Recommend a time travel book?

[Dingbang]

A while back I read and enjoyed Stephen King's 11/22/63, which is all about time travelling back to stop the Kennedy assassination. It was pretty good and unlike most King stories, didn't end with a giant spider.

What I enjoyed most about it was the time travel and all the interesting questions and problems that arose. Can you recommend another novel that centers on time travel? (I read All Clear by Connie Willis, but didn't particularly enjoy it. The time travel aspect seemed secondary to the rest of the story.)

[sliv]

I highly recommend "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers, which artfully blends magic & technology and has time travel back to the 19th Century. Excellent stuff.

[Czarcasm]

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold pretty much covers it all.

[WordMan]

Well there's always The Time Machine by HG Wells. Really great and an easy read.

Replay is an excellent book about a guy who can go back to a certain time - where he can try different approaches to modify the future. Sounds like Groundhog Day, the movie, but it is very different and very good.

[SpectBrain]

Mists of Dawn. Written in 1952. I read this as a youngster and then again as an adult. I think it still holds up well.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mists_of_Dawn

[delphica]

Jack Finney's Time and Again and From Time to Time, he also has some short story collections that are mostly time travel themed.

[Snowboarder Bo]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold pretty much covers it all.

+1

Prolly the single best time travel book I've read. The "updates" to the ebook really pissed me off, tho

For movies, Primer has no equal.

[RikWriter]

It's not to historic times, but my favorite time travel novel is Clifford Simak's Mastodonia.

[standingwave]

Replay is awesome.

[stpauler]

Only Revolutions by Mark Z Danielewski

Sam:
They were with us before Romeo & Juliet. And long after too. Because they’re forever around. Or so both claim, carolling gleefully:
We’re allways sixteen.
Sam & Hailey, powered by an ever-rotating fleet of cars, from Model T to Lincoln Continental, career from the Civil War to the Cold War, barrelling down through the Appalachians, up the Mississippi River, across the Badlands, finally cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself.
By turns beguiling and gripping, finally worldwrecking, Only Revolutions is unlike anything ever published before, a remarkable feat of heart and intellect, moving us with the journey of two kids, perpetually of summer, perpetually sixteen, who give up everything except each other.

Hailey:
They were with us before Tristan & Isolde. And long after too. Because they’re forever around. Or so both claim, gleefully carolling:
We’re allways sixteen.
Hailey & Sam, powered by an ever-rotating fleet of cars, from Shelby Mustang to Sumover Linx, careen from the Civil Rights Movement to the Iraq War, tearing down to New Orleans, up the Mississippi River, across Montana, finally cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself.
By turns enticing and exhilarating, finally breathtaking, Only Revolutions is unlike anything ever conceived before, a remarkable feat of heart and intellect, moving us with the journey of two kids, perpetually of summer, perpetually sixteen, who give up everything except each other.

[twickster]

Originally Posted by standingwave

Replay is awesome.

I came in to recommend this.

[TonySinclair]

Since you like details and implications, you might enjoy the Conrad Stargard series, about a 20th century engineer who finds himself in 13th century Poland, and begins modernizing that society.

[Little Nemo]

Up the Line by Robert Silverberg
Millennium by John Varley
The Empire of Time by Crawford Kilian
The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein

[RealityChuck]

I agree with Replay and The Man Who Folded Himself.

Other good choices:

No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Fire Watch by Connie Willis
Millennium by John Varley

[Enright3]

A Wrinkle In Time.
To quote from Wikipedia: "A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy[1] novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962.[2] The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.[3] It is the first in L'Engle's series of books about the Murry and O'Keefe families."

[CalMeacham]

Highly recommended -- Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp. Archaeologist finds himself in ancient Rome at the time of the Fall of the Empire. He learns to support himself first, then tries to prevent the Hall.


de Camp also wrote other time travel short stories. Aristotle and the Gun has a physicist from Brookhaven going back in time to try to convince Arisatotle to be more practical. A Gun for Dinosaur was his response to Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder. He eventually wrote a whole series of time travel stories using the same characters, collcgted as Rivers of Time



A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain -- the original time-travel novel, and still worthwhile.



James Hogan's The Proteus Operation takes that classic idea, time travellers trying to change the outcome of WWII, and does a deceny job of it. It's also the only time travel novel I know of where the author got permission from surviving people depicted in bhis novel to use them as characters.


For that matter, Harry Turtlefove's Guns of the South is an excellent trying-to-chyange-the-outcome-of-the-Civil-War novel.

