Ex Libris Kirkland

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First Written 1992
Genre Scifi
Origin US
Publisher Spectra
My Copy library paperback
First Read January 20, 2021

Doomsday Book



All of that leaves out the part where someone goes back in time to the Middle Ages and has to figure out where she is and how to survive... and then (spoilers!) has to deal with the Plague. Sheesh.

Noted on February 20, 2021

I was so excited about this that it inspired a mini tweetstorm, which is as good as any notes I would provide.

I’m reading a sci-fi book written in 1992. It’s set in 2054. They keep referencing “The Pandemic,” which happened around forty years prior and killed 50million people.

Now the UK has strict lockdown procedures at the first sign of an unidentified disease. Oxford is getting locked down. This book is supposed to be about time travel.

And an American is complaining to a Brit about being in quarantine, how dare they restrict her civil liberties etc. “And over 30 million Americans died during the Pandemic as a result of that sort of thinking, he thought.”

There’s an unknown virus and a lot of talk about testing and tracing contacts. Quick vaccine development. Rapid mutations. This is not the escapist sci-fi fantasy I was looking for.

A third-generation Pakistani Brit seems to be patient zero so of course the worst person in the book is calling it The Indian Flu

And I KID YOU NOT they are running out of toilet paper. This book! Published in 1992!

The NHS just issued a face masks and a directive to wear them

And now they’re protesting that Britain should leave the European Community. Couple years late on Brexit there!

They’re running out of PPE. The university is pushing to start the next term anyways. This book is stressful!

Noted on February 20, 2021


Ex Libris Kirkland is a super-self-absorbed reading journal made by Matt Kirkland. Copyright © 2001 - .
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