- A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge was taken into the past and the future by
spirits trying to redeem his soul.
(Time Model: Knowing the future, it can be altered.) (Thanks to Thorsten Wieking.)
-
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Mark Twain
Twain didn't worry about time machines or wormholes. His hero managed to
travel through time by getting knocked unconscious during a fistfight.
The protagonist woke up to find himself in King Arthur's court, where
he used his yankee know-how to establish himself as a wizard.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
-
The Time Machine (1895?)
by H. G. Wells
A Victorian-era scientist constructed a machine that could travel through
time. He used it to explore the future, which he found to be full
of horrors.
This may be the progenitor of all mechanically-induced-time-travel
stories. It is definitely the origin of the term "time machine".
Poor Wells has not only been copied "time and time again" (a joke, see
the movie section), he has become a central character in many
time travel stories.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- By His Bootstraps (1941)
by Robert A. Heinlein
A student working on his doctorate was visited by several strangers and
enticed through a gateway into the future. All of the strangers turned
out to be versions of himself.
(Time Model: Some readers may believe that the story shows an immutable
past/present, but clearly the time travellers did change the past.)
(Thanks to "Jay".)
- Time Locker (short story)(1943)
by Henry Kuttner
A shady lawyer found that a special locker was the perfect place to
hide stolen merchandise, until he found a strange creature crawling
around in it.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Time's Arrow (short story)(1950)
by Arthur C. Clarke
Paleontologists followed the petrified footsteps of a long-dead dinosaur
hoping to find out what it was chasing. They eventually did, but
wished that they hadn't.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Of Time and Third Avenue (short story)(1951)
by Alfred Bester
A law student in the early 1950s accidentally purchased an almanac from
1990. An agent from the future tried to convince him to voluntarily
give it up. This was a classic Alfred Bester theme, that knowing the
future would not make you happier.
(Time Model: Implied the past/present can be changed.)
- I'm Scared (short story)(1951)
by Jack Finney
A man who collected stories of strange events began to realize that
the popular desire to live in "a better time" was becoming so strong
that it was causing the barriers of time to waver.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Hobson's Choice (short story)(1952)
by Alfred Bester
A statistician wondered why the population was increasing even though
war and a diminishing birthrate indicated it should be decreasing. He
discovered that the additional people were immigrating from other
time periods. Again, Alfred Bester insisted that there is no time
like the present.
(Time Model: Confused. Implied the past/present can be changed
by some people but not others.)
- The End of Eternity (1955)
by Isaac Asimov
'Eternity' was an organization of people who lived 'outside' of time
and subtley altered events in order to create more stable societies.
Certain centuries in the far future could not be visited, and the centuries
beyond those showed only a dead planet.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to "Jay".)
- A Gun for Dinosaur (short story)(1956)
by L. Sprague de Camp
Scientists used a time machine to go into the past, but it was big
game safaris that paid the bills.
(Time Model: Implied that the past can be changed, but paradoxes would be prevented.)
- The Man Who Came Early (short story)(1956)
by Poul Anderson
An American soldier stationed in Iceland was transported back to the tenth
century. He found that his knowledge of a thousand years of advances
did not help him survive in the past.
(Time model: Unknown.)
- Door into Summer (1957)
by Robert Heinlein
An unhappy inventor was cryogenically frozen, then revived in the future.
Once there, he found a way to go back and correct the things that had
made him unhappy.
(Time model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Bill Leslie.)
- The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (short story)(1958)
by Alfred Bester
A mad scientist decided to commit murder by going into the past and
preventing his victim from being born. Alfred Bester tackled the
issue of time paradox (also called "the grandfather paradox") in
a unique way.
(Time Model: You can change your own past/present but not anyone
else's.)
- Rainbird (short story)(1961)
by R. A. Lafferty
Rainbird was a genius who made inventions and discoveries long before
their time. In his old age he was angered that he had wasted years on
dead-end technologies, so he invented a time machine and went back and
gave advice to his younger self. This time he was even more prolific
but still disatisfied, so he built a time machine to go back to give advice
to his younger self....
