Book Review: Doomsday Book (1992). Connie Willis.

I re-read this excellent science fiction novel recently after many years (it was a Nebula Winner, originally published in 1992). What perfect pandemic-era reading!

This is the story of Kivrin Engle, a petite young Oxford undergrad history student in the year 2054, who is sent alone on the first time-travel study to the Middle Ages (time-travel having been discovered a few years earlier, and now being put to use as a historical research tool).  Her destination is the Oxford area, Christmas time in 1320, safely 28 years before the Black Plague will arrive, for a two-week observation and research trip.

Unfortunately, something goes terribly wrong in the time-travel drop, and she ends up desperately ill, and stranded back in the Medieval period, in a little village near Oxford, but not quite when she had intended.  Meanwhile, her academic mentor Mr. Dunworthy's frantic attempts to discover where she is, and rescue her, encounter endless obstacles as a mysterious new virus outbreak sweeps through the 2054 Oxford community.

A gripping and very moving story of the timeless nature of human emotions, behaviors and relationships, and the eternal presence of good and evil, and generosity and selfishness, in societies throughout history, regardless of their technological level.  Highly recommended.