another novella I picked up from the Subterranean Press Humble Bundle (Like Amityville Horrible), and it deals with spiritualists and spiritualism, but that’s about it for what the two books have in common.
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