# Recommend a time travel book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657 "2012-08-06T20:57:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/61 "2012-09-13T01:21:32Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You’re right about that. Anybody know of any good books in which one or more people from the past visit the modern world of today? (_Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ is the only example I can think of offhand that has any of this, but that’s a movie, not a book.) It’s kind of a cheat because it is technically parallel universes and the future going back to the past but the Novella “Mozart in Mirrorshades” has some of this. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/62 "2012-09-13T02:07:58Z")
I’ve always loved the Time Patrol stories by Poul Anderson. _The Sorrow of Odin the Goth_, part of that series, is my all-time favourite time-travel story. The series mostly consists of short stories and novellas, but it ends with a good-sized novel, _The Shield of Time_. _There Will Be Time_ and _The Dancer from Atlantis_ are other good time-travel stories by Anderson. I’ll add to the recommendations for _Replay_, _Elleander Morning_, _The Door Into Summer_ and _Lest Darkness Fall_, though I think of the latter more as alternate history than time travel. _Doomsday Book_ and _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, by Connie Willis, are also excellent. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/63 "2012-09-13T02:48:23Z")
As a kid I read nothing but SciFi short stories, so I was introduced to time travel with Jack Finney’s short story _The Third Level_ – interesting, fun, and even a little sweet. And _Light of Other Days_ by Bob Shaw. (But only some photons actually time travel…) And if you liked anything about _A Wrinkle In Time_, you’ll be floored by _A Swiftly Tilting Planet_. It’s a much more mature sequel, and I ended up taking notes to keep all the time/plot twists straight. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/64 "2012-09-13T11:07:50Z")
In [The Watch](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/dennis-danvers/watch.htm) by **Dennis Danvers** , radical [Pyotr Kropotkin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin) is brought forward from post-revolutionary Russia to the USA in 1999! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/65 "2012-09-13T14:35:08Z")
Another vote for HG Wells “The Time Machine”. Seriously, he wrote this in 1895-when Einstein was an obscure patent clerk in Switzerland. Heinlein’s “The Door Into Summer” is a good (if dated) look at a one-way time trip. ---
**Author:** ![HansH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@HansH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HansH)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/66 "2012-09-14T17:54:12Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You’re right about that. Anybody know of any good books in which one or more people from the past visit the modern world of today? (_Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ is the only example I can think of offhand that has any of this, but that’s a movie, not a book.) Time After Time but I did not like the book to much. If you want a movie Les visiteurs (The Visitors) a good French comedy about medieval people traveling in our time. ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/67 "2012-09-15T08:38:01Z")
\*\*Devil on the Road \*\*by Robert Westall ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/68 "2012-09-16T22:36:47Z")
C.M. Kornbluth wrote an interesting one, about a physicist at the Los Alamos laboratory (WWII)-he gets put into a trance by a Navajo shaman, and travels to a future (where Japan and Germany have won the war). His time travel/dream is quite unpleasant …fortunately, he wakes up in his own time. I forget the title. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/69 "2012-09-17T14:52:51Z")
> [@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.) Not that it truly matters if you didn’t like the book, but it’s worth pointing out that All Clear was the second of two volumes, and I can’t imagine reading it without first having read its predecessor (Black-Out), since they’re essentially two halves of one long novel. I love Connie Willis. In addition to those two and To Say Nothing of the Dog (which is one of my all-time favorites), her Doomsday Book is also an excellent story with a time-travel premise. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/70 "2012-09-17T15:11:47Z")
I just skimmed and didn’t see Michael Chriton’s _Timeline_ mentioned. I really enjoyed that book a lot. MUCH better than the movie. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/71 "2012-09-17T15:47:04Z")
No love for “To Say Nothing of the Dog” by Connie Willis? 🙂 Oops…2 posts above… ---