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything (1962)
by John D. McDonald
A young man was dismayed that his recently deceased rich uncle left him
nothing but a gold watch... until he found the watch could stop time.
This was not, strictly speaking, a novel about time travel, but rather
about altering the flow of time.
(Time Model: Time for an individual could continue while time for
everything else was stopped.)
- Martian Time-Slip (1964)
by Philip K. Dick
A business tychoon on the Mars colony tried to get an edge by looking
into the future and returning to the past. His means of travel?
Schizophrenia.
(Time Model: Implied that time was immutable.)
- The Flowered Thundermug (short story)(1964)
by Alfred Bester
Two people were hurled into the future by nuclear explosions, where
they found that American society had been reconstructed using
Hollywood B-movies as a model.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- The Penultimate Truth (1964)
by Philip K. Dick
Most of the world's population lived underground, believing that a terrible
war was raging above them. Meanwhile, the elite living on the surface
fabricated propaganda to send to the people beneath them. During one
intricate plot a time scoop was used to plant and age fake artifacts in
the past.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Technicolor Time Machine (1967)
by Harry Harrison
Sure, any mad scientist would want to build a time machine, but what
corporation would be crazy enough to finance such a project?
How about.. a major motion picture studio, desperate for something to
give them an edge? Imagine the fresh new locations, the historical
accuracy, the incredibly cheap labor! I strongly recommend this one. It is
unbelievably funny.
(Time Model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
- Dragonflight (1968)
by Anne McCaffrey
Lessa of Pern, a Dragonrider, discovered that her dragon could travel
through time. Many of the subsequent books in the 'Pern' series mentioned
time travel, even if it was not specifically used in the plot.
(Time model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
(Thanks to "Gin".)
- The Woodrow Wilson Dime (short story)(1968)
by Jack Finney
(I have little information about this story other than it involved
time travel via parallel worlds.)
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to Bill Leslie.)
- Slaughterhouse Five (1969)
by Kurt Vonnegut
Billy Pilgrim had a tendency to get unstuck in time and travelled into
his own past and future. He met some aliens (Tralfamadorans) who did
much the same thing, but could control the process.
(Time Model: Time is immutable.)
- Up the Line (1969)
by Robert Silverberg
Time travel was just too valuable a commodity to waste, so time tours
became a thriving tourist industry. Naturally, the tourists tended to
make a mess. It was up to their guides and the time police to clean
up after them.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Seven Steps to the Sun (1970)
by Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey Hoyle
A man experienced a series of blackouts, awaking from each to find himself
ten years further in the future. He tried to reconnect with his family and
friends after each episode.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to "Kevin".)
- Time and Again (1970)
by Jack Finney
The government developed a means of time travel and sent a man back
to 1882. He solved an old mystery, found his true love, and stayed there.
(Also see the sequel From Time to Time.)
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Bill Leslie.)
- Dinosaur Beach (1971)
by Keith Laumer
Successive generations of time travellers tried to undo the previous
generation's mistakes, resulting in even worse disasters.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to "Jay".)
- Time's Last Gift (1972)
by Philip Jose Farmer
A team of scientists travelled from 2070 AD to 12,000 BC confident that
it was impossible for them to affect the past or change the future.
They were wrong.
(Time model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
- Flight of the Horse (1973)
by Larry Niven
This was an anthology of related stories about time travelling scientists
from the future. The stories were quite humorous, in that the time
travellers would go on missions to find the mundane and would come
back with the mythical.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Counter-Clock World (1974)
by Philip K. Dick
Time apparently reversed now and then as a natural phenomenon. When it
happened on Earth, people adjusted by setting up libraries that eradicated
knowledge and businesses that specialized in digging up the newly-revived
dead.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Anniversary Project (short story)(1975)
by Joe Haldeman
Far in the future they celebrated the millionth anniversary of the
written word. All they needed was someone from the past who still
knew how to read.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Timetipping (short story)(1975)
by Jack Dann
How was a simple fellow to cope when everyone kept slipping in and out of
different times and different realities?
