# 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:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/101 "2002-11-22T08:25:35Z")
Ach, I am confused now. I have Time and Again by Jack Finney on my bookshelf (at home, alas.) Drawing a blank on the plot of it. I have the story you’re both talking about in an anthology, and I also have a radio adaption of it. [Googling around a bit](http://members.aol.com/jimfnshr/radio/x_minus_one.html) confirms that **Lok** is the one with the functioning memory with regard to the author, and **HTB** correctly remembers the title. Me, I’m just befuddled. > [@](#): > > “Time And Time Again” 1/11/56 \*\*\*\* > I love time travel stories, and this is one of the best. A soldier, about to die, goes back in time to 1945 to prevent the war that leads to his death. Jack Grimes is believable as the boy who wakes up in 1945 and first prevents a single murder in his hometown, then tries to save the world. From a story by H. Beam Piper. I am so embarrassed. Is it possible for senile dementia to set in at 32? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/102 "2002-11-22T08:28:45Z")
Still confused, obviously. :smack: Sorry, **Lok**. May as well point out that the above synopsis makes it sound as though he deliberately goes back in time. It just sorta happens. Now I’m going to go to sleep before I embarrass myself further. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/103 "2002-11-22T12:22:42Z")
I don’t remember the Simak, but the story described is by Piper (th’ kid prevents a murder by removing the firing pin from his dad’s gun). I just re-read it. IIRC, **Time and Again** by Finney was the so-so movie “Somewhere in Time” (where a guy goes back in time by immersing himself in an environment of the time he wants to visit. The guy stays in a hotel room from the 1900s(?) ). Trust me. The one with the miltary guy who goes back in time, ends up in his 14(?) year old self’s body and prevents the murder of a neighbor’s wife _is_ H.Beam Piper. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/104 "2002-11-23T06:31:13Z")
Don’t worry Larry. I just make it a habit to re-read Piper about once every year or so. So I tend to remember his stuff. I believe Fenris is right about the Finney story. Lok ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/105 "2002-11-23T07:12:41Z")
Well, I’m home now, and as an act of contrition I’ve made the radio play available on my webserver. It’s a 5Mb .mp3 file. Be gentle. [Time and Time Again](http://216.232.71.251/~larry/radio/time.MP3), on X Minus One, from the story by H. Beam Piper. Mods, the entire run of X Minus One is now in the public domain, if you’re concerned at all. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/106 "2002-11-23T07:13:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*Whoa! Hold on there! I read that book [_Einstein’s Dreams_] when it came out, mainly because of the positive quote from Salman Rushdie on the back of the book. When I finished the it, I was sorely tempted to send Salman a letter which said, “If you think that’s a great book, you really need to get out more.” \*\* _shrug_ Well I didn’t say that it was everyone’s favorite book… just that I read it, loved it, and have recommended it to many of my friends, who have also read it and loved it. I’m no big fan of Rushdie’s, but I happen to agree with him here. I think _Einstein’s Dreams_ is one of the finest novels written in the last decade. I admit I need to go out more, though I don’t see how that bears on my opinion of the books I’ve read. If anything, “getting out more” would just take away from my reading time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/107 "2002-11-23T07:14:36Z")
f ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/108 "2002-11-23T07:24:39Z")
For cryin, out loud!:smack:That’ll teach me to bring up half-remembered stuff. For the record, **Fenris** is, as usual, absolutely correct. The story is “Time and Time Again” by Piper, copyright 1947, and I have it in the collection **The Worlds of H. Beam Piper** , Ace, ed. by John R. Carr in 1983. Simak wrote **Time is the Simplest Thing** , which of course had nothing to do with time travel. And while we’re on Piper, Carr also edited the collection **Paratime** , which neatly gathered the five non-Kalvan Paratime stories. Ace put that one out in 1981. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/109 "2002-11-23T21:25:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Avalonian \* > \*\*_shrug_ Well I didn’t say that it was everyone’s favorite book… just that I read it, loved it, and have recommended it to many of my friends, who have also read it and loved it. I’m no big fan of Rushdie’s, but I happen to agree with him here. I think _Einstein’s Dreams_ is one of the finest novels written in the last decade. > > I admit I need to go out more, though I don’t see how that bears on my opinion of the books I’ve read. If anything, “getting out more” would just take away from my reading time. 😉 \*\* Ya been whooshed! At the time _Einstein’s Dreams_ was out in hard back, Rushdie was in hiding because of the _fatwa_ against him. So, by saying that he needed to get out more… ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/110 "2002-11-23T21:36:35Z")
