The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

Posted by: Redhead on: November 14, 2011

• In: Connie Willis
• 20 Comments

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Published in 1992

Where I got it: purchased used

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In the future, historians don’t just study the past, they visit it.  In 2048 the technology that allows time travel is still rather new, so calculations are double checked and triple checked. At Oxford, Kivrin has been studying for years with Dr. Dunworthy to qualify to travel back to the early 1300s.  Armed with inoculations against the plague and other diseases, a translator, and a recorder embedded in her wrist, Kivrin is as prepared as anyone could be. What could possibly go wrong?

Kivrin refers to her ‘corder as the Domesday Book, in reference to the records of life in the middle ages that were created for William the Conquerer, and she starts recording as soon as she arrives in the past.  But something has already gone wrong. If she can only get to the village in the valley, perhaps someone can help her. Maybe they know the name of the town, or of the village. But she is so cold, and so dizzy all of a sudden. . .

Meanwhile, back in merry old modern (comparatively) times England,  other people aren’t feeling well either.  As a dangerous illness spreads across Oxford, quarantines are put into place and medications start to run low.  Dr. Dunworthy needs to be sure that Kivrin arrived in the right place, and even more important, in the right when.  With a narrative that jumps back and forth between Middle Ages England and 2048, Willis keeps keeps the suspense high.

 

This is my first Connie Willis, and I had no idea what to expect from The Doomsday Book. Even the blurb on the back wasn’t that forthcoming. I certainly didn’t expect something that was part historical fiction, part time travel story, and part medical thriller.

Before you start worrying too much, Kivrin does make it to the village, and into the good graces of a family who lives there.  They nurse her back to healthy, and she tells them she can’t remember who she is or where she comes from.  She’s got two weeks to find her way back to the drop, but all her landmarks have gotten moved, and no one seems to be able to tell her where they found her in the woods. If she can’t find her way back to the drop spot, she’ll never be able to get home.

The characters in The Doomsday Book are just plain incredible.  Kivrin goes from confident student to nervous house-guest to truly afraid. She might be inoculated against the common diseases of the 1300s, but that doesn’t mean she won’t freeze to death, starve to death, or fall off a horse and get her head bashed in.  Her recordings into her wrist ‘corder are in first person, and you can hear her voice tremble, and see her hands shake, all through black text on a white page.

In 2048, Dunworthy’s confidence has been shattered as well.  Everyone at the college is coming down ill, the hospitals are full, and even if he could find a healthy tech to work in the lab, the lab is locked up tight.  If Kivrin is in danger, it’s Dunworthy’s fault for allowing her to go in the first place.

No pun intended, but this is a deadly serious book.  So I feel a little guilty saying at times it’s absolutely hilarious.  The famous British dry sense of humor abounds, children use the wrong words with amusing results, and even in times of tragedy,  people still receive  hideous Christmas gifts that they have to appear thankful for.

Beyond the engaging characters and the fully immersive plot, Willis does something I rarely run into in historical stories: she doesn’t put a lot of history in.  Sounds strange, right?  When Kivrin recovers from her illness and tries to explore the village, she only learns what the villagers know, and it’s not much. No one can read or write, and since travel is so difficult, people barely know the names of neighboring villages or local noble families. That’s how it was back then.

I picked up The Doomsday Book because I was looking for something a little different, and on that note, and most others, it delivered. My only nitpick was some overbearing foreshadowing and a somewhat predictable ending, but having been offered characters of such depth and complexity, I think I can forgive that.  This most certainly will not be my last Willis.

Tags: England, epidemic, historical fiction, time travel