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977)
by Spider Robinson
Time Travellers Cash Only (1981)
by Spider Robinson
Callahan's Secret (1986)
by Spider Robinson
This series of books was about a saloon which tended to attract a rather
unusual clientelle. Enough said.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Very Slow Time Machine (1978)
by Ian Watson
Scientists were startled when a pod containing an old insane man suddenly
appeared in their laboratory. Efforts to open the pod were unsuccessful.
It was eventually learned that the pod was a very slow time machine
travelling backwards in time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The White Dragon (1978)
by Anne McCaffrey
Another of the 'Pern' series, time travel was used by one central character
to recover a stolen dragon egg, and by another character attempting
to commit suicide.
(Time model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
(Thanks to "Gin".)
- Mastodonia (1978)
by Clifford D. Simak
An alien provided a pair of humans with the ability to travel through time.
They decided to use the gift to make a lot of money.
(Time model: Unknown.)(Thanks to Glenn V. Morrison.)
- Roadmarks (1979)
by Roger Zelazny
Time was a highway, complete with signs, off-ramps, and traffic cops.
More than that,
it all changed from time-to-time. A time traveller strove to re-find
the ramp to his reality, which might no longer exist.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Thrice Upon a Time (1980)
by James P. Hogan
People could not travel through time, but information could. Planet-wide
disasters were averted several times due to warnings from the future.
This story presented some interesting models of the 4th dimenstion.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)
by Douglas Adams
This was the third book of Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy series. The restaurant in the title was situated at
the end of time. Time travellers wanting a bite to eat and a mind-
boggling floor show could go to the restaurant, get a decent meal, and
watch the universe end.
(Time Model: Unknown, but the end is coming.)
- Timescape (1980)
by Gregorgy Benford
Scientists developed a method of sending information backward in time
in an effort to avert environmental disasters.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to John Bruening)
- Fire Watch (short story)(1982)
by Connie Willis
A history student spent years preparing to go back through time to see
St. Paul. Unfortunately, he was sent instead to St. Paul's Cathederal in
London during the Blitz.
(Time Model: Effectively, time is immutable.)
- DeathKiller (1982, 1987)
by Spider Robinson
This was a combination of two stories, Mindkiller and
Time Pressure into one unified story arc. The first story featured a
man who found that he could remember nothing of his past life and that he was
presently a thief with access to rather startling technology. The second
story featured a young man in the wilds of Canada who found a very
unusual woman, whom he believed to be a time traveller.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- A Rebel in Time (1983)
by Harry Harrison
An embittered man with Confederate ancestors used a time machine
to go back to change the outcome of the American Civil War. His plan was
to take back knowledge of superior weapons which could be manufactured
in that time period.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Moreta (1983)
by Anne McCaffrey
Moreta of Pern travelled into the future to obtain a vaccine for
a world-wide plague.
(Time model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
(Thanks to "Gin".)
- The Anubis Gates (1983)
by Tim Powers
This was an intricate tale that started with sorcerers trying to re-establish a gate to
the Egyptian underworld and creating holes in time instead.
(Time model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
(Thanks to Diane Zaltsman.)
- Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
by Piers Anthony
This was the second book in Piers Anthony's "Incarnations of Immortality"
series. The protagonist of this book was Chronos. He actually controlled time,
although he was constrained by certain rules. Most peculiar of all, his
life ran backwards through time. Chronos was the name of the Incarnation of
Time. The position was held by different people, who were immortal while they
held the office. Although this book was specifically about Chronos, he appeared
in all of the books in the series.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but time follows certain rules.)
- Yesterday Was Monday (short story)(1985)
by Theodore Surgeon
Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely
players." Only in this story Shakespeare's words were literally true. One
hapless fellow accidentally woke up on Wednesday while the rest of the world
was still playing the Tuesday act.
(Time model: Unknown.)
- A Sound of Thunder (short story)(1986)
by Ray Bradbury
Time travelling big game hunters bagged a dinosaur but found out what
"the butterfly effect" meant... literally.
(Time model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Pure Product (short story)(1986)
by John Kessel
Were people from the future, bored with their mundane existence, coming
back through time and creating mayhem just for the thrill of it?
