# Books About Time Travel



## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

It's an enduring theme and for me it's irresistable; what would it be like to travel through time?

I love H. G. Wells' classic *The Time Machine * but my own personal favorite is a book called *Time and Again* by Jack Finney. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. If you like romance and history served up with a splash of government conspiracy then you will be highly entertained.

What are your favorite time travel books? Share with the rest of us so we can find some great reads!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

This is always a popular topic.

One of my favorite series is KB member Monique Martin's Out of Time series...back in a minute with some links.

    

There is a boxed set of the first three books:


Here are links to a couple of past threads about this, there's sure to be some books that don't get mentioned again!

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,44302.0.html
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,123222.0.html

Betsy


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> This is always a popular topic.
> 
> One of my favorite series is KB member Monique Martin's Out of Time series...back in a minute with some links.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing all the info!


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

For some different twists on the subject:

_Night Watch_, by Terry Pratchett (for me, this is Sir Terry's masterpiece)
_The Technicolor Time Machine_, by Harry Harrison

And this seems like a good excuse for this photo:


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

PS: I see that the first book of Simon Hawke's entertaining "Timewars" series was recently enKindled:


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## Martin OHearn (Feb 9, 2012)

When Isaac Asimov interconnected his Robot and Foundation series in later books, he tied in _The End of Eternity,_ but the novel itself still works as a standalone.

The Kindle edition doesn't sport this Kelly Freas cover, sorry to say.

Robert A. Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" and "All You Zombies," neither of them novel-length, are also well worth tracking down.


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## Kateryna Kei (Sep 26, 2013)

Hey everyone!
Thanks for sharing so many titles - I didn't know most of them. And they promise to be an exciting reading experience  
My favorite time travel book is "A Knight in Shining Armor" by Jude Deveraux.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

And if you'd like to read a time-travel story that predates Wells' by a few years, there's always Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_. (There appear to be many Kindle editions to choose from, and I have no idea which might be best.)


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

lmroth12 said:


> It's an enduring theme and for me it's irresistable; what would it be like to travel through time?
> 
> I love H. G. Wells' classic *The Time Machine * but my own personal favorite is a book called *Time and Again* by Jack Finney. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. If you like romance and history served up with a splash of government conspiracy then you will be highly entertained.
> 
> What are your favorite time travel books? Share with the rest of us so we can find some great reads!


OMG, I was going to say Time and Again! I LOVE that book back when it was a Reader's Digest Condensed Book back in the 1970s. I FINALLY got it in DTB 3 years ago or so. But I love time travel books, TV shows, movies - I just love the idea of going back or forward in time, especially going back, because the possibilities to change history (real or imagined) can be interesting and fun.

I just recently picked up Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch's anthology, Fiction River: Time Streams (Fiction River: An Original Anthology Magazine), because I wanted some short stories to read. 

Can't think of anything else offhand, but I'll read the other posts to get some more reading ideas.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

NogDog said:


> And if you'd like to read a time-travel story that predates Wells' by a few years, there's always Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_. (There appear to be many Kindle editions to choose from, and I have no idea which might be best.)


Ack, just thought of that one! On my wish list.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Robert Heinlein - The Door into Summer So *clever*. If you send a guinea-pig back in time a week, you'd know it worked because a week ago you'd have had an extra guinea-pig. So if you only had one guinea-pig, it would be the one that only existed because you'd sent it back in time in the first place.... Makes your head spin but it does make sort of sense when you read it.


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## FrankZubek (Aug 31, 2010)

Allen Appel

Five in the series- all on kindle
A sixth novel currently being written

Time After Time (Carroll and Graf, 1985)
Twice Upon A Time (Carroll and Graf, 1985)
Sea of Time (1987, unpublished)
Till the End of Time (Doubleday, 1990)
In Time of War: An Alex Balfour Novel (Carroll and Graf, 2003)

Also The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

NogDog said:


> For some different twists on the subject:
> 
> _Night Watch_, by Terry Pratchett (for me, this is Sir Terry's masterpiece)
> _The Technicolor Time Machine_, by Harry Harrison
> ...


You gotta love that photo!


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

mgohearn said:


> When Isaac Asimov interconnected his Robot and Foundation series in later books, he tied in _The End of Eternity,_ but the novel itself still works as a standalone.
> 
> The Kindle edition doesn't sport this Kelly Freas cover, sorry to say.
> 
> Robert A. Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" and "All You Zombies," neither of them novel-length, are also well worth tracking down.


I LOVE Isaac Asimov, but I never heard of this book; will have to check it out. Thanks!


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

NogDog said:


> And if you'd like to read a time-travel story that predates Wells' by a few years, there's always Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_. (There appear to be many Kindle editions to choose from, and I have no idea which might be best.)


Ah, yes! Another favorite of mine; the knights on bicycles, the eclipse, and of course, "Hello, Central."


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

It's not obvious from reading the description, but one of today's Kindle Daily Deals is about time travel:



Betsy


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## readingril (Oct 29, 2010)

When I was in high school I read a book by Marlys Millhiser called The Mirror. Not in ebook format, but there is a crappy recording at Audible. Replay by Ken Greenwood is another title I read and enjoyed. I can't not mention Diana Gabaldon's monstrously long Outlander series.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I second the recommendation for Isaac Asimov's _The End of Eternity_, which would probably still make my list of all time top ten favourite novels some 25 years after I first read it.

Another time travel favourite is _The Anubis Gates_ by Tim Powers.


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## willswardstrom (Sep 20, 2013)

Asimov's book is fantastic. 

I actually really like Michael Crichton's Timeline. The movie wasn't great, but I had some great memories with that book.


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## Candee15 (Jan 31, 2010)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> It's not obvious from reading the description, but one of today's Kindle Daily Deals is about time travel:
> 
> 
> 
> Betsy


The Winter Sea is another wonderful book by Susanna Kearsley


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Candee15 said:


> The Winter Sea is another wonderful book by Susanna Kearsley


Aaah, see I bought that in January of last year...moving it towards the top of the pile.


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## deanblake (Jun 10, 2013)

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells is also one of my favourites.

There are no other great books about time travel that I've read that come to my mind right now, but the 



 documentary episode about time travel narrated by Morgan Freeman is pretty interesting.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

deanblake said:


> The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells is also one of my favourites.
> 
> There are no other great books about time travel that I've read that come to my mind right now, but the
> 
> ...


The Time Machine is one of my all-time favorites. Thumbs up!


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

readingril said:


> When I was in high school I read a book by Marlys Millhiser called The Mirror. Not in ebook format, but there is a crappy recording at Audible. Replay by Ken Greenwood is another title I read and enjoyed. I can't not mention Diana Gabaldon's monstrously long Outlander series.


I loved *The Mirror * also. And what a unique twist it had; the characters switched bodies and lives as well as traveled through time. I don't know if there is another book with a plot twist like that one!


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

DebBennett said:


> Robert Heinlein - The Door into Summer So *clever*. If you send a guinea-pig back in time a week, you'd know it worked because a week ago you'd have had an extra guinea-pig. So if you only had one guinea-pig, it would be the one that only existed because you'd sent it back in time in the first place.... Makes your head spin but it does make sort of sense when you read it.


