The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (4 stars)

This is a book following two parallel story lines, split by time travel. One thread is set in the middle ages (the 1300s), and is incredible. A huge amount of research has gone into the descriptions of clothing, architecture, transport, medicine, religion, and Christmas traditions. But thankfully this isn't historical fiction so Willis presents this research cleverly as part of the story, often as the main character Kivrin's internal monologue as she tries to make sense of the medieval world she has been thrust into.

Some spoilers ahead.

Kivrin is an excellent character, and she takes us through an incredibly harrowing experience. Her desperate actions to save others with the help of Roche were very moving. In particular the scene where she has to keep pushing a cow out of the way to help the few remaining people who aren't dead will stay with me for a long time. The cow simply wanted to be fed and milked, but there was no-one to do it.

Willis did a sensational job of capturing what it would have been like to live through the Black Death and I stayed up to all hours to finish the book, which is always the sign of a great read.

But for every good thing I have to say about the medieval storyline, there are two bad things about the modern (2054) story. It's terrible. Willis seems to have designed it as some sort of British comedic relief from the incredibly sad experiences in the medieval section. It doesn't work.

Let's start with the thing that drove me absolutely crazy and then move on to the minor annoyances. 90% of the 2054 storyline is people trying to call other people on the phone, not being able to get through, or getting through and having no means to leave a message. And when I say phones I don't mean mobile phones, or some sort of futuristic implanted communications device, no, landline phones. IT'S 2054. Twenty. Fifty. Four. This novel was published in 1992.

Not only have we un-invented things that were in common use in 1992 (like pagers, radios, call waiting and answering machines), but there was a spectacular lack of foresight about mobile phones, which had been invented well before 1992 and were poised to enter the market as common consumer devices in just a few more years.

In fact, this is the least futuristic future I've ever imagined. There have been some advances: every landline now has video, effectively all common sickness has been cured, we have a weird past-only time travel that is mostly used for historical academia. But in 60 years no one has figured out how to leave someone a message apart from writing it down and handing it to them.

Actually the time-travel part I was mostly OK with. I thought the "time doesn't allow paradoxes" approach was actually quite a clever one for resolving lots of the inherent plot problems, and slippage as a inbuilt time-integrity protocol to avoid changing important events was especially good.

I was less convinced by the all-important need for a rendezvous time that couldn't be missed or you would be stuck there FOREVER, and this skepticism was born out by the plot resolution. What's to stop you just opening up the net and sending someone else in to go find you? Nothing, it would seem.

Here's more annoyances from 2054:

• They have lived through major, worldwide pandemics recently and can set up a flawless quarantine without hours. But they can't send through basic supplies like food, aspirin, and toilet paper. Why not? The quarantine is in a populated area where all of that is readily accessible.
• The nice lady who gives you shots before time travel is apparently also the most qualified doctor to run a major quarantine and lead the medical response that could save or lose the lives of a thousand people. Sure, I guess. Seems pretty unlikely though. If communications were really that bad they would bring in a quarantined command center.
• Finch being obsessed with toilet paper is supposed to be funny? It's just annoying. Similarly with Mrs. Gaddstone and the bell ringers. William's ability to seduce every woman around him just gets really silly.
• Gilchrist is a cringeworthy foil for Dunworth. He's a ridiculous cardboard cutout stuffy stickler-for-the-rules that is way overplayed and unbelievable.
• Days were wasted trying to get someone to "read the fix". So we can make a video call but we can't send a photo, or point a phone at the screen? Also we're told over and over that the only things that can go wrong are the coords and the slippage. So shouldn't those two things be obvious and readable by a layperson? Just how incredibly bad is time machine UI design?

So to sum up, the medieval story is amazing, the 2054 story is terrible. But it's still a great book and I'd recommend reading it. Just grit your teeth through 2054.

4 stars.