What is you favorite Time-Travel book?

I've read quite a few, most but not all are cataloged in my library.
There are a few good ones, a couple great ones.
But the best, hands-down, Time-Travel book I've ever read in my life is Replay by Ken Grimwood.
It's one of the best books (any genre) I've ever read. Period.
Highly recommended, a must-read.
What's the best Time-Travel book you've read?

Hard to say if I have a particular favorite. Neal Asher's Cowl and Richard Garfinkle's All of an Instant are really interesting because of their takes on time travel physics. Robert A. Heinlein's short story All You Zombies (I think that’s the name; I haven’t read it in over 20 years) was fun for the causality being tied in a knot. Kage Baker's novels of The Company are great fun, as was Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog and Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates. Ken Grimwood’s Replay was an interesting read, but not thrilling to me. Books where the ending is “I accomplished nothing but survived and maybe learned something” don’t really thrill me. (highlight to reveal spoiler)

In sheer scope the works of Michael Moorcock probably have no peer. Most of his novels and characters relate to his concept of the multiverse. He wrote what I personally regard as the most distinctive chapter title I've yet come across: "The Quest for Bromley"! His diverse characters include Elric of Melnibone, Corum, Jerry Cornelius and Oswald Bastable plus many more.

Other favourites include H. G. Wells, (of course) who was born in Bromley (as was I hence my comment above), Gregory Benford, specifically Timescape and the Mythago Wood series by Robert Holdstock.

I have no "Best"!
I loved the The Time Traveler's Wife because I'm a sucker for a good love story. :}
Time And Again
The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series by Jasper FForde
The Portable Hole by Tom Holt, which has some time travel and is very funny.

The Time Traveler's Wife is my hands down favorite. Also liked The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue and The Worthy by Will Clark

My message seems to have gone astray!
slothman, I agree that Connie Willis and Tim Powers have written great time travel books. I also like Dave Duncan's trilogy called the Great Game. John Wyndham wrote a book of short stories called the Seeds of Time which introduced me to the genre many years ago.

I loved the Simsons episode where Homer accidentally transforms the toaster into a time travel machine. He travels back to pre-historic times, and his various antics like squashing bugs, or giving a cold to the dinosaurs, change history. One alternate future has Flanders as the ruler of the planet in an Orwellian nightmare. Hilarious.

A small correction, Ken Grimwood's book is Replay, not Reply.
I heartily agree about it.
One of my all-time favorite books, of any kind!

Dan

I also enjoyed Replay a lot, it was an interesting concept. It was a little more focused on the psychological implications than the usual time-travel conceit, and it leaves a lot of things unresolved (*trying not to be too spoilery*) so I can see why it wouldn't work for some.

Connie Willis handles time travel wonderfully in both To Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. The first book is a lot of fun and plays around with the concept of time travel nicely, the second is more thought-provoking and, in the sections dealing with the Plague, horrifying.

I loved the Guardian's of Time series by Marianne Curley which includes The Named, The Dark and The Key. Although they are YA novels I thought they were wonderfully written, especially the first two books in the series. I also enjoyed this author's other time travel book Old Magic.

Foremost for me is Connie Willis. To Say Nothing of the Dog is great book all around.

Didn't Isaac Asimov write a book about a girl (who was a cutter) who traveled through parallel worlds with a horse for a friend? I read it a very long time ago (over 15 years).

One of my favourite time travel books has always been A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley. I read it many years ago and have returned to it with pleasure. I also like Jack Finney's books From Time to Time and the sequel Time and Again

I *loved* To Say Nothing of the Dog. Doomsday Book was also excellent, but heartbreaking. I also love Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, which often feature some time travel as well as alternate-reality shenanigans.

I agree wtih bostonian71 ... To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis are great. The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde are hilarious!

There's a series by Diana Gabaldon which is not sci/fi or fantasy, except as the concept of time travel is fantasy. This series, which starts with the book Outlander, is sometimes, erroneously in my opinion, labeled Romance, but is probably most accurately labeled Historical Fiction.

Time travel sets the saga in motion and from time to time re-enters to either complicate or help the story along.

They are probably my favorite of those books which feature time travel.

Diana Wynne Jones's The Time of the Ghost and The Homeward Bounders both play with time-travel; also A Tale of Time City although I don't like that one as much. Of 'grown-up' time-travel stories, I'd second most of the novels mentioned above.

I first read Michael Moorcock's book The Warlord of the Air back in the early 1970s. It was my first alternate-history/time-travel book that I found, bought and read for myself, and I loved it fiercely. On re-reading it in 2004, thirty-plus years on, I loved it just as much. Few books make that transition!

Recently read Peter Delacorte's book Time on My Hands and was smitten. Of course, I loved the premise...a time traveler sent back to the 1930s to...er...preemptively redress a political wrong, let's say, and who falls in love with a doomed woman while there. He spends the rest of the book trying to make time behave itself, ie give him what he wants. Recommended, especially to pisces4256.

I passionately love the Sidewise Award-winning novel The Severed Wing by Martin Gidron. Its beautifully imagined world of a Yiddish New York in the year 2000 left me wanting more stories set there.

As an aside, the Sidewise Award-winning works are listed at http://www.uchronia.com/ and the list is worth a perusal. The site is among my very favorite places to visit, especially as its "What's New" section keeps me abreast of lots of the new publications in alternate history.

But hands-down my favorite alternate history/time travel book is Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper. My dad read the book to me as our go-to-sleep book in 1966. I was enthralled, transported, completely swooningly in love with the story! Doesn't hold up as well as The Warlord of the Air to re-reading, but it's a very worthy book. It's included in a Piper omnibus called Paratime which gives the book some helpful context.

There are probably others I've read but am not thinking of, but my all-time favorite is probably A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. It's one of those YA books that I can always go back to, fall into, and find something else to love.

