I read this book out of the need to experience Nebula Award winner Connie Willis more than anything. I'd not heard of Willis until recently, and can say that she is a fine, above the fold writer, who can tell a captivating story. I agree with many who think the book was longer than it needed to be, but it seemed that everything worked to propel or stop the story as a way of manipulating the reader into similar emotional experiences felt by the characters. When the main characters felt frustration, so did I, on multiple levels. I also agree with several reviewers that the last 1/3rd of the book is its redemption, and that anyone feeling frustration up to that point might well find their reward should they power through to the end.



The story line takes two paths, one follows Mr. Dunworthy, a professor at Oxford in the near future (mid 21st century). It is here that historians not only study history, but observe it. Trained as time travelers, they visit the time periods they wish to study. It is in this Oxford that an epidemic of enfluenza breaks out, just as Kivrin, a history student is sent back to 1320, just prior to the outbreak of the Black Death. While Dunworthy runs around trying to get Kivrin back from the middle ages, everyone around him falls ill, and he finds himself frustratingly trying to track down the source of the flu and the head of the University, while setting up sick wards, etc. It is this story line most people find fault with, but Willis does a good job of pulling Dunworthy in so many directions that he couldn't possibly get anything accomplished. He becomes the father figure who is impotent to save his student from imagined horrors, while he can scarcely do anything to help those around him falling like flies due to the modern day horrors of an unidentified flu strain.



The second story line follows Kivrin into the middle ages and into the lives of "contemps." WIllis has created a much more engaging story here, in which Kivrin becomes part of these peoples' lives, and we begin to question the time travel paradox laid out before us. Is it really true that time travelers cannot affect the lives and outcomes of those they come in contact with. As the story progresses, we see Kivrin figure out that she is not in 1320, and we watch as she struggles to save the people around her.



Has she infected the people she's come into contact with? Has she changed the future? Will she ever manage to get back to 21st century Oxford? and in the end, will it matter?



This is an engaging read, if slow and frustrating at times. The ending, while full of sadness, is the story's (& the characters') redemption. Willis weaves the two stories together with a loose thread, but the connections are very palpable and hold true. Read Dooms Day Book with a willingness to experience the failings and hopefulness of the human condition, then go out and do something fun.