Comments on: What's the time-travel canon?

Question: What's the time-travel canon?

scarylarry — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:10:13 -0800

I'm trying to make an expansive and widely-varied reading list of time-travel books and stories. Suggestions?

I realize that asking for a list of science-fiction stories about time-travel is a little like asking for a list of pop songs about love, but I'm interested in compiling a reading list of the very best and/or most eccentric or idiosyncratic works in the sub-genre.

I tend not to read sci-fi, so feel free to assume that I'm unfamiliar with works that might seem obvious to a connoisseur. Off the top of my head, I've read Wells's Time-Machine, Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch, that horrible Michael Crichton book, and that's it. Everything else is fair game.

I'm not looking for movies or TV shows, but graphic novel suggestions would be totally welcome. I'm looking for work that is either exemplary of the genre or quirky because it comes at the genre in an unpredictable way.

Thanks so much!

By: woolylambkin

woolylambkin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:16:15 -0800

The Time Traveler's Wife was the first book that I thought about when thinking about time traveling. It's very much more a love/relationship story than a time traveling sci fi story. It is one of my favorite books but it may be something that is totally off base of what you're looking for.

By: oh pollo!

oh pollo! — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:18:09 -0800

Time Travel in Fiction.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:37:25 -0800

Slaughterhouse Five

By: Dan Brilliant

Dan Brilliant — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:44:51 -0800

Heinlein's By His Bootstraps. Short and great.

By: loosemouth

loosemouth — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:51:05 -0800

No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop.

By: JaredSeth

JaredSeth — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:56:07 -0800

The first one I thought of, appropriately enough since it's a very early example, was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain.

By: crios

crios — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:43:48 -0800

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold

By: Leon

Leon — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:50:44 -0800

Alfred Bester had a nice little short story... "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed", 1959. File under quirky.

Also Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Sirens of Titan.

By: BobsterLobster

BobsterLobster — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:52:22 -0800

Time and the Conways (a play) by J. B. Priestley is a classic.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:13:30 -0800

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is very good.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:35:50 -0800

Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" is a classic in the genre. I also really like his story "The Toynbee Convector," which is a bit of a different twist on the time travel story.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:38:40 -0800

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War

By: Katemonkey

Katemonkey — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:49:00 -0800

I rather enjoyed Robert Silverberg's Up The Line, which is about time-travel tourism.

By: poppo

poppo — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:05:02 -0800

You should check this, which has been asked before. In fact, this question should be deleted, but I shall keep my flagging to myself today.

By: Jakey

Jakey — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:16:36 -0800

Stephen Fry's Making History tends not to be categorised as SF, but it's in this sub-genre. The strict time-travel element is small before it veers off into alternate history, but it's tone certainly makes a change from the earnestness of much of this type of novel.

By: bibbit

bibbit — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:56:40 -0800

Not mentioned in the other thread: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. It's about a woman who time travels to 2137 while in an asylum, and it's much more about commenting on society and much less about science fiction.

By: mattholomew

mattholomew — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:03:13 -0800

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

By: Durin's Bane

Durin's Bane — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:08:52 -0800

Another Connie Willis novel with time travel is To Say Nothing of the Dog. Highly recommended.

The Anubis Gates is sitting in my To Read pile. It won the 1984 Philip K. Dick award so I assume it's good, too.

By: ourobouros

ourobouros — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:14:36 -0800

"The Albertine Notes," by Rick Moody, in which the survivors of a nuclear attack on Manhattan become addicted to a drug that causes time travel. This is the second time I've recommended this story within a week or so. That's because it's incredible. You can find it in Thrilling Tales or Right Livelihoods.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:14:52 -0800

Graphic Novel: I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

Maintimestream comic: Booster Gold

Bookwise, a hearty second for Anubis Gates. Tim Powers is constantly awesome.

By: mojohand

mojohand — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:30:45 -0800

While time dilation from the relativistic effects of high velocity space travel are a component of Joe Haldeman's Forever War and Forever Free (and surely others that I'm forgetting: Worlds Enough and Time, maybe?) Haldeman deals with 'classic time travel' in the manner I believe you are looking for in The Hemingway Hoax. There's also a short story he wrote decades ago with time travel as a central theme, but I cannot remember any part of it.

