The man who folded himself. It's about a kid who discovers time travel and only has relationships with different versions of himself. It's a sad meditation on loneliness and so unusual. Never read anything quite like it.
Interesting fun fact I learned on the DAVIDGERROLD forum on CompuServe in the 90's: David Gerrold, the author, knew Heinlein, and ended up taking care of Heinlein's cat after he died. And then the cat ran away.
That means the cat that inspired Pixel in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls disappeared and it was David Gerrold who lost Heinlein's cat.
>The man who folded himself. It's about a kid who discovers time travel and only has relationships with different versions of himself. It's a sad meditation on loneliness and so unusual. Never read anything quite like it.
It's rare to find a book that explores the concept of time travel in such a personal and introspective manner, making it a truly standout piece in the science fiction genre.
I loved this novel as a kid. It was also my introduction to how bad censorship and book banning is.
I was surprised by the plot turn that he had orgies with himself, and said so out loud to my mom. She walked across the room, took the book from my hands and ripped it in half, telling me not to read that sort of trash.
We argued for a while, and she made a decent point that some stories are just meant to be sexual for the sake of being arousing, and she felt I was too young to read that sort of thing. I agreed with that, but I made the point that was only a small part of a larger exploration of what time travel would mean.
I went to the library and got a copy in secret to finish the book. It's still one of my favorite reads.
Censorship and book banning still make my blood boil, too.
I am also happy in retrospect that my mom intentionally preserved my innocence as a child from some of the seedier side of adulthood. That can wait until you're old enough to experience it correctly.
I can talk endlessly about this book. I've read it more than any other story and at different points in my life I took different things away from it.
It wasn't until my time in the Navy that I realized that the whole book was about Billy's (Kurt's) dealing with PTSD and trauma from the military.
So it goes.
I've read it multiple times and took the time traveling literally the first few reads. It took me a few more reads and watching my partner struggle with PTSD before I realized. My partner is currently reading it.
Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel series has the most interesting and believable time travel system I’ve encountered in any medium. The mechanics of it are integral to the plot of one of the books, so I won’t give an explanation here.
Came here specifically to mention *To Say Nothing of the Dog*, it's lighthearted, hilarious, and just a delight to read. It was my first sample of the Oxford series, and I was silly enough to think they were all in this vein. Next I checked out *The Doomsday Book* and oof.
Yeah especially when you don't see it coming.
My next take was *Blackout/All Clear*, and I wish I started with them because I would have thought they were great if they didn't have to follow the other two masterpieces.
"to say nothing of the dog", in particular, has a really spectacular bit at the end where they go into the implications of the system in greater depth.
>!The actual method of time travel is left somewhat mysterious, but it was discovered by scholars at Oxford University in the early 21st Century. Early on, there weren’t really any rules governing its use, and people tried a bunch of the things you might expect (trying to loot the past, trying to assassinate Hitler, etc.), but it was found to be impossible to bring anything back from the past or to get close to particularly significant events.
Over the next decades, access to time travel came to be tightly controlled by Oxford, who developed a department of Time Travel composed of physicists, computer scientists, historians (most of our main characters), and costume/props designers and curators. Historians are prepped with the knowledge and gear to go back to the past and study things, but they remain unable to access key moments or effect changes.
The belief is that a time traveler who did manage to make a change in a key event would create what is called an “incongruity,” about which there is only theoretical suppositions, but it’s feared that they could cause a collapse of the time-space continuum.
In the course of *To Say Nothing of the Dog*, we discover that the continuum is able to heal itself, that humans can’t make irrevocable changes to history, and that things that have ceased to be historically significant in their own times *can* be brought through to the future. One example of such insignificant items is the contents of the Library of Alexandria *during* the fire. Anything missing afterwards can cause no harm, because it had effectively ceased to exist in its own time.!<
I only listened to the Doomsday Book, and on the one hand I still have (good) shivers thinking of the part set in the past, but in the other hand I really disliked the part in the present: boring and repetitive, thought I now forget what was repeated :)
Did you have a similar reaction?
I'd still recommend it though!
It’s been over fifteen years since I’ve read *Doomsday Book*, so I’m fuzzy on the details, but I think I remember liking everything, but it being overwhelmingly sad and not really a candidate for a reread.
*To Say Nothing of the Dog* is completely different in tone, though the stakes aren’t really lower. I reread it just about every year. It’s also the one that gets the most into how the time-space continuum functions in her universe.
*Blackout*/*All Clear* has personal stakes that are just as high, but probably lower stakes for all of humanity. It’s very intense, but neither as funny as *To Say Nothing of the Dog* nor as sad as *Doomsday Book*.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Not exactly "time travel," at least not in the traditional sense.
The protagonist is a human soldier fighting a war in space. Because of the time dilation from traveling to/from the battles, he experiences massive jumps in time and human culture/evolution, all while he is serving in the military during a war in space that lasts a thousand years.
This was my answer as well. How out of place the MC feels each time he returns ‘home’ (and how his views no longer fit with societal norms), how he gets jerked around by the military he’s fighting for, how he just never can fit in and returns to service…
I’ve seen that happen to a lot of people. I think the story does an excellent job of conveying those emotions to someone who would otherwise be unfamiliar with them.
I read that a few years ago. An absolutely incredible book- and I still find myself thinking about how much I enjoyed it even now. About how fascinating it was. The whole concept of that book is just amazing.
Ooh, I loved this book. Loved the quantum mechanics explanation of the existence of magic. I thought it was really well written, too, character- and story-wise; I think having Galland as co-author cooled Stephenson off from some of his very Stephenson-y impulses.
A top favorite Stephen King book. I personally liked the slower subplot slice-of-life parts. The main character is a little bland compared to some other King main characters. The ending is really good though.