(Time model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Replay (short story)(1986)
by Ken Grimwood
A man died of a heart attack, but awoke to find himself back in his younger
body and decades in the past. He lived his life over again and took advantage
of his knowledge of upcoming events. He died exactly as before and went
back yet again, only not quite so far. The cycle repeated over and over.
(Time model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to C.H.Smith.)
- Sphere (1987)
by Michael Crichton
The U.S.Navy discovered ancient derelict space ship at the bottom of the ocean.
Scientists investigated and found that it was actually a U.S. space
ship from the future.
(Time Model: Unkown.)
- Lightning (1988)
by Dean R. Koontz
A woman was "saved" numerous times during her life by a mysterious
stranger who never aged. The stranger was, of course, a time traveller.
His time of origin turned out to be quite a surprise.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Hyperion (1989)
by Dan Simmons
The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
by Dan Simmons
The planet Hyperion featured strange structures which moved backwards in
time. Religious and scientific pilgrims sometimes encountered a mysterious
and deadly creature which had an unusual relationship with time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Price of Oranges (short story)(1989)
by Nancy Kress
Retiree Harry could barely make ends meet with just his Social Security
check to sustain him. Fortunately things were much cheaper in 1937,
which happened to be inside his closet just beyond his wool coat.
(Time Model: Unkown.)
- Dracula Unbound (1991)
by Brian W. Aldiss
A time-travelling train picked up Bram Stoker and took him to the
future, where he battled Dracula.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- All the Weyrs of Pern (1991)
by Anne McCaffrey
Dragonriders salvaged the engines from the original Earth colony ships
and took them into the past to help avert two 'Threadfalls', periodic
disasters which struck Pern every 250 years.
(Time model: The past can be changed to conform to the present.)
(Thanks to "Gin".)
- Outlander aka Cross Stitch (1991)
by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber (1992)
by Diana Gabaldon
Voyager (1994)
by Diana Gabaldon
Drums of Autumn (1997)
by Diana Gabaldon
The Fiery Cross (2001)
by Diana Gabaldon
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (2005)
by Diana Gabaldon
This series of stories is about a young woman who was able
to travel back and forth between the 20th and 18th centuries. Her
romantic adventures took place against historical backdrops in Scotland
and America.
(Time model: Time is immutable.)
(Thanks to "anonymous".)
- Doomsday Book (1992)
by Connie Willis
An historian found herself ill prepared for a mission back to medieval times, while
those who sent her suddenly found themselves in the middle of an epidemic.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but the continuum will
attempt to correct itself.)
- Guns of the South (1993)
by Harry Turtledove
A visitor from the future presented the Confederacy with automatic
weapons.
(Time model: Unknown.)(Thanks to "Andrew".)
- Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea
(short story)(1994)
by Ursula K. LeGuin
A young scientist experimenting with instantaneous travel got caught
in a "crease" and wound up eighteen years in the past.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Time Scout (1995)
by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans
An accident during a scientific experiment created many access points into
the past, some stable and some not. A thriving tourist trade soon
followed. Time scouts had to be careful not to try to "exist" in the same time
period more than once.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but major historical events
cannot.)
- The Starlight Crystal (1995)
by Christopher Pike
A young woman was sent on a voyage at near-light-speed to chronicle two
centuries of change on Earth. The trip does not, however, go as planned.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to "Aeridus")
- From Time to Time (1995)
by Jack Finney
(Sequel to Time and Again) The protagonist from Time and Again
was talked into leaving 1882 and jumping forward in time in an
attempt to prevent World War I.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Bill Leslie.)
- Wagers of Sin (1996)
by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans
(This is the second book of the "Time Scout" series.)
Mayhem ensued when residents of Time Terminal 86 did some serious betting.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but major historical events
cannot.)
- Time Station London (1996)
by David Evans
Time police from the future set up a permanent station in London during the
Blitz. Disguised as British agents, they fought both Nazis and time
criminals.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Endymion (1996)
by Dan Simmons
The Rise of Endymion (1998)
by Dan Simmons
A young man was sent on a quest to save a young girl and, basically,
change the galaxy. The story-line logically followed
Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Timequake (1997)
by Kurt Vonnegut
The universe decided to stop expanding and to shrink instead. Everyone
had to relive the ten-year period from 1991 to 2001 twice.
