# Which time travel book should I read next? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756 "2003-05-07T20:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jack\_Ketch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Jack\_Ketch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Ketch)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/1 "2003-05-07T20:49:37Z")
Recently, I have read several time travel novels and I love the genre. But, now I’m at a loss. I’m not sure what to read next. So, check out a list of what I’ve read so far and tell me what else is good. Feel free to opine about time travel books in general, too. What’s the best one ever. I’ve read: The Time Machine - H G Wells Time & Again - Jack Finney Timeline - Michael Crichton 1632 - Eric Flint Replay - Ken Grimwood Crucifixion Conspiracy - Jeffrey Jacobs ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Ketch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Jack\_Ketch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Ketch)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/2 "2003-05-07T20:52:44Z")
Oh, I’ve also read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/3 "2003-05-07T20:59:30Z")
I was going to suggest Time and Again. He has a short story about a train station (The Third Level?) and _The Woodrow Wilson Dime_. ---
**Author:** ![jeanster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc348/32.png) [@jeanster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeanster)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/4 "2003-05-07T21:02:36Z")
Here’s a [list](http://www.webrary.org/kids/jbibspace.html) you might find helpful. It’s juvenile fiction, but you might still enjoy some of these. And here’s another [list](http://www.cvil.wustl.edu/~gary/SF/time_books.html). ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/5 "2003-05-07T21:02:59Z")
Well, this is a coincidence. As I sit here at the computer the sequel to 1632 , titled not surprisingly 1633, is on the desk with me. It’s pretty good too, and there is supposed to be another out sometime. Of course it’s more alternative history, but it’s still fun. Have you read Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague DeCamp? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/6 "2003-05-07T21:07:35Z")
How about Connie Willis? I’ve read two of hers and they were pretty good. Doomsday Book is medieval (and strangely relevant given SARS) and To Say Nothing of the Dog is Victorian. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/7 "2003-05-07T21:07:48Z")
How about _Doomsday Book_ by Connie Willis? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Ketch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Jack\_Ketch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Ketch)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/8 "2003-05-07T21:32:33Z")
Thanks for the suggestions. Baker, I started to read 1633. I just haven’t finished it yet. I guess it’s time travel since the town went back in time. Of course I love alternative history too. Looks like two votes for Doomsday Book. I’ll probably print this thread later and read them all eventually. ---
**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:** [May 7, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/9 "2003-05-07T22:12:19Z")
This [time travel page](http://www.timemachine.esmartweb.com/links.html) has an amazing number of links on the subject, along with a listing of dozens of time travel novels. A few that I like: The Lincoln Hunter (1958) - Wilson Tucker Up The Line (1969) Robert Silverberg The Man Who Folded Himself (1980) - David Gerrold Kindred (1988) - Octavia Butler Corrupting Dr. Nice (1997) - Kessel, John He doesn’t mention Kurt Vonnegut’s Salughterhouse 5, but I consider it to be a time travel novel. And a classic, of course. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/10 "2003-05-07T22:25:49Z")
I recommend the Nantucket series by S.M. Stirling: “Islands in the Sea of Time,” “Against the Tide of Years,” and “On the Oceans of Eternity.” It’s essentially a “Connecticut Yankee” kind of story: By means never disclosed, the entire island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, is suddenly transported in time back to the Bronze Age – 1250 B.C. The Nantucketers have to make the best of this in dealing with the Babylonians, Egyptians, etc. It’s more plausible than “Connecticut Yankee,” because Hank Morgan would have to be some kind of technological superman to industrialize Sixth-Century Britain singlehanded, but a whole town of modern Americans probably would have the collective knowledge necessary to replicate the industrial era in the Bronze Age. Depends on what you’re looking for. Do you want to read about our modern-day heroes having adventures in colorful historic periods, or in an imaginary future; or do you want time-travel fiction that is mainly about time travel as a concept? The latter kind mainly revolves around causal paradoxes. (You really can’t make the story about the technology of time travel, since nobody really knows how time travel would be possible, even in theory, so it’s always used as an unexplained “black box” technology, like Star Trek’s warp drive, antigravity, and force fields.) Since there’s only so much you can say about causal paradoxes, this theme works best in a short story. Check out the classic Heinlein tales, “By His Bootstraps” and “All You Zombies”; Ray Bradbury’s “Sound of Thunder”; Spider Robinson’s “Chronic Offender” and “Half an Oaf”; and L. Sprague de Camp’s “A Gun for Dinosaur.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/11 "2003-05-07T22:33:30Z")