Well, that's different! Actually, it reminds me of Digory's Uncle Andrew in The Magician's Nephew and how he used the guinea pigs to send them out of this world to see if that was possible. Oh, the cruel experiments those poor little creatures are subjected to by mad scientists/magicians!


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

*Doomsday Book* by Connie Willis was a recent Book Club read in my Goodreads group that I enjoyed. Not sure if I'm allowed to link to the group, but if anyone is interested it's listed on my GR page. We read anything from classics to Indie and there are always lots of good recs.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

For a novel centered around time travel, rather than one where time travel is used to dump the hero into a historical (or future) adventure, this is the best novel ever in my opinion (and I'm serious):

http://www.amazon.com/Mixed-Doubles-Daniel-Da-Cruz/dp/0345351673/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380586762&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=mixed+doubles+dacruz









(image only, not a link)

Alas, it is pretty much forgotten and out of print. Has many traits of "All You Zombies" though not as tightly-done as Heinlein's story.

For more conventional time travel stuff, I also endorse All You Zombies and The Door Into Summer. But some of my favorites are:


Island in the Sea of Time, by S. M. Stirling. First of a trilogy. I like it a lot. I chose to use a larger image, check the details in the illustration, including the fragment of a US government emblem at the bottom. I first learned of this series in a separate anthology of various time travel stories where a short story was written from the POV of an ancient Egyptian army officer who was leading his men against traditional enemies who mysteriously had black powder weapons, when the US Coast Guard arrived to save the day for his enemies and defeat him at the last second. My response was "THE US COAST GUARD?" But after reading the novel, I understood!


Lest Darkness Fall, by L. Sprague deCamp. This is an old favorite. Tragically not available on Kindle.

And finally this one is a big favorite:


Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove. Outstanding book. If Monty Python can do a sketch about discussing "What if Napoleon had a B-52 at the Battle of Waterloo?" Turtledove can write a book about "What if the Confederate Army had received stockpiles of assault rifles (note what Lee has in his hands). But there's nothing funny about the book which is a great novel, has lots of insight into the real Civil War, and is completely unrelated to Turtledove's endless and bloated "alternate Civil War" series.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Favorite time travel novels (in no particular order):

_The End of Eternity_ - Isaac Asimov
_The Man Who Folded Himself_ - David Gerrold
_The Door Into Summer_ - Robert Heinlein
_The Lincoln Hunters_ - Wilson Tucker
_Mists of Dawn_ - Chad Oliver (YA)
_Year of the Quiet Sun_ - Wilson Tucker (It won a retrospective John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1976. It was also nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1970, and a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1971.
_Time and Again_ - Jack Finney
_Bid Time Return_ - Richard Matheson (source for the movie _Somewhere in Time_)
_The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything_ - John D. MacDonald (source for a horrible TV movie)

Not all are available as an ebook.

Mike


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## DavidGil (May 16, 2013)

I've not read any of it yet, but it's very cheap, so you may want to consider this book:

http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00DAJEOD2/ref=cm_cr_dp_syn_footer?k=The%20Time%20Travel%20Megapack%3A%2026%20Modern%20and%20Classic%20Science%20Fiction%20Stories&showViewpoints=1

The catch is that, with quite a few of the 26 stories in the collection likely being classics, you might be able to get them free somewhere. In any case, there's quite a few of the megapacks for different genres and authors, so if you don't fancy this one, it might still be worthwhile checking the other packs out.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

OMG, this thread has been a goldmine for time travel nuts like me.  I've put a ton on my Wishlist.

Now to find the money and the time to starting reading them all.


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## DaveinJapan (Jun 20, 2013)

willswardstrom said:


> Asimov's book is fantastic.
> 
> I actually really like Michael Crichton's Timeline. The movie wasn't great, but I had some great memories with that book.


Beat me to it, I was going to recommend Timeline as well. 

I absolutely LOVE his description if the little details (lack of any machine noise, standards of cleanliness, etc...).

And this topic reminds me, that's a Mark Twain book I've not yet read! I should get to it!!


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## Martin OHearn (Feb 9, 2012)

jmiked said:


> Favorite time travel novels (in no particular order):
> 
> _The End of Eternity_ - Isaac Asimov
> _The Man Who Folded Himself_ - David Gerrold
> ...


I was going to add _The Man Who Folded Himself_--you beat me to it.

One thing: it's _Bid Time Return_ that "Somewhere in Time" was based on; there's been no movie yet of _Time and Again_. Robert Redford had the rights back in the Seventies, but before CGI the prospect of recreating 1880s New York, in the massive detail required by the plot, stumped everyone.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

One story I forgot to mention because it's not actually a book, just a short story, is Isaac Asimov's *The Ugly Little Boy. * It's about a group of scientists experimenting with time travel who bring a Neanderthal child into the present. I challenge anyone to read this story and not end up in tears; it's that moving. I like it even more than Asimov's *Nightfall*, which is considered his most famous short. *The Ugly Little Boy * proves that if Asimov wanted to, he could have been a novelist as well as a sci-fi writer, so deeply does he touch your emotions in this powerful little story.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

lmroth12 said:


> *The Ugly Little Boy * proves that if Asimov wanted to, he could have been a novelist as well as a sci-fi writer, so deeply does he touch your emotions in this powerful little story.


 I would say he WAS a novelist. As well as a sci-fi writer. He was also a non-fiction writer. And did commentaries on classic novels. He wrote mysteries as well. In both the short story format as well as longer works. Not to mention his work editing monthly magazines as well as anthologies.

There's actually not much he _didn't_ write, in fact. He's got about the longest page I've ever seen on "Fantastic Fiction": http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/isaac-asimov/


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

mgohearn said:


> One thing: it's _Bid Time Return_ that "Somewhere in Time" was based on


Yeah, I typed the movie info on the wrong line. 

Mike


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I second the recommendation for Isaac Asimov's _The End of Eternity_, which would probably still make my list of all time top ten favourite novels some 25 years after I first read it.
> 
> Another time travel favourite is _The Anubis Gates_ by Tim Powers.


I third the recommendation for Asimov's End of Eternity - followed by Heinlein's Door into Summer and Finney's Time and Again.

For short fiction, in addition to the Asimov story ("Ugly Little Boy") mentioned above, I'd add "The Immortal Bard". Heinlein's 2 stories already mentioned - "All You Zombies" and "By His Bootstraps" are superb. And I'd add John Varley's "Air Raid" as brilliant (made into the movie Millennium, but the short story is better).


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

This was rather good, I thought... an indie book:


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I would say he WAS a novelist. As well as a sci-fi writer. He was also a non-fiction writer. And did commentaries on classic novels. He wrote mysteries as well. In both the short story format as well as longer works. Not to mention his work editing monthly magazines as well as anthologies.
> 
> There's actually not much he _didn't_ write, in fact. He's got about the longest page I've ever seen on "Fantastic Fiction": http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/isaac-asimov/


When Asimov was on his deathbed, he said the one thing he regretted was not writing more.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

lmroth12 said:


> One story I forgot to mention because it's not actually a book, just a short story, is Isaac Asimov's *The Ugly Little Boy. * It's about a group of scientists experimenting with time travel who bring a Neanderthal child into the present. I challenge anyone to read this story and not end up in tears; it's that moving. I like it even more than Asimov's *Nightfall*, which is considered his most famous short. *The Ugly Little Boy * proves that if Asimov wanted to, he could have been a novelist as well as a sci-fi writer, so deeply does he touch your emotions in this powerful little story.