I say \* Forever War \* dilation is big enough here to make it de facto time travel, if one-way. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\*And also to Turtledoves GotS. > > “Give it it’s proper name, General Lee. It is an AK-47.” \*\* [nitpick] He says that to a staff officer, not Lee. Fine book, though. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/111 "2002-11-23T23:54:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\* > > IIRC, **Time and Again** by Finney was the so-so movie “Somewhere in Time” (where a guy goes back in time by immersing himself in an environment of the time he wants to visit. The guy stays in a hotel room from the 1900s(?) ). > > \*\* The so-so 1980 movie _Somewhere in Time_ about the guy in the hotel is based on the 1975 Richard Matheson novel _Bid Time Return_ (which was later republished as _Somewhere In Time_ title – I suspect for a movie tie-in, but I’m not sure about that.) _Time and Again_ by Finney is a different book altogether, although the time travel method is similar. To complicate things further, I vaguely think that Finney is mentioned somewhere in the credits for the so-so _Somewhere in Time_ movie. I believe (again, very vague) that the film script (also by Matheson) elaborated on some of the time travel ideas introduced in Finney’s book. So it was like an homage, so to speak, more than a rip-off. But plot-wise (the plot mostly consists of Christopher Reeve mooning around an old hotel), _Somewhere in Time_ is not at all like anything found in any of Finney’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/112 "2002-11-24T02:37:53Z")
You’re right **Delphica** : it _was_ from **Bid Time Return**. But I’m pretty sure about the hotel room made up of 1900s(?) materials as the time-machine being from the Finney book. (Finney rocks) Fenris ---
**Author:** ![luckyloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@luckyloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luckyloo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/113 "2002-11-24T15:04:30Z")
Armageddon: The Musical by Robert Rankin. The best I can describe it as Scott Addams on crack. I had to read it twice before I truly understood the whole thing. Elvis travelling through time with the help of an over-talkative time sprout and those two characters are the most normal thing about the book. Oh man! Thinking about it just reminded me about how much of it I forgot. Now I’m going to have to read it again. ---
**Author:** ![CthulhuSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@CthulhuSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CthulhuSpawn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/114 "2002-11-24T16:40:43Z")
I don’t think anyone has mentioned this one: **The Technicolor Time Machine** by Harry Harrison. It’s a fun read concerning a small studio wishing to make an epic motion picture about the discovery of America by the Vikings. What better way to cut costs and gain realism that to film it on location and in the proper time? ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/115 "2002-11-24T16:46:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CthulhuSpawn \* > \*\*I don’t think anyone has mentioned this one: > > **The Technicolor Time Machine** by Harry Harrison. It’s a fun read concerning a small studio wishing to make an epic motion picture about the discovery of America by the Vikings. What better way to cut costs and gain realism that to film it on location and in the proper time? \*\* and pay off your Viking liaison with a silver mark a month, and a bottle of Jack Daniels a day! ---
**Author:** ![New\_Improved\_Scott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f17d59/32.png) [@New\_Improved\_Scott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Improved_Scott)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/116 "2002-11-24T20:16:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*Thanks **Fenris** , those are they. > > Another vote for Orson Scott Card’s **Pastwatch: The Redemption Of Christopher Columbus** a very unique take on time paradoxes (paradi?) \*\* That one gets my vote too. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/117 "2002-11-24T20:45:38Z")
I would also cautiously recommend _[The Time Trip](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595170838/qid=1038170015/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/002-6792453-5523200?v=glance&s=books)_ by Rob Swigard. Cautiously, because I haven’t read this book since I was a teenager, and I’m not _entirely_ sure that it would have the same pronounced effect on me as an adult. I found it in the public library one morning, sat down, and read it cover-to-cover. I couldn’t tear myself away from it long enough to check it out. I still think of that book from time-to-time, and would like to find another copy of it. The protaganist, dejected after his neglected wife kills herself, turns to hacking to keep himself amused. He stumbles across a database for “Holiday Inn Deathwest”, which, as it happens, turns out to be Hell. He manages to track down his “relocated” wife in ancient Mesopotamia. If I remember correctly, the time-travel is accomplished through the hedonistic research of an organisation called “Multiple Orgasms for Men”, which is referred to by an unfortunate acronym. I wouldn’t swear to that, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/118 "2002-11-24T20:49:29Z")
CthulhuSpawn’s post reminded me of another story about filming events in the past: Tom Sherrard’s classic “E for Effort.” Man, that was a great story (you can find it in Volume 2B of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame – Greatest Novellettes and Novellas). ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010/119 "2002-11-25T04:12:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CthulhuSpawn \* > \*\*I don’t think anyone has mentioned this one: > > **The Technicolor Time Machine** by Harry Harrison. It’s a fun read concerning a small studio wishing to make an epic motion picture about the discovery of America by the Vikings. What better way to cut costs and gain realism that to film it on location and in the proper time? \*\* And anyone who likes this should hunt up a copy of Keith Laumer’s **The Great Time-Machine Hoax** wherein a virtual reality computer decides it’s a damnsite easier to just timetravel these picky bastards back to the Jurassic then to do a “holodeck” full-sensory illusion. Very much the same tone as the Harrison. And Laumer’s **The Time Trap** is about a time-war. With a giant rutabega. For control of reality. Hysterical stuff. Fenris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-time-travel-novel/137010.md?page=5)