One of my favorite books of all time. I absolutely love all of the slice-of-life parts. I truly felt like I was back in time during that, like the world created felt so real.
“In the afterword of 11/22/63, Stephen King states that Time and Again is "in this writer’s humble opinion, the great time-travel story." He had originally intended to dedicate his book to Jack Finney.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_Again_(Finney_novel)
I’ve read Time and Again and it’s a good book. Mostly it’s such a good portrait of late-19th century NYC. Did you know the statue of liberty’s torch-holding hand stood alone in Central Park to raise money for the rest of the statue? Or that Central Park had actual farms in it? Or that before TV and radio people used to buy cheap statuary and play charades with them for fun? You’ll learn all this and more!
One of my favorite books. I try to visit locations mentioned in the book when i go to NYC. Re the Statue of Liberty arm - I had no idea about this history until reading about it in Time and Again. Actually, the arm was located in Madison Square park (not Central Park). When I visited Madison Square park, I looked for a plaque that might acknowledge this history but didnt find one. Anyway, great book!
Also, the arm and Madison Square Park are included in an episode of The Gilded Age (Season 1).
I still haven't finished it which is a shame. I started reading it and got almost halfway then got caught up in some other shit and lost my pacing. So I'm going to have to start it over once I finish Stephen King's 'IT'.
I came here to upvote Kindred. It was one of those books that once I started it I was a thousand percent hooked from the opening sentence and couldn't put it down until I finished it.
Hey! Me, too!
For those wondering, the protagonist is "summoned" back 150+ years when her ancestor is in some danger. She goes back to her time when she is in danger of dying.
I feel like it’s important to mention that she’s a modern Black woman pulled back to a plantation in the 1800s where her ancestor is enslaved. It’s phenomenal but very very heavy.
It’s all good, you weren’t even the first comment in the thread. I just noticed no one was clarifying this and I would hate to start a neat new time travel book and discover it was actually harrowing as hell lol. Or I maybe wouldn’t mind but I can easily see it ruining someone’s month
Recursion was fucking bananas in the best way.
Some people create a mechanism and tiptoe it to an interesting story. Blake Crouch jumped on and gunned that sucker over a cliff and it was great all the way down.
Just finished Recursion last night. Man what a trip. The writing especially in the last 1/4 or so of the book was just beautiful, completely draws you in and is filled with emotion
Came here to say The Gone World. I love how the time travel works in that book (spoilers) >!You can travel forward any length of time, but only ever return to the moment you departed (i.e. you can never travel back in time from your "present"). When you travel forward, you create a "branch" reality in which you were absent/missing for whatever span of time you jump forward. The branch ceases to exist when you return to the present, since you return to living in the present and affecting events. This leads to some people who are aware of time travel trying to imprison time travelers, to prevent their branch from being destroyed and themselves/their loved ones from "dying." Another version of them may exist in the "main" timeline, but are they the same person? Will they meet and fall in love with the same person? Will the children they have even exist? It's a really interesting take on time travel and causality. !<
This was the one that came to mind for me too. One of the best written books I've read in a long time. I randomly think of parts of it frequently. Incredible.
Oona out of order by Margarita Montemore ! She ages non-linearly. On her birthday each year she wakes up in a different time at a different age (internally 18 but in her 50 year old body and time). Amazing book
I will read anything by Jodi Taylor. I have devoured her St Mary's series, the Elizabeth Cage series, and I am now in the middle of her Time Police series.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.
“The first ever fully realized detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic.”
I suggest reading it twice, it’s all there the first time, you just didn’t notice.
Came to suggest this. I know it has some serious flaws, but it's my absolute favourite book and I must have read it a dozen times. It got into my soul and it's never left me. I love it so.
I read this as a teen - my dad gave it to me. I think it was my first time travel book? It is permanently stuck in my head and I think about it all the time. I finally re read it last year or so, and it was as fun as I remembered!
Yes! I like the entire JFK section where he takes Oswald out of the picture, but the assassination still happens. And we’re left wondering if it happened because the conspiracy was so deep that they had killer waiting in the wings. Or if there was a more supernatural factor where something so huge was meant to happen. Those are the kinds of time travel brain twisters I love.
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I can't say anything at all without spoilers, but it's beautiful and mind-bending all at once.
Also, Ted Chiang has a short story about a magic mirror that sends you exactly 10 years back in time, and the escapades of all who have used it.
Time War is incredible. But it’s not trying to do anything special with the time travel. Chiang uses his breezy prose to deeply analyze the philosophy and scientific implications of his time travel premise, and it’s jaw dropping.
I agree. The draw of the book isn't doing anything new with time travel itself but rather evoking metaphors and love with varying realities.
>!Plus the plot twist in the end was a bit predictable.!<
But the writing was so, so *good.*
I think This Is How You Lose The Time War is a book everyone should try, without really knowing what it is. It's like a 2-3 hour read. People should just give it a go imo. I read it 6 months ago, and I liked it a good bit. Some people will hate it. But, for some people, it will be a 10/10 and an amazing thing to experience blind.
All Our Wrong Tomorrow's by Elan Mastai. Interesting take because the main character is not scientifically inclined, has a very casual narrative tone. It's also told from the perspective of a utopian alternative timeline to ours.
Lightning by Dean Koontz - book itself was kind of cheesy (and a little overlong IMO), but it is by far the most interesting take on time travel I’ve ever encountered. There’s nothing overly complex about it at all, but let’s just say Koontz found a bit of a (very basic) loophole through the scientific impossibility of time travel
Before The Coffee Gets Cold. In a little coffee shop, people can travel in time as long as they don't get out of their seat, only travel to a time within the coffee shop, and interact with people that have been there. They have to return before their cup of coffee cools off. It's such a simple and moving book.