There actually is a novel version of _The Ugly Little Boy_. It's called _Child of Time_ and was written in cooperation by Asimov and Robert Silverberg. The publication date of my edition is 1991. And yes, it's very good in either form.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I would say he WAS a novelist. As well as a sci-fi writer. He was also a non-fiction writer. And did commentaries on classic novels. He wrote mysteries as well. In both the short story format as well as longer works. Not to mention his work editing monthly magazines as well as anthologies.
> 
> There's actually not much he _didn't_ write, in fact. He's got about the longest page I've ever seen on "Fantastic Fiction": http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/isaac-asimov/


I agree he wrote full length books that could be called novels due to their length, but my own definition of a novelist is a writer who takes a character through a journey by using the plot developments to change him/her along the way or to be defined by the experience, such as happens to the main characters in *Gone With the Wind*, *The Help*, *The Outsiders*, etc., with the focus being on the character development rather than the plot resolution. Such is what happened to the main character in *The Ugly Little Boy*, i.e., the nurse, and I think that Asimov could have written more books that focused on character development because Asimov had the ability to make his readers laugh, cry, and think.

I hesitate to call some writers novelists, such as mystery writers or romance writers, because their focus is more on resolving the plot than developing the characters, most of whom remain in the same condition throughout the book. No disrespect to them, but the focus is on the plot because that's the way the readers want it; they don't want Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot to change because they like them just the way they are. I could be wrong, of course, but that is just my own distinction between a novelist and genre writers.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

And here I thought novelists were just writers who wrote novels.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

NogDog said:


> And here I thought novelists were just writers who wrote novels.


Very funny, NogDog!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

NogDog said:


> And here I thought novelists were just writers who wrote novels.


Exactly. 

If I accept lmroth's narrower definition, the conclusion is that I generally don't enjoy books written by novelists because nothing ever happens. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of a character growing and learning -- but there ought to be some sort of _action_ as well.

No, for me, a novelist writes novels and the subject matter, theme, etc. isn't part of the definition in my mind. I kinda think that's what most dictionaries will say as well, but I admit not having bothered to look it up. 

Mind you, I have observed some heated discussions about length: when does a short story become a novelette become a novella become a novel? 

But that's o.k. People can disagree. 

Oh, and I can't think of any other time travel books that haven't already been mentioned.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Exactly.
> 
> If I accept lmroth's narrower definition, the conclusion is that I generally don't enjoy books written by novelists because nothing ever happens. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of a character growing and learning -- but there ought to be some sort of _action_ as well.
> 
> ...


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Of course there is the more subtle time travel - like Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising (Dark Is Rising Sequence, The) series where the characters jump around in time. Or even Catherine Fisher's Corbenic. All excellent books.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

One series I forgot to mention: Andre Norton's Time Traders series. She did four books, I think. Also a series by her titled the Crosstime Series.


Mike


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## northtexas (May 16, 2010)

I'm really enjoying the Bright Empire series by Stephen R. Lawhead that involves time travel:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Bright+Empires%3A

Bright Empires:
The Skin Map (2010)
The Bone House (2011)
The Spirit Well (2012)
The Shadow Lamp (2013)
The Fatal Tree (Forthcoming - 2014)


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Silverberg's done a lot of time travel stories, both short and long.  Jack Finney's work is coming to the US Kindle store in November; TIME AFTER TIME has already been mentioned here, and that book and its sequel FROM TIME TO TIME will be issued as ebooks.  Also coming is a selection of Finney's short fiction called ABOUT TIME, and those stories are well worth checking out.  If you're in the UK, you're luckier than we are here in the states where Finney's short work is concerned because Gateway has issued THE CLOCK OF TIME (known here as THE THIRD LEVEL) and I LOVE GALESBURG IN THE SPRINGTIME as ebooks; those two collections include all the stories in ABOUT TIME and more -- wonderful stuff.

Also highly recommended: Harlan Ellison's "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty," Fritz Leiber's Change War stories (THE BIG TIME, and others), Stephen King's 11/22/63, Alan Brennert's TIME AND CHANCE, Bob Shaw's THE TWO-TIMERS (and also Shaw's short story "Light of Other Days -- not exactly a time travel story but close enough to appeal to anyone who likes the subject).


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## lazarusInfinity (Oct 2, 2012)

This isn't necessarily Sci-Fi fiction, but PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE by Dr. Michio Kaku is a phenomenal book.  He brings a very practical and scientific theory to the notion of time travel, teleportation and other facets of the sic-fi genre.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Not exactly time travel, either - rather, about stopping time - but The Fermata (Vintage Contemporaries) by Nicholson Baker is one great piece of literate and erotic science fiction.


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

Since there are so many fans of the sub-genre here - I'd like to float a survey.

What's more appealing to you about time travel fiction...

stories that cleverly deal with paradoxes?

stories that focus on interplay between anachronistic characters?


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

jdcore said:


> Since there are so many fans of the sub-genre here - I'd like to float a survey.
> 
> What's more appealing to you about time travel fiction...
> 
> ...


Time travel fiction


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

jdcore said:


> Since there are so many fans of the sub-genre here - I'd like to float a survey.
> 
> What's more appealing to you about time travel fiction...
> 
> ...


I find that these days I don't really have any particular desire to read time-travel books, in part because I've already read quite a few. If I do, I probably want it to be more of a humorous bent, even a parody, rather than another re-hash of the "grandfather paradox". An exception might be something that takes a serious look at the latest (and not extreme fringe) interpretations of general relativity, with time travel requiring either huge (i.e. "astronomical") amounts of energy -- not something a single scientist creates in a basement lab* -- or one-way travel to the future via relativistic speeds and the resultant time dilation effect.
______________
* And you probably cannot travel further back in time than when the first such time machine was built.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

jdcore said:


> Since there are so many fans of the sub-genre here - I'd like to float a survey.
> 
> What's more appealing to you about time travel fiction...
> 
> ...


I like any story that creatively uses the concept of time travel and do not care whether the focus is on paradoxes or anachronism as much as I care whether the story is well-written and original with characters who engage my interest and sympathy.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

jdcore said:


> Since there are so many fans of the sub-genre here - I'd like to float a survey.
> 
> What's more appealing to you about time travel fiction...
> 
> ...


paradoxes! I love paradoxes where the author can make me believe it all works...


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

PaulLev said:


> Not exactly time travel, either - rather, about stopping time - but The Fermata (Vintage Contemporaries) by Nicholson Baker is one great piece of literate and erotic science fiction.


I enjoyed *The Plot to Save Socrates* by Paul Levinson.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Not enKindled, unfortunately, but I am legally obligated* to mention _Roadmarks_, by Roger Zelazny.


