Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Doomsday Book is the first full-length novel in Connie Willis's Oxford time travel series. The series (this is not a spoiler) is about people in the history department at Oxford in the mid-twenty-first century who have a way to travel into the past to do their research. In Doomsday Book, an historian travels back to the middle ages. Connie Willis does a lot of research and does a good job of portraying the middle ages (as far as I know). I love this period of history myself, so the main character, Kivrin, basically has my dream job. Although it is certainly not all fun and games in the Middle Ages, which, as her mentor warns her before she leaves, were full of danger and disease. The story takes place partly in medieval times and partly in Oxford in the time she left from (it's a real-time jump, so the same time elapses for the historian in the past as for the people in Oxford while she is away), making it the first book I've ever read where "meanwhile" involved a 800-year gap.

The book's pacing is relaxed, although the events certainly are not. The pacing annoys some impatient readers, but I found it appropriate, and never boring. It gives the book time to flesh out the feeling of the situations, and lets the reader spend more time with the wonderful characters. Without such wonderful characters, the events of the novel would lose their impact. This is true in general, but Connie Willis does such a good job of making you fall in love with the characters that you care about what happens to them more than with most books, which is critical to this book's success on an emotional level. I won't tell you what emotions those are because these are spoiler-free reviews. Actually, don't read any synopsis of the book as it will spoil a major plot development. Even the blurb on the author's site spoils it. Just trust me that the book is exciting and don't read the back cover. I will say that although this is definitely not a humour novel like the next book in the series, To Say Nothing of the Dog, it does have many funny moments. Connie Willis has a great sense of humour.

I highly recommend this book. It is a beautiful, haunting story with many of the best characters I've ever encountered in a novel. If you are a history buff like me, then I recommend it even more, if that is possible. I also recommend the other books in the series, especially Blackout/All Clear (which is one book in two volumes).

Format recommendation: Audiobook. The narrator, Jenny Sterlin, voices the characters wonderfully, bringing each to life with their own distinct personality. The books are also available on the Kindle.

Age recommendation: Mature teens and older. The content and language are quite tame, but younger readers might find it too dark and slowly paced.

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

Blackout and All Clear are two volumes of the same story, so I will review them together as the single book that they are. It's kind of like how The Lord of the Rings is one book spread across three volumes due to length. This means you need to buy two books though, so is it worth it? If you enjoy history, then absolutely. And unless you dislike awesome books, you will most likely like these. Somehow I managed to avoid hearing of Connie Willis until now (apparently I've been living in a cave), but she has won Hugos and Nebulas and I hope she does again for these books. They are awesome. But wait, you say. I thought you said they were good for history buffs? Are they historical or science fiction? They are about time traveling historians, so the answer is yes. It involves time travel, but mostly it's a day-in-the-life story of regular people in England during World War 2. The author makes life in this critical time in history come alive. The book is full of interesting historical information about the war and what England was like during it.

Of course, books succeed or fail based on the characters. Fortunately, Blackout and All Clear have an excellent cast of wonderful characters that you learn to care about, both historians from the future and 1940 contemporaries. The story is also good, with the right amount of humour and tension.

Go read these books. You may want to start with her earlier books about time travelling historians, Fire Watch (a short story), Doomsday Book, and To Say Nothing of the Dog. I recommend at least reading Doomsday Book first.

Format recommendation: Audiobook. The narrator, Katherine Kelgren, is excellent, especially with Cockney accents which are funny. She does a great job with both British and American accents. She has a perfect voice for this type of story. The books are also available on the Kindle.

Age recommendation: Mature teens and older. By mature, I actually mean mature, so you won't find the historical daily life account to be too dry (not "mature" as in video games that are rated M, where the ESRB means "offensive", not "mature"). These books are very tame content-wise. There is one strong bad word in a historical quote in a chapter heading, but other than that the language is very mild, although one character uses references to deity to swear.