Help Wanted!

[realthog]

I've been asked to write a chapter on time-travel stories for an academic book about the subgenres of science fiction, and naturally I've been making notes on books/stories I'd be wise to include. There are plenty of obvious candidates, from The Time Machine through A Connecticut Yankee to The Time Traveler's Wife, but I was wondering if some of you folk could help me by suggesting gems I might otherwise all too easily overlook.

Kids' and YA books are eligible alongside adult ones (hello, Ms L'Engle, and you too, Mr Kipling), but the books/stories must have some significance in terms of either fame or their bringing of something interesting and new to the time-travel corpus. I'm going to be an elitist prig and discount entirely novels produced as elements of TV, gaming or movie franchises, although by all means suggest relevant movies or games. Timeslip romances (like Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time) are certainly within my remit.

I'd be really grateful for your help, and as a token of my appreciation will be only too glad to raise a glass of beer on your behalf . . . Hell, I'm no scrooge: make that two glasses of beer!

Comments

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

There is the short story "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang.

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Jack Finney's Time And Again springs to mind almost immediately.
So does his short story, "The Love Letter." I guess in general, Finney really brought something new and interesting and memorable to the idea of romance across time.

[marshallpayne1.livejournal.com]

"Vintage Season" (1946) by Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore is a favorite of mine. Silverberg liked it so much he wrote a sequel of sorts. I'm sure you know all this, just mentioning it. I love decadent time-travel stories, and to my knowledge this is the first.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Kage Baker's entire The Company series, starting with In the Garden of Iden. 7, 8 books?

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

What about Philip K. Dick's The Minority Report? Not exactly time travel, but sort of a view into future time?

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Last one from me tonight, which I'm sure will relieve your mind. Various and sundry Heinleins, featuring that traveler Lazarus Long (Time Enough for Love, Number of the Beast, To Sail the Sunset), and Heinlein's juvenile Time for the Stars, which is travel at faster than light, and while not strictly time-traveling, does bring up the topic of communication when a ship is zooming away at FTL with a telepathic twin on board and one at home on Earth to receive.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Eh. I'll assume you already have 1632 and Star Trek IV (and ST:TOS's "City on the Edge of Forever", plus the TNG episode[s] with Data's head) on your list, and suggest Moonheart by Charles de Lint.

I'll probably have more once I'm thinking about something entirely unrelated.

[bondo-ba.livejournal.com]

Well, at the risk of being obvious, I think Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" is important if you're looking at short work. It created a whole genre of paradox fiction.

Swanwick's "Radiant Doors" might be worth a look as well.

[(Anonymous)]

How about Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce? The growing poignancy and meeting at the end are powerful examples of what the concept makes possible, although whether the story is actually one of time travel is never made clear. Incidentally, Moondial by Helen Cresswell has a similar atmosphere, though is less notable beyond perhaps the fact that it was also adapted for the BBC.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Connie Willis, Connie Willis, Connie Willis!

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

How about Terry Pratchett's Night Watch (in my opinion his best book)?

Here's a review I found online: http://www.rambles.net/pratchett_nwatch02.html

Hope that helps :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- I hadn't thought of that. You wouldn't know offhand any collections/anthologies in which it appears, would you? Not to worry if not -- I can easily dig the info out myself.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. I'm au fait with the Finney novels, but wouldn't have thought of the story. You wouldn't know offhand any collections/anthologies in which it appears, would you? Not to worry if not -- I can easily dig the info out myself.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely got the story on my list, but not the quasi-sequel. Is the latter any good or have anything new to say? I'm reluctant to commit myself to reading it only to discover it's one of Silverberg's plods.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I have the first of these on the pile already. Doubt I'm going to have tiome to plough through the whole lot, though.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Hm. An interesting suggestion. I know the (not very good) movie, of course, but I guess I'd better go stick my nose into the novel.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Lazarus didn't time travel, did he? He just lived a long time, unless I'm completely forgetting my Heinlein. (I've read Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, Number of the Beast but not To Sail the Sunset.)

while not strictly time-traveling

Them's the ones I have to be careful to avoid, as otherwise I end up with an infinite list.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of 1632 (confess I'd never even heard of it); I've put an order in to the library.

Moonheart's a good notion -- I think I even have a copy in the house!

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Books 2 and 3 (3 in particular) seem to me to be where she found her feet with the whole thing.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure it's in To Sail the Sunset that he turns up to visit Mama Maureen somewhere in her time period, or else it's Maureen who's skipping through time. Been a while since I read them. But in the interests of saving time and getting to the higher concentration of real time travel stories, maybe skip these.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

The Bradbury was obviously among the first on the list. (There was a bloody awful movie version of it, too.)

Thanks for tipping me off about the Swanwick.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'd better go look at Tom's Midnight Garden -- been a while since I read it. Thanks for the reminder.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Yes I know, yes I know, yes I know!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder -- I hadn't thought of this one. It's one of my fave Pratchetts too.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

But in the interests of saving time and getting to the higher concentration of real time travel stories, maybe skip these.

That's the general principle I'm having to follow.