__________
* self-denigrating sarcasm


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

NogDog said:


> Not enKindled, unfortunately, but I am legally obligated* to mention _Roadmarks_, by Roger Zelazny.
> 
> 
> __________
> * self-denigrating sarcasm


hey, nog, does that count as dinosaur porn?

I have 3 Star Trek books to reccomend, but can't do links right now. They are "Yesterday's Son", "Time for Yesterday" which are sequels to the ST episode "All Our Yesterdays", and "Ishmael," which has Spock sent back to 1800's Seattle. 
Interesting note about "Ishmael". The characters in the 1800's portion are drawn from an old TV show whose name escapes me at the moment, but Marc Lenard (aka Sarek) played the villian in the show.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

telracs said:


> hey, nog, does that count as dinosaur porn?...


Porn? Nah...nothing explicit. Just some good old, every-day dinosaur romance.

(It's only a tiny part of the story, so don't be put off by our bit of fun -- or over-encouraged if you're into dino-porn.)


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

NogDog said:


> Porn? Nah...nothing explicit. Just some good old, every-day dinosaur romance.
> 
> (It's only a tiny part of the story, so don't be put off by our bit of fun -- or over-encouraged if you're into dino-porn.)


i know the book very well, nog....


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

telracs said:


> hey, nog, does that count as dinosaur porn?
> 
> I have 3 Star Trek books to reccomend, but can't do links right now. They are "Yesterday's Son", "Time for Yesterday" which are sequels to the ST episode "All Our Yesterdays", and "Ishmael," which has Spock sent back to 1800's Seattle.
> Interesting note about "Ishmael". The characters in the 1800's portion are drawn from *an old TV show whose name escapes me at the moment*, but Marc Lenard (aka Sarek) played the villian in the show.


Here Come the Brides (with Bobby Sherman and the theme song "Seattle")


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

crebel said:


> Here Come the Brides (with Bobby Sherman and the theme song "Seattle")


thank you.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

telracs said:


> i know the book very well, nog....


I know, the aside was meant for those who don't.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

DebBennett said:


> paradoxes! I love paradoxes where the author can make me believe it all works...


Agreed! Paradoxes, every time! They're the delicious, tough, mind-bending mind-candy of time travel.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

ebbrown said:


> I enjoyed *The Plot to Save Socrates* by Paul Levinson.


Thank you!


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## alicepattinson (Jan 27, 2013)

I love to read these kind of books. Good thing I saw this thread. yipeeeee


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

crebel said:


> Here Come the Brides (with Bobby Sherman and the theme song "Seattle")


I actually re...re...remember that sh...sh...show! (Wink to those who remember Bobby Sherman's character Jeremy and his endearing stutter.  )


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

Well, I went to my bookshelf to pick up The Fall of Chronopolis by Barrington J Bayley, which I read some years (decades?) ago, but couldn't find it. Where the blazes did I put it? I seem to remember that it was quite good, or at least engaging.



> The mighty ships of the Third Time Fleet relentlessly patrolled the Chronotic Empire's thousand-year frontier, blotting out an error of history here or there before swooping back to challenge other time-travelling civilisations far into the future. Captain Mond Aton had been proud to serve in such a fleet. But now, falsely convicted of cowardice and dereliction of duty, he had been given the cruellest of sentences: to be sent unprotected into time as a lone messenger between the cruising timeships. After such an inconceivable experience in the endless voids there was only one option left to him. To be allowed to die.


However, I did find another by Leigh Brackett: The Sword Of Rhiannon (Planet Stories Library). My copy is from ACE Books, copyright 1953. I first heard of it from my father, who one said he'd like to read it again. It took me several years of looking through bookstores to eventually find it and give it to him. He's gone now, and I have the book. I read it ever so often, partially because I like it, partially to keep the memory of my father alive.



> Greed pulls the archaeologist Matt Carse into the forgotten tomb of the Martian god Rhiannon and plunges the unlikely hero into the Red Planet's fantastic past, when vast oceans covered the land and the legendary Sea-Kings ruled from terraced palaces of decadence and delight.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

I'm about to start reading a time travel novel, *Days of Cain* by J.R. Dunn, but my favorite time travel book of all time is *Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus* by Orson Scott Card. He is just a great sci-fi writer in general.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

thanks to nogdog's mention of the Robert Sheckley megapack, I also found this The Time Travel Megapack: 26 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Stories


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## Martin OHearn (Feb 9, 2012)

SPOILER



telracs said:


> I have 3 Star Trek books to reccomend, but can't do links right now. They are "Yesterday's Son", "Time for Yesterday" which are sequels to the ST episode "All Our Yesterdays", and "Ishmael," which has Spock sent back to 1800's Seattle.
> Interesting note about "Ishmael". The characters in the 1800's portion are drawn from an old TV show whose name escapes me at the moment, but Marc Lenard (aka Sarek) played the villain in the show.





crebel said:


> Here Come the Brides (with Bobby Sherman and the theme song "Seattle")


SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER


Spoiler



And we learn in _Ishmael_ that Spock is actually a descendant of Aaron Stempel--a lookalike for his Vulcan father--but it has to be on his Earthling mother Amanda's side of the family. What astronomical odds would Spock give on that unlikely recombination of genes?



_(To add spoiler block, highlight the text to be blocked and click on the SP button between the musical note and the Amazon button above the smileys. To read blocked text, hover with your cursor or tap on the block if using a touchscreen.)_


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

hs said:


> I'm about to start reading a time travel novel, *Days of Cain* by J.R. Dunn, but my favorite time travel book of all time is *Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus* by Orson Scott Card. He is just a great sci-fi writer in general.


I'd forgotten about J. R. Dunn's Days of Cain - a fine novel by an excellent writer. Highly recommended.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

telracs said:


> thanks to nogdog's mention of the Robert Sheckley megapack, I also found this The Time Travel Megapack: 26 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Stories


If we're talking about anthologies of time travel stories, there's Mike Ashley's recently published The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF (Mammoth Books). (Disclaimer - one of my stories is in this book, but it's a great antho nonetheless).


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

D.A. Boulter said:


> However, I did find another by Leigh Brackett: The Sword Of Rhiannon (Planet Stories Library). My copy is from ACE Books, copyright 1953. I first heard of it from my father, who one said he'd like to read it again. It took me several years of looking through bookstores to eventually find it and give it to him. He's gone now, and I have the book. I read it ever so often, partially because I like it, partially to keep the memory of my father alive.


This one of my favorites, also. I first read it as an Ace Double many years ago. I bought the Baen ebook 2-3 years ago and enjoyed it just as much the fourth (or fifth) time.

Mike


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

> However, I did find another by Leigh Brackett: The Sword Of Rhiannon (Planet Stories Library). My copy is from ACE Books, copyright 1953. I first heard of it from my father, who one said he'd like to read it again. It took me several years of looking through bookstores to eventually find it and give it to him. He's gone now, and I have the book. I read it ever so often, partially because I like it, partially to keep the memory of my father alive.


Mike
[/quote]


jmiked said:


> This one of my favorites, also. I first read it as an Ace Double many years ago. I bought the Baen ebook 2-3 years ago and enjoyed it just as much the fourth (or fifth) time.
> 
> Mike


Seeing as I took it off the shelf, I read it again. Still enjoy it.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

One of the things that appeals most strongly to me in time travel fiction is its use to tell stories about people trying to recapture good days now vanished, to undo mistakes, to find a place and time that suits them better than the here-and-now.  Most of those efforts are doomed, of course, but that's okay because I like a good downer...