Bumping this thread for other tt/ah lovers to find...not to mention my own lazy self.

Recently read Peter Delacorte's book Time on My Hands and was smitten. Of course, I loved the premise...a time traveler sent back to the 1930s to...er...preemptively redress a political wrong, let's say, and who falls in love with a doomed woman while there. He spends the rest of the book trying to make time behave itself, ie give him what he wants. Recommended, especially to pisces4256.


Thanks, richardderus. That sounds like it could be fun, and it reminds me of a Star Trek episode.

pisces4256 #22: I don't know if "The City on the Edge of Forever" original-Trek episode was the first use of that plot or not, but it's an evergreen by now. I don't believe there was quite so much dependent on the love factor in Delacorte's book, but the whole doomed-love-across-time makes me pleasantly weepy, sentimental thing that I am.

Undoubtably The Many-Colored Land (the initial saga, not so much what came after), and The Green Futures of Tycho.

My favorite book changes from time to time (sorry), but the book that pops into my head is FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer. It's a tale where everybody on Earth time travels ahead to their future life for a few minutes. Well, eveyone who's still living in the future, that is. An interesting concept that is well played out.
--J.

Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity was the first and best time travel book I've read, and loved it. It does a variation of the I-learned-a-lot-but-nothing-changes theme that slothman mentioned, however at the end everything changes. I love the The Time Traveler's Wife as well as Connie Willis's works. Outlander is a great piece too, though the rest of Diana Gabaldon's efforts in that series are merely coasting on the success of the first.

Currently reading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Wonderful, though it's quite slow paced (a comment, not a criticism).

John

John - Doomsday Book is one of my favorite time travel books, but it is rather slow paced, at least for most of the story. I think that may be one of the reasons that it is such a powerful story overall. When things do start happening, they have even more of an impact.

This discussion reminds me that it's about time for a re-read, actually...

I'm glad you mentioned Doomsday Book I checked my review and it ended midsentence. I have put another one up. The short version? It is worth reading.

Guns of the South is Turtledove's best because its the one he does not draw it out.

I enjoyed the Proteus operation another WW2 reworking people might enjoy is the John birmingham Axis of Time trilogy.

PDeebs

Your point about the impact of the plague in the final third of the book fits my thoughts entirely. Do see my review for my appreciation of this wonderful book.

Several of my favorites have already been mentioned: To Say Nothing of the Dog, The Plague Tales, Time and Again, Replay. One that hasn't been mentioned is The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser. The Timeshare Trilogy by Joshua Dann is quite enjoyable as well.

ejly
I have read and reviewed Outlander as a result of your reccomendation.

Simon

The Book of Kells by R.A. Macavoy
Modern guy falls into the past in Ireland as he takes a rubbing on an Irish cross. He's a bit of a pansy, and his modern-day love is rather a bitch, but the writing is sound and the story engaging. I wish I could read it again, because I remember it was a great story, although the title is off.

The book of Kells

it is on now.

No one's mentioned Time Patrol by Poul Anderson yet, so I will...I just finished the all-in-one doorstop this weekend.

The series posits the existence of posthuman successor species the Danellians as the one-and-only possible end of evolution, so the Time Patrol is set up to "police" time and make sure no deviation from the evolutionary track that results in the Danellians coming forth is allowed.

No one inside the world-frame of the collection's component novellas seems to question the rightness and fairness and inevitability of this. I did, from the first time I heard a character talk about it. I wonder if Anderson's unsubtle libertarianism displayed throughout the book was just an inoculation for the larger message....

Can Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban qualify as a time travel book? ;)

Also, Phillip Pullman's trilogy of His Dark Materials ranks quite high on my list of books of parallel worlds. The title of the three books may differ depending on where you are. The 3 books are The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

And since we're on Children's titles (although His Dark Materials may not qualify as just Children's because it works on so many levels), I think we can throw in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl's series as well. I think there's a book on some time travel in them, but I can't remember which ones. :)

I'm sure there are a lot of time travel in Star Trek books, but I've only watched the series, haven't read any of the books. I'm only half-trek?

yes Barbara Hambly did one Umm

Ishmael

Several people have mentioned Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis, and I have to second it. A beautifully written and very sad book--thought-provoking and well-researched. Her book Lincoln's Dreams is another good time travel book, though more a fantasy than sci fi. There's an excellent time travel book about an African American woman who accidentally travels back to the pre-Civil War south and finds herself living as a slave. Scary and informative--unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember the title or author. Anyone else know the book I'm talking about?

>42 margaretplays:

Could it be Kindred by Octavia Butler? That's the only one I can think of with the plot you describe.

I thought it was well done, though, not suprisingly, grim. The book does a good job bringing home the brutality of slavery by putting a contemporary person (who only knows about slavery indirectly and impersonally) in the middle of it. As for the sci-fi aspects, it doesn't give too much explanation to how the time travel works, but does, if I remember correctly contain the standard device of altering one's future by messing around with the past.

My hands down favorite is A Traveler in Time. I loved it as a child, and it hasn't gotten old yet.

Yes, that's it exactly. And you're right, it didn't discuss the science of time travel much--that was essentially a device used to examine a serious issue. Personally, I liked that. Lengthy explanations can be tricky, either boring or unsound, and the main character didn't understand the mechanism. The novel reminded me of Doomsday Book in that both used time travel not as a cutesy gimmick, but as a way to look at abiding, fundamental human questions--history as something relevant, rather than quaint. But both books are certainly quite grm, which is somewhat a plus for me. Guess I'm a bit morbid. ;) Thanks for naming the book for me!

Thanks you guys. I have added several books to my TBR list that I had never heard of. Great topic!

