Upon picking up Connie Willis’s The Doomsday Book I couldn’t help noticing the text above the title: “Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards” and thinking that’s pretty impressive.

You want impressive? If I had an award-winning record like Willis, I’d be tempted to rest on my laurels. Thankfully she is emphatically not doing that; she just published Blackout, part one of a two-parter; the second volume, called All Clear, will be published later this year.

The Doomsday Book itself is remarkable, as it describes the plight of a college history student sent back in error to 1348 CE to a village whose inhabitants are dying of plague. It’s a story of courage, empathy, and caring. I strongly recommend it.