Help me remember title of a sci fi time travel book
May 19, 2010 3:47 AM Subscribe
Anyone remember this time-travel sci-fi book?
Science fiction book I read about 10 years ago (though it may have been published earlier, of course) about a female time traveller who goes back to medieval Europe (maybe England, specifically?), where she lives with a wealthy family. It was gritty and realistic, the unpleasant smells, lack of privacy, and crowded living conditions that even well-off people dealt with back then were described honestly. The only really specific thing I remember is that some hair ribbons were brought back from a fair for a child in the family, and the time traveller was amazed at how roughly made they were, especially since they were so expensive.
Sorry, this isn’t much!
Science fiction book I read about 10 years ago (though it may have been published earlier, of course) about a female time traveller who goes back to medieval Europe (maybe England, specifically?), where she lives with a wealthy family. It was gritty and realistic, the unpleasant smells, lack of privacy, and crowded living conditions that even well-off people dealt with back then were described honestly. The only really specific thing I remember is that some hair ribbons were brought back from a fair for a child in the family, and the time traveller was amazed at how roughly made they were, especially since they were so expensive.
Sorry, this isn’t much!
Best answer: I don't remember the hair ribbon part, but it sounds a little like Connie Willis's Doomsday Book; female time traveller leaves Oxford in the near future and ends up in the same kind of area but at the time of the Black Death, staying with a nobleman's family.
posted by handee at 4:08 AM on May 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by handee at 4:08 AM on May 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
PS The Doomsday Book is a cracking read even if it's not the book you're after.
posted by handee at 4:09 AM on May 19, 2010
posted by handee at 4:09 AM on May 19, 2010
Response by poster: Yep, the Doomsday Book is the one. All it took was reading the name of the main character to bring it all rushing back! Thank you!
And metaphorical, I will be taking a look at A Traveller In Time, as well, the reviews sound really good.
posted by Wroksie at 4:19 AM on May 19, 2010
And metaphorical, I will be taking a look at A Traveller In Time, as well, the reviews sound really good.
posted by Wroksie at 4:19 AM on May 19, 2010
Spooky, I'm reading this right now! I do find it funny that such a recent sci-fi book is quite outdated, with what you would consider future anachronisms, specifically in the area of telecommunications.
posted by doozer_ex_machina at 6:11 AM on May 19, 2010
posted by doozer_ex_machina at 6:11 AM on May 19, 2010
You may also want to read the non-fiction "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman, describing in some horrific detail the historical events of the very unpleasant 14th century (plague, crusades, papal schism, Hundred Years War, etc.). Makes you very glad to be alive now rather than then...indeed, it's amazing anyone survived the 14th century at all.
posted by holterbarbour at 6:43 AM on May 19, 2010
posted by holterbarbour at 6:43 AM on May 19, 2010
Spooky, I'm reading this right now! I do find it funny that such a recent sci-fi book is quite outdated, with what you would consider future anachronisms, specifically in the area of telecommunications.
Willis retcons this, not very convincingly, in her latest in that series, Blackout.
posted by not that girl at 7:19 AM on May 19, 2010
Willis retcons this, not very convincingly, in her latest in that series, Blackout.
posted by not that girl at 7:19 AM on May 19, 2010
I'm not so fond of Tuchman (she grossly oversimplifies and focuses only on the rich), but Willis' _Domesday Book_ is still awesome, even if some of the details are off. If you read old SF, you learn to cope with that.
posted by QIbHom at 10:09 AM on May 19, 2010
posted by QIbHom at 10:09 AM on May 19, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Based on the Babington Plot of Anthony Babington at Dethick, near her family home, this romance mixes dream and historical fact in a story about a twentieth-century girl who is transported to the 16th century, becoming involved in a plot to free Mary, Queen of Scots from nearby Wingfield Manor. A ribbon was a part of the sub-plot in a tv series based on the book.
posted by metaphorical at 4:02 AM on May 19, 2010