I agree with The Time Traveler's Wife and Time and Again, and The Mirror by Maryls Millhiser is one of my all time favorites. Outlander is good but mainly just the first book of the series deals with time travel (it is touched on in a couple of the other books but in more detail in the first, good historical fiction series though). I also really like Timeline.

Great suggestions everyone ~ thanks!

Fyrefly ~ I also very much enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle!

My all-time favorite is the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy by Michael Moorcock, which includes An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End of All Songs.

Here's a brief review from the Amazon.com website: "Enter a decaying far, far future society, a time when anything and everything is possible, where words like 'conscience' and 'morality' are meaningless, and where heartfelt love blossoms mysteriously between Mrs Amelia Underwood, an unwilling time traveller, and Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time. The Dancers at the End of Time . . . is a brilliant homage to the 1890s of Wilde, Beardsley and the fin de siecle decadents, satire at its sharpest and most colourful."

I agree on Replay but would have to put Wells' The Time Machine as #1.

Julian May's Saga of the Pliocene Exiles

I agree re Dancers at the End of Time by Moorcock. As I'm not at home at present I can't find which volume it is in but the trilogy contains my all time favourite chapter heading: "The Quest for Bromley"! As a native a Bromley, a town in the southern part of the greater London conurbation I cannot imagine anywhere less quest like. Of course that H. G. Wells was also a resident suggests why Moorcock's time travellers go back there.

Immense fun. Had a nostalgic afternoon entering my 70-odd Moorcock volumes onto LibraryThing a few weeks ago.

I'm glad that others aren't sticking to one book, since I couldn't do it. :-) I'll opt for 2 very different ones.

Time and Again ("From Time to Time" is the sequel, & not as good IMO.)

Behold the Man by Moorcock.

Yes, to time traveller's wife and I also love Marge Piercy's Woman on the edge of time. Utopian instead of dystopian.

And not forgetting H.G. Wells Time Machine

It's interesting how many people have cited children's fiction and I like all the ones above too. I would add Tom's midnight garden (Phillippa Pearce and The Driftway (Penelope Lively)

I also loved Tom's Midnight Garden.

Me three on Tom's Midnight Garden, it's a delight.

Great topic! I love Time Travel stories. Here's an excellent short story by Robert Heinlein, By His Bootstraps,

http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/scifi/byhisbootstraps.pdf

Tom's Midnight Garden was the first time travel book I read as a child. I think I found it in our Pulic Library when I was 10. There is another book that is in a similar vein titled, The Root Cellar. I read that one for the first time when I was 10 or 11 as well. For children's literature, it's an excellent intro to time travel. I love both The Root Cellar and Tom's Midnight Garden still and have reread them several times as an adult.

There is also another children's time travel book for which I am still searching. I can't remember the title but remember the plot and that I enjoyed it immensely. The plot revolves around a little girl staying in an English Tudor house. She slips though time to join a storyline involving the politics of 17th century England and (I think) the Stuart Kings. If anyone has any insight into the title of this book, I would be forever grateful.

Forgot one in the YA category: The York Trilogy by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Great storylines overall with some interesting time travel thrown in.

An old favourite was Lest Darkness Fall

#56, do you think the book you're asking about might be A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley? It's about a little girl who goes to live with her great-aunt and uncle in a Tudor farmhouse and goes back in time to Mary, Queen of Scots time. It is one of my favourites.

The best series on time travel, alt histories and parallel worlds has to be Stephen King's Dark Tower Series (7 books).

Now, this series is not for the faint of heart. SK can be gruesome, foul and even perverse at times... but aside from that the characters, plot and massive scope (a journey through "todash" space, time and all of SK's most popular books woven into the gunslinger's world) bring this series to the top of the list.

#59, I think you might have my answer! The tie to the Stuart Kings is there, even though the topic is Mary, Queen of Scots, because of course her son went on to become James I. I was just a generation ahead. I'm going to try to find a used copy of the book and read it to see if it's the book I remember. Thanks!

You're welcome rbtanger. I hope you can find it. :-)

#1 - I'm defintely going to have to read this thread with a notepad!

I posted earlier in the Green Dragon that I just ordered Lester Del Rey's fabulous Tunnel Through Time last night through Amazon. I'm 45 years old, and that was my first Time Travel book, read when I was in the Seventh Grade, and I have fond memories of this book!

I haven't read it since Middle School but remember much of the book in delicious detail, so I can't wait to see how it holds up all these years later!

Shortly after reading Tunnel Through Time I read my first Ray Bradbury collection and fell in love with A Sound of Thunder, which I'm sure will be mentioned as I read further down this thread!

#4- I just read The Eyre Affair and can't wait to read more by Jasper FForde!

#60 - Oh yeah, I agree on King's Dark Tower series, great fun if you can stick it out. As always, I love his wonderfully flawed characterizations, and the web he weaves throughout all of his books, masterfully tying things together!

#63 - I guess A Sound of Thunder was overlooked because it is a short story, but to me it is a defining Time travel story.

I agree heartily with the mentions of Connie Willis. Doomsday Book was based on the concepts in her award winning short story Fire Watch, also the title story of a collection. History students are sent to actually see the events they're studying.

Time travel plays a part in my absolute favorite book, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, which I recommend enthusiastically for fans of the Moorcock series and other readers who like to work along with the author a little bit.

Another interesting one is Time and Again by Jack Finney, which involves time travel by hypnosis rather than machinery.

Last night I reread John Wyndham The Seeds of Time, and marvelled again at his incredible imagination and the variety of themes and styles he could work in.
edited to correct spelling.

akenned5 - I've been rereading some Wyndham too, just finished The Trouble with Lichen and The Chrysalids and agree totally, his writing style is just wonderful.

Add me to the fans of Tom's Midnight Garden. I've read it three times over the past 45 years and it's never lost its magic. I think I'm ready for reading #4.