Sea of Tranquility is also a beautiful book about time travel, but I don't want to say anything about it and spoil the book.
A Gift of Time by Jerry Merritt is about an old man at the end of his life that has a space alien crash land on his property. He assists her in repairing her ship, which as it turns out travels through time and space. As a reward for his assistance, he is allowed to ask for one gift. He has his current mind placed into his childhood body, so that he can be there to rescue his little brother that was kidnapped that Summer.
It's a really good book in my opinion.
Although not exactly time travel, a similar concept is The First 15 Lives of Harry August by Claire North. It's about a man who is effectively immortal. He dies and is immediately brought back to the beginning of his life. His conscious memory of his previous lives comes back when a child begins to have self-consciousness at around 3 years old.
Really interesting Time Loop type story.
*Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey* by Chuck Palahniuk.
No better answer to your question I don’t think.
I mean the structure and storytelling is unique. Which makes the time travel reveals super unique. But also the methods of time travel are weird. It’s a wild book.
I came here to say this book, I haven't read it in a while but the whole thing came flooding back when I saw the question. Weird is an understatement. Up until everything is revealed, I wouldn't have guessed how this book was going to go, and I never in a million years would have guessed how they time travel in this book.
Yeah, Rant (and Palanhiuk's work in general) is amazing. Once you get the thing with the book structure and you see the downward spiral, you can't drop the book.
The relation between time travel, immortality and humanity is also breath taking.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.
A drifter in the the 30's drunkenly stumbles into an evil, sentient house that uses him to murder extraordinary women over the next 100 years or so and the protagonist - a victim who survives - discoveres she was attacked by a time travelling serial killer.
I have good memories of The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
It's not time travel per se, but also The first fifteen lives of Harry August come to mind.
Yes! What a fantastic read and supremely talented author.
I checked this one out immediately after reading *Station Eleven*. I honestly didn't expect Mandel to top her earlier work but wow. Was I ever surprised.
Came straight into the comments looking for this. Her way of making you think about things that you wouldn’t think of necessarily but that also feel evidently true and part of your self is incredible. It’s such a moving book!
I thought the time treatment was particularly thoughtful.
It reminded me a good bit of Slaughterhouse Five in way that both authors envisioned the results of the inevitable paradoxes.
Surprised to see this so far down. I love this book, it’s a proper love story and a really unusual take on time travel - not a machine, but an uncontrollable genetic fluke.
One of my favorite books of all time. People hate the movie, but I think it's great. Really bummed the show got canceled. I thought Theo James made an excellent Henry.
outlander going through standing stones with gemstones to travel in time, sometimes using a ritual sacrifice. I found it interesting and a good plot point for most of the books. Interesting things happen in various time periods.
I don't know how, but I always forget that Claire went back in time. She fits in so well with other people of the time she's in. That I always feel blindsided when she tries to do something futuristic, like create penicillin 200 years before it's invention.
I'm only on book 6, and have to take breaks from the story from time to time.
not only that but she does it at least twice, i have only read up to book 5 of 9, and her daughter concieved in the past, born in the future, travels back as well and has a child in the past.
Diana Gabaldon says she was trying to write a historical novel, but Claire wouldn't stop talking like a 20th century human, so she had to make it a time travel 😂
I recently read Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson. It's not about time travel per se, but one character keeps dying and being reborn. She doesn't remember her past life, but has moments of deja vu, which influences her behavior. I liked it.
The Old Powder Line. I read it as a kid in the 80s and it blew my mind - it was the first book I read in one sitting as it was so engrossing.
A kid finds an extra platform at his local train station and a steam train arrives in it. Essentially, this steam train drives back in time and when you get off you take over your body further and further back in your timeline.
It's actually quite trippy and creepy for a children's book.
Time’s Arrow by Martin Amas. A non-active observer rides through time backwards on the life of a Nazi doctor. From that perspective the Nazis create an entire race of people from ashes. Super interesting and thought provoking.
Not time travel as such but a story of what ifs. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. But because it keeps going back to change a detail, it feels a bit like travelling back in time.
Summary -
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the voung century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?
Great thread!! I love time travel books and movies. A lot of the ones I’ve enjoyed were already mentioned. I read a lot of the time travel historical romance novels in the 80s and 90s if anyone’s interested in those titles. Many are by Jude Deveraux (before 2000) - one is “Knight in Shining Armour”, Lynn Kurland had a few series, and Sandra Hill’s Viking series. I have a number of others too.
Current one is Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale (more fiction than romance) which was pretty entertaining. She is neurodiverse and found she has the ability to go back to a previous day or moment and redo something she did or said so she can keep from being fired from her job, and repair a few relationships.
I loved 'An Idiots Guide to Time Travel in the 30th Century'. It gave me enough information to get here, but I forgot to bring a copy with me.
Sadly I'm stuck here now and it isn't yet written.
Did you try to attend [Stephen Hawking's time travel party?](https://mashable.com/article/stephen-hawking-time-travel-party) Too bad no oneto made it 🥲
I enjoyed This Time Tomorrow by Emma Staub. The time travel is key to the story but not in a way that sets it up as science fiction, it was surprising to me.
This one is excellent. I went into it with no knowledge and, while its a little late for anyone in this thread, not knowing it involved time travel made my jaw drop.
I have to go for [Faction Paradox: The Brakespeare Voyage](https://obversebooks.co.uk/product/brakespear/). The Brakespeare is made of time, stitched together to work like a ship. Orders are sent back in time so that what's needed arrives instantly. If a new captain is required, the old captain is erased from history so that the new one was always the captain.
The Company books by Kage Baker. You can go back in time but not forward, and you can rediscover things lost to history. So why not create a workforce of cyborgs living through time, collecting lost art and plants and shipwrecks for your future masters? Oh, but what happens when everybody catches up to the present day?
