# Time Travel Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157 "2005-02-21T12:44:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/1 "2005-02-21T12:44:40Z")
Okay, this weekend I had the opportunity to read “The Man Who Folded Himself”, and it was a great quick read. I’ve also read H.G. Well’s book and “A Wrinkle in Time”. So I’m on a sci-fi time travel/multiverse kick lately and I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions for good books along this line. If anyone has any suggestions for books of this nature (or even very well done sci-fi books), please suggest them to me. Thanks, ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/2 "2005-02-21T12:54:09Z")
Haven’t read either of the books you mentioned, but I enjoyed “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” IMO, it was a literary version of “Memento” where your brain hurts trying to put the pieces together. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/3 "2005-02-21T13:30:36Z")
Heinlein novel: _The Door Into Summer_ Heinlein short story: By His Bootstraps ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/4 "2005-02-21T13:33:45Z")
I’ve been working my way through [The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345460944/qid=1108993553/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-1307008-2380766?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) and I highly recommend it. Full of big name authors - Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K Le Guin, etc. There’s a lot of early sci-fi time travel stories included, which are an interesting contrast to some of the more modern ones. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/5 "2005-02-21T13:38:01Z")
[The Doomsday Book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553562738/qid=1108993834/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-2369536-0469555?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Connie Willis. Deals with sending a researcher back in time to the England of the 1300s at the height of the Black Plague. It’s pretty engrossing - at least I found it so. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/6 "2005-02-21T13:50:37Z")
We did a time travel cycle for my bookclub. Time Travelers Wife, To Say Nothing of the Dog and The Eyre Affair. Brainiac4 will point out that The Eyre Affair isn’t much of a time travel book, though there is time travel in it. All were really good books. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/7 "2005-02-21T14:02:45Z")
Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny is pretty fun. It’s a road through time; you can find it if you know where to look. Different exits take you to alternate histories and 1 mile = 1 year. The protagonist, Red, travels the road in a Ford pickup looking for the exit to the timeline where the Greeks won at Marathon. He’s always thought the Greeks should have won at Marathon. If it’s something bleak you’re looking for, I’d recommend The Dechronization of Sam Magruder, a novella by paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson. The story of this man displaced into the Cretaceous is made known in the 23rd century because his stone-tablet diary is found in some very old strata. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/8 "2005-02-21T14:03:39Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Haven’t read either of the books you mentioned, but I enjoyed “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” IMO, it was a literary version of “Memento” where your brain hurts trying to put the pieces together. Actually I have the Time Traveler’s Wife, but I haven’t read it. I lent it to my mother and she’s been reading it… ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/9 "2005-02-21T14:35:27Z")
Hmm… The problem with asking for time travel books is that you’re going to get a very varied range of stories. I’ve yet to read The Time Traveler’s Wife, but it certainly sounds interesting - but that seems to be more of a romance novel, disjointed in time. Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book is more about human reactions to epidemics, than time travel, from where I’m sitting. Her To Say Nothing of the Dog, is more a send up of Late Edwardian manners than anything else - great fun, but while time travel is central to the story, it’s not really _about_ time travel. Harry Turtledove’s The Guns of the South is an alternate history of the US Civil War, aided by time travelers, but it’s really looking at the causes and effects of the Civil War, not time travel. Then there’s S.M. Stirling’s Island in the Sea of Time where modern day Nantucket, and the USCG’s Eagle, are sent back to about 1200 BC. No further time travel takes place in that story, just people trying to surivive a disaster. Nor is there any further time travel in Eric Flint’s 1632 books. These are a couple of my favorite books that include time travel, but none of them are really what I’d call ‘time travel’ stories. So, take the advice for what it’s worth. And good reading! ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/10 "2005-02-21T14:44:41Z")
‘Dinosaur Beach’ by Keith Laumer. I remember it was good even though I normally don’t like books that deal with time travel. [Oddessy](http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200203/0743435273.htm?blurb) ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/11 "2005-02-21T15:17:15Z")