My other favorite was Robert A. Heinlein's The Door Into Summer. A great mystery/adventure yarn cloaked in science fiction. The future - in which time travel was routine - was (are you ready?) 1970!

Ray Bradbury's novels often have a feel of time travel about them - Dandelion Wine, for example, or Something Wicked This Way Comes.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain.

Finally, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, in which antihero Billy Pilgram famously becomes "unstuck in time."

After reading some of your picks from this thread, I tracked down a copy of Replay and read it. Wow! I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Time and Again I loathed. Ick.

The Time Traveler's Wife was really well done, but not a novel I think I'd read again.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is still my favorite.

So many good suggestions here, some I've already read and admired, and some I need to track down and enjoy. One I didn't see mentioned that I've loved for years is Daphne du Maurier's The House on the Strand. It's a story that might have you wondering whether this is time travel or whether it's all just a drug-induced hallucination. And like a drug addict, the main character becomes addicted to time travel, much to the detriment of his "real" life. And as an added bonus it's got du Maurier's ability to build suspense and tension till the very end.

Also, a good one for teens or older kids is Gary Paulsen's The Transall Saga, although I enjoyed it and am definitely NOT a kid! I didn't even know it was a time travel book until I was well into it.

I can't even think of all of the time travel novels I've read. Several have been mentioned here and I agree with everyone. They are all good stories.

What I would consider among the best:

Replay
Time and Again
A Sound of Thunder
Timeline
Time Machine

Others I would recommend:
STR8 BOLT
Crucifixion Conspirators
Our Place in Time
Beyond this Time

They are unknown authors but their stories are very intriguing and worth reading.

The Door Into Summer is my favorite time travel story.

Ignatius Knibblewitz's The Flush of Memory, PenguinDoverCollins, New Denver (2067).

Edited to fix html

A String in the Harp, by Nancy Bond is a thoroughly enjoyable story about a teenaged boy in Wales, swept back to the time of Taliesin. The past begins to intrude on the present, too.

Iain Banks' "Walking on glass":three parallel universes where several individuals' fates are mysteriously intertwined.

Blow my own trumpet time:
my latest time-travel project can be read at http://www.thetime-travellerandhisdog.blogspot.com

I am listening to The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly and surprised I have not heard of it before...it is holding my intinterest.

For parallel histories, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick is pretty good. I also liked The Yiddish Policemen's Union. For time travel, I certainly enjoyed The Domesday Book, which jumps back and forth between the medieval plague and a frightening modern day epidemic, while characters in both times respond with courage, compassion, and foolishness.

That is one of my favourite Simpsons episodes as well! Matt Groening is a pop-culture genius.

Just got back from a spring break holiday. I read "Replay" in 4 days and enjoyed it a lot. The protagonist does exactly what I would have done if I was in the same situation.

I read Tunnel through Time as a kid and I give it credit for starting my love of fantasy. As an adult I fell in love with Time Traveler's Wife and right at this moment I am being swept away with Outlander.

Has anyone mentioned A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, yet? I guess it's not exactly a time-travel (more space travel) novel, but I did love it as a child. There's also a grandly corny old movie with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour--what was that called? Not a great movie, but irresistable, and with the lovely setting of Mackinac Island.

So glad to see someone mentioned Daphne Du Maurier's House on the Strand, an unusual but fascinating take on time travel. As many have mentioned, Connie Willis does some wonderful things in To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday and the absolutely brilliant short story Fire Watch. Someone also mentioned that Lincoln's Dream is kind of time travely, which is true. Also, Passage, which isn't technically time travel at all, but still visits other periods than the one in which the story is set (via near death experiences). I agree A Wrinkle in Time is one of the best between-worlds tale. As a child I got started on a time-travel fixation with something called The Ghosts, which has some logic problems but I still enjoy it. And the Christopher Reeve/Jane Seymour corny film (which I adore), its "Somewhere in TIme" broadcast in 1980. Great suggestions by folks! Thanks!

During my online roaming I found a book called, Survivor, by Robert Steele Gray. A man transported back to stone age Texas. Interesting read. Worthy addition to my library.

I just finished Reflections in the Nile by J. Suzanne Frank and it was very good and part of a series. This first book was set in ancient Egypt. Similar to Diana Gabaldon (not as good, in my opinion, but close). I found it engrossing to read and vivid, I recommend it. Will definitely read the rest of the series. The heroine unintentially travels back to ancient Egypt and finds herself a priestess. She meets the love of her life and together they face many trials and even meet Moses! Good story!

What about The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold? It's a combination of the classic time machine crossed with the myth of Narcissus.

>88 yaakov: yaakov, still on my top-ten list after more than 30 years! The Man Who Folded Himself was some pretty fine stuff.

Related topic: I don't know what it will mean book acquisition-wise, but I will be attending my first-ever ArmadilloCon on Sunday to hear an Alternate History panel. Joe R. Lansdale will be on the panel, and I like his stuff (Savage Season, Two-Bear Mambo, Bad Chili among the Hap Collins books, A Fine Dark Line among the alternate history titles); I'm excited to be able to go to the 30th anniversary edition of this fest.

A whole hour of alternate history discussions by actual practicioners! WOOT!

I agree w/#63 mrgrooism about the pad and pen. I've already grabbed a piece of paper and pen and have written down some of the highly recommended titles, but there are so many more! I love this genre - The Time Traveler's Wife had me reaching for the tissue box by the end - wonderful story of an enduring love. I have and read all the Outlander books. I've have found that people either love them or loathe them. I'm in the former camp. I'm sure I've read more but can't remember them at the moment. Great recommendations, everyone! Thanks!

Time travel books are among my favorites. I've read so many of the books mentioned but have gotten some great ideas for future reads. I would have to say my favorites are The Anubis Gates, To Say Nothing of the Dog and The Time Traveler's Wife. I recently read a book that was not mentioned - Discipline by Paco Ahlgren. It could have been more concise but I thought the concept of the book was very imaginative. This was his first book so I'm sure he'll only get better with time.

