# Books about time travel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556 "2010-12-09T18:17:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/21 "2010-12-09T22:33:40Z")
Pretty much everything I’ve read from S.M. Stirling involves time travel, though usually as a single unexplained event and with all the story in the aftermath. His T2 trilogy starts from the end of that movie and could have made three far better sequels than T2 ended up with. ETA: Watch out for his Change series. It’s good, but shifts from SF into Fantasy midstream. It can be jarring if you aren’t ready for it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/22 "2010-12-09T22:40:34Z")
Eric Flint’s _1632_ and sequels is another one with a single incident of time travel (of an American town and environs, to Germany in 1632) and the rest is dealing with the consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk441](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/76d3ee/32.png) [@Blackhawk441](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackhawk441)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/23 "2010-12-10T03:06:07Z")
> [@](#): > > 'll start with Replay by Ken Grimwood. My favorite time-travel novel to date. Mine, as well. Never heard anyone else talk about it though. Phenominal book. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/24 "2010-12-10T06:57:45Z")
Blackout by Connie Willis The Plot to Save Socrates by Paul Levinson Dr. Futurity by Philip K. Dick ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/25 "2010-12-10T11:50:46Z")
Disappointingly, the vast majority of these recommendations aren’t available for the Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/26 "2010-12-10T13:09:03Z")
_Up the Line_ by Robert Silverberg - it’s about a tour guide working for the Time Service, showing groups of boorish tourists the glories of the rise and fall of Byzantium. Lots of sex, violence and time loops, and one of the most famous last lines in the genre. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/27 "2010-12-10T13:29:59Z")
For “Good Reads” I’d recommend Poul Anderson. _The Corridors of Time_, _The Dancer from Atlantis_ (though that is a one off accident), _There will be Time_, and the _Time Patrol_ series of short stories. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/28 "2010-12-10T13:45:58Z")
_The End of Eternity_ by Isaac Asimov hasn’t been mentioned yet, and it’s very good. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/29 "2010-12-10T13:52:41Z")
> [@](#): > > The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov hasn’t been mentioned yet, and it’s very good. Post #17. And I have to admit, much as I love Asimov, I was bored by it. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/30 "2010-12-10T14:21:29Z")
Gah. I didn’t see it. Someone must have snuck it in there when I wasn’t looking. It’s been a while since I read it, and I was reading or re-reading everything by Asimov that I could get my hands on. ---
**Author:** ![mambocrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@mambocrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambocrow)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/31 "2010-12-10T15:51:57Z")
Here’s two more - “ **Dinosaur Beach** ” by Keith Laumer, and “ **Behold The Man** ” by Michael Moorcock. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/32 "2010-12-10T18:31:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Post #17. > > And I have to admit, much as I love Asimov, I was bored by it. Well, I liked it. More than \*The Stars Like Dust \* anyway, to take another Asimov novel. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/33 "2010-12-10T18:43:16Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > Disappointingly, the vast majority of these recommendations aren’t available for the Kindle. Project Gutenberg has [Fritz Leiber’s](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&query=25421) _The Big Time_, previously mentioned. Plus _No Great Magic_, also set in The Time War; I read this one on its original publication in Galaxy–when I was very young. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/34 "2010-12-10T20:58:00Z")
For amazingly funny (not to say absurdist) time travel, among other things, try the Thursday Next books (read 'em in order) by Jasper Fforde. The first one is THE EYRE AFFAIR. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/35 "2010-12-10T21:01:43Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > _Up the Line_ by Robert Silverberg - it’s about a tour guide working for the Time Service, showing groups of boorish tourists the glories of the rise and fall of Byzantium. Lots of sex, violence and time loops, and one of the most famous last lines in the genre. I second this recommendation. This is a novel that’s specifically about time travel rather than using time travel as a device for some other plot. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/36 "2010-12-10T21:15:31Z")
I really enjoyed _The Time Traveler’s Wife_, too, although it’s by no means your typical sf time travel story. _Replay_ is also fantastic - I spent great chunks of that book just grinning like an idiot. Now that I’m thinking about it again, I want to reread it! _Imzadi_ by Peter David is the best _Star Trek_ time travel book I’ve ever read. Really, really good. (Skip the sequel, though). Jerry Yulsman’s _Elleander Morning_ is a little too sketchy on how its time travel works, but as a story it can’t be beat - a woman who lost a son on D-Day decides to go back and kill Hitler while he’s still a starving artist in Vienna. Fascinating to see how history unfolds instead. Although dated now, John Jakes’s _Time Gate_ isn’t bad (about trying to prevent a presidential assassination through time travel). Good for teens. Two deservedly-classic short stories on the subject: Robert Heinlein’s “-All You Zombies-” and Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/37 "2010-12-10T23:04:46Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > _The Time Traveler’s Wife_, although that may not be exactly what you’re looking for. Also, in that same vein, Diana Gabaldon’s _Outlander_ series. Okay, it’s really about a marriage, so definitely chick-lit; but time travel is a key point, and her research (Scotland, France, and colonial North Carolina in the eighteenth century) is pretty good - if you overlook the Mackenzies wearing metal clan crests in their bonnets, that is. ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/38 "2010-12-10T23:26:16Z")
Ummm, my serial Christmas story for this year: [25 Doors](http://25doors.blogspot.com/). I’m writing it one chapter per day in December until Christmas, so there are holes you could drive a truck through, but I’m enjoying it at least! ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/39 "2010-12-11T00:25:36Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > _The End of Eternity_ by Isaac Asimov hasn’t been mentioned yet, and it’s very good. Agreed; Excellent book. (and thanks to Suranyi, as well). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556/40 "2010-12-11T00:34:22Z")
There are some duplicates but I recommend \*Galileo’s Dream \*by Kim Stanley Robinson _Evolution_ by Steve Baxter. No time travel per se, but Baxter extrapolates primate history from 75,000,000 B.C. to 500,000,000 A.D. \*The Dancer from Atlantis, The Corridors of Time, and There will be Time \*by Poul Anderson. Also, his story “The Man Who Came Early,” is a classic short story. “The Shadow out of Time” by H.P. Lovecraft “The Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury. This is in his collection, _R is for Rocket_, which contains some other wonderful stories “Soldier,” both as short story and teleplay by Harlan Ellison [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-about-time-travel/563556.md?page=3)