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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]. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Connie Willis at Clarion West, 1998 Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born 31 December 1945) is an American science fiction writer. ...
For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
This article is about the literary concept. ...
A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ...
Bantam Books is a major U.S. publishing house owned by Random House and is part of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group. ...
Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...
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Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ...
“ISBN†redirects here. ...
Image File history File links Connie_Willis_Doomsday_Book. ...
Image File history File links Connie_Willis_Doomsday_Book. ...
See also: 1991 in literature, other events of 1992, 1993 in literature, list of years in literature. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ...
Connie Willis at Clarion West, 1998 Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born 31 December 1945) is an American science fiction writer. ...
The 2005 Hugo Award with base designed by Deb Kosiba. ...
The Nebula is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years (see rolling eligibility below). ...
Plot introduction
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. This article is about the occupation of studying history. ...
The University of Oxford (usually abbreviated as Oxon. ...
For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...
Plot summary 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. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ...
For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...
This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ...
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. Influenza, commonly known as flu, is an infectious disease of birds and mammals caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses). ...
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. A scanning electron microscope image of a single neutrophil (yellow), engulfing anthrax bacteria (orange). ...
An analogue medical thermometer showing the temperature of 38. ...
This article is about the mental state and medical condition. ...
Literacy is the ability to use text to communicate across space and time. ...
For other uses, see Nun (disambiguation). ...
A Beguine convent in Amsterdam. ...
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. This article concerns the mid fourteenth century pandemic. ...
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 epidemiology, an epidemic (from [[Latin language] epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during...
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called changes, without attempting to ring a conventional tune. ...
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 has been so long in the past that the interpreter she speaks through still automatically speaks middle english, plus she is covered in dirt and blood from weeks of tending to the sick and dying. They return together a little bit after Christmas in the 21st Century. Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the...
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 - ^ Honor roll:Science Fiction books. Award Annals (2007-08-15). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 227th day of the year (228th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
External links - Review by Science Fiction Weekly
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