On paper, this book is the complete package for me: time travel, a mysterious epidemic, a spunky female protagonist, academia, Christmas. I should have loved it.
But it was a little… um…. super duper incredibly boring.
I’m really looking forward to the Book Club conversation about this, because it would be nice to put my finger on why I didn’t just totally love it. There’s plenty of action, but it’s very repetitive, and never feels like it’s going anywhere. No build, just introduction of characters, interaction of those characters, and abrupt resolution. I’m no editor and couldn’t tell you how this should have been written. But definitely differently. I’ll tell you that much.
Quick rundown: Dunworthy is a professor in 2044? 2144? I forget, and don’t really care. Time travel is a thing that is done, but some eras aren’t travel-to-able, policy-wise, because of the potential threat to the traveler. Kivrin, Dunworthy’s mentee, is a young student desperate to travel to Medieval times, one of the off-limits eras. The head of the Medieval department goes on a fishing trip over Christmas break, leaving Gilchrist in charge. Gilchrist wants to make his mark, so decides to send Kirvin to 1320 while the head of department is away. It gets botched, and then there’s a flu epidemic on campus and no one knows when Kirvin is (I love saying “when” instead of “where”… time travel rocks). Meanwhile, Kirvin got the flu just before leaving, and is sick when she arrives, and doesn’t learn (for about 350 of the 575 pages) that she’s actually in 1348, which is when the Black Plague is raging locally.
So, that’s pretty cool. Except that it’s SO BORING.
And there is some inexplicable cow that doesn’t get milked in the Past, because everyone’s got the Plague and can’t take care of the livestock. And it keeps following people around, asking to be milked, and people keep saying to it “I don’t have time.” …Author’s emphasis …GET IT? “Time”?! Ugh.
And this is the first of a trilogy. And I’m a completionist. Sigh.