By: chr1sb0y

chr1sb0y — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:36:33 -0800

The Technicolor Time Machine, by Harry Harrison. It's about some desperate Hollywood folks who get access to a time machine, and use it to try and make a Viking movie in record time. Humor, satire, and action ensue. Not sure if it's considered a classic, but it's a fun read.

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:37:56 -0800

Hey! How about Stress Management for Time Travelers?

Otherwise, seconding the Heinlein tale, By His Bootstraps. Great stuff.

I wrote it but it's still a good story! No, really!

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:38:56 -0800

I mean, I wrote Stress Management for Time Travelers. Argh.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:42:00 -0800

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

By: mojohand

mojohand — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:42:48 -0800

Oh yeah, Joe Haldeman has recently published The Accidental Time Machine, which I'd suspect just might also deal with the subject of time travel, though I haven't read it yet.

By: mojohand

mojohand — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:53:37 -0800

And, if you could ever find a copy, there's Keith Laumer's hilarious The Great Time Machine Hoax.

Finally, I'll convey an interesting observation that Joe Haldeman made on the subject: If you write a story about time travel, it's considered 'Hard SF,' although time travel has never been observed and is entirely fanciful. If you write one about werewolves, it's considered fantasy, although lycanthropy is a clinically observed phenomenon (albeit not from supernatural causes.)

By: ewkpates

ewkpates — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:55:57 -0800

Probably the greatest time travel book ever: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

My number two and three are:
Life House, Spider Robinson.
A Door Into Summer, Heinlein

By: cyclopz

cyclopz — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:05:53 -0800

For a really fascinating twist on time travel, try Millenium by John Varley.

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:06:39 -0800

"Downtiming the Nightside", by Jack Chalker

By: kimdog

kimdog — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:21:27 -0800

Replay by Ken Grimwood

By: Malor

Malor — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:21:56 -0800

Seconding Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing Of The Dog". It's one of the best time-travel novels ever written.

By: Mimzy

Mimzy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:25:44 -0800

The "Outlander" series (6 books) by Diana Gabaldon. A great mix of science fiction/fantasy/romance/historical fiction. Love 'em. And she's still not finished with the series; she's said at least two more books are forthcoming.

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:32:25 -0800

I absolutely love Asimov's The End of Eternity. The idea of commerce between different time periods is perhaps unique to this story.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:49:31 -0800

Similar to Finney's Time and Again is Charles Dickinson's A Shortcut in Time. It's not defacto sci-fi, but maybe all time travel novels are a little science fiction.

By: Dr. Grue

Dr. Grue — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:18:33 -0800

Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man. And thirding By His Bootstraps. Another Heinlein time travel take would be The Door into Summer.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:22:29 -0800

Time Travel in Fiction

No offense to everyone who's busily naming stories and novels, but most of you are wasting your time, because that list, linked by oh pollo! in the second comment, is pretty comprehensive (everything I thought of is on it) and has nice short descriptions, and if I were the original poster I'd just ignore the other comments and use that as a reference. (Do check poppo's link, which would have saved you the trouble of posting in the first place.)

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:32:52 -0800

I remember a time travel series from when I was a kid called "Agent of T.E.R.R.A." which were breathtakingly bad. (A bit of googling says that the author was Larry Maddock.)

By: desuetude

desuetude — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:34:35 -0800

languagehat is right...wow, that's a thorough Wikipedia page.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:19:03 -0800

And, for grins and giggles, you should check-out the whole John Titor web saga.

By: signal

signal — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:58:43 -0800

Thirding Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing Of The Dog".

By: Chrysostom

Chrysostom — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:06:12 -0800

Heinlein's other classic time travel story is, "All You Zombies--"

By: SurrenderMonkey

SurrenderMonkey — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:11:01 -0800

I guess this is a bit off-topic, but you'll get a hilarious/clever timetravel story in the Spirou comic albums The Comet's Watchmaker and The Awakening of Z (1986). The Spirou albums were hardly distributed outside of europe (and mainly in France/Belgium), but they are besides Tintin the most beloved comic albums of this genre. I loved it as a kid, and still do.