Whose line was it -- "Make it didn't happen"?  Can't be done, but time travel stories let the characters try, and regret can be powerful fuel for fiction.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Tony Rabig said:


> One of the things that appeals most strongly to me in time travel fiction is its use to tell stories about people trying to recapture good days now vanished, to undo mistakes, to find a place and time that suits them better than the here-and-now. Most of those efforts are doomed, of course, but that's okay because I like a good downer...
> 
> Whose line was it -- "Make it didn't happen"? Can't be done, but time travel stories let the characters try, and regret can be powerful fuel for fiction.


Or simply find out that the good old days actually sucked more than the present.


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## dkrauss (Oct 13, 2012)

If you want to read a truly bizarre time travel story, then pick up Michael Moorcock's "The Dancers at the End of Time," which is actually three novels in one. Truly. Bizarre.

http://www.amazon.com/Dancers-Time-Eternal-Champion-Series/dp/1565049942/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1381523338&sr=8-3&keywords=dancers+at+the+end+of+time


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

dkrauss said:


> If you want to read a truly bizarre time travel story, then pick up Michael Moorcock's "The Dancers at the End of Time," which is actually three novels in one. Truly. Bizarre.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Dancers-Time-Eternal-Champion-Series/dp/1565049942/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1381523338&sr=8-3&keywords=dancers+at+the+end+of+time


And if you read the orginal Elric series and the Corum series by Moorcock, if you pay attention, you'll realize that the first time Elric meets Corum is the second time Corum meets Elric, and vice versa. Blew my mind, way back when.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

And another terrific time travel story I should have mentioned earlier -- Michael Moorcock's "Behold the Man."  Either the novella or the novel-length version that followed later.  Great stuff, and if memory serves the novella won a Nebula in its category (1967 or 68, I think).


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

I am not great fan of time travel novels but I'd like to mention a really nice short story by Tony Rabig "The Other Iron River", in the collection with the same name. I am still secretly hoping Tony would write a full length novel in the same spirit.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Tony Rabig said:


> Whose line was it -- "Make it didn't happen"?


Whoever's line that is, it's a good one!


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

One of my all-time favorites is Keith Laumer's _Dinosaur Beach_.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

NogDog said:


> Or simply find out that the good old days actually sucked more than the present.


Depends on the story and how it arcs. I will never forget the scene in *Time and Again * when Si brings Julia to the present and sees our world through her eyes when she leafs through a volume on World War II and is shell-shocked at the horrors of it. Si found the New York City of the 1880s a much slower place, but he actually enjoyed the innocence of the people as compared to our own time.

I agree modern conveniences are great and I like them as much as the next person, but life in a slower world where people stayed in the same community through the generations because of the difficulty of travel and therefore put down roots has its charm also. Families were closer and there for each other as opposed to the present when parents and grandparents can live at different ends of the country and only see each other once or twice a year.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

lmroth12 said:


> Depends on the story and how it arcs. I will never forget the scene in *Time and Again * when Si brings Julia to the present and sees our world through her eyes when she leafs through a volume on World War II and is shell-shocked at the horrors of it. Si found the New York City of the 1880s a much slower place, but he actually enjoyed the innocence of the people as compared to our own time.


I think it might be a mistake to assume that people were more innocent then -- unless you mean it more in the sense of being less aware of not-so-innocent things going on in the world in general?



> I agree modern conveniences are great and I like them as much as the next person, but life in a slower world where people stayed in the same community through the generations because of the difficulty of travel and therefore put down roots has its charm also. Families were closer and there for each other as opposed to the present when parents and grandparents can live at different ends of the country and only see each other once or twice a year.


And husbands could beat their wives without fear of any consequences (unless they went way too far)?

I'm just saying it's all relative, and people generally apply at least somewhat rosy-colored glasses when waxing nostalgic about the past. Yes, there were differences, but people pretty much are always people, which includes all the bad with all the good. And the further back you go, the more likely you are to be one of the oppressed masses of peasants, not the royalty and somewhat privileged merchant classes that tend to predominate your typical Renaissance Faire.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

NogDog said:


> I think it might be a mistake to assume that people were more innocent then -- unless you mean it more in the sense of being less aware of not-so-innocent things going on in the world in general?
> 
> And husbands could beat their wives without fear of any consequences (unless they went way too far)?
> 
> I'm just saying it's all relative, and people generally apply at least somewhat rosy-colored glasses when waxing nostalgic about the past. Yes, there were differences, but people pretty much are always people, which includes all the bad with all the good. And the further back you go, the more likely you are to be one of the oppressed masses of peasants, not the royalty and somewhat privileged merchant classes that tend to predominate your typical Renaissance Faire.


The reference to innocence in *Time and Again * is that Julia had never heard of a horrible weapon of mass destruction called the A-bomb, and she could not have imagined the cold-blooded ruthlessness of a madman who could order six million Jews to be exterminated based simply on their race. And when she read of it in print after it happened, it was a shock to her system she could not recover from because she could not conceive of such a monstrosity. We hear of something like that happening today and we are horrified momentarily and then our world goes on because there are so many of these horrors that we have become numb to them.

And if we argue the pros and cons of the past versus the present, we have lost a lot of a sense of community over the years. Prior to the automobile people pretty much lived and died in the same community they were born in and put down roots and actually got involved with their neighbors and formed the structure of the community, rather than today when the local community is left to corporations and city planners. Now you can be born in one part of the country, go to college in another, get married somewhere else, and ultimately settle down and die on the opposite coast from where you started. It doesn't make for a sense of continuity of family roots and I think that is part of the charm of time travel books or historical fiction where we see how family members interact, carry on a legacy or dynasty (even the peasants!) and influence their communities for good or evil because of the level of involvement the residents have established over the generations.

About spousal abuse, I have actually addressed that issue in at least two of my books although they are fantasy and based in the past. (Hope that doesn't come across as self-promotion because it isn't intended to be; it's just not an issue that I ignore.) For a really good book that isn't quite time travel but addresses the past and the importance of the peasants check out Thomas B. Costain's *Below the Salt*, a fabulous historical fiction novel about the Middle Ages and the Magna Carta that makes for an engrossing read and exalts the heroism of those "peasants" that had enough and stood up to their oppressors.

And yes, this post is all pretty much relative as I agree on what you posted, just saying why I find time travel books so charming.


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## RLC (Mar 19, 2013)

Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

anguabell said:


> I am not great fan of time travel novels but I'd like to mention a really nice short story by Tony Rabig "The Other Iron River", in the collection with the same name. I am still secretly hoping Tony would write a full length novel in the same spirit.


Thank ya kindly, and that might happen, but I've got a couple of longer projects in the works that have been soundly kicking my backside for a while now; when I can get one or both of them out the door...

