Jellyn's Collection of Curiosities

I need to remember what books I buy, so I don't go reading them from the library or buying them again. I really, really need to do this. Finally sprung for a lifetime membership at LibraryThing. It's not that expensive, and I like their payment options (as in, it's optional how much you pay them), but it was an expense I couldn't justify when I wasn't working fulltime.

Anyhoo, I'd forgotten I'd bought Doomsday Book until I finally pulled all the books out of the collection of Borders bags I'd been accumulating. Not only that, but I read it! The first non-library book I've read in quite awhile.

The basic premise is it's the future and time travel is an academic thing. An undergraduate student goes back to the Middle Ages, meanwhile back at future Oxford, people start to get sick. So as you might imagine, there's a lot of Oxford academia, Medieval history, and medical information packed into this book.

It seemed a bit of a long read, not that any parts dragged particularly, but I was ready for it to finish before it actually did. I thought it was good, and interesting, and funny. Rather like the other couple of Willis' books that I've read.

However, it was frustrating in parts. There's a tech who has vital information, but he's sick. So between his disorientation, his periods of unconsciousness, and the hospital barring people from seeing him and whatnot, it takes a long, freaking time for the information he knows to finally come out and be put to use.

Also, one of the two main characters, the history professor, is the sort of protagonist who is running around all over the place, juggling a billion different balls, and basically being responsible for keeping everything together. At least, everything that matters to the main plot of the book. It's a tiring sort of book to read. Some of Robin Hobb's Farseer books are like this. You're left holding your breath. Is he going to forget something? Drop the ball? Collapse?

Meanwhile the second main character is running around in the past, eventually doing much the same thing. Is she going to slip and say something wrong and be hung as a witch? Is she going to drop one of her balls? Is she going to collapse?

So basically there's two types of reader suspense and tension going on that, while effective, also bug me. Though I will say Willis kept me guessing, and second-guessing myself, right up until the end.

Finally, on top of parts of the book being frustrating, parts of it were depressing. It could certainly have been more depressing, and would've been without the humor, but it's definitely not a light read.

Still, I can see why it won the Nebula and the Hugo Awards, and I'm glad it did. Well-written and well-researched, it deserved it.