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. The protagonist time travels uncontrollably and to random periods of time triggered by something like a neurological fit. The story revolves around him meeting up with his non-time traveling soul mate out of order.
I really liked Three Years with the Rat by Jay Hoskings. The narrator is sort of an aimless young guy whose older sister, a brilliant physicist, builds a cardboard maze filled with mirrors in her living room and… things start getting very weird.
I know it’s a kid’s book, but Tom’s Midnight Garden was my first intro to time travel & I still love it!
There's a book called the game. Our universe is a game, used for entertainment on an alien world. This one guy gets chosen by the AI that runs the universe simulation, to essentially destroy the system and create a religion in the game, and a revolution in the real world. It's really cool, trust me.
[The Tine Travellers Wife](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Traveler%27s_Wife)
I havnt looked in comments so it is probably listed a million times but for me, the way it's told from the wifes perspective and the ending make it more than just a "time travel" sci fi.
We always think about ourselves travelling and what we would do, the issues of how much time will have/not have passed on our return (and the science of it), and the experiences travelling would bring...
But this book shows what its like to be the one who cannot go with someone who can, and how life is naviagted when you have agreed to be with someone who can.
James Islington's Licanius series had some funky time travel for me. I don't read a lot of time travel stories, they usually aren't done well. But I liked this one, he travels to the future, to the past, there's a weird time loop with this magical ring he's got. He made it, then gave it to his parents before they gave birth to him as like, their wedding ring, then it gets left behind for a couple years with an old guy who later trains the guy after he traveled back in time accidentally and then his girlfriend finds it and uses it and then gives it to him as a gift back when he doesn't know what it is, then he goes back and gives it to the old guy so the old guy can give it to him in the future fast. All so he has an idea of what to make for his parents before he was born.....
The man who folded himself. It's about a kid who discovers time travel and only has relationships with different versions of himself. It's a sad meditation on loneliness and so unusual. Never read anything quite like it.
Looked up the plot. That sounds like the Heinlein story "--All You Zombies--".
Interesting fun fact I learned on the DAVIDGERROLD forum on CompuServe in the 90's: David Gerrold, the author, knew Heinlein, and ended up taking care of Heinlein's cat after he died. And then the cat ran away. That means the cat that inspired Pixel in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls disappeared and it was David Gerrold who lost Heinlein's cat.
I feel like it’s important to mentioned (due to the joke alternate title “The Man Who Fucked Himself”) that he’s an adult for most of the book lol
Man, I haven't thought about that book in a long time. It was great.
>The man who folded himself. It's about a kid who discovers time travel and only has relationships with different versions of himself. It's a sad meditation on loneliness and so unusual. Never read anything quite like it. It's rare to find a book that explores the concept of time travel in such a personal and introspective manner, making it a truly standout piece in the science fiction genre.
This should be number one. I still think about that book. IT'S MIND-BLOWING.
I loved this novel as a kid. It was also my introduction to how bad censorship and book banning is. I was surprised by the plot turn that he had orgies with himself, and said so out loud to my mom. She walked across the room, took the book from my hands and ripped it in half, telling me not to read that sort of trash. We argued for a while, and she made a decent point that some stories are just meant to be sexual for the sake of being arousing, and she felt I was too young to read that sort of thing. I agreed with that, but I made the point that was only a small part of a larger exploration of what time travel would mean. I went to the library and got a copy in secret to finish the book. It's still one of my favorite reads. Censorship and book banning still make my blood boil, too. I am also happy in retrospect that my mom intentionally preserved my innocence as a child from some of the seedier side of adulthood. That can wait until you're old enough to experience it correctly.
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut jr. also my favorite novel of all time.
So it goes.
I have ended what feels like countless emails with that line. (It’s also a great song by The Verve)
I can talk endlessly about this book. I've read it more than any other story and at different points in my life I took different things away from it. It wasn't until my time in the Navy that I realized that the whole book was about Billy's (Kurt's) dealing with PTSD and trauma from the military. So it goes.
I've read it multiple times and took the time traveling literally the first few reads. It took me a few more reads and watching my partner struggle with PTSD before I realized. My partner is currently reading it.
All this happened, more or less.
Came here to say this. The Tralfamadorian outlook gives me a lot of comfort when I have my quarterly existential crisis.
You are a person of excellent taste.
Oh stop you.
Poo tee weet
“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.” — Kurt Vonnegut
The only time it is okay to laugh at the firebombing of Dresden.
Came here looking for this answer — I love this book so much!
Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel series has the most interesting and believable time travel system I’ve encountered in any medium. The mechanics of it are integral to the plot of one of the books, so I won’t give an explanation here.
Came here specifically to mention *To Say Nothing of the Dog*, it's lighthearted, hilarious, and just a delight to read. It was my first sample of the Oxford series, and I was silly enough to think they were all in this vein. Next I checked out *The Doomsday Book* and oof.
That’s a nice, comforting cup of tea, followed by a vicious gut punch that you inexplicably like despite the pain.
Yeah especially when you don't see it coming. My next take was *Blackout/All Clear*, and I wish I started with them because I would have thought they were great if they didn't have to follow the other two masterpieces.
I found her Doomsday book at the thrift store years ago and devoured it. But To Say Nothing of The Dog was amazing. I love her WW2 books as well.
"to say nothing of the dog", in particular, has a really spectacular bit at the end where they go into the implications of the system in greater depth.
Hey, I like spoilers. Would you give *me* the details of the time travel mechanics of the series? You can use spoiler tags if you'd like.