Another terrific time travel story in case it hasn't been mentioned already: Alfred Bester's "Disappearing Act." One of his best; you can find it in his collection Virtual Unrealities, The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Tony Rabig said:


> Another terrific time travel story in case it hasn't been mentioned already: Alfred Bester's "Disappearing Act." One of his best; you can find it in his collection Virtual Unrealities, The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester


"The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" by Bester ain't too shabby, either.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

PaulLev said:


> "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" by Bester ain't too shabby, either.


Indeed it ain't, and I should have mentioned that one too. Both stories are included in VIRTUAL UNREALITIES.


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## sundaze (Sep 20, 2013)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> This is always a popular topic.
> 
> One of my favorite series is KB member Monique Martin's Out of Time series...back in a minute with some links.
> 
> ...


I've seen these in the authors sig. Going to have to check them out.

My favorite time travel books--The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. Outlander is simply my favorite book ever.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

lmroth12 said:


> The reference to innocence in *Time and Again * is that Julia had never heard of a horrible weapon of mass destruction called the A-bomb, and she could not have imagined the cold-blooded ruthlessness of a madman who could order six million Jews to be exterminated based simply on their race. And when she read of it in print after it happened, it was a shock to her system she could not recover from because she could not conceive of such a monstrosity. We hear of something like that happening today and we are horrified momentarily and then our world goes on because there are so many of these horrors that we have become numb to them.
> 
> And if we argue the pros and cons of the past versus the present, we have lost a lot of a sense of community over the years. Prior to the automobile people pretty much lived and died in the same community they were born in and put down roots and actually got involved with their neighbors and formed the structure of the community, rather than today when the local community is left to corporations and city planners. Now you can be born in one part of the country, go to college in another, get married somewhere else, and ultimately settle down and die on the opposite coast from where you started. It doesn't make for a sense of continuity of family roots and I think that is part of the charm of time travel books or historical fiction where we see how family members interact, carry on a legacy or dynasty (even the peasants!) and influence their communities for good or evil because of the level of involvement the residents have established over the generations.
> 
> ...


Actually, I think our prospects for community have greatly increased in many ways in the digital age - as witness the community right here on KBoards.

But I completely agree with you on time travel novels being charming


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## Alessandra Kelley (Feb 22, 2011)

Would you count stories where someone is hurled into the past or the future but isn't really traveling per se?

Because in that case I really liked Eric Flint's *1632*, a story of a modern small town accidentally transported to the middle of Germany in that year, and how they deal with it. It's kind of a militaristic fantasy, aimed I think more at men than women, but a cracking good read.

As a kid I liked *Hangin' Out With Cici,* by Francine Pascale, in which a troubled girl from the 1970s is thrown back to the 1940s where she meets and befriends a similarly-aged girl named Cici and learns about the past.

Isaac Asimov wrote *Pebble in the Sky* about an oldish Jewish man ("Schwartz was sixty-two" is a line that will forever haunt me, for in-story reasons) thrown millions of years into the future. As a young gentile girl I liked it, although I suspect a good deal of it went over my head.

I love *Ishmael* by Barbra Hambly, a well-written story of Star Trek's Spock thrown amnesiac into an entirely different TV show about mid-nineteenth century Seattle and having to deal with it. Okay, no one in the book is aware that they are actually part of two colliding shows, but it's great fun.

I enjoyed Susan Cooper's *The Dark is Rising* as a youngster, but became less enamored of it as I learned more of the background on which it was based, sadly fake nineteenth century pseudo-ancient folklore. Also some very bad things happened to some very likeable characters, I hate the trope that kids have their memories of fantastic things wiped away, and the whole thing ended with "all the magic goes away and the world is just ordinary now," which is a fantasy ending I have grown to hate with a cold passion.

Like many in this thread, I love Terry Pratchett's *Night Watch,* which, by the way, is a fascinating crossover with the just-previous book in the series, *Thief of Time,* insofar as the beginning scenes in *Night Watch* are literally run through at the end of *Thief of Time* and the event that hurles the MC into the past is the climax of the previous book.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Alessandra Kelley said:


> Would you count stories where someone is hurled into the past or the future but isn't really traveling per se?


I would think being hurled is kind of travel - if someone hurled me over the Hudson from New York to New Jersey I'd have traveled that distance, right? - so, sure, I would count all the stories you list.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Alessandra Kelley said:


> Would you count stories where someone is hurled into the past or the future but isn't really traveling per se?
> 
> Because in that case I really liked Eric Flint's *1632*, a story of a modern small town accidentally transported to the middle of Germany in that year, and how they deal with it. It's kind of a militaristic fantasy, aimed I think more at men than women, but a cracking good read.
> 
> ...


I would count that as time travel. A fascinating book I read as a teen was *The Mirror * by Marlys Millhiser. It isn't the traditional book of time travel where a character _physically _ travels through time, but instead tells the story of two women who accidentally exchange each other's bodies via the machination of a mysterious mirror, and one is hurled into the past, the other into the future. Each has to cope with enormous changes to their lifestyle because one reverts to more primitive conditions, while the other experiences culture shock as she struggles to understand modern conveniences and attitudes. It's a great book!


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## readingril (Oct 29, 2010)

> A fascinating book I read as a teen was *The Mirror * by Marlys Millhiser. It isn't the traditional book of time travel where a character _physically _ travels through time, but instead tells the story of two women who accidentally exchange each other's bodies via the machination of a mysterious mirror, and one is hurled into the past, the other into the future. Each has to cope with enormous changes to their lifestyle because one reverts to more primitive conditions, while the other experiences culture shock as she struggles to understand modern conveniences and attitudes. It's a great book!


I'd love to have The Mirror in an eBook format... I seem to read that book once a year since... a long time ago  and this is my third copy (I once lent a copy out and never got it back!).

(The 70's references get a little more dated every time I read it, besides just making me feel OLD.)


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## LSBurton (Jan 31, 2014)

I feel Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine warrants a mention here, as it's not your usual take on the matter. It sends its creator into the future for exponential periods of time. The first is, say, 5 seconds, the second time is 25 seconds, the next is 625 seconds ... and so on. It's worth checking out.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

readingril said:


> I'd love to have The Mirror in an eBook format... I seem to read that book once a year since... a long time ago  and this is my third copy (I once lent a copy out and never got it back!).
> 
> (The 70's references get a little more dated every time I read it, besides just making me feel OLD.)


Which means the 70's references actually cause the reader to re-visit this era, in effect making the book itself a bit of a travel through time.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Probably completely irrelevant as they're not even books, but I so loved the premise in the Terminator films. And the time travel all worked - it all made logical sense to me. I was watching Terminator Salvation for the first time the other night and *everything* tied up. I was impressed. But then I'm easily pleased....


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

DebBennett said:


> Probably completely irrelevant as they're not even books, but I so loved the premise in the Terminator films. And the time travel all worked - it all made logical sense to me. I was watching Terminator Salvation for the first time the other night and *everything* tied up. I was impressed. But then I'm easily pleased....


Not irrelevant at all! The Terminator movies, along with the Back to the Future trilogy, and 12 Monkeys, are masterpieces of the genre.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

12 Monkeys. I'd forgotten that one. I think I had to watch it three times before I understood it!


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

DebBennett said:


> 12 Monkeys. I'd forgotten that one. I think I had to watch it three times before I understood it!


