Science Fiction · MelancholicA young historian from mid-21st-century Oxford is sent to the 14th century, a period thought too dangerous
Doomsday Book
A historian travels to a century considered too dangerous
Bantam Spectra published the novel in 1992. It is set in mid-21st-century Oxford, where historians conduct fieldwork by traveling into the past. Kivrin Engle, a young medieval historian, asks to be sent to the 14th century, a period previously considered too dangerous for time travel. Her reluctant instructor is Professor James Dunworthy. The title refers to the Domesday Book of 1086. It is the first book in the Oxford time travel series, which continues with To Say Nothing of the Dog and Blackout/All Clear.
More about this book
Who
Kivrin Engle, Professor James Dunworthy, the technician Badri Chaudhuri and Colin.
World
Mid-21st-century Oxford and the 14th century.
What makes it different
It won both the Hugo and the Nebula and shared the 1993 Hugo with A Fire Upon the Deep. The Oxford setting first appeared in Willis's 1982 story "Fire Watch".
Feel
Absorbing and sorrowful.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Doomsday BookWikipedia