You know that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the man with the death cart enters the plague-ridden village to pick up all of the day’s bodies? This scene? That’s pretty much all I could think about while I read Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book. I think by now, most of us know the plot, so I’ll be brief. In the future (around 2054), scientists at Oxford University are sending historians back through history. Some sort of time “net” has been created, and […]
Apocalyptic!
Science fiction writer Connie Willis is the winner of numerous Hugo and Nebula awards, including one of each for The Doomsday Book. This novel is an ingenious combination of themes such as time travel, pandemics, and faith. Her characters, whether Oxford University researchers in 2054 or English villagers in the 14th century, are fully realized individuals, with responsibilities, fears, jealousies, and loves. They will all be put to the test when tragedy strikes, and we see that, despite a 700 year time divide, people are […]