[kayaker]

Another nod to Replay; available for the kindle at $9.99.

There is also one other book that I think you will like, but it doesn't get published until 2019, unfortunately.

[Lightnin']

Another vote for Replay, as well. It's the first book where, as soon as I read the last page, I immediately flipped back to the first page and started reading the book all over again.

[Thudlow Boink]

Originally Posted by Enright3

A Wrinkle In Time.
To quote from Wikipedia: "A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy[1] novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962.[2] The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.[3] It is the first in L'Engle's series of books about the Murry and O'Keefe families."

It's been awhile since I've read it, but if memory serves, A Wrinkle In Time is not really a time-travel novel—although its later sequel, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, is.

[cmyk]

I found The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman to be a lot of fun.

[BrassyPhrase]

Making History by Stephen Fry. (Who knew actors could write books that aren't about the people they've slept with!?) All of his books are pretty good.

Making History centers around the idea "What if you kept Hitler from every being born?" The consequences are maybe not what you thought. I've recommended it to several people and have gotten the response "I will always read any book you recommend from now on."

[Ellen Cherry]

I have enjoyed The Eight by Katherine Neville and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. And to a lesser extent, Timeline by Michael Crichton.

[Keweenaw]

I came in to suggest the following, all of which have already been mentioned.

1. The Anubis Gates
2. Replay
3. Lest Darkness Fall
4. The first few books of the Conrad Stargard series. The later ones get a little weird.

[Elendil's Heir]

Another vote for Ken Grimwood's Replay. Very good stuff.

Peter David's Imzadi is hands-down my favorite Star Trek time travel book (and there've been many). I was grinning like an idiot for the last third or so.

In Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, the involuntary and uncontrollable time-travelling of a young man wreaks havoc upon his decades-long romance with his eventual wife. More a tragic romance than sf, but still very good.

Jerry Yulsman's Elleander Morning does some clever things with the whole go-back-in-time-to-kill-Hitler concept. The mechanics of time travel are left a little vaugue (OK, a lot vague), but it's a nifty story.

Robert Heinlein's 1959 short story "—All You Zombies—" is also a must-read. Temporal paradoxes galore.

Originally Posted by kayaker

...There is also one other book that I think you will like, but it doesn't get published until 2019, unfortunately.

I have already/will read that seven years from now/yesterday.

[silenus]

For a lighter take on things, try Harry Harrison's The Technicolor Time Machine. It involves Hollywood discovering time travel.

[Tom Scud]

I'm going to do my usual for these sorts of threads and (1) second/third/whatever the recommendation of The Anubis Gates and (2) throw in a recommendation of All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle as something to read after you've read four or five other time travel books and think everything has been done.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by delphica

Jack Finney's Time and Again and From Time to Time, he also has some short story collections that are mostly time travel themed.

They are very good.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Originally Posted by delphica

Jack Finney's Time and Again and From Time to Time, he also has some short story collections that are mostly time travel themed.

Also by Jack Finney but not as good (IMO) as Time and Again, but still not bad: Marion's Wall.

[MacSpon]

Whole-hearted agreements with:

• Replay
• The Anubis Gates
• The Technicolor Time Machine
• Time and Again (but I didn't think the sequel, From Time to Time, was nearly as good)

[oreally]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

I have enjoyed The Eight by Katherine Neville and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. And to a lesser extent, Timeline by Michael Crichton.

I have heard good things about the first 2 (by the same person, interestingly...heyy who are you really ). But with all due respect, I must disagree strongly with that last recommendation. One of the worst, most uninteresting books I have ever read (well almost read; finally about 2/3 of the way through I finally admitted I was wasting my time), and I love time travel stuff.

Wrinkle in Time I read as a teen and liked it but think it was best served as a book for kids/teens - but then it's been a long time, just my recollection.

I wish I had something to add but you all have taken mine. Although I'm curious about some of the others, thx for the suggestions....

[Jaymosch]

Since no one has mentioned it, I enjoyed Octavia Butler's Kindred.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Robert Heinlein's 1959 short story "—All You Zombies—" is also a must-read. Temporal paradoxes galore.

Definitely a must read.

Millennium by John Varley (snipped because I hadn't read the other two)
The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein

Also must reads. Varley wrote a short story, "Air Raid", and expanded it into Millennium, and then turned it into a movie script. The novel's chapters are almost all titles of previous time travel short stories or novels, and the book assumes that you are familiar with time travel concepts.

[tanstaafl]

A bit off the beaten track, but I liked The Fall of Chronopolis by Barrington J. Bayley.

