Doomsday Book

I came across Connie Willis first by reading Blackout, which I could not put down. When looking up her other books, I noticed that she had used the basic structure and premise of this book at least once before, in Doomsday Book. At first I thought this a bit cheap and lazy, although, I certainly do not begrudge fantasy and sci-fi authors their sequels. After all, it takes time to develop a unique setting and the rules of this constructed universe, so why not use it to tell more stories?

I suppose the difference here is that I recognized the repeated plot devices between the two novels. Perhaps if I had read Doomsday Book before Blackout, then I would have found myself skimming quickly through the latter, rather than the former. To be honest, I was riveted by the scenes in the past. Unfortunately, only half the book takes place in the past. I was a bit bored with the contemporary scenes, finding some characters' personalities limited, pointless and quite repetitive. Conversations were repeated endlessly without any development of relationships. In contrast, the characters in the past were distinct and developed over times in believable and compelling ways.

I still read it to the end, although I think Blackout is a much better conceived and executed attempt at realizing her unique time travel idiom.