Book 17 Doomsday Book

 

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis fulfilled the category “A Hugo Award Winner” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. The Hugo is a literary award for best science-fiction or fantasy works from the previous year. Doomsday Book won for 1993.

Why did I choose an older book for this category? First, my husband has been encouraging me to read Connie Willis for years. Second, it won the Hugo and fit the category. Third, I already read Network Effect by Martha Wells. Last, it’s about a pandemic. Oh boy how, it’s about a pandemic.

It’s 2054, and the world has moved forward in two key ways. One, they can time travel, but only for use for studying history. The author doesn’t discuss time travel except for the use at universities for getting historical details correct. Some centuries have been labeled ten on the risk scale as in too dangerous to visit. The Middle Ages have recently been downgraded, and an expedition to 1320 is planned.

Second, the world has suffered some major health crises over the past sixty years. Health care in England is stringent and prepared for outbreaks of deadly viruses and diseases. Why are they so prepped? Because there was a pandemic in 2018. (Remember, she wrote the novel in 1992.)

Kivrin Engle (shout out to Madeline Engle, perhaps) is the student chosen to travel to the Middle Ages. She’s been vaccinated and had her T-cells enhanced just in case she runs into the plague. She shouldn’t though because they send her decades before the disease hit Oxford. Should is a funny word.

In 2054, a mysterious virus runs rampant on the Oxford campus. It hits the technician who sent Kivrin back to 1320 first. He is unable to tell if the transfer was a success. Chaos erupts, and her favorite professor, James Dunworthy, cannot discover if Kivrin is safe or not.

For the next 400 pages, we go back and forth between the future and the past. Many people in 2054 are short-sighted and concerned for only their priorities, Professor Dunworthy included. Interestingly, no one will comply with health code restrictions or wear masks. People constantly harass Professor Dunworthy about toilet paper, canceled concerts, and their child’s health (versus the hundreds in the quarantine). Also, since our technician’s name is Badri Chaudhuri, the contemporaries call the disease the “Indian Flu.”

It’s as if Ms. Willis had her own time machine to see 2020. She portrayed the quarantine and human nature perfectly. It was spooky.

I enjoyed the book, but I honestly don’t think a publisher would allow it to pass through editing with the same number of pages. The constant nagging of Professor Dunworthy and the repetitiveness of Kivrin’s sections got old fast. With a good editor, the book could have been down to 350 pages, faster paced, and more exciting. The writing was excellent but overly long.

I give Doomsday Book by Connie Willis Four Fur-Lined Blue Cloaks (but not real fur—that’s cruel).