Even though they were aware of what was happening, they were powerless
to change anything. Numerous disasters took place when everything reached
the year 2001 for the second time, since no one was prepared when
free will kicked in again.
(Time Model: Time is immutable.)
- A Spark to the Past (1998)
by Cynthia Wall
Two college students and a young boy were hurled into the past by an
electrical accident. They found that they had assumed the identities of
young people on a wagon train bound for Colorado. This story was
intended for young people interested in amateur radio, but also has
broader appeal to SF fans and those interested in American history.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Island in the Sea of Time (1998)
Against the Tide of Years (1999)
On the Oceans of Eternity (1999)
by S. M. Stirling
This trilogy was about the island of Nantucket being transported back to the
Bronze Age.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to Diane Zaltsman.)
- To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998)
by Connie Willis
Desperate for funding, the history department at Oxford agreed to use their
time machine to do private research for a rich American widow. Little did
they know the mayhem she would create, sending historians on sometimes
dangerous missions to retrieve trivial information.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but the continuum will
attempt to correct itself.)
(Thanks to 'anonymous')
- Yanked! (1999)
by Nancy Kress
(This is the first of a series of books called "David Brin's
'Out of Time'".)
Four young people from the past were yanked into 2339. They were sent on
a mission to retrieve data on how humanity can achieve the Third Step
of advancement.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Tiger in the Sky (1999)
by Sheila Finch
(This is the second of a series of books called "David Brin's
'Out of Time'".)
Three young people from the past were yanked about 350 into the future. They
were sent on a mission to stop alien vermin from infesting a space station.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Game of Worlds (1999)
by Roger MacBride Allen
(This is the third of a series of books called "David Brin's
'Out of Time'".)
Three young people from the past were yanked about 350 into the future. They
were sent on a diplomatic "first contact" mission with an alien species.
Their role, however, was more espionage than diplomacy.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Timeline (1999)
by Michael Crichton
A professor of archaeology got trapped in Medieval times and his assistants
mounted a rescue mission. But who would rescue the rescue party?
(Time Model: The past/present appears to be changeable,
but technically, time is immutable.)
- Enchantment (1999)
by Orson Scott Card
An American awoke a "Sleeping Beauty" in a Russian forest, then was
transported back to the ninth century.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Ripping Time (2000)
by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans
The House That Jack Built (2001)
by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans
(These are the third and fourth books of the "Time Scout" series.)
Time Terminal 86 became a battleground between warring religious
factions, while visitors to 1888 London sought Jack the Ripper's identity.
(The story covers two books.)
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but major historical events
cannot.)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2001)
by J. K. Rowling
A student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry used a "time turner"
in order to attend several classes at the same time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Enchantment (2001)
by Pam Binder
A woman was visited by a scotsman from the 14th century, who convinced her
to go back in time with him.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
(Thanks to Diane Zaltsman.)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
by J. K. Rowling
A room in the Department of Mysteries (part of the Ministry of Magic)
contained devices that continually went back and forth through time.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Stealing Some Time (volumes I and II) (2003)
by Mark Ian Kendrick
A gay soldier from the future wound up on a time-travel mission to 1820, where
he unexpectedly found the love he had been unable to find in his own time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- A Love Out Of Time (2005)
by Rick Adkins
A man from the 21st century went back to the 19th century on a rescue
mission. While there he faced the dilemma of allowing a new-found love
to die or save her and risk altering the future.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- STR8 BOLT (2006)
by J.T.Whitman
Three people were propelled into their past as a result of being too close
to a rare straight bolt of lightning.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
Notes:
- I have not included 'Rip Van Winkle' type stories in which people
awake or are revived some time in the future as they do not actually
involved time travel.
- Yes! If you know of a time travel book or books not
listed here, I would be happy to hear from you. I know that there
are many, many more.
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