drnuncheon's Time Travel reading list

Sep 11, 2009 09:19

It's been almost a year since I posted one of these, but atia_julii finally discovered Connie Willis and it got me thinking on the subject. This will be a much shorter list than the cyberpunk one, because I won't be including works where time travel is merely a facilitator for the story (like Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and similar works.)

I'm going to assume everyone is familiar with the work of Mr. Wells and move on from there.

  1. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis. Not only an excellent time travel novel, but a Hugo award winner, a parody of academia and a homage to Jerome K. Jerome's Victorian comedy
  2. Three Men in a Boat. It is recommended for anyone who who enjoys a comedy of errors and will make you laugh. Her other time travel novel, Doomsday Book, is part of the same setting, an excellent time travel novel, won both the Hugo and the Nebula, and will make you cry.
  3. The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers. A marvelously twisted, tightly plotted tale set (for the most part) in the early 19th century. I read through this twice in a row, once for the initial story and the second time to pick up on all of the hints and foreshadowing that occurs as the character moves back and forth in time. Won the Philip K. Dick award.
  4. The Man Who Folded Himself. Another Hugo and Nebula winner, this short novel in some ways reminds me of Heinlein's time-travel shorts. It deals with the consequences of a far more mutable timestream than many time travel novels as well as the effect that convenient time travel might have upon a person.
  5. "-All You Zombies-", Robert A. Heinlein. Speaking of Heinlein, I found this short in the collection The Unpleasant Profession of Johnathan Hoag, along with several other underrated Heinlein stories. Although time travel shows up pretty frequently in his works, like The Door into Summer and Time Enough for Love, this manages to be simultaneously short, twisted, and to the point.

I'm sure there's a lot that I'm missing, so who's got more to recommend?

books, reading lists

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