Oxford Time Travel

Author: connie willis book title: to say nothing of the dog publisher: bantam spectra year: 1997 isbn: 0-553-09995-7 what a stitch! willis’ delectable romp through Time from 2057 back to victorian england, with a few side excursions into world war ii and medieval britain, will have readers happily glued to the pages. rich dowager lady schrapnell has invaded Oxford university’s Time Travel research project in 2057, promising to endow it if they help her rebuild coventry cathedral, destroyed by a nazi air raid in 1940. in effect, she dragoons almost everyone in the program to make trips back in Time to locate items — in particular, the bishop’s bird stump, an especially ghastly example of victorian decorative excess. Time traveler ned henry is suffering from advanced Time lag and has been sent, he thinks, for rest and relaxation to 1888, where he connects with fellow Time traveler verity kindle and discovers that he is actually there to correct an incongruity created when verity inadvertently brought something forward from the past. take an excursion through Time, add chaos theory, romance, plenty of humor, a dollop of mystery, and a spoof of the victorian novel, and you end up with what seems like a comedy of errors but is actually a grand scheme "involving the entire course of history and all of Time and space that, for some unfathomable reason, chose to work out its designs with cats and croquet mallets and penwipers, to say nothing of the dog. and a hideous piece of victorian artwork. nominated for nebula award in 1998. won hugo and locus awards in 1999..
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Author: ian watson book title: stalin's teardrops another story collection from the prolific watson (salvage rites, evil water, slow birds), this one comprising 12 tall tales published between 1985 and 1990. the longest piece here is brilliantly conceived: a company of ushabti, tiny clay figurines placed in the sarcophagus of a pharaoh as his attendants, explore their sarcophagus-universe, then attempt to revive their dead master; what makes no stylistic or literary sense, and irredeemably flaws the story, is watson's introduction of some investigating egyptologists in the form of a play and, worse, chanting blank verse. also noteworthy: the impressively imagined title yarn, which probes the strange consequences arising from deliberately distorted maps but all too soon meanders off into unfathomable byways; and a persuasive yarn that features the surrealist architect gaudi. elsewhere, three clumsily obvious metaphors (Time Travel and race hatred; rich vs. poor; a human chicken becomes chancellor of Oxford university) irritate rather than uplift; a jailer physically and psychically absorbs his prisoners; an english village hides odd goings-on; sherlock holmes ponders cinderella, to astonishing effect; and an ayatollah's eyeball elicits only routine irony. amazingly inventive – but too often inattentive or downright eccentric in the execution..
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Author: connie willis book title: doomsday book publisher: bantam books year: 1992 isbn: isbn 0-553-35167-2 this new book by hugo- and nebula-award-winning author connie willis (lincoln's dreams) is an intelligent and satisfying blend of classic science fiction and historical reconstruction. kivrin, a history student at Oxford in 2048, travels back in Time to a 14th-century english village, despite a host of misgivings on the part of her unofficial tutor. when the technician responsible for the procedure falls prey to a 21st-century epidemic, he accidentally sends kivrin back not to 1320 but to 1348 — right into the path of the black death. unaware at first of the error, kivrin becomes deeply involved in the life of the family that takes her in. but before long she learns the truth and comes face to face with the horrible, unending suffering of the plague that would wipe out half the population of europe. meanwhile, back in the future, modern science shows itself infinitely superior in its response to epidemics, but human nature evidences no similar evolution, and scapegoating is still alive and well in a campaign against "infected foreigners." this book finds villains and heroes in all ages, and love, too, which kivrin hears in the revealing and quietly touching deathbed confession of a village priest. (publishers weekly) won nebula award for best novel in 1992 won hugo award for best novel in 1993.
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