Seeking Help from Science Fiction Book Fans

[John Galt]

I'm looking for a list of books or stories that illustrate principles of time travel very well. Any that speak to the different theories of time travel (parallel universes, linear time with paradoxes, etc.) would be especially helpful. Also, if there are any "classic" time travel stories, I want to make sure I hit all of those. Thanks.

[stkelly52]

The first one that comes to my mind is Timeline by Michael Crighton

[sabotai]

The onyl book I read recently that has anything to do with time travel was Chronospace by Allen Steele. His books are generally "sci-fi lite". It was a pretty good read though. I would say it would fall under the "linear time with paradoxes".

Also, if your looking for a book on time travel for writers, there is a book called "Time Travel" (part of the Science Fiction Writing Series).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

[albionmoonlight]

Pastwatch: The redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card deals with some of those issues. Not really the crux of the book, however.

[MacroGuru]

Orson Scott Card has one called the Worthing Saga, however, I am to to sure if it is full blown time travel or space travel....I will have to re-read it after I finish this Clive Cussler book.

[flere-imsaho]

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and A Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury, are definitely two "classics" in the genre.

I am, however, unaware of recent books discussing the topic (or at least the topic from an explanatory fashion) in detail.

[Calis]

I'd recommend checking out "How to Build a Time Machine" by Paul Davies.

I haven't read it myself, but I'm going through his book now "God & The New Physics" and it's quite good.

Looks like it's a very "What if" book and goes through several of the different theories and explains how it could happen.

Heck, I might get it now.

Oddly enough, I was logging in here this afternoon to ask for a Sci-Fi book recommendation of my own, but not on Time Travel. Creepy.

[terpkristin]

Timescape by Gregory Benford talks about the grandfather paradox and has a bit of a different approach to time "travel" in general. Benford is a physics prof at UC Davis which gives the book a bit of an interesting level of background.

HG Wells' The Time Machine is still on my "to read" list so I don't know if it is appropriate for what you're asking, but I'd think it would have to be on some level.

/tk

[kurtism]

For short stories, I'd recommend Heinlein's "By His Own Bootstraps" A classic by any measure of the term.

[kurtism]

Dola. For parallel universes (and a subversive edge), try Robert Anton Wilson's Schrodinger's Cat trilogy.

[Calis]

Been years since I read it, but I do believe Time Machine spoke almost nothing about the actual time travel theory did it?

Excellent book either way though.

[Surtt]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Timescape by Gregory Benford talks about the grandfather paradox and has a bit of a different approach to time "travel" in general. Benford is a physics prof at UC Davis which gives the book a bit of an interesting level of background.

This is the best one I've read dealing with the subject.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by John Galt

I'm looking for a list of books or stories that illustrate principles of time travel very well.

Fixed version

Originally Posted by John Galt

I'm looking for a list of books or stories that involve time travel.

Don't want to be a killjoy but there are no principles to time travel: it will never be invented. If time travel had been invented in the future we would know about it already.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Fixed version


Don't want to be a killjoy but there are no principles to time travel: it will never be invented. If time travel had been invented in the future we would know about it already.

How so? If someone did come back in time and interfered, we wouldn't know anything has been changed. It would seem like normal reality to us.

[AlexB]

Yes it would, but do you believe that if time travel gets invented, which means that people can go wherever they like in time as often as they like, that the secret would not get out?

You've got to assume people would be flying around time left right and centre, causing strange unexplained phenomena, dressed totally differently to local time inhabitants, speaking different dialects, with different technology... they would I assume talk to people, get involved in situations that would mean local time inhabitants would learn that they are time travellers: at some point somewhere down the line it would have become common knowledge.

[JeeberD]

*Aliens*

[judicial clerk]

There was a film series in the 80's (and they might have been documentaries) that dealt with this issue. I think they were called Back to the Future.

[SirFozzie]

Just a general suggestion, try the SM Stirling Nantucket series (I forget the name of the series). Good stuff.

[Shkspr]

Okay...time travel classics:

Wells' The Time Machine is of course the must read, but from that same general period, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a good taproot text. It is more utopian than most books in the genre. You should also pick up the Turtledove-edited The Best Time-Travel Stories of the 20th Century, which will include Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", Arthur C. Clarke's "Time's Arrow" and Ted Sturgeon's "Yesterday Was Monday". L. Sprague de Camp's "lest Darkness Fall" and The Complete Compleat Enchanter and Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court would also show up on the list at some point.

Greg Benford's Timescape has been mentioned, but you might wish to check out Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy, or his The Time Ships. I'm also a fan of Robert Sawyer's Flashforward which postulates the effects on modern society if we all got a simultaneous glimpse of what our future will be several years from now. Sawyer's Hominids trilogy postulates an alternate Earth where the Neanderthals became the dominant human strain and evolved a modern technological society.

As a bookend to Flashforward, I think one of the most solid "back in time to prior self" stories out there is Ken Grimwood's Replay. It's a more human story than science based, but it feels realistic in terms of the protagonist's reactions to his dilemma.

Timeline is okay as an action piece, but the bar for the whole "research trip back to medieval times" was set very high with Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book.

In my opinion, the best time travel stories out there are Jack Finney's Time and Again and From Time to Time. There's very little hard science in these two stories - actually, very few classics of the genre have really come up with a better explanation than Finney - but the story works incredibly well.

Hope this helps.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Yes it would, but do you believe that if time travel gets invented, which means that people can go wherever they like in time as often as they like, that the secret would not get out?

You've got to assume people would be flying around time left right and centre, causing strange unexplained phenomena, dressed totally differently to local time inhabitants, speaking different dialects, with different technology... they would I assume talk to people, get involved in situations that would mean local time inhabitants would learn that they are time travellers: at some point somewhere down the line it would have become common knowledge.