[Little Nemo]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

Varley wrote a short story, "Air Raid", and expanded it into Millennium, and then turned it into a movie script. The novel's chapters are almost all titles of previous time travel short stories or novels, and the book assumes that you are familiar with time travel concepts.

Nitpick, but I think the actual order was he wrote the short story, expanded and adapted that into a movie script, and then adapted the script into a novel.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Jaymosch

Since no one has mentioned it, I enjoyed Octavia Butler's Kindred.

See post #14 - RealityChuck gives it a recommendation. I enjoyed it, a lot, but don't think of it as a classic Time Travel book as much as an exploration of African-American identity. It is no more or less a TT book than some of the others mentioned, but it feels more serious intent vs. a cool thought-provoker like Replay.

And, per Snowboarder Bo, in movie format nothing beats Primer. Love that movie.

[Jaymosch]

Originally Posted by WordMan

See post #14 - RealityChuck gives it a recommendation. I enjoyed it, a lot, but don't think of it as a classic Time Travel book as much as an exploration of African-American identity. It is no more or less a TT book than some of the others mentioned, but it feels more serious intent vs. a cool thought-provoker like Replay.

Oops, that's what I get for posting at work.

[luv2draw]

The Time Traveler's Wife - guy travels through time abruptly and winds up at different random points in his life (and the people he knows). LOVED IT!

They turned it into a movie which was pretty good too.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by luv2draw

The Time Traveler's Wife - guy travels through time abruptly and winds up at different random points in his life (and the people he knows). LOVED IT!

They turned it into a movie which was pretty good too.

See post 24. I really liked the book but was disappointed in the movie, FWIW.

[Drunky Smurf]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold pretty much covers it all.

Originally Posted by cmyk

I found The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman to be a lot of fun.

I enjoyed both of these very much and it was from this board I learned of them.

[JoelUpchurch]

You might like to check out the Paratime stories of H Beam Piper. All of them except Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen are out of of copyright. I actually have them all on paperback, but downloading them and reading for free on my tablet is actually better. You don't lose your page when you fall asleep.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Scienc...Bookshelf%29#P

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

Nitpick, but I think the actual order was he wrote the short story, expanded and adapted that into a movie script, and then adapted the script into a novel.

You might be right about "Air Raid"/Millennium. I know that the short story came out first, and then the novel, but I wasn't quite sure where the movies script came in.

John Varley also wrote Mammoth, which I enjoyed, but I don't think it's quite epic.

[mnemosyne]

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis

[DiggitCamara]

Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut might join this list.

[Tangent]

I'm not a big fan of Dean Koontz, but I did enjoy Lightning.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis

Great story.

Also, I just remembered A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by Enright3

A Wrinkle In Time.
To quote from Wikipedia: "A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy[1] novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962.[2] The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.[3] It is the first in L'Engle's series of books about the Murry and O'Keefe families."

This is an excellent book, but there's no actual time travel anywhere in it. There's a lot of teleportation, but no going into the future or past.

Still, absolutely great read.

[Gretchion]

I love time travel books, and movies as well, so I apreciate all of these great suggestions!

I have one book I loved that I haven't seen listed here, Time Craft. Really enjoyable read, especially if you like Back to the Future type stories.

[DfrntBreign]

I really liked Glimpses by Lewis Shiner. A reviewer called it the "first rock and roll time travel novel", but it is more substantial and thought-provoking than that makes it sound. Or maybe I just liked the idea of what "might have been".

[Meurglys]

Glimpses is excellent!

Also fun is Time Travellers never Die by Jack McDevitt.
Or there's Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock, in which a time traveller goes back to check out the life of Jesus... Set in the same time, but quite different (includes a dinosaur!) is Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel.

[Morgyn]

There's a whole series of time travel books by Kage Baker. They get a little odd towards the end, but they're very good. The first book is In the Garden of Iden.

I was going to suggest A Tale of Time City, but Lynne beat me to it. It's not one of Jones' best books, but anything by her is delightful. And I'll umpteenth recommend The Anubis Gates and All You Zombies.

A Matter of Time, by Glen Cook, is well worth looking into. It's a mystery, but the time travel is crucial to both triggering it and solving it.

For another Star Trek book, try Fallen Heroes, by Dafydd Ab Hugh. I don't normally read books set in commercial universes (they're bad so often), but a friend of mine gave me this and said, "Read it. Some of the stories written by authors who don't create their own worlds are actually pretty good." He was right, too.