Book Review: Doomsday Book

In the Oxford, England, of 2054, medical technology is advanced enough to provide inoculations against any disease, past or present, and time travel is commonplace. But even with the future's advanced technology, some centuries are considered too dangerous to be open for time travel. One of these centuries is the fourteenth, rated a ten out of ten on the danger scale. So when history student Kivrin asks to travel to the 1300s, her request is vehemently denied. But Kivrin learns the language, sews the clothes, and familiarizes herself with the customs of the early fourteenth century, and finally receives permission to travel back in time.

Kivrin is dropped from the twenty-first century onto the Oxford-Bath road of 1320. Despite the fact that she's been thoroughly immunized, she finds herself lying disoriented and feverish by the side of the road, freezing in the cold. Luckily, a man passes by and carries Kivrin to a nearby manor house. Cared for by the "contemps" -- the medieval people -- Kivrin wakes from her illness after several days and finds herself weak and unable to communicate with those around her. She is also unable to find the drop, the only spot from which she can return home. Suddenly stranded in the fourteenth century, Kivrin must use her knowledge of medieval culture to find a way out of a situation that becomes more dangerous with each passing day.

Meanwhile, back in the twenty-first century, the tech in charge of sending Kivrin back to 1320 has found something wrong with the fix -- the coordinates that determine Kivrin's temporal and geographic location. But the tech is the only one who knows what the problem is, and he has succumbed to an unknown virus. Soon the virus has spread around Oxford, placing the city under quarantine and giving no one time to worry about Kivrin. By the time things in 2054 are back to normal, Kivrin has been in the 1300s for several weeks past the rendez-vous date, and no one knows whether she's dead or alive. It's up to a professor and an eleven-year-old boy to find a way to get her back.

I loved Doomsday Book. Although, at 578 pages, it's a hefty tome, it is well-written and easy to read. Chapters set in the Oxford of 2054 alternate with chapters set in medieval Oxfordshire, each chapter revealing more parallels between a world in the near future and a world that's seven hundred years in the past. Connie Willis spent five years researching her history before writing the book, and her attention to detail makes the book far better than ones with similar storylines (like Michael Crichton's Timeline, for instance). A winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, Doomsday Book is an engaging read that kept me turning pages late into the night.

Go To Page: 1