There are many examples of that in “Doomsday Book,” even though she wrote the book in 1992, when people would think “pandemic” was the name of yet another grunge band inspired by Nirvana. People, in other words, worry about dumb things as the world collapses around them, Willis said. That’s why, in “Doomsday Book,” you have an assistant in modern times who worries about the college running out of orange juice as people come down with a mysterious and deadly infection, and an old woman in the 1300s who believes the plague is a punishment from God, and a group of bell ringers from America who are more worried about their rights to perform being taken away under a quarantine than keeping others safe. As a result, she’s read shelves of books. The funny thing is, she loves history, even more than science fiction. “Toss a baseball through one of her windows, and chances are good it’s going to knock over a (prestigious) Hugo Award or two.” "Among seasoned readers of science fiction, Connie Willis needs no introduction,” said Joe Cunningham, Barnes and Noble’s science fiction blogger. She was, for instance, inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 28th SFWA Grand Master in 2011.
You may not have heard of her, because she hasn’t sold as many books as Stephen King or even one of her heroes, Philip Dick.Įven so, Willis, 75, who lives in Greeley, has quite a niche as one of the world’s best science fiction writers, if you believe people who hand out awards specifically for science fiction writers. But she already knew, for the most part, how her characters would respond to the pandemic she invents in “Doomsday Book.” Connie Willis researched the Black Death of the mid-1340s and the Spanish Flu of 1918.
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