This book has been sitting on my shelves for several years waiting to be read. Glad I finally got to it! First of all, this is a time travel novel, one of the genres I always find fascinating. It also is a good historical novel dealing with the Black Death in 14th century England.
The book starts out in 2054 Oxford where time travel has been developed to assist historians in their endeavors. Kivrin, a young historian receives permission to travel back to 1320 to study the Middle Ages. But when she arrives there, she falls into a feverish delirium and loses sight of her surroundings making it almost impossible for her to find he way back to the "drop site" for her return to 2054. Meanwhile, in 2054 Oxford, a highly contagious flu epidemic occurs resulting in the "time net" being shut off for fear of a contagion coming from the past. This leaves Kivrin stranded but it turns out she is really in 1348 during the time of the Plague or Black Death! The story is told between what is happening to Kivrin during the plague and what is happening in 2054 during the flu epidemic. The novel tells of an earlier pandemic in the 21st century and the quarantines that now seem necessary again. As the doctors race to find the source of the flu in 2054, Kivrin soon discovers that she is in the wrong year and is faced with the horrors of the Black Death.
This book was first published in 1992, over 20 years before the Covid pandemic in 2020, but it is eerily remindful of the worst that can happen. I thought Willis did a very good job of showing the devastation that can be caused by pandemics, especially what happened during the Black Death with little to no survivors in many of the villages in England. Willis also did a good job with character development and plot even though she used the literary device of interference causing the problems encountered by Kivrin. And as others have pointed out, the world of 2054 as portrayed in the novel did not seem futuristic except for the discovery of time travel. Landline phones were still in use in this future causing many problems with communication during the flu epidemic. There were no cell phones or internet in this future â weren't these things coming into play in 1992 when the book was published? But even with this less than futuristic future, I did enjoy this and I'll probably be reading more of Willis.
The book starts out in 2054 Oxford where time travel has been developed to assist historians in their endeavors. Kivrin, a young historian receives permission to travel back to 1320 to study the Middle Ages. But when she arrives there, she falls into a feverish delirium and loses sight of her surroundings making it almost impossible for her to find he way back to the "drop site" for her return to 2054. Meanwhile, in 2054 Oxford, a highly contagious flu epidemic occurs resulting in the "time net" being shut off for fear of a contagion coming from the past. This leaves Kivrin stranded but it turns out she is really in 1348 during the time of the Plague or Black Death! The story is told between what is happening to Kivrin during the plague and what is happening in 2054 during the flu epidemic. The novel tells of an earlier pandemic in the 21st century and the quarantines that now seem necessary again. As the doctors race to find the source of the flu in 2054, Kivrin soon discovers that she is in the wrong year and is faced with the horrors of the Black Death.
This book was first published in 1992, over 20 years before the Covid pandemic in 2020, but it is eerily remindful of the worst that can happen. I thought Willis did a very good job of showing the devastation that can be caused by pandemics, especially what happened during the Black Death with little to no survivors in many of the villages in England. Willis also did a good job with character development and plot even though she used the literary device of interference causing the problems encountered by Kivrin. And as others have pointed out, the world of 2054 as portrayed in the novel did not seem futuristic except for the discovery of time travel. Landline phones were still in use in this future causing many problems with communication during the flu epidemic. There were no cell phones or internet in this future â weren't these things coming into play in 1992 when the book was published? But even with this less than futuristic future, I did enjoy this and I'll probably be reading more of Willis.
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