That's because it took the paradoxes and loops of time travel very seriously, which few books and movies do.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

PaulLev said:


> Not irrelevant at all! The Terminator movies, along with the Back to the Future trilogy, and 12 Monkeys, are masterpieces of the genre.


And if we are straying from books but citing great time travel adventures, let's not forget *Voyagers*, a show that was popular in the 80's where people went back to the past whenever the "Omni" flashed a red signal that something had gone wrong with history because someone had tampered with events. They could only return to the present when the Omni flashed green. It was a lot of fun, and posed the interesting question of what might have happened if events had happened otherwise or if people had made other choices, such as being able to prevent the assassination of Lincoln.

Getting back to a literary reference (although the bunny trail was fun!) Isaac Asimov's short story *What If * posed the same question. In that story the characters decided they were better off _not _ knowing the consequences that resulted from different choices they might have made.


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## MMJustus (Jun 28, 2010)

I've enjoyed Eric Flint's _1632 _ series, some volumes more than others (the first one is my favorite).

And then there's Connie Willis's _To Say Nothing of the Dog_.

It's been too long since I read _Time and Again_. I need to do something about that.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

While not time travel per se, Michael Reisig's "Hawks of Kamalon" is very close. It's a story about a group of WWII fighter and bomber pilots transported, along with their planes, to a far away galaxy. The people on this new planet live in a sort of utopian renaissance age, with little modern conveniences. The good people of Kamalon are about to come under attack by an evil dictator on the opposite continent and need the help of Earth's warriors. It's a spell binding book, with lots of action and romance. Reisig is a superb writer, too.


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## Alessandra Kelley (Feb 22, 2011)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> While not time travel per se, Michael Reisig's "Hawks of Kamalon" is very close. It's a story about a group of WWII fighter and bomber pilots transported, along with their planes, to a far away galaxy. The people on this new planet live in a sort of utopian renaissance age, with little modern conveniences. They good people of Kamalon are about to come under attack by an evil dictator on the opposite continent and need the help of Earth's warriors. It's a spell binding book, with lots of action and romance. Reisig is a superb writer, too.


That reminds me in an inside-out way of Poul Anderson's classic sf novel, _The High Crusade,_ which is also not time travel exactly, but tells the story of a castle and village's worth of medieval English people who accidentally get transported to a technologically advanced but utterly unromantic intstellar civilization and have to use their wits and skills to keep afloat.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Alessandra Kelley said:


> That reminds me in an inside-out way of Poul Anderson's classic sf novel, _The High Crusade,_ which is also not time travel exactly, but tells the story of a castle and village's worth of medieval English people who accidentally get transported to a technologically advanced but utterly unromantic intstellar civilization and have to use their wits and skills to keep afloat.


I haven't read *The High Crusade*, but it sounds like the reverse of *A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court*, where the hero has to rely on his knowledge of history and science to stay alive.


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## Alessandra Kelley (Feb 22, 2011)

lmroth12 said:


> I haven't read *The High Crusade*, but it sounds like the reverse of *A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court*, where the hero has to rely on his knowledge of history and science to stay alive.


Kind of, yeah, but without the biting satirical elements. _The High Crusade_ is more rollicking adventure and how chivalric ideals, fealty and honor (as understood at the time anyway) beat out advanced tech, logic and looking out for number one.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Alessandra Kelley said:


> Kind of, yeah, but without the biting satirical elements. _The High Crusade_ is more rollicking adventure and how chivalric ideals, fealty and honor (as understood at the time anyway) beat out advanced tech, logic and looking out for number one.


It sounds like my cup of tea. I will have to check it out!


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

lmroth12 said:


> And if we are straying from books but citing great time travel adventures, let's not forget *Voyagers*, a show that was popular in the 80's where people went back to the past whenever the "Omni" flashed a red signal that something had gone wrong with history because someone had tampered with events. They could only return to the present when the Omni flashed green. It was a lot of fun, and posed the interesting question of what might have happened if events had happened otherwise or if people had made other choices, such as being able to prevent the assassination of Lincoln.


[hijack] I don't remember that one, but there was a TV show in the 1980s called Sliders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112167/) that had Jerry O'Connell & John Rhys-Davies in it. [/hijack]

I now return you to your regularly scheduled post.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Nancy Beck said:


> [hijack] I don't remember that one, but there was a TV show in the 1980s called Sliders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112167/) that had Jerry O'Connell & John Rhys-Davies in it. [/hijack]
> 
> I now return you to your regularly scheduled post.


Thanks for the infomercial, Nancy!


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

lmroth12 said:


> Thanks for the infomercial, Nancy!


My pleasure!


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## Patricia (Dec 30, 2008)

readingril said:


> When I was in high school I read a book by Marlys Millhiser called The Mirror. Not in ebook format, but there is a crappy recording at Audible. Replay by Ken Greenwood is another title I read and enjoyed. I can't not mention Diana Gabaldon's monstrously long Outlander series.


The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser is now available for pre-order for the Kindle. I've waited a long time. Can't wait to read it again!


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

DebBennett said:


> 12 Monkeys. I'd forgotten that one. I think I had to watch it three times before I understood it!


Speaking of the 12 Monkeys the movie, the series just completed its first season on SyFy. The story was really little like the movie, but I thought it was quite good.


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## Jennifer R P (Oct 19, 2012)

I can't second Doomsday Book - it's currently sitting on my tbr pile - but I've read To Say Nothing Of The Dog and also the Blackout/All Clear duology by the same author. Connie Willis does her research and writes interesting characters. Blackout/All Clear really goes into how her concept of time travel works.

Pebble In The Sky - also very good. Believe it or not, I haven't read The End Of Eternity (also sitting on my tbr pile).

Although it's not technically time travel, Alastair Reynolds' Century Rain has an interesting take on the "modern person transported to a historical era" trope.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

You're in for a treat with The End of Eternity - I think it's the best time travel ever written.


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## Jennifer R P (Oct 19, 2012)

It's the only book by Asimov I haven't read. But right now it's sitting between Wool and The Martian quite a way down on the pile.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Well, that's tough competition, no doubt   But The End of Eternity is in a class by itself.  (It's the last novel Asimov wrote before his temporary retirement, and he was really at the very top of his game then.)


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## SteveHarrison (Feb 1, 2015)

The best time travel book I've read in recent years is Stephen King's 11.22.63, about a man who goes back to try and prevent the JFK assassination.

_sorry -- no self promotion in the Book Corner.  -- Ann_

Apologies, Ann...


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Patricia said:


> The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser is now available for pre-order for the Kindle. I've waited a long time. Can't wait to read it again!


The Mirror is one of my all-time favorite books on time travel. Fascinating story and great characters!


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Jennifer R P said:


> I can't second Doomsday Book - it's currently sitting on my tbr pile - but I've read To Say Nothing Of The Dog and also the Blackout/All Clear duology by the same author. Connie Willis does her research and writes interesting characters. Blackout/All Clear really goes into how her concept of time travel works.
> 
> Pebble In The Sky - also very good. Believe it or not, I haven't read The End Of Eternity (also sitting on my tbr pile).
> 
> Although it's not technically time travel, Alastair Reynolds' Century Rain has an interesting take on the "modern person transported to a historical era" trope.