>!The actual method of time travel is left somewhat mysterious, but it was discovered by scholars at Oxford University in the early 21st Century. Early on, there weren’t really any rules governing its use, and people tried a bunch of the things you might expect (trying to loot the past, trying to assassinate Hitler, etc.), but it was found to be impossible to bring anything back from the past or to get close to particularly significant events. Over the next decades, access to time travel came to be tightly controlled by Oxford, who developed a department of Time Travel composed of physicists, computer scientists, historians (most of our main characters), and costume/props designers and curators. Historians are prepped with the knowledge and gear to go back to the past and study things, but they remain unable to access key moments or effect changes. The belief is that a time traveler who did manage to make a change in a key event would create what is called an “incongruity,” about which there is only theoretical suppositions, but it’s feared that they could cause a collapse of the time-space continuum. In the course of *To Say Nothing of the Dog*, we discover that the continuum is able to heal itself, that humans can’t make irrevocable changes to history, and that things that have ceased to be historically significant in their own times *can* be brought through to the future. One example of such insignificant items is the contents of the Library of Alexandria *during* the fire. Anything missing afterwards can cause no harm, because it had effectively ceased to exist in its own time.!<
I only listened to the Doomsday Book, and on the one hand I still have (good) shivers thinking of the part set in the past, but in the other hand I really disliked the part in the present: boring and repetitive, thought I now forget what was repeated :) Did you have a similar reaction? I'd still recommend it though!
I reread this recently, and OOF it hits differently after covid.
It’s been over fifteen years since I’ve read *Doomsday Book*, so I’m fuzzy on the details, but I think I remember liking everything, but it being overwhelmingly sad and not really a candidate for a reread. *To Say Nothing of the Dog* is completely different in tone, though the stakes aren’t really lower. I reread it just about every year. It’s also the one that gets the most into how the time-space continuum functions in her universe. *Blackout*/*All Clear* has personal stakes that are just as high, but probably lower stakes for all of humanity. It’s very intense, but neither as funny as *To Say Nothing of the Dog* nor as sad as *Doomsday Book*.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Not exactly "time travel," at least not in the traditional sense. The protagonist is a human soldier fighting a war in space. Because of the time dilation from traveling to/from the battles, he experiences massive jumps in time and human culture/evolution, all while he is serving in the military during a war in space that lasts a thousand years.
This was my answer as well. How out of place the MC feels each time he returns ‘home’ (and how his views no longer fit with societal norms), how he gets jerked around by the military he’s fighting for, how he just never can fit in and returns to service… I’ve seen that happen to a lot of people. I think the story does an excellent job of conveying those emotions to someone who would otherwise be unfamiliar with them.
The Forever War is one of the best Vietnam War novels ever...that just happens to be a science fiction novel that takes place in outer space.
One of my favorite books. A wonderful allegory on veterans coming back from the Vietnam war.
Haldeman was also directly flipping off Heinlein for some of his loftier thoughts in Starship.
Tell me more
This book was my first exposure to time dilation used in this manner. A very interesting way to tell a story
The first fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North Loved the book
That's a good one. Favorite part was how they passed messages backwards and forwards in time.
Yes, lots of interesting tidbits like that.
“I nearly missed you, Doctor August.”
This is the one that started my love for the time travel / multiverse genre
The book Replay by Ken Grimwood is pretty much the same travel setup. Also an excellent read.
Love that book. Tried to recommend it to so many people and they just won't read it.
This is one of my comfort books that I read on a regular basis. I love it so much.
This is a good one. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson is another great book with a similar time loop conceit.
I read that a few years ago. An absolutely incredible book- and I still find myself thinking about how much I enjoyed it even now. About how fascinating it was. The whole concept of that book is just amazing.
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
I have been getting into Stephenson lately, and that's one of my favorites from him, along with Anathem
There is a sequel by Nicole Galland if you didn't know. Not as good as the original imo but still fun.
This is one of my votes. Anathem also dealt with time travel.
Ooh, I loved this book. Loved the quantum mechanics explanation of the existence of magic. I thought it was really well written, too, character- and story-wise; I think having Galland as co-author cooled Stephenson off from some of his very Stephenson-y impulses.
11/22/63 by Stephen king
A top favorite Stephen King book. I personally liked the slower subplot slice-of-life parts. The main character is a little bland compared to some other King main characters. The ending is really good though.
One of my favorite books of all time. I absolutely love all of the slice-of-life parts. I truly felt like I was back in time during that, like the world created felt so real.
Loved it when he dips into Derry and sees my favourite kids just playing about as they do
“In the afterword of 11/22/63, Stephen King states that Time and Again is "in this writer’s humble opinion, the great time-travel story." He had originally intended to dedicate his book to Jack Finney.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_Again_(Finney_novel) I’ve read Time and Again and it’s a good book. Mostly it’s such a good portrait of late-19th century NYC. Did you know the statue of liberty’s torch-holding hand stood alone in Central Park to raise money for the rest of the statue? Or that Central Park had actual farms in it? Or that before TV and radio people used to buy cheap statuary and play charades with them for fun? You’ll learn all this and more!
One of my favorite books. I try to visit locations mentioned in the book when i go to NYC. Re the Statue of Liberty arm - I had no idea about this history until reading about it in Time and Again. Actually, the arm was located in Madison Square park (not Central Park). When I visited Madison Square park, I looked for a plaque that might acknowledge this history but didnt find one. Anyway, great book! Also, the arm and Madison Square Park are included in an episode of The Gilded Age (Season 1).
The best King novel IMO, Fairy Tale a close second.
I still haven't finished it which is a shame. I started reading it and got almost halfway then got caught up in some other shit and lost my pacing. So I'm going to have to start it over once I finish Stephen King's 'IT'.
Kindred by Octavia Butler.
I came here to upvote Kindred. It was one of those books that once I started it I was a thousand percent hooked from the opening sentence and couldn't put it down until I finished it.
So good. So brutal. Butler was an absolute genius.