Another excellent “Connecticut Yankee” series is the Conrad Stargard novels by Leo Frankowski. A 20th-century Polish engineer stumbles onto a time machine and accidently gets stuck in medieval Poland. Knowing his history, he calculates he has seven years to organize and indusrialize the country before the Mongols invade. There are seven novels so far – the first is called “The Cross-Time Engineer.” ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/12 "2003-05-07T23:36:20Z")
You’ll never go wrong with **Robert A. Heinlein**. The door into summer. And two excellent shorts: “All you zombies” and “By your bootstraps”, which basically set the standard for time travel paradoxes. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/13 "2003-05-07T23:50:26Z")
Try “The Time Ships” by **Stephen Baxter** , I finished it a couple of weeks ago. He’s picks up the Time Machine, fron the morning after HG Wells left off, but with more hard science. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/14 "2003-05-08T00:02:45Z")
Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove is pretty good, though it lies between alternate history/time traveling… ---
**Author:** ![Payton\_s\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@Payton\_s\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payton_s_Servant)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/15 "2003-05-08T02:43:22Z")
**If I Never Get Back** by Darryl Brock About a man who is transported from the 1990’s to 1869. He joins the Cincinnatti Red Stockings baseball team and has a number of adventures and even meets Samuel Clemens. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/16 "2003-05-08T03:08:09Z")
If Jack Finney’s **Time and Again** appealed to you, he wrote a sequel years later entitled **From Time to Time** , featuring the same characters. Many of his classic time travel short stories were also reprinted in a collection somewhat predictably entitled **About Time**. This book includes “The Woodrow Wilson Dime,” and “I Love Galesburg in the Springtime,” two of his most famous stories, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Grapist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Grapist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Grapist)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/17 "2003-05-08T03:09:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Ketch \* > \*\*Thanks for the suggestions. > > Baker, I started to read 1633. I just haven’t finished it yet. I guess it’s time travel since the town went back in time. Of course I love alternative history too. > > Looks like two votes for Doomsday Book. > > I’ll probably print this thread later and read them all eventually. \*\* this post has been Graped by the Grapist! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Ketch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Jack\_Ketch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Ketch)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/18 "2003-05-08T03:55:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrainGlutton \* > \*\*Depends on what you’re looking for. Do you want to read about our modern-day heroes having adventures in colorful historic periods, or in an imaginary future; or do you want time-travel fiction that is mainly about time travel as a concept? The latter kind mainly revolves around causal paradoxes. (You really can’t make the story about the technology of time travel, since nobody really knows how time travel would be possible, even in theory, so it’s always used as an unexplained “black box” technology, like Star Trek’s warp drive, antigravity, and force fields.) Since there’s only so much you can say about causal paradoxes, this theme works best in a short story. Check out the classic Heinlein tales, “By His Bootstraps” and “All You Zombies”; Ray Bradbury’s “Sound of Thunder”; Spider Robinson’s “Chronic Offender” and “Half an Oaf”; and L. Sprague de Camp’s “A Gun for Dinosaur.” \*\* I suppose I like the interaction between the old and new more that anything. My interest isn’t so much in how time travel could actually work. I also don’t care too much about the concepts or paradoxes and such. To me it’s more about imagining what things would have been like in the past and how a modern person could handle it. Or, what would someone from the past think of today’s world? Would George Washington like the way the United States turned out? Once again, thanks for the ideas. I’ll keep them all for future (ha) reference. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/19 "2003-05-08T04:02:51Z")
Mindkiller-Spider Robinson Time Scout series-Robert Lynn Asprin & Linda Evans The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge (my personal favorite)-Harry Harrison Number of the Beast-Robert A Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756/20 "2003-05-08T04:04:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Ketch \* > **Baker, I started to read 1633. I just haven’t finished it yet. I guess it’s time travel since the town went back in time. Of course I love alternative history too.** Everyone, please tell me if you enjoyed that series. I’m not usually a reader of fiction, let alone time-travel fiction, but I was intrigued because of my love of history. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-time-travel-book-should-i-read-next/173756.md?page=2)