The Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by FatDog

I loved "To say nothing of the dog". I went to Gutenburg to get a copy of "3 men and a boat" which is the classic novel that makes an appearance in TSND.

(How many other books made you want to go read other books?)

I went on to read "Three Men on a Bummel" -- boring!

[boydcarts]

I too, read 3 Men in a Boat because of TSND.

[jehane]

Originally Posted by FatDog

(How many other books made you want to go read other books?)

Not Connie Willis, but CS Friedman's This Alien Shore introduced me to Cordwainer Smith. I would highly recommend both authors.

[fantasyISbetter]

I can't help but put in a comment- I LOVE CONNIE WILLIS, esp. Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. They are not action books- but the characters and "events" stay with you. Doomsday Book was both depressing and uplifting. And I love the idea of time travel being used as an educational tool. I like action packed books too, in several genres, a few favorites at the moment being William Dietz (Legion of the damned- military SF), Harry Connolly (Child of Fire- urban fantasy), Richard Kadrey (Sandman Slim- more urban fantasy), Amanda Downum (The Drowning City), Matthew Sturges (Midwinter) the last two sort of sword/sorcery.

[ATDrake]

Much as I enjoy the time-traveling historians of Doomsday Book et al., my personal favourite Connie Willis story is At the Rialto, which is a hilarious mash-up of quantum mechanics and academic convention.

Readjusting fractal basin boundaries, indeed!

[Lemurion]

Sorry, I tried to read Doomsday Book many years ago and I just couldn't.

[Ravensknight]

Willis is definitely not for everyone. I loved DB and also To Say nothing of the Dog, but that was about it. Everything else of hers I've found very unappealing...

[SeaBookGuy]

WW II, Blitz-era isn't a time period that interests me; Victorian does. So, I skimmed through the former
in "Dog" and have no interest in her later book set during the latter era.

[BoiseShan]

I just discovered Connie Willie--via the Doomsday Book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm collecting her other titles.

That said, I find it interesting that so many people didn't like it--simply because it was what I consider a beach book: not to be considered "literature" or a challenging read. And because of its apparent simplicity, I'm surprised to find that it's an award winner.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by BoiseShan

I just discovered Connie Willie--via the Doomsday Book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm collecting her other titles.

That said, I find it interesting that so many people didn't like it--simply because it was what I consider a beach book: not to be considered "literature" or a challenging read. And because of its apparent simplicity, I'm surprised to find that it's an award winner.

Cynical info: the year it was up for a Hugo, it was distributed free at Worldcon; members got a free copy when they showed up and the opportunity to vote for it that weekend.

This doesn't guarantee a win (and it had to get nominated long before that), but it does make it close to guaranteed that the voting pool was at least *familiar* with that book, whereas the other nominees might be ones they'd just heard about or not even that.

[leebase]

Just finishing up Outlander....and besides the overdosing of woman-written sex scenes....at least the author writes about interesting people, and interesting things happen. It takes extreme talent to write about a war period....but have absolutely no action or storylines...but Willis has that kind of talent.

Lee

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Cynical info: the year it was up for a Hugo, it was distributed free at Worldcon; members got a free copy when they showed up and the opportunity to vote for it that weekend.

But that doesn't account for it winning the Nebula and Locus Awards

[leebase]

Originally Posted by BenG

But that doesn't account for it winning the Nebula and Locus Awards

Having read her books, I cannot account for them winning any awards. I like scifi, I like time travel. There should be no such thing as an award winning scifi time travel book that I find as boring as her books. But they are boring in the extreme.

Lee

[speakingtohe]

I particularly agree about the annoying characters. So much so that I mentioned it to a friend after reading the book. Still it is a talent of sorts to make the minor bit characters more memorable then the main characters.

The ending seemed a bit hurried, as if the author just wanted to get the book done. Not as bad an ending as Downtown Owl, which I read the same week, but seemed like a lot of people, some annoying and some not, were just killed off to tie off loose ends.

I thought the story itself was weak, but the author did make me regard the majority of her characters as people, so I will read some more of her works eventually just for that fact alone.

Helen

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Cynical info: the year it was up for a Hugo, it was distributed free at Worldcon; members got a free copy when they showed up and the opportunity to vote for it that weekend.

This doesn't guarantee a win (and it had to get nominated long before that), but it does make it close to guaranteed that the voting pool was at least *familiar* with that book, whereas the other nominees might be ones they'd just heard about or not even that.

See

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/hugo-nominees-1993

for some discussion.

But as I remember it the book was very well known in fandom so you do not need to get a free book to know about the book and that a lot of people had recommended it and that it had got very good reviews and won other prices.

Also, Connie Willis is a very well known and liked person. So personal popularity is a better theory especially for the fact that the crappy Connie Willis books that won the Hugo this year. But I think that Doomsday Books was actually a very good book.