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Doomsday Book (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
|
| Author | Connie Willis |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
| Publication date | 1992 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback & Hardcover) |
| Pages | 592 pages (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-08131-4 (Hardcover) ISBN 0-553-35167-2 (Paperback) |
Doomsday Book is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was shortlisted for other awards, placing it among the most-honored works of science fiction in recent history. [1].
Contents |
In the novel Willis imagines a near future in which historians do field work by traveling into the past as observers. In theory, history has built-in protections to keep the past from being altered, resulting in travelers being prevented from visiting certain places or times. In such a case, a time machine will refuse to function, and no trip is possible. In some cases "slippage", a shift in the exact time target, occurs. The time-traveler enters after the target time, but the arrival point is the nearest place-and-time such that the visitor cannot cause a paradox. This may result in a significant variance from the projected place or time. Even if destinations in time and place are technically feasible, the authorities controlling time travel may designate selected areas as too dangerous for the historians. The research is conducted at the University of Oxford in England in the mid-21st century.
In the novel Kivrin Engle, a young historian specializing in medieval history, persuades her reluctant instructor, Professor James Dunworthy, and the authorities running the project to send her to England in the early 14th century. This period has previously been thought too dangerous for anyone to visit, particularly an inexperienced young woman. She will be the first historian to visit the period, and believes that she is well prepared for what she will encounter.
Very early in the story, the expectations of the novel's characters are dramatically altered as nearly everything possible goes wrong. The technician who set the time travel coordinates suddenly collapses. It soon becomes apparent that he is an early victim of a deadly new influenza epidemic which promptly interrupts university functions and shuts down the project. Eventually the entire city is quarantined.
Kivrin herself comes down with the infection almost immediately after arriving in the past but, because her immune system was enhanced prior to her jump, she survives. She awakens after several days of fever delirium to find herself being cared for by the residents of a noble household in rural England. This small group of people soon learn that she is literate. Literacy is so rare among women that they conclude she is almost certainly a runaway nun and intend to pack her off to a convent as soon as possible, whether she's willing to go or not. Not all of them think she is a runaway. Father Roche, upon hearing this, adds this to his list of why he thinks she is a saint or an angel. He was there when she appeared from the future, even though another man takes credit for the discovery.
Worse yet, during her illness she lost track of the physical location where she arrived. To return to her own time, she must somehow locate the drop point and find a way to be there, if and when the door opens again. After some time in the past, Kivrin is stunned to learn that the project sent her to the wrong year. She has arrived just as the Black Death comes to England.
The book's point of view moves back and forth between the Kivrin's situation and the severe epidemic which has struck the community in the present. Even as the University staff are desperately trying to get her back, and medical people are dealing with the flood of critical cases, tourists from America insist on continuing with their mission to perform a peal of bells at one of the world-famous churches.
In the end Kivrin can only watch while all the people she has come to know die horribly, the last being the priest who found her when she was sick and brought her to the manor to be cared for. As she buries him, her rescuers, Mr. Dunworthy and Colin, arrive from the future. They barely recognize her: she is covered in dirt and blood from weeks of tending to the sick and dying, and the interpreter she speaks through still automatically speaks Middle English. They return together a little bit after Christmas in the 21st Century.
- Doomsday Book. Bantam Books, Hardcover, May 1992. ISBN 0-553-08131-4
- Doomsday Book. Bantam Books, Paperback, 1993. ISBN 0-553-35167-2
| Preceded by Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold |
Hugo Award for Best Novel 1993 |
Succeeded by Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Preceded by Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick |
Nebula Award for Best Novel 1992 |
Succeeded by Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson |