Give me your best time travel novels

[Goblinmonger]

We currently teach Time Machine to 10th Graders in my school. It is a little difficult for a lot of kids (the SRI puts it at high 12th grade/low college), so we are looking at replacing the novel. We want to keep a science fiction book, and I have done a lot of work on a time travel unit (if you teach and want to know what I do, just PM me) so I would like to keep it to time travel literature. So, any thoughts of something a little more accessible?

[Jane Austin]

1. Time and Again

by Jack Finney

[Goblinmonger]

3. I just ordered

the book of time travel short stories by Finney. Time and Again is a mystery, too, correct?

[Jane Austin]

19. It was mysterious, but I don't remember it as primarily a mystery.

But it's been a while since I read it.

I think there's a sequal to it and I'm looking forward to that one.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

63. Time and Again contains an incidental mystery

The time traveler is sent back to the 1880s on a secret government mission but after a few trips to the past and back, he tells his girlfriend what he's up to. She tells him about a mystery that has always haunted her family, and in the course of his adventures in the past, he solves it, almost by accident.

This book is painstakingly researched, and Finney is wonderful with the cultural clashes that might occur if a late twentieth century person were to go back nearly a hundred years. I, think, however, that while he is understandably upset with the modern world, he paints too rosy a picture of the nineteenth century.

The most memorable part of the book is the ending. You have to stop and think about it what it means, and then you realize what the main character has just done.

Oh, and as I recall, there's nothing in it that could "bring the blush of shame to the cheek of modesty" as the pseudo-Victorian program of a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta once said.

[phantom power]

2. Timemaster, by Robert Forward.

Classic hard s.f.: the characterisations are pretty much at at 10th grade level :-)

[Goblinmonger]

5. I'll give it a look.

Time Machine is really the only sci-fi we do in our school and I don't want to take that away from kids that are fans and kids that could become fans if exposed.

[Sequoia]

4. H.G. Wells Time Machine?

10th graders don't get it?! I read that in 8th grade, no problem.

[Goblinmonger]

6. It is tough; you were probably a very good reader.

Most reading level scales put it very high high school or low college. Vocab is tough because of the time period difference. Concepts are hard in the beginning. Sentence structure is very long, which adds to the high reading level.

[Sequoia]

8. In hindsight it was a bit dull. I liked the movie

"Time After Time" much better! The problem I had with the book was the future with that stupid human eating monster. Star Trek did a show on the human-eating monster...remember those orange people who didn't know about making out and Kirk had to teach them about the birds and bees.

So, yes, I'd find another novel they can relate to instead of Victorian England.

[shain from kane]

7. Millennium by John Varley

The movie version was ok, but the book is one of the best constructed time travel stories and rationale that you can find.

[Sooner75]

39. Varley is a trip!

I second the Millenium nomination, but definitely check out Varley's science fiction. His stuff is just SO COOL! I discovered Varley when a friend was reading a collection of his short stories. The collection: "Persistence of Vision". Wonderful stories!

[Shipwack]

9. Hmm... here's a couple

The Cross Time Engineer by Leo Frankowski

A man is accidentally transported to the 13th century and starts to prepare Poland to fight the Mongol invasion due in ten years.

1632 by Eric Flint

An entire town in West Virginia is transported to the year 1632 in Europe, which is in the middle of the Thirty Years War.

The Time Traders by Andre Norton

This one might be your best bet, since it is "officially" a "juvenile" novel. Andre Norton has updated two of her classic novels of the "Time Traders" series, adding in female characters and taking into account that the cold war is over.

A man is "volunteered" to join a top secret research project to find out how "The Enemy" is getting high tech weapons by time traveling to the past.

I haven't read these updates, but I enjoyed them in their original form.

Edited to add:
Doh! How could I forget? "A Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur's Court" by Mark Twain... it might even be free by now...

[teriyaki jones]

10. My husband's a sci fi fan--here's his input:

There is a list of literary and film/tv resources at the end of the
Wikipedia article on Time Travel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel

He might find that useful. I think that Wells' "Time Machine" uses time
travel only as a device to drop the hero into a new society--lots of the
other science fiction short stories work on the implications of time
travel itself a little more.

[catbert836]

11. The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/015602943X/103-7790203-9102263?v=glance&n=283155

It is rather lengthy, and might have a little too much "action" for your 10th graders (but then again, I'm a 10th grader, and I handled it pretty well), and maybe costs too much to order in bulk, but otherwise, it's the best recent time travel book I know of. If, for one of those reason's, you don't want to teach, it, I'd still reccomend it for you to recommend it to your students.
Good luck!

[terrya]

16. I second this wonderful, beautifully written, romantic book

You would know more about what 10th graders would like than I. But for sheer terrific writing, this is my favorite time traveling book.

[eleny]

27. I'll third this nom

A beautiful story.

[gratefultobelib]

82. Oh yes, yes, yes! A marvelous book. Henry and Clare....May they be together always!

[SlackJawedYokel]

12. Don't know how applicable this one is

but they're easy reads.
Kage Bakers series on "time traveling" cyborgs... how can you beat time travel *and* cyborgs?
http://www.kagebaker.com/

Cletus

[unhappycamper]

13. J.M. Sterling's "Island in the Sea of Time"

"The basic plot of S.M. Stirling's latest novel, Island In the Sea of Time, is relatively straightforward. For unknown reasons and through an unknown agency, the island of Nantucket and everything in the sea around it is transported from March 1998 to sometime around the year 1250 BC. Stirling's islanders, led by Police Chief Jared Cofflin, make do as best they can in the strange circumstances. Fortunately for the people of Nantucket, a US Coast Guard vessel, the Eagle, was also caught in the Event."

The other two books of the series are well written and interesting.

[YankeyMCC]

14. Asimov -

"The End of Eternity"

Hit's the major points on the conundrum of time travel itself and some interesting character development.

[pitohui]

17. that is PERFECT for that age group

and a great ending line

if the class was a little more mature, then dick's "martian time-slip" or benford's "timescape" might be good ones, but heck if they're having trouble w. h.g. wells we are not talking abt v. good readers here

"end of eternity" might be just abt perfect

[YankeyMCC]

18. That was my thought too...age group appropriate n/t

[Goblinmonger]

42. Just read End of Eternity

It was fabulous. I think 10th graders would love it. Only problem is that it is out of print.

[NMMNG]

15. Unfortunately all of my time travel favorites would likely be above

that level, as The Time Machine (one of my faves) is the shortest and easiest I know of. Nonethless here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Timeline by Michael Crichton
Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy (a great Utopian novel as well as time travel tale)
Lightning by Dean R. Koontz

[Bridget Burke]

20. Connie Willis has 2 good ones...perhaps too "old"?

Both feature the time travel lab at Oxford, UK, in "our" fairly near future. But characters are not shared.

"Not to mention the dog" is a nifty bit of paradox concerning the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. Includes visits to the Middle Ages & the Blitz--but mostly to Victorian England. Quite hilarious.

"Doomsday Book" goes back to the days of the Black Death (while a Pandemic is raging "back home"). Not nearly as funny.

Neither book contains anything "unsuitable" for high schoolers. But I don't know about "reading level."

[JitterbugPerfume]

24. you beat me to it

Connie Willis Doomsday book is wonderful

[Orsino]

68. To Say Nothing of the Dog...

...is an amazing "sequel" to Doomsday. Where the first was dark and depressing, the second is lighthearted, funny and romantic.

[Orsino]

69. Tim Powers' THE ANUBIS GATES. n/t

[Peggy Day]

21. Diana Gabaldon-but it is a historical romance

Scotland in the 1700s, and US current. I think the "time travelers wife" would work better for what you want.

[Patiod]

37. Diana Gabaldon is pretty "R" rated, as I recall

Some really steamy sex scenes. The 10th graders might enjoy it, but their parents might not....

I loved the part where she recognized a fellow time-traveler from her vaccination scar, but my SO, much more into SF than I am, just rolled his eyes and said that's one of the oldest tricks around...

[LWolf]

22. The Eyre Affair

and sequels. Jasper Fforde. It's not primarily about time travel, although time travel plays a part. I can't resist the way the stories dip into and play with classic literature.

[KiraBS]

84. Oh Yes... I have been looking for a Jasper Fford fan...

He is a recent discovery and I am currently reading The Fourth Bear which is very funny.
There is a bit of time travel in The Eyre Affair and in Lost In A Good Book, her father is a time traveller.

[SoonerShankle]

23. Timeline, but...

it is geared for a slightly older audience. It will be understandable for students(as Michael Crichton is good at putting difficult concepts into layman's terms), but it is not geared for young adults. Plus there is a movie version, even though the movie doesn't stick to the book very well...

[CornField]

36. My pick too -- but no the movie. It sucked. eom

[Uncle Roy]

25. "Making History" by Stephen Fry

Premise: a student goes back in time and dumps a bunch of dead rats into the well of a small farm house in Austria. That night the farmer's wife is preparing supper and goes to get water from the well. The stench is overwhelming, and she is sick to her stomach. In bed later that night, her husband holds her and wants to make love. Still nauseous, she is not in the mood...

The book goes on to cover the history of the next 80 years or so after that night on which Adolf Hitler is not conceived.

At the end of this time, the student tries to go back in time to when he made his first time-travel to Austria, and this time not dump the rats in the well. Should he do it, ie, undo it?

[Solon]

26. 1632 by Eric Flint...

Its an interesting book about a small Appalachian union mining town from West Virginia from the year 2000 that is transported back in time, to the Thuringia region in Germany, in the middle of the 30 years war. The means of the transportation back in time is what the townsfolk called the "Ring of Fire", imagine an area of the town, plus about 3 miles radius circle of it that was sliced out of our Spacetime and switched places with the same sized area in 1632 Germany. This all happens in the beginning of the book, of course, and once the townspeople are resigned to the fact that there is no way to go back to their time, they then find a way to survive while being stuck in one of the worst wars in history.

[raccoon]

28. The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein. Loved it. nt

[artemisia1]

85. Me Too!

"The Door into Summer" is a great choice. Charles Van Doren even did a review of it in "The Joy of Reading" and mentioned that it is the ONLY book he read twice in one sitting.

[japple]

29. Marge Piercy's WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME

is one of my favorites, but might be a bit to adult for your students.

[Jade Fox]

72. That's the one I was thinking of.....n/t

[fedsron2us]

30. Behold The Man

by Michael Moorcock.

http://www.sfsite.com/08a/bm86.htm

I find most of his books unreadable but this is an exception.

It is a complex, challenging and at times moving piece of literature

Unfortunately, because the religious subject matter is controversial you are probably going to encounter trouble if you ever try to use it as a set text in school.

[AllegroRondo]

31. Replay

sorry, cant remember the author.

Its about a man who relives the last 20 years of his life. Over, and over, and over, and over..... Very profound.


Also, I loved "The man who folded himself", but I'm not sure if it would be appropriate for 10th graders as there is some sex.

[Wickerman]

32. Ken Grimwood - a very good novel

Captivating, reasonably well written. I actually just foudna copy of it and read it about a month ago. It was published in the 80's (that on edit, I wa looking at my version, which is a later paperback). The only thing I didn't like about it was that it seemed to have a bit of lean to the Right.

[AllegroRondo]

34. Its one of those novels I reread every couple of years

I first read it in the late 80's, and the whole idea was something I'd never seen done before. It still drags me in every time I read it, something very few books do. (Stephen King's "The Long Walk" still does it too.)

I never noticed a right lean to it. I guess I dont look that hard for political statements in my sci-fi. But I do remember that in one of the "replays" the character decides to go to the government with his knowledge, and ends up a prisoner under constant interrogation.

[Wickerman]

35. Perhaps it was his dismissal of the changes of the 60's

but as I said, or meant to, it was a slight note and perhaps only my own bias leaking thru.

and yeah, the govt certainly did act rather fascist in that instance. Those characters in that iteration were certainly 'wingers!

[Dogmudgeon]

79. Another Replay fan

Extremely strong characters AND one of the most intense senses-of-place I've ever read. The climax was especially good. But the love story was a little too sad for the book.

Lean to the right? I thought otherwise -- not that I'm complaining!

--p!

[Babel_17]

83. David Gerrold wrote that one

http://www.gerrold.com/

Edit: Eek, I'm referring to The Man Who Folded Himself, sorry!

[shimmergal]

33. THE DOOMSDAY BOOK by

Connie Willis.

Excellent TT book; I think it won both the Hugo and the Nebula the year it came out. Don't know if it's suitable for reluctant readers in 10th grade, but it doesn't require any advanced scientific background (though a love of history helps.)

[iamjoy]

76. Is That The One About The Plague

if so, excellent choice.

If I remember correctly, there is no sex. It is sad and deep, though.

[GaYellowDawg]

38. If you're looking for shorter and more simplistic...

I suggest "Lest Darkness Fall" by L. Sprague de Camp.

[Texaroo]

40. Not a novel, but an EXCELLENT short story...

... by Ray Bradbury called "the Time Machine." ABout two kids who visit an old man who "transports" them to a different time through storytelling. It made an impact on me when I was young.

[Democrats_win]

41. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

[vorlund]

43. Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein.

Very good book. Robert Heinlein also wrote a number of short stories on time travel, although some of them might be unsuitable for 10th graders.

Another book you might want to consider is "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. LeGuin. Not sure if this would be technically a time travel book since the main character doesn't actually travel through time, merely change what happened in the past while dreaming. It is a very fascinating book that I would highly recommend. Short, too.

Edit: I forgot "The Cave of Time" one of the first Choose Your Own Adventure books. Although I think it's out of print.

[Rowdyboy]

54. Heinlein's "Door into Summer" is perhaps my favorite sci-fi from childhood

Thank you for an excellent memory and welcome to DU!

[frankenforpres]

44. travels with charley

i know that isnt what you mean, but it is a great book to take your mind back in time

[okasha]

45. Not a novel, but a short story

James Tiptree's "The Man Who Walked Home"--probably the first original thing done with the genre in oh, a century.

[Killarney]

46. Richard Matheson's "Somewhere in Time"

Might be too romancy, but it's a classic.

[Dorian Gray]

47. Of course,

The Time Machine is great. I read The Time Traveller's Wife last year, and I loved it. I don't know if you would want to teach that in 10th grade, but ti is a fantastic read for yourself!

[bluescribbler]

48. "Life House" by Spider Robinson

A married couple are planning a Science Fiction convention in Vancouver when there's a loud noise and flash of bright light on their front lawn. They look outside and see a large circle of burnt grass on their lawn. In the middle of the circle lies a naked, completely hairless man who's a dead ringer for Jean Luc Picard, (Patrick Stewart). They bring him inside and he tells them that he's a time traveler from the future, and is trying to prevent an all out war between the Church of Elvis and the Church of the Beatles. He says that it can be prevented if Lennon and McCartney agree to a reunion on , (I can't remember if it's) Carson or SNL, or some other show. To make it happen, he needs about $90,000. He will travel further back in time, invest it in stocks, and return with their original investment, plus interest. The good couple, besides being SF fans, are also devoted Beatle fans, so they scrape together every penny they have, including the deposits sent in by convention-goers.

And that's just the first chapter.

[Spinoza]

49. Over 45 years I have read

dozens and dozens of time travel stories and novels. Most of them I liked because I love the genre. However, the best by far was Robert Heinlein's: "By His Bootstraps". Incredibly inventive and thought provoking and the last paragraph is completely unexpected, yet totally logical and blows you away. Its only available now in various Heinlein anthologies but Its worth the effort to locate. A brilliant piece of work. This is the "original" for all the 'paradox' time travel stories which followed.

[eleny]

52. I just found this one online in pdf format

http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/scifi/byhisbootstraps.pdf

[LisaM]

50. Allison Uttley, "A Traveller in Time"

though it's a bit young for high school. There is also a time-travel baseball book called "If I Never Get Back" but it's a little bit long for a school assignment.

[pamela]

51. Time On My Hands by Peter Delacorte

A must read for every Democratic time travel fan. It's about a guy who uses a time travel machine to go back to Reagan's early Hollywood days to try to stop him from becoming President.

[swimboy]

53. Tom's Midnight Garden is a beautiful story.

It may be too young for 10th graders but I thought it was very haunting. The Ghosts, by Antonia Barber (?) is probably out of print. Another children's author wrote a series of books involving shifts in time/time travel: Jane Louise Curry's Abaloc series, among them The Daybreakers, Over the Sea's Edge, and The Birdstones.

But for covering all the angles and paradoxes and beauties of time travel, nothing could beat the Time Traveler's Wife.

[Peggy Day]

55. Diana Gabaldon Outlander and her other books

It's time travel/historical romance, but I loved them. I'm currently reading A Breath Of Snow and Ashes.

[iamjoy]

74. I Loved Those Books!

although (and I hope this isn't a spoiler)
I don't think she ever explained the ghost that appeared near Claire's window in the first novel (the one Frank noticed)

[DesertRat]

77. I Love her books, but they're pretty racy for 10th graders. n/t

[S_B_Jackson]

56. Thrice Upon a Time by James Hogan

I've read it several times (though not in the last 5 or so)...and it holds up fairly even with the advent of String Theory as the "theory of everything" amongst physicists...


http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200008/0671319485.htm?blurb

Pretty good link, you can at least read the prologue and the first 6 chapters...

[MilesColtrane]

57. Time Machine's too hard?

How about you just rent them "Groundhog Day"?

Though I'm not sure of what reading level it would be considered, you might try Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Lathe of Heaven".
It's not time travel, but it shares with that genre the issue of the unintended consequences of trying to manipulate the future/present.

[Goblinmonger]

59. It's the vocab and the syntax

Nobody uses those words anymore and nobody writes sentences like that anymore. Those two things, along with a plot that takes FOREVER (kind of a bold statement in a 100 page novella, I know) to really get going, and you have the makings for a book that most 16-year-olds don't take a liking to.

[MilesColtrane]

60. "Nobody uses those words anymore and nobody writes sentences like...

that anymore."

Well, not only don't kids use words or write sentences like Wells, they don't even write like we do.

R U s4y1ng th4t k1ds sh0uldn't h4v3 2 r34d Sh4k3sp34r3 31th3r?

If they come across words they don't know they'll skip them, just like we all did when learning to read.
If I didn't know a word, I would infer it's meaning from the rest of the sentence, or, horror, actually look it up.

I guess anything written more than twenty five years ago is out.

I say make them read it. The ones who absolutely refuse to try to understand it will just go get the Cliff version (or in my day Classics Illustrated) anyway.

If they start whining just let them know that there's far worse. You could have made them read "Ethan Frome" for Christ's sake.

[Goblinmonger]

61. Not quite my argument

but I get your point.

There is something uniquely hard about Time Machine. These same kids will read Huck Finn and have no problems. Shakespeare is poetic syntax so lots of people still write like that.

The problem I have as a teacher is that I could say, "Fine, read this or don't." But when 80+% aren't reading it, it makes teaching pretty hard. So I either force them through it or find something comparable that they will read.

[godhatesrepublicans]

58. The Cross-Time Engineer series by Leo Frankowski

A reimagining of A CNETTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, 7 books in the series so far.

[Yupster]

62. Guns of the South

by Harry Turtledove is one of my all-time favorite reads.

[Homer Wells]

64. Several by Heinlein

The Door into Summer
Number of the Beast

H G Wells "Time Machine, of course

One by Zelazny, about the freeway of time,(Cant recall the title)

[nosillies]

65. The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker

Black, Red, and White are the book titles. Fairly easy to read, with lots of religious symbolism, these books make for great discussions.

Also, I loved Jumper and Reflex by Steven Gould, and I believe these are geared towards young adult audiences.

[rambler_american]

66. Best time travel novel ever

When I was a kid in the mid 1950's (speaking of time travel) I read and then re-read several times a book by Chad Oliver called Mists of Dawn. It was my first encounter with science fiction and I was enthralled. It's out of print now, but I'd love to find an affordable copy (Amazon has one listed at just under $100) to give to my grandson. Wonderful book!

[sal paradise]

67. Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut's novel 'Slaughterhouse-Five' deals with time travel in a very unorthodox way. Although it can be classified as science fiction, it has a great deal of commentary that is applicable to the real world. May not be suitable for 10th graders, but worth a shot.

[mzteris]

70. Corrupting Dr. Nice

by John Kessel

[jus_the_facts]

71. Stephen King's Dark Tower Series....

....get them to read the first book and hopefully they'd be encouraged to keep reading the series to find out what happens and develop a love of reading...I think this series is absolutely awesome and recommend it highly. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_(series)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gunslinger

[Beausoleil]

73. My favorites

I know some of these were mentioned:

"Slaughterhouse Five" - Vonnegut
"Doomsday Book" - Willis
"The Time Machine" - Wells
"Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" - Card

The OSC book is quite good and may be at the right level.

[iamjoy]

dupe/delete

[iamjoy]

75. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

if you can stomach giving money to Orson Scott Card.

I was just posting about it in another thread, this book explores history and western civilization. It's very deep, and some parts of it are crude, but I don't recall any of it being too profane.

I have read the Time Machine and can see how some one not understanding Victorian culture would struggle with that, and maybe not be interested in it.

[madhoosier]

78. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Probably not right for tenth graders in today's schools but this Sci-Fi page turner speaks eloquently on war, politics, the military, and much more! One of my all time Sci-Fi favorite reads. Mindbridge by Haldeman is also a little gem.

[Dogmudgeon]

80. Branch Points (Mona Clee)

Three young (mid-20s) time travelers are sent from a desolate, ruined, post-nuclear-war future circa 2000, back to the 1960s, to try to prevent the war that destroyed the world. However, the tide of history is extremely strong, and the batteries in the time device are weak, so the time travelers only have three chances. The book gives three different, interesting perspectives on 60s culture and politics.

Clee is an unabashed fan of Bill Clinton, too, and there's about a page of gratuitous schoolgirl-style gushing over the Big Dog. Of course, this was before the Lewinsky drama. The section was but a small indulgence; I rather enjoyed it.

As to the time travel, there's also a fourth chance ...

--p!

[trouble97018]

81. Time Traders Series-Norton

How about the Time Traders series by Andre Norton? They were originally written for young adults in the late fifties and updated shortly before her death. The first two are Time Traders & Galactic Derelict. They are available on Amazon.com.