I’ve enjoyed - Asimov’s _The End of Eternity_ - old fashioned but cute - Paul Hogan’s _Thrice Upon a Time_ - more dealing with time communication. I liked the science aspect and a nice love story - Heinlein’s _Time Enough for Love_ - even with Heinlein’s quirky sexual aspects. But similar to what **OtakuLoki** mentioned, this doesn’t have that much time travel but instead a series of ‘experience stories’ with a little time travel thrown in - I enjoyed Willis’ _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, but not enough to want to read anything else by her ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/12 "2005-02-21T15:23:29Z")
My favorite site on the subject, although it hasn’t been updated in a while. [The Time Machine Links](http://www.timemachine.esmartweb.com/links.html). ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/13 "2005-02-21T15:54:55Z")
Time & Again, Jack Finney. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/14 "2005-02-21T17:26:49Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > If it’s something bleak you’re looking for, I’d recommend The Dechronization of Sam Magruder, a novella by paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson. The story of this man displaced into the Cretaceous is made known in the 23rd century because his stone-tablet diary is found in some very old strata. Hey, I’ve read that, but I thought I was the only human being that had. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/15 "2005-02-21T17:36:21Z")
**Replay** by Ken Grimwood – it was different from other time travel stories in that the time travel takes the character back to a younger self, so instead of a 40-year-old man going back as a 40-year-old man, he’s 18 again, with memories intact. Grimwood explores living your life over again, without being sappy or sentimental. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/16 "2005-02-21T18:50:39Z")
_Making History_, by Stephen Fry. In this book, it takes tremendous amounts of energy to move a tiny amount of mass back in time – so, instead of people being sent back, they have to be inventive in order to alter the present. (It’s one of those alternate WWII deals, but it’s not pants.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/17 "2005-02-21T19:06:24Z")
You’re right, **AuntiePam** – **Replay** is one of the great forgotten classics of modern SF. Terrific book. Others: **Millenneum** by John Varley **Slaughterhouse Five** by Kurt Vonnegut **The Anubis Gates** by Tim Powers (highly recommended) **Alternaties** by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (the best pure alternative universe book – since he postulates thousands of them) **Kindred** by Octavia Butler **No Enemy But Time** by Michael Butler Short stories to seek out: “The Men Who Murdered Mohammed” by Alfred Bester “The Bird of Time Bears Bitter Fruit” by George Alec Effinger “Rainbird” by R. A. Lafferty “Hobson’s Choice” by Alfred Bester “Get a Horse!” (aka known as “The Flight of the Horse”) by Larry Niven ---
**Author:** ![furthur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@furthur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furthur)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/18 "2005-02-21T19:16:09Z")
If you can find them, I enjoyed the Conrad Stargard books from Leo Frankowski. The first one was The Cross-time Engineer , I think. There are five in the series all together, although the first three are probably the best. Mrs. Furthur ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/19 "2005-02-21T19:54:57Z")
I was sure someone would already have posted this, but they haven’t, so i’m going to suggest Mark Twain, _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court_. It’s a classic. I would also recommend a fun little book by Clifford D. Simak, called _Catface_. It’s about an alien, stranded on earth, who has the ability to make time travel “roads” that people can use to travel into the past. It’s not an especially deep or philosophical look at time travel, but it’s a fun read an you can get through it in an evening. Actually, after some poking around on the internet, it appears that _Catface_ was also published under the title _Mastodonia_. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157/20 "2005-02-21T19:55:28Z")
Harry Harrison’s **The Technicolor Time Machine**. It’s about a failing movie company that has 2 days to make a new film or they go bankrupt. The use a time machine to go back in time and film the vikings discovering North America to make into a historical drama. L. Sprague DeCamp’s **Lest Darkness Fall** , is about a guy who finds himself back in Roman times and decides to do what he can so the dark ages never happen. Larry Niven’s collection of short stories called **Flight of the Horse**. Most of the stories deal with a guy who goes back in time, but ends up entereing different time lines. In the first story he tries to go back and get a horse but ends up with a unicorn. There’s a couple of stories in the book that have nothing to do with time travel, but they’re entertaining. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-books/291157.md?page=2)