Oxford Time Travel Books In Order

Publication Order of Oxford Time Travel Collections

Publication Order of Oxford Time Travel Collections

The Oxford Time Travel series is a series of highly successful novels based on the science fiction. It was written by one of the noteworthy authors from America named Connie Willis. There is a total of 4 novels and 1 novella in this series, which were released between the years 1982 and 2010. The last two books in the series form of an initial part of another series written author Connie Willis, titled as ‘All Clear’. All the novels in the Oxford Time Travel series are loosely connected to one another and are set at the Oxford University. Each and every story that author Connie Willis has written in this series revolves around the students of history at the world famous university who travel through time very often. A few characters that the author has developed in the series, can be seen multiple times throughout the series. Author Connie Willis began writing the series in the year 1982 and published the first novel of the series in the same year. It was titled as ‘Fire Watch’. This book was actually written in the form of a novella and the actual first book in the series was published a decade later in the form of the novel titled ‘Doomsday Book’. As of now, the Oxford Time Travel series is still going on as author Connie Willis is working on the story of the latest novel of the series. She is about to release it any time soon in the coming days. In the initial short story of the series, the plot is set during the time of the Blitz.

An Oxford historian named Mr. Bartholomew from the middle of the 22nd century was traveling back into to time for becoming a part of the Fire Watch that was to take place at the St. Paul’s Cathedral. The book also introduces the other important characters of the series named Mr. Dunworthy and Kivrin. This book was first released in the Science Fiction Magazine by Isaac Asimov in the year 1982. It was later reprinted in the year 1985 by the St. Martin’s Press and then again in the year 2008 by the Subterranean Press, in the form of a collection of stories. The novella went on to become so much popular that it won the Nebula Award in the year 1982 and the Hugo Award in the year 1983, in the category of the best novelette. The next book in the series tells the story of another historian from Oxford named Kivrin Engle. In the plot of this novel, it is shown that Kivrin Engle makes a trip through time travel to the middle ages. She encounters a slippage and enters in the middle of the epidemic of the Black Death during the year 1348. This book opened to a huge success all over the world. This success helped it to be included in the Easton Press edition and also in the SFBC’s Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. It also won the Nebula Award in the year 1993 in the category of the best novel and was tied with another finalist for the Hugo Award in the same year.

One of the books in the Oxford Time Travel series written by author Connie Willis was published under the title ‘Blackout’. It was released in the year 2010 by the Spectra Books publication. The story depicted in this book features the main character in the role of Polly Churchill. Author Connie Willis has done the setting of the story of this book in Oxford and London in England, The United Kingdom. At the beginning of the story, it is depicted that in the year 2060 Oxford has turned into a very chaotic place. A number of historians of the time traveling league are made to go into the past. One of the such historians is Michael Davies, who seems to be preparing to go to the Pearl Harbor. Another historian is made to cope with a bunch of bratty evacuees from the year 1940. She tries very hard to convince her thesis adviser to let her go the VE Day. One of the time traveling Oxford historians named Polly Churchill is given her next assignment to play the role of a Shopgirl in the event of the Blitz happening in London. Suddenly, it is learned that the time travel laboratory is cancelling all the time traveling assignments and making changes in the schedules of everyone. In the meantime, Merope, Polly, and Michael end up in the Second World War and things begin to become even worse for all three of them. They are made to face air raids, dive bombing Stukas, and blackouts. Soon, they begin to get the feeling that not only the assignments given to them, but also the history and war have gone out of control. The mechanism of time travel in Oxford was believed to be extremely reliable once, but suddenly it has begun to show significant glitches. Due to this, all the three heroes have started questioning their firm belief that none of the historians can change the past.

One of the other books released in the series was titled as ‘All Clear’. It was published by the Spectra publication in the year 2010. The story of this book continues from where the previous novel had ended. It shows how the three heroes, Merope Ward, Polly Churchill, and Michael Davies, get trapped unexpectedly in the Second World War in England during their time travel. As a result of the entrapment, all three of them struggle to get back home and get forced to face the bombers of Hitler, as they try to force London to submit. Now the situation becomes even more dire as several discrepancies are found in the records of history. Consequently, it appears that one or all of the discrepancies tend to affect the past, which eventually changes the outcome of the world war. The theory of time travel always had the core belief that the past can only be observed but not altered. But suddenly, it begins to appear that this theory is tragically and horribly wrong. In the meantime, the time is still of the year 2060 in Oxford, in which the supervisor of the historians, named Mr. Dunworthy gets engaged in a seemingly impossible and frantic struggle along with the 17 year Colin Templar. They are given the task of finding the three missing needles, that is, Michael Davies, Polly Churchill, and Merope Ward, in the historical haystack. Author Connie Willis has written the story with a lot of humor, compassion, and artistry, which appear to be both devastating and uplifting. It seems to be a culmination of the triumphant adventure. Author Connie Willis has tried to depict the elements of love, faith, and ordinary and quiet heroic acts as well as the sacrifices that often got overlooked in history.

One Response to “Oxford Time Travel”

1. Lourival Salles: 10 months ago

   Is Connie Willis planning to write other titles to add to the fantastic Oxford Time Traval Series? I’ve already read Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Black Out, All Clear and the short story Fire Watch. Thank you.

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