| Plot Summary of Doomsday Book |
|---|
"Kivrin is sent into the Middle Ages to study life there, and gets caught up in the Black Death. Meanwhile, a modern plague ravishes the 21st century."
Joshua Engel, Resident Scholar
|
"A young historian, Kivrin, is sent to one of the most dangerous periods in history, the 14th Century (Hundred Years War, the Black Death).
Immediately after she is sent, an epidemic breaks out in the 21st Century, and they are not able to make sure that Kivrin has arrived in the right year. Mr. Dunworthy, a professor and friend of Kivrin's, works to find someone who can read the time machine and determine exactly what year Kivrin arrived in. He is hampered by the quarantine that placed on Oxford over the Christmas vacation.
In the 14th Century, Kivrin is sick and delirous. After recovering, she tries to find the "drop" so that she can go back to her own time. She becomes part of the noble household that is staying in a tiny village. Eventually, she discovers that she is not in the intended year of 1320. She finds that she is in 1348, at the height of the Black Death."
Conor, Resident Scholar
|
"Oxford history student, Kivrin, is sent back to study 14th Century and is accidently sent to time of Black Plague. Uneasy about this assignment, Kivrin's Oxford tutor, Mr Dunworthy, asks the tech working on the "Drop" to recheck the coordinates. After she is sent, the tech comes to find him, telling Mr.Dunworthy something is wrong. The tech then collapses with a mysterious viral flu. Fear of how this illness has been contracted causes the time travel net to be shut down, stranding Kivrin. She doesn't realize that instead of being sent to 1320, she's been sent to 1348! She sets out to study the era, speaking into a corder fitted into her wrist. She arrives ill from the influenza causing an epidemic in her own time. The people of the village care for her, and she recovers in time for Christmas. The nobles who care for her are the women of the D'Iverie family. They have come from Bath where the rest of the family remains. Kivrin comes to realize that they are nervous about what is going on in Bath, thinking it is about the trial the Lord D'Iverie is involved in. It is actually because The blue sickness has reached England after descimating the rest of Europe. The disease reaches them in the form of a sick Bishop's clerk left at the manor when the entourage moves on. They were invited by the Lord's mother against the wishes of Lady Eliwys at a horrendous cost. The Plague soon spreads through the village, eventually killing all inhabitants. Kivrin shifts her position of observer to caregiver as her new friends are stricken and begin to die. She realizes in the chaos of her duties that she has missed the window to bring her home. In her own time, Mr Dunworthy has fallen ill as well and is only half recovered when he undertakes her rescue. Both feel guilty about letting the other down, but find redemption when Kivrin is retrieved from the past. "
, Resident Scholar
|
"Kirvin, a Historian is sent back in time, and due to a calculation error, is sent to 1340's Black Plague. We watch a paradox between two epidemics, future flu epidemic and the plague as it unfolds in an unique character study that seems to be well researched."
kathleen, Resident Scholar
|
|
| Review Analysis of Doomsday Book |
|---|
|
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
|
|
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 35%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 25%
Tone of book
- depressing/sad
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story
Yes
Time Travel:
- largely backwards/past
Plotlets:
- fighting a disease/illness affecting everyone
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Time Travel story?
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- scholar
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- throughout most of the book.
Setting
Earth setting:
- general past
- near future (later in 21st century)
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 1st
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- explicit references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- some scientific explanation
How much dialogue?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
|
|