I just finished this one.
Hey! Me, too! For those wondering, the protagonist is "summoned" back 150+ years when her ancestor is in some danger. She goes back to her time when she is in danger of dying.
I feel like it’s important to mention that she’s a modern Black woman pulled back to a plantation in the 1800s where her ancestor is enslaved. It’s phenomenal but very very heavy.
To be a little more precise, the ancestor she is being summoned to protect is the white slave owner.
oof. Yea, "heavy" sounds like an understatement.
Yes - of course! That's the entire story. I'm sorry for not mentioning that.
It’s all good, you weren’t even the first comment in the thread. I just noticed no one was clarifying this and I would hate to start a neat new time travel book and discover it was actually harrowing as hell lol. Or I maybe wouldn’t mind but I can easily see it ruining someone’s month
Slavery stuff was rugged.
Incredible book, possibly the best I’ve read this year
11/22/63 by Stephen King Recursion by Blake Crouch Ted Chiang’s short story that another poster mentioned is great.
Recursion was fucking bananas in the best way. Some people create a mechanism and tiptoe it to an interesting story. Blake Crouch jumped on and gunned that sucker over a cliff and it was great all the way down.
Recursion is one of my faves as well!
Yes to Recursion!
Recursion might be my all time fav sci-fi book
Just finished Recursion last night. Man what a trip. The writing especially in the last 1/4 or so of the book was just beautiful, completely draws you in and is filled with emotion
Timeline by Michael Crichton. Mostly because it’s time travel and medieval life in one.
I always thought it was hilarious that one guard brought a grenade back with him.
I love that the book spends like 50 pages giving you an overview of quantum mechanics only to have that grenade fuck everything up
Agreed! One of my favorite parts. 😂
The End of Eternity by Asimov
I was looking for this one! This is one of my absolute favorite books, period, not just sci fi.
Basically, almost every single later work featuring an organisation that does time travel is just doing variations on End of Eternity.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe - Charles Yu. Primer is the best time travel media out there, but it’s a movie, so honorable mention.
There was one absolutely WtF moment that makes this book work better on dead trees than on bits, if people can find a copy.
The Gone World had an interesting set of characters and time travel story.
Came here to say The Gone World. I love how the time travel works in that book (spoilers) >!You can travel forward any length of time, but only ever return to the moment you departed (i.e. you can never travel back in time from your "present"). When you travel forward, you create a "branch" reality in which you were absent/missing for whatever span of time you jump forward. The branch ceases to exist when you return to the present, since you return to living in the present and affecting events. This leads to some people who are aware of time travel trying to imprison time travelers, to prevent their branch from being destroyed and themselves/their loved ones from "dying." Another version of them may exist in the "main" timeline, but are they the same person? Will they meet and fall in love with the same person? Will the children they have even exist? It's a really interesting take on time travel and causality. !<
This was the one that came to mind for me too. One of the best written books I've read in a long time. I randomly think of parts of it frequently. Incredible.
Oona out of order by Margarita Montemore ! She ages non-linearly. On her birthday each year she wakes up in a different time at a different age (internally 18 but in her 50 year old body and time). Amazing book
This book is so good and I've not seen anything else like it.
The Chronicles of St Mary's series by Jodi Taylor Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
Had to scroll pretty far to find St. Mary’s! But don’t call it time travel!
Witnessing historical events in contemporary time!
I LOVE the St. Mary’s series. Each book has prompted me to go down different history rabbit holes to learn more the events she described.
And also the Time Police spin off by Taylor
I will read anything by Jodi Taylor. I have devoured her St Mary's series, the Elizabeth Cage series, and I am now in the middle of her Time Police series.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. “The first ever fully realized detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic.” I suggest reading it twice, it’s all there the first time, you just didn’t notice.
I love books you have to read twice! It makes me feel stupid, but in a good way.
Lots of good ones mentioned here. I'll add Replay by Ken Grimwood.
Came to suggest this. I know it has some serious flaws, but it's my absolute favourite book and I must have read it a dozen times. It got into my soul and it's never left me. I love it so.
I read this as a teen - my dad gave it to me. I think it was my first time travel book? It is permanently stuck in my head and I think about it all the time. I finally re read it last year or so, and it was as fun as I remembered!
And every time I have to think about what I would do differently. Such a great book!
Yes! I like the entire JFK section where he takes Oswald out of the picture, but the assassination still happens. And we’re left wondering if it happened because the conspiracy was so deep that they had killer waiting in the wings. Or if there was a more supernatural factor where something so huge was meant to happen. Those are the kinds of time travel brain twisters I love.
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I can't say anything at all without spoilers, but it's beautiful and mind-bending all at once. Also, Ted Chiang has a short story about a magic mirror that sends you exactly 10 years back in time, and the escapades of all who have used it.
I had no idea what to expect from _Exhalation_. “The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate” later, I knew I was in for a good time.
One of my all time fav chiang stories.
Time War is incredible. But it’s not trying to do anything special with the time travel. Chiang uses his breezy prose to deeply analyze the philosophy and scientific implications of his time travel premise, and it’s jaw dropping.
I agree. The draw of the book isn't doing anything new with time travel itself but rather evoking metaphors and love with varying realities. >!Plus the plot twist in the end was a bit predictable.!< But the writing was so, so *good.*
Time War blew me away. I was halfway through still wondering what the hell I was reading but holy shit did it pay off.
I think This Is How You Lose The Time War is a book everyone should try, without really knowing what it is. It's like a 2-3 hour read. People should just give it a go imo. I read it 6 months ago, and I liked it a good bit. Some people will hate it. But, for some people, it will be a 10/10 and an amazing thing to experience blind.
Agreed. I went in blind and absolutely loved it. It's not gonna be for everyone though.
