"The Doomsday Book"

The first book Ive decided to review is called The Doomsday book. It was actually really good, even though the premise is kind of obscure. It was suggested to me by my girlfriend, who said she really loved it.

The story revolves around two people, Kivrin and Mr. Dunworthy. Kivrin is a younger girl and Mr. Dunworthy is her mentor, and apparently she has no family, because he is the only one who seems to care about her. The story takes place in 2054, and the idea is that historical research in the future is done by time travel. This is the obscure part, that if you can get over, becomes quite interesting. Kivrin has always wanted to travel to the middle ages, but this is not allowed because it is considered too dangerous to put a person into the situation. People mostly go back to the 20th or 19th century, since the records are more reliable, and they know pretty much what they are getting into. Well of course this doesnt stand up, and one self promoting man named Gilchrist takes advantage of the absence of the head of the project, and lift the ban on the middle ages. Of course, Kivrin volunteers.
The project is predictably not run very well, and Mr. Dunworthy becomes angry at the audacity of Gilchrist to send a teenager to 1320 a.d. What makes matters worse is that the technician in charge of making sure the machinery works falls violently ill with a type of influenza. Kivrin herself, after arriving in the past, becomes very ill, and is rescued by the people of a small village. She has trouble translating their form of english for a while, but figures it out eventually. She becomes the nursemaid for two little girls, Rosemund and Agnes. Meanwhile, Dunworthy is dealing with a quarantine in the future, and people are paranoid, and the author keeps hinting at some terrible worldwide disease outbreak that happened sometime before 2054. Well without telling you too much, Kivrin ends up becoming a kind of savior to these people, who fall victim to the Black Death(she is immune as a preparation to go back in time).
Dunworthy finds out the project was more messed up than he thought, and scrambles to figure out how to get Kivrin back to present day.
This book was a really excellent read. There is a lot of great character development, and you start to care about what happens to these people. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good story, although some parts can get pretty depressing. All in all, this is one I would tell other people to read. Its not going to change your life, but there are some good messages, and its always fun to imagine going back in time. Until you actually get there, and you realize its freakin horrible. The middle ages were scary.

Thanks again, next I am reading another GF suggestion, "Lightning" by Dean Koontz