I just read a wonderful time travel book that hasn't been mentioned here. It is The Little Book by Seldon Edwards. It took him 30 years to write it and I can see why. The plot is intricate and satisfying. I also like when real life people are included in the story. It is obvious that a lot of research went into this novel.

>92 bookheaven: bookheaven, I will order The Little Book now that I know it exists. It looks wonderful.

I've been reading Time and Again and must say it's going into my Hall of Fame for time travel books!

I'm probably one of the few that just had a so-so reaction to Outlander. I thought it was okay, but not wonderful or horrible.

Right now I'm listening to Neil Gaiman's Interworld on CD. It is very interesting so far and is about a young man who accidentally discovers he is a "walker" able to traverse dimensions.

Is this Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I think by Eileen Dunlop? Sounds right.

I liked Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog but I have also tried an older novel the door into the summer written in the 1960s which describes a future (presence meanwhile) without any computer or internet. I can also recommend an alternative history book of Robert A. Heinlein with the german title Das neue Buch Hiob.

The Door Into Summer is a little creepy. The guy gets engaged to an 8 year old girl and travels into the future to marry her.

The real value of time travel is found in a short story, "Full Chicken Richness".

Favorite has to be Lest Darkness Fall followed by Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen and then The Misplaced Legion

Allow me to second SimonW11's recommendations of 'Guns of the South, The Proteus Operation and Axis of Time Trilogy." All three are very good time travel reads while each provides a unique story line. 'Guns of the South' turned me on to Harry Turtledove and I have never turned back. 'Axis of Time Trilogy' provides very good and accurate military information with a futuristic bit of science fiction and social gender equality issues.

Two of my favorite time travel authors have already been mentioned (to my delight). I am glad to see that H. Beam Piper and Michael Moorcock are so well-remembered! The Dancers at the End of Time and Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen...are just fantastic and absorbing from the first words. Anyone who likes time travel will love these books.

I have always hoped that both works would one day be made into films.

Wow. I never heard of H. Beam Piper but he is now on my tbr list. Michael Moorcock is just so good, I agree, and has a great sense of humour that comes through strong in his writing.

The first and most beautiful time travel tale I read seems to have vanished . It was The Victorian Chaise Longue, by the English writer Marghanita Laski.
I loved most of the Diana Gabaldron series although they were a little heavy on the romance, also loved The Mirror, Time after Time, and The Time Traveller's Wife. I like the kind of time travel rooted in the urban scene, that is, it's happening to real people, not sci fi creatures. I so want to believe it is possible...

Unvanished for all who are interested: The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski.

I have not read any book about this. Please suggest me a book. I am studying in class 11th.

#104 - If you read through the entire thread, there are many time-travel suggestions listed - all of which are worthwhile. Myself, I suggest To Say Nothing of the Dog which is adventurous and whimsical or for more serious fare by the same author Doomsday Book.

I compiled a list of time travel books I'd like to read before I die, from previous posts here, and after attempting to wade through a couple I think we need a subtopic......URBAN TIME TRAVEL. I have a hard time with fantasy built on fantasy. I need my fantasy rooted in reality, that is time travel by people I recognize. Did my best with "Cowl" but skipped lots...Got 'All of an Instant' and gave up after 3 pages....

hmm I dont see a mention of The man who folded himself. in which the changes are well and truly rung.

>106 Jalapin:, 107 The Man Who Folded Himself was an excellent "urban" (that is, rooted in actual things) time-travel novel. So was Time On My Hands.

The Worlds of If (in The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum) is an interesting short story, among the first to explore alternate worlds. One of the more narrow alternate histories; the question is, what would have happened if the protagonist had caught the jet he was chasing?

Could the group please help me find the title of a book on time travel / time shifting.

It's about a man and a woman who involuntarily are shifted throughout time, keeping only the items they are wearing or touching. At one point they work in a restaurant in Mexico (maybe Puerta Vallarta) and through the story the man always finds work washing dishes.

It's been driving me nuts, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have enjoyed many time travel and related alt universe books however my favorite pure time travel would have to be Mastadonia by Clifford Simak - The Accidental Time Machine by Haldeman - Behold the Man - Moorcock

110: Maya02

Sounds like J.O.B: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heineiin.
Washing dishes was a reaccuring theme in many of Heinlein's books.

What about Crichton's Timeline or Julian May's Saga of the Pliocene Era? I love Tim Power's Anubis Gates but find To Say Nothing of the Dog is over-rated, as claustophobic as a French farce and I am weary of the Tuesday Next series, despite the excellent beginning...

Timeline is okay.

>113 adpaton: I was completely underwhelmed by To Say Nothing of the Dog, but was surprised at how much I enjoyed Timeline.

Bored with Tuesday Next, too. And Julian May's books...well, I can't be fair, it's been so long since I read them that I don't know what I'd think of them now.

adpaton - I am almost finished reading Julian May's entire nine book ouevre that begain with the Saga of the Pliocene Era and ended with the Galactic Milieu Trilogy and loved them, though I started in the middle and read in a circle, so I am just completing the Pliocene Saga now. I also liked Kage Baker's time travel series known as The Company novels for those who have read the better know time travel titles.

I have to disagree about Connie Willis; I have always found her books charming and harrowing at once. I never got into the Tuesday Next novels - they just didn't work for me.

Oh Gosh - all of Julian May? Hats off to you! I'll look out for Kage Baker - thanks for the recommendadtion.

I'm surprised not to see Up the Line by Robert Silverberg only beaten for both the Nebula and Hugo awards by The Left Hand of Darkness

The protagonist is a travel guide for time tourists, mainly set during the Byzantine period around Constantinople. Sounds dry but is great fun.