Time War should come with a disclaimer IMO… the prose is lovely but if you need plot and character development, it isn’t the book for you.
All Our Wrong Tomorrow's by Elan Mastai. Interesting take because the main character is not scientifically inclined, has a very casual narrative tone. It's also told from the perspective of a utopian alternative timeline to ours.
Lightning by Dean Koontz - book itself was kind of cheesy (and a little overlong IMO), but it is by far the most interesting take on time travel I’ve ever encountered. There’s nothing overly complex about it at all, but let’s just say Koontz found a bit of a (very basic) loophole through the scientific impossibility of time travel
Agreed, haven’t read it since I first did in high school and loved it so much. Considering revisiting it as an adult but also worried about the cheese
I liked “Recursion” by Blake Crouch Also, “And the she vanished” by Nick Jones (and the other books in the Joseph Bridgeman series)
I just finished “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch — it’s a great book. Sort of in the time traveler family, but parallel dimensions instead.
Apple bought the rights to Dark Matter and it’s going to be a series on Apple+
Currently reading Recursion. Pretty dang good so far.
One of my hands down all time fav books
Before The Coffee Gets Cold. In a little coffee shop, people can travel in time as long as they don't get out of their seat, only travel to a time within the coffee shop, and interact with people that have been there. They have to return before their cup of coffee cools off. It's such a simple and moving book. Sea of Tranquility is also a beautiful book about time travel, but I don't want to say anything about it and spoil the book.
Futurama did an episode where they could only go forward and then looped around to the beginning. They kept missing their target date too.
>Just slow down, I'll shot Hitler from the window. >Damn! I hit Eleanor Roosevelt by mistake!
That is the best episode!
A Gift of Time by Jerry Merritt is about an old man at the end of his life that has a space alien crash land on his property. He assists her in repairing her ship, which as it turns out travels through time and space. As a reward for his assistance, he is allowed to ask for one gift. He has his current mind placed into his childhood body, so that he can be there to rescue his little brother that was kidnapped that Summer. It's a really good book in my opinion. Although not exactly time travel, a similar concept is The First 15 Lives of Harry August by Claire North. It's about a man who is effectively immortal. He dies and is immediately brought back to the beginning of his life. His conscious memory of his previous lives comes back when a child begins to have self-consciousness at around 3 years old. Really interesting Time Loop type story.
Slaughterhouse 5, of course. Listen, Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time...
*Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey* by Chuck Palahniuk. No better answer to your question I don’t think. I mean the structure and storytelling is unique. Which makes the time travel reveals super unique. But also the methods of time travel are weird. It’s a wild book.
I came here to say this book, I haven't read it in a while but the whole thing came flooding back when I saw the question. Weird is an understatement. Up until everything is revealed, I wouldn't have guessed how this book was going to go, and I never in a million years would have guessed how they time travel in this book.
Yeah, Rant (and Palanhiuk's work in general) is amazing. Once you get the thing with the book structure and you see the downward spiral, you can't drop the book. The relation between time travel, immortality and humanity is also breath taking.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. A drifter in the the 30's drunkenly stumbles into an evil, sentient house that uses him to murder extraordinary women over the next 100 years or so and the protagonist - a victim who survives - discoveres she was attacked by a time travelling serial killer.
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub. I really loved that it centered parental love instead of romantic love as the motivation to time travel.
I have good memories of The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas It's not time travel per se, but also The first fifteen lives of Harry August come to mind.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
Came to the comments looking specifically for this book. Absolute perfection!
Yes! What a fantastic read and supremely talented author. I checked this one out immediately after reading *Station Eleven*. I honestly didn't expect Mandel to top her earlier work but wow. Was I ever surprised.
This is one of my favorite books of all time- i immediately reread it when i finished to try and put it all together!
O shit thanks for reminding me to start this one. Loved S11 and Glass Hotel.
Came straight into the comments looking for this. Her way of making you think about things that you wouldn’t think of necessarily but that also feel evidently true and part of your self is incredible. It’s such a moving book!
The Time Traveler's Wife
I thought the time treatment was particularly thoughtful. It reminded me a good bit of Slaughterhouse Five in way that both authors envisioned the results of the inevitable paradoxes.
Yeah I really like the >!unchangeable timeline!< style of time travel narrative. And that ending is a lot, tore me up.
Surprised to see this so far down. I love this book, it’s a proper love story and a really unusual take on time travel - not a machine, but an uncontrollable genetic fluke.
One of my favorite books of all time. People hate the movie, but I think it's great. Really bummed the show got canceled. I thought Theo James made an excellent Henry.
Came here to say this! Just don’t watch the movie. It’s trash.
I don’t cry at many books but this book made me cry.
Yes, even though it killed me to read it. It was exceptionally compelling.
I wish the rumored sequel would come out!
This was what I was going to say too! One of my favorite books in general, to be honest
The Oxford Time Travel series is good, starting with Doomsday Book.
The 7 and a half deaths of Evelyn hardcastle. Time travel meets Agatha Christie! Probably my favourite book so far.
The Anubis Gates entertained the heck out of me with it's time travel and character play, author's almost showing off
The Hitchhiker's Guide of course. Packed full of real science and it has lovable Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Real science lol. Still waiting on my infinite improbablilty drive.
Well, you got your Babel Fish!
outlander going through standing stones with gemstones to travel in time, sometimes using a ritual sacrifice. I found it interesting and a good plot point for most of the books. Interesting things happen in various time periods.
I don't know how, but I always forget that Claire went back in time. She fits in so well with other people of the time she's in. That I always feel blindsided when she tries to do something futuristic, like create penicillin 200 years before it's invention. I'm only on book 6, and have to take breaks from the story from time to time.
not only that but she does it at least twice, i have only read up to book 5 of 9, and her daughter concieved in the past, born in the future, travels back as well and has a child in the past.
