# Your Favorite "Time Travel" Novel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2002, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010 "2002-11-16T08:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [November 16, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/21 "2002-11-16T18:26:43Z")
I second Mark Twan’s **A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** , follwed very close behind by L. Sprgue de Cmp’s classic **Lest Darkness Fall** , arguabl th best of its kind ver. It as recently been republished with David Drake’s **To Bring the Light** , which has the distinxcion of being the only time travel story I know of where someone from he past (circa 400 AD) gets sent even _further_ into the past. I also recomens Robert Silverburg’s **Up the Line** , which delves into Time Travel into the Byzantine Empire, James Hogan’s **The Proteus Project** , and Leo Frankowski’s novels. Robert L Forward’s **Time Master** is a time-travel novelk by a physicist who has looked into time travel. Also a guarded note about Michael Crichton’s **Timeline**. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/22 "2002-11-16T18:47:09Z")
I think the two Heinlein pieces are no longer than short stories. A novella has to be at least 15,000 words long. One of the best recent time travel novels is John Kessel’s _Corrupting Dr. Nice_. The first section takes place in 1st century Jerusalem and layers modern time travelers over the lives of those who really lived there at that time and also over the lives of those who work for the time travel business and have been co-opted and corrupted by future ways. It’s as good an illustration of what time travel would do to a culture as anything in sf. The rest of the book doesn’t quite live up to that, but there are a number of fun scenes concerning an apatosaur brought as a pet to suburban Connecticut. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/23 "2002-11-16T18:56:18Z")
Nobody mentioned [The Dancers at the End of Time](http://www.sfsite.com/09b/dan41.htm) by Michael Moorcock. I have to go re-read it every couple of years. Time travel isn’t really a big part of the events of the plot, but did set up the situation. And don’t forget [The Big Time](http://www.sfsite.com/09b/dan41.htm) by Fritz Leiber. I’ll of course second _Connecticut Yankee_ and _The Time Machine_. (That last scene on the beach still shakes me up.) Both of those Connie Willis books are great too. I just started _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, and would suggest the (non-time-travel) _Three Men in a Boat_ by Jerome K. Jerome if you like the boating scenes. Yes, that’s a spoiler! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/24 "2002-11-16T19:21:20Z")
**If I Never Get Back** by Daryl Brock which is about a guy who travels back to the 1890’s and end up playing with the Cinncinatti Reds of that time period and meets Samuel Clemens. Very entertaining so rush on out and get it at your local bookstore or library. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/25 "2002-11-16T21:22:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*It’s out of print, but if you can find it, I highly recommend _ **The Ivanhoe Gambit** _ by Simon Hawke. It’s the first book in the “Time Wars Adventure Series” which was up to 8 or 9 books I think, before Hawke quit writing them. I quit reading them after about the third or four book since he killed Lucas Priest who was the main character up until that point. \*\* It ended up at 12 novels. A fun read and you might really want to go and find the later books if that is the only reason you dropped the series and you were enjoying it up until then. Remember, we are talking time travel here. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/26 "2002-11-16T21:42:59Z")
I’d vote fro **The Time Ships** by Steven Baxter. It’s a re-write of _The Time Machine_ but with modern physics thrown in. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/27 "2002-11-16T23:19:12Z")
Didn’t Ray Bradbury write a short story about an exhibit where you went back in time and were supposed stay within a certain path but some dude stepped on a bug (Butterfly?) and when he went back the alphabet was different? Isn’t that where butterfly effect came from? I can’t remember the story. ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/28 "2002-11-16T23:20:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tapioca Dextrin \* > \*\*I’d vote fro **The Time Ships** by Steven Baxter. It’s a re-write of _The Time Machine_ but with modern physics thrown in. \*\* Not entirely true. It’s a _sequel_ to the Time Machine by Stephen Baxter. It was reasonably good on it’s own, but it didn’t follow well from the Time Machine - the perspectives in the two are so different that it detracts a lot from the Time Ships IMO. I’ll add yet another vote for ‘To Say Nothing of the Dog’ ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/29 "2002-11-16T23:23:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KidCharlemagne \* > \*\*Didn’t Ray Bradbury write a short story about an exhibit where you went back in time and were supposed stay within a certain path but some dude stepped on a bug (Butterfly?) and when he went back the alphabet was different? Isn’t that where butterfly effect came from? I can’t remember the story. \*\* Yes. The men were going back in time to kill dinosaurs who were very close to death anyway. That way the time line wouldn’t be contaminated While they were shooting at a T-Rex who was about to have a tree fall on top of him, one of the hunters stepped on a butterfly. They go back to the present, find the language has changed and a dictator has taken over. As punishment, they sent the hunter back in time to the dinosaur age. I can’t remember the title either. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2002, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/30 "2002-11-17T00:04:13Z")