This thread is keeping my fascination with time travel well lubricated. I have recently finished Singularity Sky, hard SF and space warfare, futuristic etc. It has an interesting take on time travel, even though tt is not its main focus.

I've just got through Dusty's Fort by Steven Field. It's a long read but really good fun. It is about a time travelling B-17. The combat sequences are very vivid. Really enjoyed it, especially all the mad characters.

I just started reading The Little Book and while I can't yet say if it will be a favorite in time travel, so far it is amazing and the reviews are good as well. Thought others might like to know about a new time travel novel.

I read an intriguing time travel novel many years ago but have forgotten the title, but not the plot or characters. A young woman gazes at a portrait of her great grandmother (or some ancestor) who bears a striking similarity to her. She is transported to that early-pioneer time period and assumes her ancestor's identity. In turn, that young woman is thrust into the future where she struggles to find a place for herself. Anyone remember the title of this one?

Lots of excellent time-travel choices here including a few of my favorites, Dancers At The End Of Time and Replay. Another of my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned is Lightening by Dean Koontz, one of his earlier novels and one of his best.

Sakemiki - I think the book you're describing is The Mirror By Marlys Millhiser - the young woman gazes in a mirror and ends up switching places with grandmother.

Jack Finney
I haven't found a book that is as literate and vivid about time travel as Time and Again. Any suggestions for a book where the prose, narrative power and characters would pass muster in literature, not just in sci-fi genre, involving time travel?

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers fits the bill well. More than good enough to win a mainstream literary prize.

Tim Powers' best I think, complex, action packed, and accessible.

Replay by Ken Grimwood is the best to me, followed close by Time and Again by Jack Finney, Time Travellers Wife is also good. Timeline by Crichton is also good.

I think you also have to look at Elise by Grimwood, also a very good one, out of print and now expensive but worth it, also overlooked is Jack Finneys short stories, there are several of his short stories that have been drawn together and About Time is probably the best and easiest to find. Finneys books are all very good.

One book abotu Time Travel that is under the radar is A Shortcut in Time by Charles Dickenson, I enjoyed it very much.

Out of print but worth finding is a book by Richard Brennert I read 20 years ago as well as a collected short story collection by him called Her Pilgrim Soul.

I did enjoy Diana Gabaldons first book but it was the best of hers, Outlander.

From the romance section I liked A Knight in Shining Armor the best by Jude Devereaux

Forgive me, I left out one of the best, Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson

dear cardinal52: Thank you so much. I have been looking for that book for years. I read it a long time ago and the characters made a long lasting impression. LibraryThing rocks...

I just read a fun book that merges time travel with Jane Austen . Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler is the story of a young woman who wakes up in a different body in Jane Austen's time and she has to figure out how to function in this world. There is an accompanying book that tells what happens to the woman who woke up in the modern woman's body. That's called Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict. I haven't read that one yet but plan to read it. It's not a great literary work but fun if you like Jane Austen and time travel.

I just finished reading The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century. I was surprised that some of the stories had very slight connections to alternative history and one or two none that I could see. The best one IMO is Bring the Jubile by Ward Moore 1952. Though written that long ago, it doesn't seem dated at all. It's set in an America where the South won the civil war and the North is pretty much an impovrished, second-rate country. The protagonist is a historian and runs into a woman working on time travel. 'nuff said about the plot.

One of the best I've read.

please read Up the Line by Robert Silverberg...or The Great Time Machine Hoax by David Gerrold...both are first rate...

My favorite time-travel book, although it's something of a spoiler even to point out that it is one, is Rant.

I will add two more books that have not been mentioned: Danger: Dinosaurs! by Marsten and Fury by Kuttner. The first is considered a boys' series book (part of the Winston science fiction series), but is quite good overall, involving time travel and (obviously) dinosaurs. Written in 1953, it is a light, enjoyable story. Fury is a 1950 science fiction novel. The description of it that you will read on Amazon does not do it justice. Otherwise, just so you can place these recommendations relative to your own tastes, I think some of the best books of those mentioned above include Timeline, Doomsday Book, Replay, The Time Traveler's Wife, Anubis Gates and anything written by Finney.

Time travel books I've rated as 4 stars or better:

Replay - Ken Grimwood
Time And Again - Jack Finney
The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman
Expiration Date - Duane Swierczynski
The Door Into Summer - Robert Heinlein
Lightning - Dean Koontz
Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus - Orson Scott Card

Queued up:
Doomsday - Connie Willis

I'm just finishing The Fetch (US title Unknown Regions) by the late Robert Holdstock which involves time-travel of sorts, so at the moment that's my favourite.

I may yet remember others as I get around to adding them to my library, but so far it seems to be a toss between the Nomad of the Time Streams omnibus by Michael Moorcock and Where time winds blow by Robert Holdstock.

Okay, I'm just finishing my first reading of Ian McDonald's Desolation Road, and it is just really, really awesome. The time travel element doesn't dominate the story, but it is crucial, and handled elegantly.

I just finished reading Stephen King's 11/22/63 and I'm going to have to add that to the list of Best Time Travel Books of all time. My other favorite is Replay by Ken Grimwood. Can anyone recommend my next read based on these two books?

Thanks

#141 - good to hear! I just started listening to 11/22/63 on audio, but I too loved, loved Replay! Wish I could help you with a recommendation!

I've just started the Doomsday Book, but so far I'm disappointed.

143> It gets better,

141> have read Jack Finney?

yes

Nick,

Replay is the pinnacle. I just started 11/22/63 so glad to hear it's good. Here's two to try:

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold and

Kindred by Octavia Butler where an African-American woman goes back to the late 1800's.

I absolutely hated The Man Who Folded Himself. I didn't mind the homosexual parts, but found the whole story to be terribly narcissistic and generally boring. I'll give Kindred a shot.