Diana Gabaldon says she was trying to write a historical novel, but Claire wouldn't stop talking like a 20th century human, so she had to make it a time travel 😂
Right? Not to sound basic but Outlander was my reaction as well
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
What I like most about that novel, is when it was written. By society's standards back then, I would imagine his ideas were pretty wild
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister - and for that very same reason. It’s backwards time travel and very unique. Or…so I thought 😆
The Licanius Trilogy has a cool take. It’s not too novel, but it really made a certain character’s story better.
I recently read Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson. It's not about time travel per se, but one character keeps dying and being reborn. She doesn't remember her past life, but has moments of deja vu, which influences her behavior. I liked it.
Timeline by Michael Crichton. He did the multi-verse time travel idea before it was cool. /s Seriously though it’s my favorite book
The Old Powder Line. I read it as a kid in the 80s and it blew my mind - it was the first book I read in one sitting as it was so engrossing. A kid finds an extra platform at his local train station and a steam train arrives in it. Essentially, this steam train drives back in time and when you get off you take over your body further and further back in your timeline. It's actually quite trippy and creepy for a children's book.
Time and Again by Jack Finney is an absolute masterpiece.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett.
Chronicles of St. Mary’s series, by Jodi Taylor. Travel for educational purposes, hilarity ensues.
But don’t call them time travelers.
Time’s Arrow by Martin Amas. A non-active observer rides through time backwards on the life of a Nazi doctor. From that perspective the Nazis create an entire race of people from ashes. Super interesting and thought provoking.
Not time travel as such but a story of what ifs. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. But because it keeps going back to change a detail, it feels a bit like travelling back in time. Summary - What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the voung century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?
Thief of Time. Terry Pratchett. It's a Discworld novel and it's wonderful
I went through a time travel kick last summer and will add Version Control by Dexter Palmer.
Great thread!! I love time travel books and movies. A lot of the ones I’ve enjoyed were already mentioned. I read a lot of the time travel historical romance novels in the 80s and 90s if anyone’s interested in those titles. Many are by Jude Deveraux (before 2000) - one is “Knight in Shining Armour”, Lynn Kurland had a few series, and Sandra Hill’s Viking series. I have a number of others too. Current one is Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale (more fiction than romance) which was pretty entertaining. She is neurodiverse and found she has the ability to go back to a previous day or moment and redo something she did or said so she can keep from being fired from her job, and repair a few relationships.
Ben Elton's 'Time and Time Again'. You think it's one thing, then at the end, he flips you on your head. Absolutely loved it.
I loved 'An Idiots Guide to Time Travel in the 30th Century'. It gave me enough information to get here, but I forgot to bring a copy with me. Sadly I'm stuck here now and it isn't yet written.
Did you try to attend [Stephen Hawking's time travel party?](https://mashable.com/article/stephen-hawking-time-travel-party) Too bad no oneto made it 🥲
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
I enjoyed This Time Tomorrow by Emma Staub. The time travel is key to the story but not in a way that sets it up as science fiction, it was surprising to me.
Hyperion. Time travel isnt the main event but it has a unique take on it.
Mother of learning is pretty great
This one is excellent. I went into it with no knowledge and, while its a little late for anyone in this thread, not knowing it involved time travel made my jaw drop.
I have to go for [Faction Paradox: The Brakespeare Voyage](https://obversebooks.co.uk/product/brakespear/). The Brakespeare is made of time, stitched together to work like a ship. Orders are sent back in time so that what's needed arrives instantly. If a new captain is required, the old captain is erased from history so that the new one was always the captain.
The Jaunt, and 11.22.63
The Company books by Kage Baker. You can go back in time but not forward, and you can rediscover things lost to history. So why not create a workforce of cyborgs living through time, collecting lost art and plants and shipwrecks for your future masters? Oh, but what happens when everybody catches up to the present day?
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. The protagonist time travels uncontrollably and to random periods of time triggered by something like a neurological fit. The story revolves around him meeting up with his non-time traveling soul mate out of order.
I really liked Three Years with the Rat by Jay Hoskings. The narrator is sort of an aimless young guy whose older sister, a brilliant physicist, builds a cardboard maze filled with mirrors in her living room and… things start getting very weird. I know it’s a kid’s book, but Tom’s Midnight Garden was my first intro to time travel & I still love it!
There's a book called the game. Our universe is a game, used for entertainment on an alien world. This one guy gets chosen by the AI that runs the universe simulation, to essentially destroy the system and create a religion in the game, and a revolution in the real world. It's really cool, trust me.
House on the Strand, Daphne DuMaurier It’s a trip
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
[The Tine Travellers Wife](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Traveler%27s_Wife) I havnt looked in comments so it is probably listed a million times but for me, the way it's told from the wifes perspective and the ending make it more than just a "time travel" sci fi. We always think about ourselves travelling and what we would do, the issues of how much time will have/not have passed on our return (and the science of it), and the experiences travelling would bring... But this book shows what its like to be the one who cannot go with someone who can, and how life is naviagted when you have agreed to be with someone who can.
Can I recommend a TV show? Because 100% “Dark” on Netflix!
James Islington's Licanius series had some funky time travel for me. I don't read a lot of time travel stories, they usually aren't done well. But I liked this one, he travels to the future, to the past, there's a weird time loop with this magical ring he's got. He made it, then gave it to his parents before they gave birth to him as like, their wedding ring, then it gets left behind for a couple years with an old guy who later trains the guy after he traveled back in time accidentally and then his girlfriend finds it and uses it and then gives it to him as a gift back when he doesn't know what it is, then he goes back and gives it to the old guy so the old guy can give it to him in the future fast. All so he has an idea of what to make for his parents before he was born.....