I loved Pebble In the Sky; haven't read the End of Eternity. But I will have to check it out as I don't think there is an Asimov book I've read that I didn't like.

Another unusual book to check out is Thomas B. Costain's Below the Salt. While it isn't technically time travel, it starts in the present and keeps interjecting the events of the past into the story. Great book about the wicked King John, the Magna Carta, and the Plantaganet family of England.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Haven't heard of Below the Salt - but it sounds like a story I'd enjoy and I'll check it out.  Thanks!


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

PaulLev said:


> Haven't heard of Below the Salt - but it sounds like a story I'd enjoy and I'll check it out. Thanks!


You're welcome! If you enjoy tales of Merrie Olde England, you are in for a real treat!


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## Unenthused (Apr 7, 2015)

First of all, I can second several of the mentioned books - primarily *Doomsday Book* by Connie Willis, but also recently mentioned *11.23.63* by Stephen King.

However, no one has yet to mention Alex Scarrow's young adult series *"Timeriders"*. I'm almost 40 and I loved that series. Then I've only got good things to say about Kage Baker's Company-series (starting with *The Garden of Iden*, and then* Mendoza in Hollywood *and so on, 8 books in total if I remember correctly).

In Timeriders, we follow the fate of three young men and women who are fetched from different times and places, and made guardians of time.

In Kage Baker's series about "The Company", we're told the story about how a company in the 26th century figured out time travel, but also how to create immortals. The company has set up bases along our timeline and recruited agents who are made immortal. There's a serious twist to the story, so stay with it, even though I feel that the first book is the weakest.


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

Have to add a bit more to the high praise here for Jack Finney's *Time and Again* - what I found most appealing in the book is it almost makes you believe that, if you really give his mesmerizing time travel technique a good try, you could make it work. Wow. That's good writing coupled with a hot imagination.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Steven Hardesty said:


> Have to add a bit more to the high praise here for Jack Finney's *Time and Again* - what I found most appealing in the book is it almost makes you believe that, if you really give his mesmerizing time travel technique a good try, you could make it work. Wow. That's good writing coupled with a hot imagination.


I agree completely - the novel is an understated masterpiece of time travel, coupled with a good detective mystery.


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## JeanetteRaleigh (Jan 1, 2013)

Lynn Kurland writes fantastic historical/modern romances in which one of the main characters finds themselves back in time and of course, fall in love.


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## Chinmoy Mukherjee (Apr 26, 2014)

Some one should write a great novel out of "John Titor" story.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

I see a couple people have mentioned A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I read this last year, and have to say I was a little disappointed by it. That's not a judgement of _all_ time-travel books, by any means; just an observation about this well-known novel.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Jena H said:


> I see a couple people have mentioned A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I read this last year, and have to say I was a little disappointed by it. That's not a judgement of _all_ time-travel books, by any means; just an observation about this well-known novel.


I agree that it may not be a book that's to everyone's taste. While it may appear on first perusal that Mark Twain poked fun at the Middle Ages, what always stuck with me after reading the book was the main character's love for the two women in his life and how he didn't appreciate either of them fully while he was in the same time period with them. That angle redeemed for me a book that had appeared to be taking cheap shots at the superstitious beliefs of a different time and culture. It was satire of the typical Twain variety, but for those who almost hold the Middle Ages to be sacred, it might border on the sacrilegous!  But the yearning of the main character for a relationship he could not have lifted the book to an entirely different level for me.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Jena H said:


> I see a couple people have mentioned A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I read this last year, and have to say I was a little disappointed by it. That's not a judgement of _all_ time-travel books, by any means; just an observation about this well-known novel.


I think there's a lot of good in this novel, but not much if any of the paradox which makes time travel so appealing to me as a reader and viewer (and, for that, as a author).


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## seveneyes (Apr 30, 2015)

I found this one at Gardner's and loved it: (I only see a print book available, no Kindle.)


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## Patricia (Dec 30, 2008)

seveneyes said:


> I found this one at Gardner's and loved it: (I only see a print book available, no Kindle.)


Yes, "Replay" is a great book. But I bought it for Kindle in 2010, so I don't know why it's not available now.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Highly recommended Time Travel in Popular Media: Essays on Film, Television, Literature and Video Games


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

seveneyes said:


> I found this one at Gardner's and loved it: (I only see a print book available, no Kindle.)


Wow, this is my favorite book of all time. I bought in on kindle when it was available a few years ago. Its a shame it is not available anymore on kindle.

Steve


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Two recent authors that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread yet, Neve Maslakovic and Jodi Taylor.

Both take a broadly similar approach (which in turn is similar to Connie Willis' time travel books) - time travelling historians, and paradoxes are avoided by time itself preventing the protagonists from doing something that would cause a paradox. Female leads as well.

Maslakovic's "Regarding ducks and universes" is not part of the time travel series, but is well worth a read, the story revolves around tourist travel between parallel universes.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

The Mindtraveler by Bonnie Rozanski is the best new time travel novel I've read in years - I'm reading another novel by her (not time travel) which is what me think of it.



my brief Gooodreads review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1078594389


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## A.G. Richards (Sep 28, 2014)

David Wingrove's _The Empire of Time_ is an excellent new addition to this sub-genre ... a work of true scope and imagination.


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## cathywalker (Dec 20, 2014)

I love time travel books of all genres. Just off the top of my head...Timeline by Michael Connelly, any time travel (or anything) by Lynn Kurland and I love Karen Marie Moning's Highlander series. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley...ummm, there are so many more, but my brain isn't working. I think I need too many books and just can't remember them.


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## DISmith (Jul 13, 2015)

This is a favorite subject for me. My most favorite time travel is the series by Shanna Lauffey, followed by Stephen King's 11-22-1963.


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## DaveA2012 (Jan 8, 2012)

seveneyes said:


> I found this one at Gardner's and loved it: (I only see a print book available, no Kindle.)


That's a shame. One of my favorites. Try the audio book it is wonderful.


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## jlee745 (Jul 27, 2010)

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier is a YA time travel based book. Its been made into a movie in Germany.


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## zjhellen (Jun 27, 2015)

This is an interesting topic, good recommendation.


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

Patricia said:


> Yes, "Replay" is a great book. But I bought it for Kindle in 2010, so I don't know why it's not available now.


This is probably my favorite book of all time. I was lucky to have gotten it on kindle while it was still available. I don't know why in the world they would have taken it off of kindle.

Steve


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## shaunduke (Feb 2, 2015)

Michael Moorcock's The Nomad of Time series.  It gets mentioned all the time, but so few people have actually read it.  Truly brilliant alternate history / time travel stuff.  The first book, The Warlord of the Air, is a pretty stunning indictment of the British Empire.


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## DISmith (Jul 13, 2015)

shaunduke said:


> Michael Moorcock's The Nomad of Time series. It gets mentioned all the time, but so few people have actually read it. Truly brilliant alternate history / time travel stuff. The first book, The Warlord of the Air, is a pretty stunning indictment of the British Empire.


I was completely unaware of this series! I'll definitely be looking into it.


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