But people would also have infinite chances to go back and stop us from finding out, by stopping those that were about to blow cover.

[clintl]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Benford is a physics prof at UC Davis
/tk

UC Irvine, actually. I wish he was at UC Davis, though, because I probably would have had a chance to get to know him pretty well.

Anyway, I also recommend Timescape.

A couple of others I can think of:

The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel

[mckerney]

Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is interesting.

[Calis]

Not to derail the topic or anything, but as I mentioned earier I was about to ask a question about Sci-Fi books also, for different reasons.

I just finally watched my first episode of Firefly today, after being convinced to go out and get the DVDs. I'm quite liking it and am wondering if there's any books along the lines of these stories? Doesn't neccessarily have to possess the Western theme, but something of the rogue merchant Hans Solo, Privateer type 'o thing. What's good?

Thought it would be a bit much too start another SF book fan plea with this one right here and waiting.

[Professor58]

I picked up a couple of good books on the subject. One is a collection of short stories - "The Best Time Travel Stories of All Time" edited by Barry Malzberg. The other is Robert Silverberg's "Up the Line", written in the 60's. It has a touch of "free love" and causal drug use as the norm. The plot is about the use of time travel as a tourist attraction, with the paradox of more "visitors" than actual "in time" people at famous times in history.

[JPhillips]

Most of Heinlein's later work deals with time travel and parallel universes. He worked very hard at plausability and consistancy, so while he doesn't have time travel "facts" he does stay true to his vision.

But God help you if you read "Number of the Beast" without an understanding of his characters and other books.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

You've got to assume people would be flying around time left right and centre, causing strange unexplained phenomena, dressed totally differently to local time inhabitants, speaking different dialects, with different technology... they would I assume talk to people, get involved in situations that would mean local time inhabitants would learn that they are time travellers: at some point somewhere down the line it would have become common knowledge.

Ah, but that leads to the paradox. If time travel became common knowledge in the past, does it lead to its own invention?

[Drake]

A good place to start, though I don't know how exhaustive the list is:

http://www.scifan.com/themes/themes....emeid=4&Items=

Some interesting thematic links at the bottom of the page as well.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Calis

Not to derail the topic or anything, but as I mentioned earier I was about to ask a question about Sci-Fi books also, for different reasons.

I just finally watched my first episode of Firefly today, after being convinced to go out and get the DVDs. I'm quite liking it and am wondering if there's any books along the lines of these stories? Doesn't neccessarily have to possess the Western theme, but something of the rogue merchant Hans Solo, Privateer type 'o thing. What's good?

Thought it would be a bit much too start another SF book fan plea with this one right here and waiting.

Good lad!! I can't help you onthe book front, but keep watching and enjoy the show.

[Northwood_DK]

If you can just find John Titor am sure he can answer a lot of your questions.

[John Galt]

Thanks for all the help. It looks like I have a lot of reading to do.

[Surtt]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Most of Heinlein's later work deals with time travel and parallel universes. He worked very hard at plausability and consistancy, so while he doesn't have time travel "facts" he does stay true to his vision.

But God help you if you read "Number of the Beast" without an understanding of his characters and other books.

Let me guess, all the characters do some things I don't grok and then have an orgy.

[CamEdwards]

here's a couple of books involving time travel and baseball (believe it or not):

"If I Never Get Back" and "Two in the Field", by Darryl Brock. "Two in the Field" is the sequel to "If I Never Get Back". Pretty good storyline. Time travel is really incidental to the novels, but they're enjoyable reads.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Ah, but that leads to the paradox. If time travel became common knowledge in the past, does it lead to its own invention?

Exactly, hence why it cannot / will not / never was invented

[Surtt]

Even if you invented time travel how would you aim it? As a practical matter, the Earth is spinning as it orbits the sun, which in turn is orbiting with the galaxy. The Milky Way is moving in god knows what way. There is just too many motion variables to accurately aim for a physical location in the past.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Originally Posted by John Galt

I'm looking for a list of books or stories that illustrate principles of time travel very well. Any that speak to the different theories of time travel (parallel universes, linear time with paradoxes, etc.) would be especially helpful. Also, if there are any "classic" time travel stories, I want to make sure I hit all of those. Thanks.

If you want a good read: William Forstchen's Lost Regiment series is a good read.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Dola: It's about a Union Army Ifantry Regiment that gets sucked into a time portal and sent into another dimension/world of Russian or Medieval realm.

[DanGarion]

Just watch the "Back to the Future" trilogy and find yourself a flux capacitor.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Surtt

There is just too many motion variables to accurately aim for a physical location in the past.

What if it's not a physical location?

[Surtt]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

What if it's not a physical location?

What else would it be?

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Surtt

Even if you invented time travel how would you aim it? As a practical matter, the Earth is spinning as it orbits the sun, which in turn is orbiting with the galaxy. The Milky Way is moving in god knows what way. There is just too many motion variables to accurately aim for a physical location in the past.

Good point. I guess that's why they call it the space-time continuum.

But...if you could find the precise moment in space that you were when the last Powerball numbers were drawn, and you went to that point in space relative to where everything else is, have you not conducted time travel?

[Chas in Cinti]

I'm a big fan of the Alternate History genre. One of the best authors of that type, Harry Turtledove, wrote "Guns of the South" about a group of South African zealots who found their way of life threatened by the end of apartheid traveled back in time to the US Civil War to try to assist the Southern US in winning their independence and creating a society based on slavery and racism. Not much on the technical aspects of time travel, but an excellent source of cause and effect and "rippling" theories of time travel.

Regards,
Chas

[sabotai]

I'm traveling trough time right now. It's neat!

[Surtt]

I traveled back in time and found the winner number for last Wednesday's powerball to be: 5 25 46 48 49 6-PB