The Ray Bradbury story is **The Sund of Thunder**. I think that L. Sprague de Camp wrote the similarly-themed \*\* A Gun for Dinosaur\*\* because he didn’t lik the way Bradbury andled time travel. _Much, much_ later, de Camp wrote more stories using the same characters and published it as a book, **Rivers of Time**. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/31 "2002-11-17T00:33:15Z")
**Lynn Bodoni** answers one of my posts. I need a little time (!) to let that one settle. I am honored, Lynn. I’ll get a copy of _Millennium_ ASAP! I also appreciate the list y’all provided, and I must say I’m looking forward to many winter nights curled up in bed and taking a trip backward in time! Also looking forward to my re-read of _Connecticut Yankee…_! Thanks for the reminder! 😃 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![c\_carol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@c\_carol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_carol)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/32 "2002-11-17T00:56:20Z")
Another good O.S. Card novel with a really different take on time-travel is _Enchantment_. It’s more fantasy than sci-fi, though. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/33 "2002-11-17T01:16:45Z")
In addition to time _travel_ stories I like alternate history stories. You know, what if something had happened differently, how would it affect history? My favorite author of this type of story was H. Beam Piper, who died over forty years ago. His Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen was booklength, most of the rest were short stories or novellas. The best short story was “He Walked Around the Horses.” It was based on the Charles Fort story about the British diplomat who disappeared in Germany early in the nineteenth century. If you know your history, the last line of the story will be very funny/ironic. Go and find it if you can. Anybody else like Piper? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/34 "2002-11-17T01:27:50Z")
Fuzzys Rule. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/35 "2002-11-17T01:35:21Z")
Here’s an obscure one I liked: Elleander Morning by some guy whose last name begins with a “Z” (my books aren’t yet unpacked after my recent move so I can’t double-check). It’s not a scienc-ey time travel book – more of a fantasy, I guess, and mixed with a lot of alternative history. Basically the woman in the title goes back in time to kill Hitler and stop WWII. But it’s a whole lot more complicated than that. The modern scenes set in a world where WWII didn’t take place are particularly interesting. Very good read. Jess ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/36 "2002-11-17T02:13:03Z")
Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove. Even the cover alone catches the eye ; Robert E Lee holding an Ak47. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/37 "2002-11-17T02:16:17Z")
No mention of Kevin Grimwood’s Replay? That’s kind of surprising. Although it may not be technically considered a time travel story in that the main character didn’t really have control over the time travel element in the story. The aforementioned Pastwatch, Time and Again, From Time to Time, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court are all great reads as well. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/38 "2002-11-17T02:41:33Z")
More props to Beam Piper. Hell, I once fronted a band called The Beam Pipers. And also to Turtledoves GotS. “Give it it’s proper name, General Lee. It is an AK-47.” ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/39 "2002-11-17T03:53:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by delphica \* > \*\*Jack Finney is the man for you. _Time and Again_ is about a man who goes back to NYC in the 1880s, and has the added bonus of being illustrated with nifty period reproductions. Finney does a great job of combining the mystery plot elements with fascinating little tidbts about the differences in day-to-day life that surprise the time traveller. The sequel, _From Time to Time_ is also pretty decent, although the plot is a little more stereotypical. \*\* I’d also recommended his book of non-fiction “Forgotten News,” in which he discusses things he picked up while doing research for Time and Again. Half of the book is about a notorious “Crime of the Century” that was played out in the pages of the newspapers of the day. He actually managed to find the house the murder took place in, looking remarkably the same considering it took place about 150 years before. ---
**Author:** ![DarkWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@DarkWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkWriter)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/40 "2002-11-17T03:54:27Z")
_Lightning_, by Dean Koontz. A woman’s “guardian angel” is actually a time traveler who is in love with her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010.md?page=3)