# Time Travel in fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240 "2025-06-05T18:00:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 13
**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:** [July 26, 2026, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/241 "2026-07-26T18:20:31Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Years ago I read a short story with the idea that travel between alternative universes is so easy that people travel frequently from one to another without even noticing the transfer. “For a Foggy Night”, by Larry Niven. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/242 "2026-07-26T18:54:01Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Years ago I read a short story with the idea that travel between alternative universes is so easy that people travel frequently from one to another without even noticing the transfer. That’s why your keys are in your pocket when you wake up, but you distinctly remember having left them on the hook in the kitchen. Or the big branch that landed on your front lawn during yesterday’s storm is still attached to its tree. [The Forest of Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forest_of_Time). There was also a sequel short story as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/243 "2026-07-26T19:05:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And occasionally, you travel to a reality where there’s some really big difference, like Nelson Mandela dying in prison. One day, I hope I transfer to the universe where the “alternate” engine to _Big_ is the real ending. I’d like to see it. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/244 "2026-07-26T19:05:40Z")
Maybe in one universe it was Niven’s Foggy Night short story, and in another it was Forest of Time ---
**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:** [July 26, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/245 "2026-07-26T20:12:07Z")
Thank you! I knew it wasn’t “All the Myriad Ways…” but I couldn’t remember the title of the other one. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/246 "2026-07-26T22:01:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > “For a Foggy Night” That sounds familiar – probably is the one I’m looking for. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The Forest of Time Definitely not it, but I want to read it. Thanks for the suggestion! Now to find copies of them. . . . ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/247 "2026-07-27T02:33:01Z")
On the contrary, there was a story I believe called “Infinite Resources” where a man discovers that he can jump to an alternate universe but only by consuming every erg of energy in the one he leaves. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/248 "2026-07-27T02:36:17Z")
There’s a story about a guy who travels in time by using every bit of energy in the universe - he travels back 18 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/249 "2026-07-27T14:05:06Z")
You know, **Andy\_L** , I had never really thought of that. I suppose that if you want to travel 18 minutes, you would need to reverse the entropy of the entire universe by 18 minutes…which is a hell of a lot of entropy to reverse. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/250 "2026-07-27T14:07:03Z")
Is it a horror story, with him realizing that he and everyone around him only have 18 minutes left before being sucked dry? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/251 "2026-07-27T14:10:07Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Oh, there are a zillion (technical term in alternate universe physics) universes that split off from the Mirror Mirror one. This also works in H. Beam Piper’s first “Paratime” story. People who travel from his Prime timeline and return find a “broadening of the bands”, where their original Prime timeline has continued to split while they were away. The longer they’re away, the more alternate timelines they find, and from their point of view it doesn’t really matter which one they choose to call home when they get there. Of course, this has huge implications that cause a myriad of other problems, so he just kind of dropped it for his later Paratime stories. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/252 "2026-07-27T14:24:26Z")
It’s from the point of view of a guy who meets the time traveler in the past. “18 minutes” is the punch line. You can read it here (2 pages) > **[Worlds of IF (July 1966) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet...](https://archive.org/details/1966-07_IF/page/76/mode/2up)** > > (Contents information excerpted from The Internet Speculative Fiction Database) Art:The Hour Before Earthrise (Part 1 of 3) by Gray Morrow Bircher by Jack... ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/253 "2026-07-27T14:42:17Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > It’s from the point of view of a guy who meets the time traveler in the past. “18 minutes” is the punch line. Oh man, that’s depressing. But not for the reasons you’d think. You see, I wrote what I thought was an original, clever time travel story. It had a similar denouement. I thought it was…pretty good. Now I see it is just derivative. I’d even read that one linked before! Must have been percolating in my subconscious. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240/254 "2026-07-27T14:45:24Z")
Sorry about it. It happens to the best of us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-in-fiction/1019240.md?page=12)