# Time Travel Fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228 "2010-03-29T17:01:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/21 "2010-03-29T19:06:32Z")
**Islands In The Sea of Time** , **Against the Tide of Years** and **On the Oceans of Eternity** by S.M. Stirling are quite good. The basic premise is that Alien Space Bats send the island of Nantucket and surrounding area back in time to 1250BC. Adventures abound. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/22 "2010-03-29T19:30:47Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Alien Space Bats Didn’t Andrew Zimmern eat them on an episode of “Bizarre Foods”? ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/23 "2010-03-29T19:42:35Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Tim Powers’ _The Anubis Gates_, despite having many fantasy elements, has a very neat, tightly-wound set of time-travel paradoxes at its core. And is great fun on top of that. > > (“Ihay endanbray, ancay ouyay iggitday?”) Yep, yep , yep. I’ve read _The Anubis Gates_ several times & it’s not only great writing, but great fun. I’ve often wondered if Stephen King was inspired by Power’s character Horrobin when he created Pennywise the Clown for the novel _It_. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/24 "2010-03-29T19:43:28Z")
Quoth **Cal Meacham** : > [@](#): > > Robert Heinlein’s By his Bootstraps is the ultimate convoluted time-travel stoery, to me. Everyone seems to prefer All You Zombies 9which leaves me cold), but BHB has a complex but consistent series of repeating loops through time. You’re not alone. I think that “All You Zombies” is a good story, and definitely worth a read, but “By his Bootstraps” is the absolute pinnacle of the genre. Speaking of **Cal** , if you’re willing to extend the definition of “literature” to the ultra-micro-short-story, a good one is a sig line he used to use: “Of course”, said my grandfather as he stepped from the time machine and drew his gun, “there’s no paradox if _I_ kill _you_.” And on movies, the best time-travel movie I’ve ever seen is _12 Monkeys_, which really suffered from having a marketing team who had no idea how to pitch a great SF movie. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/25 "2010-03-29T19:46:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Robert Heinlein’s **By his Bootstraps** is the ultimate convoluted time-travel stoery, to me. Everyone seems to prefer **All You Zombies** 9which leaves me cold), but BHB has a complex but consistent series of repeating loops through time. **By his Bootstraps** is a more complete (and earlier) examination, but **All You Zombies** is a little gem, time travel paradox pared down to the absolute minimum. Time travel stories in general leave me cold. They are fine as little gimmicks, like deal with the devil stories, or as a way of combining characters from two times, but in general I don’t like do-overs and time travel not spawning off alternate universes will be an eternal do-over - until we get the situation at the end of Asimov’s **The End of Eternity** that is. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/26 "2010-03-29T20:19:35Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I think one of the most intriguing time travel novels is Replay by Ken Grimwood. Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/27 "2010-03-29T21:09:11Z")
**The Accidental Time Machine** is a fun read. **Flashforward** (the book, not the TV series) is good too, except towards the end…(not a big spoiler) it gets a little too meta-physical/new-agey in a weird way. ---
**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:** [March 29, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/28 "2010-03-29T21:15:47Z")
Regarding time travel movies, there were two based on the works of Catherine L. Moore (with Henry Kuttner) that didn’t get a lot of publicity. In both cases, the short stories were extended, and they took the darker shading off both stories to make them (in my opinion) too damned happy and upbeat. But they’re not run-of-the-mill. One is **The Last Mimzy** (based on _Mimsy were the Borogoves_), which probably got more publicity. The other is **Timescape** (based on _Vintage Season_) ---
**Author:** ![iftheresaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecae2f/32.png) [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/29 "2010-03-29T22:23:56Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > **The Accidental Time Machine** is a fun read. **Flashforward** (the book, not the TV series) is good too, except towards the end…(not a big spoiler) it gets a little too meta-physical/new-agey in a weird way. Yeah, I’d second this. It was a five star book up until the last 30 pages or so, but on balance I still think it was a four-star, even after the end (which almost felt like one of those “oh crap, I have no idea how to end this story” moments). ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/30 "2010-03-29T22:38:49Z")
I’m not a seeker of time-travel stories in particular, but I like it when Heinlein follows the Long family around. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/31 "2010-03-29T23:39:25Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > [Time After Time](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_After_Time_(1979_film)) is hands down the best film, based on the strangest premise, in this genre. I saw it several times in the theatre, but couldn’t get many other people to see it. Ooh it’s nice to see a fellow fan of this fun little gem. Malcolm McDowell was an odd choice for bookish wimp H.G. Wells, at least at that time (not long after _Caligula_), but he really sold it. And David Warner seemed to be having a ball. I really enjoy time travel stories especially when there are paradoxes to resolve, and when the writer manages to pull it off relatively believably. For example, watching the _Back to the Future_ series unfold, and seeing all – or at least most – of the various threads get tied up together in the end. Heck, even _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ did a good job of this. Loved watching the action a second time and seeing everything from a new angle. Speaking of _Time After Time_, recently I wrote a time travel romance where the heroine finds herself manipulated into going back in time to Victorian England, where she joins forces with a Holmesian detective to help solve a Jack-the-Ripper-esque series of murders … and, naturally, might end up one of the victims herself. Standard romance fare but the whole fish-out-of-water element (of a modern character stuck in the past, and/or vice versa) was a hoot to write. That’s also a big element of my enjoyment of time travel stories: the inevitable adjustment period for the traveler, and the practical issues that result from not understanding the technology or culture of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/32 "2010-03-29T23:43:55Z")
Jack Finney wrote two dandies - “Time and Again” and “From Time to Time.” These handled the time travel paradoxes about as well as they can be handled, and were good yarns to boot. He also wrote some lesser ones, such as “The Woodrow Wilson Dime”, but IMHO the two mentioned above were the best. He also wrote “The Body Snatchers”, but that of course had nothing to do with time travel. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/33 "2010-03-30T00:17:23Z")
I prefer time-travel fiction that excludes any paradoxes, etc., and just gives you a fun romp putting the characters into a past or future milieu, whether that involves them just trying to survive, or trying to change things Connecticut-Yankee style. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/34 "2010-03-30T00:32:37Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > **By his Bootstraps** is a more complete (and earlier) examination, but **All You Zombies** is a little gem, time travel paradox pared down to the absolute minimum. I think you have it there. All You Zombies is one of those short stories without many wasted words. By His Bootstraps is great too, but not as succinct. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/35 "2010-03-30T00:40:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Robert L. Forward, who was a physicist and said he wouldn’t believe the Grandfather Paradox until someone could prove it to him, physically or mathematically, wrote **timeMaster** to show what a coherent and logical Timne-Travel story (with the protagonist encountering himself multiple times) would be like. Worth the read. What does it mean to not believe the Grandfather Paradox? Does that mean he didn’t believe it’s _possible_ to kill one’s own grandfather, or that he didn’t believe it’s _impossible_? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/36 "2010-03-30T00:49:04Z")
Quoth **Voyager** : > [@](#): > > …until we get the situation at the end of Asimov’s The End of Eternity that is. Asimov wrote _The End of Eternity_ to prove once and for all that he could write time travel fiction. He failed. It’s not a time travel story; it’s a space travel story, just with the word “space” replaced with “time”, “planet” replaced with “century”, and “time” replaced with “metatime”. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/37 "2010-03-30T01:02:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Quoth **Voyager** :Asimov wrote _The End of Eternity_ to prove once and for all that he could write time travel fiction. He failed. It’s not a time travel story; it’s a space travel story, just with the word “space” replaced with “time”, “planet” replaced with “century”, and “time” replaced with “metatime”. This seems pretty harsh. It’s been a while since I read it, but to my recollection the plot turned on the possibility of changing the past in a way that would make the present impossible. That’s irreducibly time-travelaic stuff. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/38 "2010-03-30T04:20:46Z")
Most of my favourites have already been mentioned, except for Stephen Fry’s _Making History_. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/39 "2010-03-30T05:03:01Z")
Are there any convenient ways to dig up old short stories like the one mentioned here? Do you have to, for instance, buy a complete collection of Heinlein’s short storie to find “By His Bootstraps” or is it available online? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/40 "2010-03-30T05:19:53Z")
You certainly don’t need to get a complete collection; it’s available in the collections _The Menace from Earth_, _Adventures in Time and Space_, and [a few others](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?46440). It is probably also possible to find the complete text online, but since I suspect that any such online find would be illegal, and because I respect Heinlein too much for that, I’m not going to be the one to look for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228.md?page=3)