I feel a bit like a time-travel genre junkie. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to achieve the same high I got with Replay.

I've heard that Ken Grimwood was in the process of writing a sequel when he died. I hope someone had the forethought to pass on the unfinished manuscript to another author to finish up. Does anybody else have any further information on the possible sequel?

Replay is a great read. There's an article about it on Wikipedia, which mentions (briefly) the sequel, the ongoing attempts to bring out a film version, and how it inspired Groundhog Day.

Incidentally, I heard about it Replay at a time-travel themed SF convention where a panel discussed greatest time-travel reads. In keeping with the time-travel theme, there wasn't a guest of honour; instead, author Ian Watson dressed in Victorian clothes and did as speech as HG Wells: the Ghost of Honour.

My favourite time-travel story annoys me because I can't remember its name. It's a short story by Philip K. Dick The time-travellers are caught in some kind of pause in their temporal travels where they get out and talk to people in the normal world. They are doomed (perhaps) because they are going to crash. Or are they? It starts off fairly clearly but, as with the best of Dick, we soon get contradictory explanations for what is really going on, each of which is given evidence to support the idea that that explanation must be the *true* one.

I'm hoping someone can suggest the name of this story. It was in an anthology I borrowed from the library but can't find it now :-(

I finished Stephen King's 11-22-63 which I thought was great on audio, highly recommend! One of the best books of the year, and one of the best time travel books ever!

I highly reccomend Time Scout by Robert Asprin. It is a great series.

I'm a time travel author and have read deeply in the field. I think that Replay (mentioned many times on these pages) is the best TT I ever read. Years ago my agent tried to line me up to write a sequel but there were many problems with the owners of the original materials. I have written 5 TT books (one unpublished) and would love to do more but the publishing world doesn't agree.

I jsut started King's 11-22-63 and can't put it down. One of his best.

11/22/63's time travel story is wonderful, though I quibble a very little bit with its last few developments. The ending is just wonderful!

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (The entire trilogy) by Douglas Adams Greatest Line : "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

154 I agree, loved the ending. I guess I'm a little slow, because I never saw that coming.
I poked around the internet and found out that Marina Oswald is still alive and there are interviews with her on U-Tube.

If by the "last few developments" you mean the severe injuries suffered by a certain character, I wasn't keen on that either.

great

Hi - Hope you can help with a book title I read a number of years ago. It is about time travel in NY. An artist at an ad agency begins to see the past in NYC in a snow storm and he goes back in time and sees a murder of a young woman (she is forced into a snow drift and dies from the cold). That is all I can remember about it. I thought is had the word "Time" in the title but I cannot find out what it was. Great suggestions, I have added a number of them to my list! Thanks for your help.

@158, is it Time Out of Mind you're thinking of? There was a Name that Book thread about it. The snow storm/woman stuff is a big part of the book.

SJaneDoe - Wow, that's it!!! Thank you so much! I have been trying to find that book for ages! This is great! What a fantastic website to have come across! Best regards!

Glad I could help!

Connie Willis' :- Doomsday book
Diana Gabaldons' :- Outlander series
Ken Grimwood :- Replay
To name just a few!

FYI... Time out of Mind is currently a freebie for Kindle. Found that out when I went a lookin' for it from this thread.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004U2UXCO/

BTW... I bookmarked the thread a verrry long time ago as I am an avid fan of time travel books, but never joined the site until today to contribute.

>163 tiggz: Welcome, and enjoy your stay among the gently mad!

I've reviewed an old friend, The Summer Isles, which is an alternative history novel about the England of 1940 after the British defeat in the Great War. It's over in my thread...post #171.

I just read Jack McDevitt, Time Travelers Never Die. That has now moved to the top of my time travel list. Three of my other favorites are Joe Haldeman, The Accidental Time Machine, L. Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Fall, and Harry Harrison, The Technicolor Time Machine.

Heeeeeeeelp :-) First, what a great find this site and page was! Second.....I'm being driven slowly bonkers by trying to remember the title of a book in this genre. It's an older book, and I believe it was about 10 years ago that I read it. All I remember is it had "man" in the title. It was about parallel universes and he was able to jump around all over the place, from one to the other. When you read it, and by the time you finished, you wondered if it truly was just "all in his head". His jumping around started out as "fun" but then developed into something much more, and, if I remember correctly, he was making subtle changes that created problems....I think :-) It was a book where you thought "hmm okay this is good, but a bit strange...although there's something about it..." I know it was on the library shelf just a bit to the left of Hitchhiker's Guide.

Any ideas?? I'll recognize it immediately when I see the title. Thank you!!

@166 > I was going to suggest The Man Who Folded Himself, but I'm not sure that would be to the left of Hitchhiker's (at least, not alphabetically...) Maybe The Man Who Turned Into Himself?

Yes, alpha before Adams should be a sharp clue. That was an alpha-by-author shelving area, right?

Thank you! It's The Man Who Turned Into Himself :-)

I put up my review of the short alternative history novella The Lucky Strike in my thread...post #230.

It explores the nature of conscience, personal responsibility, and the great man theory through alternative events on Tinian Island leading up to the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945. It's definitely got a place on my favorites shelf now.

Ah Replay by Ken Grimwood is my favourite without a doubt!
They have a review of it here...
http://www.toptentimetravel.com/

At time of writing this, The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) was thier number 1 book. Which is fair enough, I did like that as well, its very good.

I've reviewed a novella, Seven for a Secret by Elizabeth Bear, in my thread...post #205.

It's the sequel to a short-story collection set in an alternative reality where the Prussian Empire controls 1938 London, and the future freedom of England depends on an elderly forensic sorceress and an even older wampyr.

Looking For Title of a Scifi Fantasy Novel I Read in 1994?