**Author:** ![HansH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@HansH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HansH)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/72 "2012-09-21T07:12:27Z")
One of the 2 books I recommended is now for free on Amazon. Io Deceneus Journal of a time traveler > **[Amazon.com: Io Deceneus : Journal of a Time Traveler - A Science Fiction Fantasy...](https://www.amazon.com/Io-Deceneus-Journal-Traveler-Universe-ebook/dp/B008EJTPHI)** > > Io Deceneus : Journal of a Time Traveler - A Science Fiction Fantasy Adventure (The Other Side Book 1) - Kindle edition by Armas, Florian. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note... This is the book presentation: It is never easy to be a “dreamer” in search of things real life cannot provide, wandering in an imaginary existence that never becomes reality. On a quiet evening, a Gate is taking human shape and links him to a Faction, the final form of social evolution in a galaxy where all civilizations are human-like except for the Erins -a mysterious experiment representing the next level of intelligent life in a self-conscious Universe. A galaxy where Earth, enslaved by a ruthless financial system, is considered an example of failed civilization. He has to help a far away culture in its evolution from the Paleolithic to Industrial Age. Many Factions disappeared in Universe’s past enhancements and they want now to control the Erins. When they can’t, they go for destruction, stealthily, as they are not allowed to directly interfere. Rogue Factions are carefully preparing a war of annihilation. It is hard to start conflicts with peaceful people, so their society and economy have to be undermined. Earth’s “model” is used for subversion and he is the best choice to counter it. And he will become Deceneus, the “far sighted”, challenging the reader to consider the subject of free will and winding timelines. The book was edited by: WritersServices (Macmillan) Writers and Artists (Bloomsbury) ---
**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:** [September 21, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/73 "2012-09-21T07:25:21Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > No love for “To Say Nothing of the Dog” by Connie Willis? 🙂 > > Oops…2 posts above… I have lots of love for that book, I re-read it every now and then. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/74 "2012-09-21T09:49:10Z")
> [@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.” I actually thought that AWiT would be a time travel story as a kid, and, when it wasn’t, I gave up and read a “better” book, a book written for my age that I absolutely do not remember. To be fair, though, the last three books in that series involve time travel proper, though not in any scientific sense. _Many Waters_, _A Swiftly Tilted Planet_, and _An Acceptable Time_ all involve time travel. Of the three, I prefer _Many Waters_, which is about Sandy and Denys being sent back to the time of Noah. (L’Engle seemed to become more and more explicitly Christian as the series progressed.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/75 "2012-09-21T11:18:34Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I have lots of love for that book, I re-read it every now and then. Are you actually re-reading it, or, . . .no, I’ve said too much already. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/76 "2012-09-21T11:22:23Z")
> [@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.) The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers. Lightning, by Dean Koontz. I also liked Replay, by Ken Grimwood, which has an unusual take on “time travel”. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/77 "2012-09-21T11:25:34Z")
> [@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 Up the Line and The Door Into Summer, I’ll second. Haven’t read the other two. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/78 "2012-09-21T11:30:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You’re right about that. Anybody know of any good books in which one or more people from the past visit the modern world of today? (_Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ is the only example I can think of offhand that has any of this, but that’s a movie, not a book.) Could be a little hard to find, since it came out in the 70s and apparently wasn’t that big, but The Mirror, by Marlys Millhiser. Combines “present-day person goes to the past” and “person from the past comes to the present” rather interestingly. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/79 "2012-09-21T12:52:20Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > C.M. Kornbluth wrote an interesting one, about a physicist at the Los Alamos laboratory (WWII)-he gets put into a trance by a Navajo shaman, and travels to a future (where Japan and Germany have won the war). His time travel/dream is quite unpleasant ..fortunately, he wakes up in his own time. > I forget the title. “Two Dooms” [http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10452](http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10452) ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657/80 "2012-09-21T13:37:25Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I have enjoyed _The Eight_ by Katherine Neville and _Outlander_ by Diana Gabaldon. And to a lesser extent, _Timeline_ by Michael Crichton. Another vote for Outlander - easily one of my favourite books of all time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-time-travel-book/630657.md?page=5)