Release Message:  The title of the book is a reference to the Domesday Book of 1086; Kivrin, the main character, says that her recording is "a record of life in the Middle Ages, which is what William the Conqueror's survey turned out to be." Written by Connie Willis.

Description:  Doomsday Book is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo[1] and Nebula[2] Awards, and was shortlisted for other awards.[3] The title of the book is a reference to the Domesday Book of 1086; Kivrin, the main character, says that her recording is "a record of life in the Middle Ages, which is what William the Conqueror's survey turned out to be."[4] The Oxford Time-Traveling Historians Willis imagines a near future (first introduced in her 1982 story "Fire Watch") in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is conducted at the University of Oxford in England in the late-21st century.[5] In the fictional universe, history resists time travel which would cause the past to be altered by preventing visits to certain places or times. Typically the machine used for time travel will refuse to function, rendering the trip impossible. In other cases "slippage", a shift in the exact time target, occurs. The time-traveler arrives at the nearest place-and-time suitable for preventing a paradox; variance can be anything from 5 minutes to 5 years. Some periods theoretically accessible can also be deemed too dangerous for the historians by the authorities controlling time travel.[5]