# 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:** 4
**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 31, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/61 "2010-03-31T20:02:27Z")
> [@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”. I never said it was a _good_ book. One of his worst, up until his last few Foundation books, which seemed to be telling everyone to get off his New York lawn. But as a chemist he knew that things settle into their most stable, lowest energy state, which is exactly what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/62 "2010-03-31T20:14:44Z")
My vote goes to **Slaughterhouse Five**. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/63 "2010-04-03T16:21:07Z")
So many interesting books here - so little time! Since I started this thread recommending a YA time travel series (Gideon trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer) I don’t want to overlook my other favorite YA time travel book, The Sterkarm Handshark, by Susan Price [http://www.amazon.com/Sterkarm-Handshake-Susan-Price/dp/0060289597](http://www.amazon.com/Sterkarm-Handshake-Susan-Price/dp/0060289597) ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/64 "2010-04-03T23:02:09Z")
Connie Willis has a new one out, _Blackout_, set during the London Blitz. Be warned that it is only the first half of the book; the sequel, _All Clear_ will be out in the fall. There’s also _Time Travellers Never Die_ by Jack McDevitt. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/65 "2010-04-30T04:40:23Z")
Keith Laumer’s “Dinosaur Beach” is all about the problems of time travel and the problems that can be caused when you try to fix the problems you’ve caused. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/66 "2010-04-30T13:27:29Z")
Diana Gabaldon writes some excellent time travel/historical fiction. That reminds me, I wonder where **Claire Beauchamp** has been lately. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/67 "2010-04-30T13:32:35Z")
I hate time travel in books and movies. They almost never handle it right, and it’s best left out as a plot device. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/68 "2010-04-30T13:34:54Z")
I’m really liking Robert Aspirin and Linda Evan’s **Time Scout** books. Neatly plotted with interesting characters and situations. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/69 "2010-04-30T19:29:13Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > “Outlander” (and sequels “Drums of Autumn” and “Voyager”) is still one of my my favorite series. > > There are a few weird timeline issues, but overall you just learn to accept them and move on with the story. > [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Diana Gabaldon writes some excellent time travel/historical fiction. That reminds me, I wonder where **Claire Beauchamp** has been lately. Every time I finish one of these books I miss my friends Jamie and Claire. I’ve still got Echo in the Bone to read, but I’m almost afraid to start it for fear of withdrawal after it’s finished. How messed up is _ **that** _? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/70 "2010-04-30T22:56:25Z")
I am blanking on the title but one of my favorite Harlan Ellison stories is one where a man wishes himself back in time and befriends his younger self. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/71 "2010-05-01T01:59:46Z")
> [@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?”) And it’s written in … pig latin? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/72 "2010-05-01T02:14:13Z")
[Somewhere in Time](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081534/) (1980), starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, had a watch I’ve always wondered about. As an old lady, Seymour appeared and handed it to Reeve in the present day. He later went back in time and ended up giving her the watch when she was a young lady. So it was never actually manufactured, but rather just kept looping around through time. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/73 "2010-05-01T03:42:16Z")
“The Chronokinesis of Jonathan Hull” by Anthony Boucher is one that always stuck with me. An accident with a time travel experiment causes the protagonist to move backwards through time, at the rate of one second per second, for the rest of his life. Its exploration of the problems of living backwards are interesting. For example, Hull finds he has no trouble getting food and other necessities. He simply walks into a store, takes what he wants, and leaves. From the shopkeeper’s perspective, he walked into the store carrying a bunch of things, put them on the shelves, and left empty-handed. Weird, but not illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/74 "2010-05-01T11:09:36Z")
> [@Loopus](#): > > “The Chronokinesis of Jonathan Hull” by Anthony Boucher is one that always stuck with me. An accident with a time travel experiment causes the protagonist to move backwards through time, at the rate of one second per second, for the rest of his life. Its exploration of the problems of living backwards are interesting. For example, Hull finds he has no trouble getting food and other necessities. He simply walks into a store, takes what he wants, and leaves. From the shopkeeper’s perspective, he walked into the store carrying a bunch of things, put them on the shelves, and left empty-handed. Weird, but not illegal. This reminds me that there is a reputedly excellent novel (which I haven’t yet read and which I can’t remember the name of) which tells the story of a doctor in a Nazi concntration camp who performs unethical experiments on camp inmates–but the story is told from the point of view of this doctor living through the events _backward in time_. So for example, when the doctor dissects a living patient and thereby kills him, the doctor as narrator, living the event backwards, reports that he took a dead patient and brought it to life by putting it together. So the whole story is of a doctor in a camp which digs up bodies, brings them in, brings them to life, patches them up, gives them clothes and valuables, and frees them, transporting them to homes that have been prepared for them. I need to get around to reading this. Who remembers the name of this novel? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/75 "2010-05-01T13:17:48Z")
Martin Amis’s “Time’s Arrow”. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/76 "2010-05-01T17:28:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Somewhere in Time (1980), starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, had a watch I’ve always wondered about. As an old lady, Seymour appeared and handed it to Reeve in the present day. He later went back in time and ended up giving her the watch when she was a young lady. So it was never actually manufactured, but rather just kept looping around through time. This one’s problematic, unless you’re really careful about it, because the watch should suffer wear and tear. In order to make it work, you have to either go the “multiple timelines” route, and have it actually manufactured like normal in the “original” timeline, or make it a [Ship of Theseus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus), with each individual component replaced, one at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/77 "2010-05-02T01:30:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > This one’s problematic, unless you’re really careful about it, because the watch should suffer wear and tear. In order to make it work, you have to either go the “multiple timelines” route, and have it actually manufactured like normal in the “original” timeline, or make it a [Ship of Theseus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus), with each individual component replaced, one at a time. Yes, but it was still never manufactured in the first place. After a few hundred or thousand cycles, sure it’ll all be new parts that were, but the originals will still be lying around somewhere or hurtling forward, each in their own time continuum. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/78 "2010-05-02T01:47:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Yes, but it was still never manufactured in the first place. Sure, it could have been. The Seymour that gives Reeve the watch isn’t the same one (same timeline) that he gives it to. Each trip “back” in time is also a shift to a new timeline, thus avoiding all paradox issues. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/79 "2010-05-02T01:48:58Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Sure, it could have been. The Seymour that gives Reeve the watch isn’t the same one (same timeline) that he gives it to. Each trip “back” in time is also a shift to a new timeline, thus avoiding all paradox issues. I’m not buying the “shift” scenario in this case. She gets the watch from him; he gets it from her. Always. It never existed outside of that time loop, and it’s not a new shade of time. ---
**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:** [May 2, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228/80 "2010-05-02T13:59:16Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > I am blanking on the title but one of my favorite Harlan Ellison stories is one where a man wishes himself back in time and befriends his younger self. “One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-fiction/534228.md?page=5)