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Connie Willis labored five years on this story of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century. The student arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague. Her dealings with a family of "contemps" in 1348 and with her historian cohorts lead to complications as the book unfolds into a surprisingly dark, deep conclusion. The book, which won Hugo and Nebula Awards, draws upon Willis' understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.
From Publishers Weekly
This new book by Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author Willis ( Lincoln's Dreams ) is an intelligent and satisfying blend of classic science fiction and historical reconstruction. Kivrin, a history student at Oxford in 2048, travels back in time to a 14th-century English village, despite a host of misgivings on the part of her unofficial tutor. When the technician responsible for the procedure falls prey to a 21st-century epidemic, he accidentally sends Kivrin back not to 1320 but to 1348--right into the path of the Black Death. Unaware at first of the error, Kivrin becomes deeply involved in the life of the family that takes her in. But before long she learns the truth and comes face to face with the horrible, unending suffering of the plague that would wipe out half the population of Europe. Meanwhile, back in the future, modern science shows itself infinitely superior in its response to epidemics, but human nature evidences no similar evolution, and scapegoating is still alive and well in a campaign against "infected foreigners."p. 204 This book finds villains and heroes in all ages, and love, too, which Kivrin hears in the revealing and quietly touching deathbed confession of a village priest.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greats, never mind SF,
By
This review is from: Doomsday Book (Mass Market Paperback)
Those expecting a predictable SF story may be puzzled by this novel. While ostensibly using a SF framework, this book captures the human condition as well as any work in the English lit canon. The sadness and pathos of life, the many kinds of human love, and the transcendent human spirit are all here. This is SF in the same way as The Road is SF.In The Bleak Midwinter, Kivrin meets people of another era who are being plunged into a disaster they cannot escape, nor even begin to understand. Yet they are heart-breaking in their just being-ness. I will love (and hate them) them always, as though I'd met them myself. I believe in them completely. This is because Connie Willis somehow broke through the bounds of fiction and touched the real, hard though that is to describe. If you read this book, you will time travel too, and find yourself in the world that is true in all times.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Concept, Uninteresting Book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Doomsday Book (Mass Market Paperback)
I probably would not have finished this book if it did not win the Hugo and Nebula award. I kept on saying to myself that there must have been a reason this book won. Must have been a weak field that year. The beginning is slow, the middle is slightly interesting, the end comes abruptly.The time travel concept was unremarkable except for the fact that if I had invented time travel, I would have required much smarter people to run the system. Most of the characters are 1 dimensional. A lot of what happens does not have the ring of plausibility. Suspense is made by having one character blatantly withholding information from the reader not once, but several times. He has very important information, but somehow he just never gets around to telling everyone about it. Normally, I don't care if characters are 1 dimensional , just as long as it is a good read and characters behave somewhat plausibly. However, the plot moves too slow and you just don't care about the characters towards the end.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bland and boring,
By
This review is from: Doomsday Book (Mass Market Paperback)
It's an interesting concept, but there's not really anything there. The characters are uninteresting placeholders, the plot *incredibly* slow, and several key story components are never explained, in a way that doesn't seem intentionally mysterious, just lazy. I would say the majority of the book was quite tedious. It wasn't completely terrible, and if you're in the mood for some light historical fiction with a small scope it's not a bad choice. However, all the action that takes place in the novel's "present day" is extremely bland and felt like work to read.I was really disappointed, because I have enjoyed pretty much every Hugo-winning book I have read up to today. I finished A Fire Upon the Deep (which tied for the 1993 Hugo with The Domesday Book) recently and while it wasn't incredible, it was a far sight more interesting and suspenseful.
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