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Doomsday Book (novel)
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. The title of the book refers to the Domesday Book of 1086. Kivrin Engle, the main character, says that her recording is "a record of life in the Middle Ages, which is what William the Conqueror's survey turned out to be".
The novel is the first in a series about Oxford time-traveling historians, which includes To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998) and Blackout/All Clear (2010).
Willis's mythos is a near future, first introduced in her story "Fire Watch" (1982), in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is conducted at the University of Oxford in mid-21st-century England.
In the book's fictional universe, history resists time travel that would alter the past by preventing visits to certain places or times. Typically the machine used for time travel will refuse to function, rendering the trip impossible. In other cases, "slippage", a shift in the exact time of arrival, occurs. The time-traveler arrives at the nearest place-and-time suitable for preventing a paradox; variance can be anything from 5 minutes to 5 years. Some periods theoretically accessible can also be deemed too dangerous for the historians by the authorities controlling time travel.
Kivrin Engle, a young historian specializing in medieval history, asks her reluctant instructor, Professor James Dunworthy, and the authorities running the project to send her to Oxford in 1320 near Christmas. This period had previously been thought too dangerous, because it stretched the time travel net 300 years earlier than it had ever been used before.
Shortly after sending Kivrin to the 14th century, Badri Chaudhuri, the technician who set the time travel coordinates for the trip, collapses, an early victim of a deadly new influenza epidemic that disrupts the university and leads to the city being quarantined. Kivrin also falls ill as soon as she arrives in the past. She awakens after several days of fever and delirium at a nearby manor whose residents have nursed her. She loses track of the "drop point", the location where she arrived and must return at a prearranged time in order to get home.
The narrative switches between Kivrin in the 14th century and 21st-century Oxford during the influenza epidemic. Kivrin discovers many inconsistencies in what she knows about the time: the Middle English she learned is different from the local dialect, her maps are useless, her clothing is too fine, and she is far too clean. Kivrin fakes amnesia as she tries to find the drop point. She becomes semi-integrated into society, bonding with the children Agnes and Rosemund.
In 2054, Dunworthy tries to determine if Kivrin is safe as Oxford collapses into a panic. Dunworthy befriends Colin, the grand-nephew of his friend Mary Ahrens, a doctor. Fears grow that the virus causing the epidemic has been transmitted from the past via the time travel net. This causes the acting head of Balliol College Professor Gilchrist to order the net closed, effectively stranding Kivrin in the past.
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Doomsday Book (novel)
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. The title of the book refers to the Domesday Book of 1086. Kivrin Engle, the main character, says that her recording is "a record of life in the Middle Ages, which is what William the Conqueror's survey turned out to be".
The novel is the first in a series about Oxford time-traveling historians, which includes To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998) and Blackout/All Clear (2010).
Willis's mythos is a near future, first introduced in her story "Fire Watch" (1982), in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is conducted at the University of Oxford in mid-21st-century England.
In the book's fictional universe, history resists time travel that would alter the past by preventing visits to certain places or times. Typically the machine used for time travel will refuse to function, rendering the trip impossible. In other cases, "slippage", a shift in the exact time of arrival, occurs. The time-traveler arrives at the nearest place-and-time suitable for preventing a paradox; variance can be anything from 5 minutes to 5 years. Some periods theoretically accessible can also be deemed too dangerous for the historians by the authorities controlling time travel.
Kivrin Engle, a young historian specializing in medieval history, asks her reluctant instructor, Professor James Dunworthy, and the authorities running the project to send her to Oxford in 1320 near Christmas. This period had previously been thought too dangerous, because it stretched the time travel net 300 years earlier than it had ever been used before.
Shortly after sending Kivrin to the 14th century, Badri Chaudhuri, the technician who set the time travel coordinates for the trip, collapses, an early victim of a deadly new influenza epidemic that disrupts the university and leads to the city being quarantined. Kivrin also falls ill as soon as she arrives in the past. She awakens after several days of fever and delirium at a nearby manor whose residents have nursed her. She loses track of the "drop point", the location where she arrived and must return at a prearranged time in order to get home.
The narrative switches between Kivrin in the 14th century and 21st-century Oxford during the influenza epidemic. Kivrin discovers many inconsistencies in what she knows about the time: the Middle English she learned is different from the local dialect, her maps are useless, her clothing is too fine, and she is far too clean. Kivrin fakes amnesia as she tries to find the drop point. She becomes semi-integrated into society, bonding with the children Agnes and Rosemund.
In 2054, Dunworthy tries to determine if Kivrin is safe as Oxford collapses into a panic. Dunworthy befriends Colin, the grand-nephew of his friend Mary Ahrens, a doctor. Fears grow that the virus causing the epidemic has been transmitted from the past via the time travel net. This causes the acting head of Balliol College Professor Gilchrist to order the net closed, effectively stranding Kivrin in the past.