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Time Travel Books - The Best and All The Rest


drawkcabi

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I just finished rereading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and loved it even more on the second read.

 

I decided to start this thread to talk about time travel books, my favorite ones and any others I've read too that I can think of. Time Travel is my favorite type of story, even more than fantasy, and maybe in the responses I'll discover a gem I still have not read yet. At least I'm hoping I will, always hungry for another good time travel story.

 

So, my list as best I can remember:

 

Replay by Ken Grimwood - My absolute favorite. Any other books like this out there that I have not all ready found?

 

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - Similar concept to Replay yet with its own unique voice, wonderful!

 

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger - Another one of my top favorites!

 

Doing It All Over by Al Steiner - I had to go to an erotic/sex story site to find this one and it's pretty naughty, but it's also superbly written and deserves to be on this list.

 

11/22/63 by Stephen King - I love this book for the time travel story but liked it the least where the story got the most Stephen King-ish.

 

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold - Fun Story!

 

The Time Machine by H.G. Welles - Classic!

 

The End of Eternity by Issac Asimov - Read this one the first time when I was maybe 12, first Asimov book I ever read. Loved it then, still like it but haven't read it in a while.

 

A Shortcut In Time by Charles Dickinson - Enjoyable and memorable.

 

Timeline - Michael Crichton - It was ok.

 

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Halderman - I know I read this book, just can't remember much about it. Re-reading the synopsis jogs my memory more.

 

The Reluctant Time Traveler by Lynda Eymann - Again, don't remember much of this story.

 

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin - Kind of a time travel story from what I remember, did not enjoy it too much.

 

There's probably other time travel books I've read but I've forgotten to list them as well as numerous short stories in anthologies. Also [I] really didn't bother with comic book time travel stories [but feel free to mention them if you know some really good ones].

 

I've never read Time and Again by Jack Finney. I've heard it's good but I'm not sold on trying it. So what else is there?

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Saga of the Exiles by Julian May is about a one-way time portal from the near future to the Pliocene epoch.
 
While technically most Doctor Who books qualify, it's not really a major factor in most. Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris and Vanderdeken’s Children by Christopher Bulis are a couple of exceptions. Recommended if you like DW.

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Does anyone know the book about the entire town that goes back in time several centuries? And if so was it any good?

 

Eric Flint's 1632, perhaps, and I think he opened up the universe to sequels. I only read the original and found it acceptable at a time when my standards were low.

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Eric Flint's 1632, perhaps, and I think he opened up the universe to sequels. I only read the original and found it acceptable at a time when my standards were low.

 

That's it. Thanks. Yeah I remember reading the synopsis years ago and wasn't sure if I wanted to invest myself in it.

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I'll check out the Heinlein short stories first.

 

 

Oh yeah, another one I read, Bones of The Earth by Michael Swanwick. It was fun reading in the same way as a good popcorn movie is fun watching. 

 

Also please feel to suggest any good time travel stories from comic books or graphic novels. I haven't mentioned them because I haven't read that many, I think just Marvel 1602 and the other good one I'm thinking of would be kind of a spoiler if I mentioned it was a time travel story. I'm just super picky with graphic novels and comic books they have to be great to excellent for me to be interested.

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I've never read Time and Again by Jack Finney. I've heard it's good but I'm not sold on trying it. So what else is there?

I did really like [i]Time And Again[/i]. It's perhaps a bit short on plot since the main focus is on the character exploring late-19th Century New York. The sequel, [i]From Time to Time[/i] was OK but maybe felt slightly unnecessary.

 

Out of the books mentioned so far I did really like [i]Replay[/i], [i]The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August[/i] and [i]The Anubis Gates[/i].

 

Stephen Fry's [i]Making History[/i] was an entertaining exploration of one of the classic ideas of time travel fiction - what would happen if you dealt with a certain Austrian-born dictator before he could rise to power?

 

For a non-traditional type of time travel Vernor Vinge's [i]Marooned in Realtime[/i] has an interesting twist. There's no travel backwards in time, instead the characters in the story find themselves transported forward in time to a point after the rest of humanity has mysteriously disappeared.

 

Gregory Benford's [i]Timescape[/i] has a different take on time travel, with a group of scientists sending information back in time in the hope of preventing an ecological catastrophe. It's got some interesting ideas, although I remember finding the writing slightly dull.

 

Robert Charles Wilson's [i]The Chronoliths[/i] has an intriguing premise with the appearance of huge monuments apparently sent back in time to commemorate the future victories of a supremely powerful warlord, although the story did start to run out of steam after a while.

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I have loved time travel novels since I was a child. Of the books that have been mentioned so far, my favorite is "The Time Traveler's Wife". Not only does it involve time travel but it has the added bonus of taking place in Chicago (where I live) and more specifically the Newberry Library (where I spend a lot of time).

I have read "Time and Again" and enjoyed it but more because if I could time travel I'd want to go back to late 19th century New York City so its like my dream time travel scenario. That and when I first learned about it, it was not in print and the internet did not exist so I had an epic quest hunting down a used copy at the Strand Bookstore which only added to its mystique.

My favorite time travel novels are all found in the children's section of the bookstore but I still enjoy them as much an adult now so I think they are good for all ages. Madeleine L'Engle has a number of them including "Many Waters" and "An Acceptable Time". My favorite of hers is "A Swiftly Tilting Planet". Very much influenced by L'Engle's stories is Newbery award winning "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead.

Other children's favorites include "Time at the Top" by Edward Ormondroyd (time travel via an elevator!), "Tom's Midnight Garden" by Philippa Pearce, "King of Shadows" by Susan Cooper, and "The Stones of Green Knowe" by L.M. Boston.

There is a new in progress trilogy which has an interesting premise - there was a Great Disruption in 1799 where the world was fractured in time and all the continents were thrown into different time periods. So its back to the middle ages in parts of Europe, wooly mammoths are back in existence in Canada, parts of North America are pre-historical, the pharaohs are back in Egypt whereas parts of Asia and South America are far into the future. The first book is "The Glass Sentence" by S.E. Grove.

Turning to books for grownups, I've very much enjoyed Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. Also, Daphne DuMaurier's "The House on the Strand" brings an interesting connection between addiction and time travel. One man can't resist traveling back and forth between present day and 14th century Cornwall even though he is physically endangered by the experience.

"Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard is a play and it isn't traditional time travel. Instead you have a room in an English country house and two overlapping stories in time - one in the present day and one in the early 19th century. The events from the present and past are connected and influence one another and I love the idea that you can have the past and present co-existing and happening simultaneously in a room like that.

I know Connie Willis has a number of time travel novels. I've only read "Blackout" which I liked. It involves historians traveling back in time to observe the Blitz during WWII in England and ending up getting stuck and having to do more than observe.

Some time travels I have disliked...the second book in Deborah Harkness's All Souls trilogy, "Shadow of the Night". While I normally like most books set in Tudor England, I did not like this one. I similarly disliked "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs. Actually I really hated it.
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 Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I know, I know, it's Card, but it was written back in 1996, before he went completely off the reservation.
 
 
 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40293.Pastwatch


Really? I kind of think as that book at the moment his insanity, as they call it, began to really show itself.

Other thoughts:
outlander is wish fulfillment rape porn and the bane of my existence.

Pretty much every Gene Wolfe story except the wizard knight has time travel in it somewhere.
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All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka - the inspiration for Edge of Tomorrow.  

 

Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley - time travel and alternate realities.

 

The Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis - it's not primarily about time travel, but that plays an extremely important role.

 

 

And not a book, but fans of time travel really need to watch Predestination.

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