But when I read Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book recently, it proved to be a huge exception to that preference. I thought it was wonderful!
In the future (in the 2040's to be exact) historians do their research by using time travel to go to the places and periods they are interested in. Needless to say, this can be a quite dangerous endeavor!
In Oxford, in 2049, a young undergrad is sent back to the peaceful English countryside of the 1300's to experience life in Oxfordshire a couple of decades before the Black Plague is due to hit.
Her mentor, Mr. Dunworthy, does not want Kivrin to go. He thinks it is much too dangerous (and this from a man who travels to the London Blitz in the 1940's and to WW1 trench warfare)!
But the man in charge of the project, Mr. Gilchrist, gives Kivrin the green light, so off to the past she goes.
And then, future Oxford is affected by a crisis, which prevents the lab from being able to double check on Kivrin, and make sure all went well with her drop! They might not even be able to bring her back!
And while Kivrin finds a place with a noble household, there are very strange things going on in what should be a peaceful countryside...and when she finds out the truth of what is going on, it is heartbreaking...
The story weaves its way back and forth between past and future Oxfords, and both are quite compelling.
While this book is not filled with action and adventure, it is filled with very well written and developed characters that you can really care about, and both the past and future are very interesting settings.
I believe this novel won both a Hugo and a Nebula?
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