I second (third?) (nth?) Replay. However, I found Time and Again totally unsatisfying, for at least two reasons:
(1) Even if one accepts the premise as a given, the way they attempt to time travel makes no sense at all. In particular, they put this guy in an apartment and then he time travels and they aren’t sure if he did or not. Didn’t they consider, gee, I dunno, putting some hidden cameras observing him at all times?
(2) I was driven bonkers by the whole “oh, life was so much better then, people were truly alive, everything was exciting and new” tone, particularly at the end. People have been saying that about the past forever, and it’s almost always total bunk. And very 1970s malaise disillusioned hippie bunk, at that.
Has anyone here read Thrice Upon a Time? It sounded good when I picked it up but I just can’t get into it. Nothing’s happening and I’m bored rigid. I’m trying to decide if I should persevere or quit while I’m ahead
I popped in to suggest the Gabaldon books as possibilities, then saw the recommendations for Time and Again - that takes me back! I read it as a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book, 30+ years ago. I remember in particular the apartment building they used as a transition spot, the Dakota, because IIRC that’s where John Lennon was living when he was murdered. I shall have to borrow this one from the library.
I quite like Thrice Upon a Time, but you’re not missing much if you decide not to continue, although it does pep up a bit. Have you reached the bit about black holes yet? Or, indeed, the first time-messages?
If not, I’d keep going and see if you like how it develops… You can skim the cod physics, though!
Was Replay an expension of a short story or novella?
I read it when it came out in the UK and thought it was really similar to something I had read maybe a year before - but I can’t remember what!
Any ideas what it might have been?
“The World at the End of Time” by Fred Pohl involves a man who by dint of relativity and “cold sleep” manages to nearly out live the universe…
Not exactly a “hop into the machine, pull the lever” type time travel novel, but it does involve a person “visiting” different times.
It is basically “hard science fiction” in that everything has a basis in “speculative” technologies, and contains excelent character development. Victor Sorrocaine (main character) starts out as a prepubescent boy, and winds up as a old man during the course of the book.
There is one other character in the book who “lives” for the entire duration. Wan To, a “sentinent plasmoid” who like to live in stars… “His” point of view on the history and happenings on the universe while it evolves and enters heat death is quite interesting.
I have avoided discussing the actual plot here as it has enough twists and turns to make for good reading, and therefore would take about 11 paragraphs to do any justice to.
Here is a wiki link to an article about the book: (note- spoiler warning, ending revealed)
Yes, that’s his name. I might give it another 50 pages before I make a decision. I hate giving up on a book.
Thanks. I’m already skimming some pretty boring bits. I’ve perserved in the past with other slow-to-get-started books and been rewarded for my patience. Unfortunately, I’ve also pressed on with others and wondered why I bothered. I hope this book falls into the former category.
I completely agree. I heard the same broadcast, immediately reserved the book through my local library, and just finished it - raced through it, really - over the weekend. Very, very good. The scenes where
he first bets successfully on the Kentucky Derby, tries to prevent the Kennedy assassination, and finds Pam as a newly-awakened teenager after inadvertently scaring her and her parents
are pure and unadulterated genius.
*
Elleander Morning* by Jerry Yulsman is also quite good. I saw it blurbed by the SF Paperback Book Club when it first came out in the early Eighties, said to myself, “This sounds like the book for me,” and soon proved myself right! The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is also great. Just read that for my book club.
Timeline- Michael Crichton. Yes the movie was awful and many people seem to hate it
. But give it a try.
“The book follows in Crichton’s long history of combining technical details and action in his books, addressing quantum physics and time travel.”
Not a novel, but a short story. And not time travel per se, but rather concerns a device that allows viewing the past. Still, I recommend Asimov’s The Dead Past for an interesting take on the human consequences of such a device.