Okay. Is it strange that this book has been haunting me for years. I can remember such little detail about it, but it's stuck with me so long. Here are some details:

- It's about a female (girl or woman) who is moving through either time or location (can't remember which or if both).
- There's a portal that she's connected to somehow. She keeps shifting uncontrollably.
- There's something about a sacrifice
- She's running from someone/thing
- I recall a scene where there are naked women dancing to some sort of ritual on a beach.
- I believe the theme is coming of age. I am not too certain.

Am I weird or what!? I definitely read it in 1994, so it couldn't have been written after that.

I thought it was Rite of Passage by Alexi Panshin but it's not it.
I also have an inkling that it was a part of a series, something Asmiov-esque.

Anybody have any ideas?

That one's a stumper for me, gringogidget, but when someone thinks of it I want to read it.

I've reviewed the latest in Elizabeth Bear's alt-hist series New Amsterdam, called Ad Eternum, over in my thread...post #216.

The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov

I've been finding a TT novel for very long, but there have been no leads. It's probably children's or YA, since I read it when I was about 9-12. It's about 2 brothers in the Victorian era;the older brother has invented a time machine and showed his brother by testing it out on a rabbit initially, and eventually he tested it on his younger brother, but his younger brother does not return. Turns out younger brother was transported to the present and meets 2 children (a boy and a girl) who eventually helped him get back to his time and even goes back to time to change events of the present.
I really liked the book and would like to reread it, so I would be glad if anyone who knows can tell me the title! :)

#176> txh,

Knowing that you read it at age 9-12 is helpful. Knowing when you would have been at this age would help even more. Around 2001 I put together a searchable database of time travel literature containing about 3,200 items. A good number of these are YA stories since I was managing an antiquarian bookstore specializing in children's books when I compiled the list.

One pair of stories by Edward Ormondroyd is Time at the Top (1963) and its sequel All in Good Time. The concept is that people from the "present" live in an apartment building and by traveling in an elevator, they go back in time. There they meet a family of the Victorian era. I grant that this is not the description you gave for your story.

If you think you'd recognize the title, look at the list of 724 titles I identified as "juvenile". The list includes author surname, title, and year. You can open up each link in a new tab and see if the cover art and description match your memory.

James

@ 177> Thanks! Although I can't remember the title, but it's really helpful to have a place to start searching from.

I am quite surprised that no one had yet mentioned that old classic Bring the Jubilee by ward moore.

Can anyone recommend a book or preferably a series where the main character(s) can travel through time at will?

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack; Awesome and the plot flows through the rest of the Mark Hodder's books.

I've reviewed the ancient H. Beam Piper short story, the first in his Paratime series, He Walked Around the Horses in my Short Stories thread...post #32.

In reply to 180 above, Time Shifters by Shanna Lauffey is an excellent series that does this. They can shift through time or space, but not both at the same time. If has great reviews on Amazon. I've just finished the second book in the series, Children of the Morning, which doesn't appear on the touchstones but it's on this site. It's really good too.

I was blown away by The Little Book by Selden Edwards. After I read it, I asked several friends to read it because I wanted to talk about it. It took me a little while to warm up to the story, but once I did, I was hooked. I am reading it a second time to fully appreciate the plot.

Thank you, 184. I've started reading the series and it's great!

Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis A bit slow and muddled to start with but worth persevering. As many critics have pointed out these two books could have done with a lot of editing and would have been a great shorter, single novel.

I consider Replay by Ken Grimwood as one of the most thought provoking time travel books I have read.

For light reading, I liked Adventures of Conrad Stargard, Book 1: The Cross-Time Engineer. Probably not the most politically correct, but a nice series.

>188 UncleMort: Blackout and All Clear stayed with me after I finished, exceeding my expectations during the reading. I'd read it them again.

>189 usma83: second the motion on Replay. l
Less so on C-T E.

Been a long time since I visited this thread. In the 2016 category challenge, I'm hosting a scifi category in November on time travel, and this is a great source of info!

And for me, hard to say one, The Time Machine, The Time Traveler's Wife, Doomsday Book, Woman on the Edge of Time are all favorites.

Forgot about Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I need to get back to that - there was quite a delay for King to get that finished, and I stopped waiting. I think it's about time to re-start and finish the whole series.

Got so many good ideas to add to my TBR (like I need to...)!

I don't think I saw The X President mentioned here or John Varley's Millennium.

In the 1990s I assembled a large database of time travel literature (stories, books, etc.) and in the early 2000s I put it online as a searchable database. It has about 3,200 stories in it. I included relevant information that was available to me on publication, authorship, method of time travel, destination(s), and other key topics. If I could find a blurb or summary of the story, that was included as well. I could add about a thousand more stories but there is always another project with higher priority.

TimeTravelLit.com

Perhaps it will be useful to someone here.

James

>193 Keeline: Thanks for posting that again.

For fun I would recommend the "The Chronicles of St. Mary's Series" by Jodi Taylor

my favorite time travel book is "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" by Orson Scott Card. Cards writing is always a pleasure to read

That one is on my TBR pile! Must get to it.

collision course

This is a cool thread!

Two of my favorites, All You Zombies and The Anubis Gates were mentioned in post #2.

A bit surprised that Michael Bishop's No Enemy But Time has not yet been brought up.

Not as surprised to see the absence of Jerry Yulsman's often overlooked and underrated 'kill Hitler' pastiche entitled Elleander Morning.

There's been a lot of Moorcock mentioned in this thread, but not his most recent, The Whispering Swarm, which--like Powers' Anubis Gates--features time travel to a frost fair in 17th-century London.

I do enjoy Time Travel books, so I will have to peruse this list most carefully! A couple of my favorites have already been listed, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and The Shield of Time by Poul Anderson. There is also Time Scout by Robert Asprin. Also, Harry Harrison slips in time travel in The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World part of the Stainless Steel Rat series.