Doomsday Book (novel)

For the survey carried out in England in 1086, see Domesday Book.

Doomsday Book
First edition hardcover
Author(s)	Connie Willis
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Bantam Spectra
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)
OCLC Number	24952289
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Classification	PS3573.I45652 D66 1992

Doomsday Book is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo^[1] and Nebula^[2] Awards, and was shortlisted for other awards.^[3] The title of the book is a reference to the Domesday Book of 1086; Kivrin, 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."^[4]

Plot introduction

Willis imagines a near future (first introduced in her 1982 story "Fire Watch") in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is conducted at the University of Oxford in England in the late-21st century.^[5]

In theory, history resists time travel which would cause the past to be altered 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 target, 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.^[5]

Plot summary

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 Oxford in 1320.^[6] This period had previously been thought too dangerous, because it stretched the time travel net 300 years earlier than it had been used before.^[5] She will be the first historian to visit the period, and is confident that she is well prepared for what she will encounter.

Shortly after sending Kivrin to the 14th century, Badri Chaudhuri, the technician who set the time travel coordinates for Kivrin's trip, collapses suddenly, an early victim of a deadly new influenza epidemic which severely disrupts the university and eventually leads to the entire city being quarantined. Infected with the same influenza despite her enhanced immune system, Kivrin falls ill as she arrives in the past. She awakens after several days of fever and delirium at a nearby manor, whose residents have nursed her. Unfortunately, the move has caused her to lose track of where the "drop point" is; in order to return home, she must return to the exact location where she arrived when the gateway opens at a prearranged time.

The narrative switches between Kivrin in the fourteenth century and 2054/2055 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. She can also read and write, skills unusual even for the educated men of the time and rare among women. As nuns are the only women commonly possessing these skills, some family members conclude Kivrin has fled her convent and plan to return her to the nearest convent. She fakes amnesia, afraid the background story she originally planned out would have similar inconsistencies, and takes up a job as a companion for two girls in the manor as she tries to find the "drop point". In Oxford, fears grow that the virus causing the epidemic had been transmitted from the past via the time travel net, despite its scientific impossibility. This causes the acting head of the university, Mr. Gilchrist, to order the net closed, effectively stranding Kivrin in the past, even as Mr. Dunworthy tries frantically to reverse the decision.

At parallel points in their respective narratives, Kivrin and Mr. Dunworthy realize that she has been sent to England at the wrong time as a result of the technician's illness: she has arrived during the Black Death epidemic in England in 1348,^[6] more than 20 years later than her intended arrival. The Black Death cuts a swathe through the Middle Ages even as the influenza overwhelms the medical staff of the 21st century. Many who could have helped Mr. Dunworthy fall ill and die, including his good friend Doctor Mary Ahrens, who dies even as she tries to save the other influenza victims. Mr. Dunworthy himself is stricken by the disease. In the fourteenth century, two weeks after Kivrin's arrival, a monk infected with the plague comes to the village. Within days, many residents of the village fall ill. Kivrin tries to care for the victims, but, lacking modern medicines, she can do little to ease their suffering. The arranged date for retrieval passes with neither side able to make it. At last, in desperation, Mr. Dunworthy arranges with Badri to send himself back in time to rescue Kivrin.

In the Middle Ages, Kivrin can only watch while all the people she has come to know die from the Black Death, the last being Father Roche, the priest who found her when she was sick and brought her to the manor. Father Roche insisted on staying with his parishioners, despite Kivrin's attempts to arrange an escape, as he feels it his duty to care for them although it may mean his own death. As Roche lies dying in the chapel, he reveals that he was near the drop site when Kivrin came through, and misinterpreted the circumstances of her arrival (shimmering light, condensation, a young woman appearing out of thin air) as God delivering an angel to help during the mysterious illness sweeping through England. He dies still believing that she is God's messenger to him and his congregation, while Kivrin comes to appreciate his selfless devotion to his work and to God. As she attempts to dig his grave, her rescuers, Mr. Dunworthy and Colin (the adventurous great-nephew of Doctor Mary Ahrens), arrive from the future. They barely recognize her: her hair is cropped short (from when she was sick with the flu), she is wearing a boy's jerkin, and she is covered in dirt and blood from tending to the sick and dying. The three return to 21st century England shortly after New Year's Day.

Publication history

• Doomsday Book. Bantam Books, Hardcover, May 1992. ISBN 0-553-08131-4
• Doomsday Book. Bantam Books, Paperback, 1993. ISBN 0-553-35167-2

References

1. ^ "1993 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1993. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
2. ^ "1992 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1992. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
3. ^ "Award wins and nominations for Doomsday Book". Worlds Without End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=52. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
4. ^ Willis, Connie (1992). Doomsday Book. Bantam Books. p. 14. http://books.google.com/books?id=xeP4tUO0a4UC&pg=PT30#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-08-07. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} "Book Review: The Doomsday Book". The Rotarian 161 (3): 9. September 1992. http://books.google.com/books?id=FzIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9. Retrieved 2010-12-14. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Tintner, Adeline R. (2000). The twentieth-century world of Henry James: changes in his work after 1900. LSU Press. p. 165. ISBN 0807125342. 

External links

• Review by Science Fiction Weekly
• Doomsday Book at Worlds Without End