For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the
deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as
receiving inoculations against the diseases of the
fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman
traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first
century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful
monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would
be received.
But a crisis strangely linking past
and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows
try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition
and fear, Kivrin -- barely of age herself -- finds she has
become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's
darkest hours.
Five years in the writing by one of
science fiction's most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a
storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her
understanding of the universalities of human nature to
explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the
indomitable will of the human spirit.