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Original poster

Time travel recommendations

58 replies

ArriettyMatilda · 10/05/2016 23:27

I've recently read Time and Time Again by Ben Elton and liked the concept of trying to change the course of the future. I also enjoyed the Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and Marcher by Chris Beckett. I did enjoy some of the Dr Who books but I'm less interested in reading about aliens. Does anyone have any recommendations for fiction books about time travel?

OP posts:
NeverbuytheDailyMail · 20/06/2016 00:38

If you have kids and what to extend the genre to the whole family read them Time Travelling With a Hamster by Ross Welford.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 20/06/2016 00:35

Lauren Oliver Before I Fall. ( sort of a teenage girl version of Life after Life)

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 20/06/2016 00:32

Susan Price - The Sterkarm Handshake and A Sterkarm Kiss.

JamieFraserskneewarmer · 07/06/2016 14:06

Love both Jodi Taylor and Connie Willis - great to see some more St Mary's fans on here! (had begun to think I was all alone).

For alternate realities have you tried Jasper Fforde? His Thursday Next series are set in a parallel earth where England is a republic and the lines between reality and literature are flexible. Very funny and I think they are brilliant.

The Man in the High Castle and Fatherland are great reads based on the world if the outcome of the second world war had been different.

carelesswhisper27 · 31/05/2016 13:23

ArriettyMatilda - thanks for the mention of Time and Time again. Devoured it in 2 days - loved it! Smile

Original poster
ArriettyMatilda · 22/05/2016 22:26

I managed to borrow A Traveller in Time and Look Who's Back from my local library. I've also reserved the first Jodi Taylor, the First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and To Say Nothing of the Dog. I hope to get stuck in on an upcoming holiday. Thank you for all the recommendations, hope others have discovered new books and I will be dipping back into the thread when I've run out of books to read that will never happen

OP posts:
TeradelFuego · 20/05/2016 03:02

Just to point out that the book mentioned above by HonniBee, Cherry Picking by Tim Heath, is currently free on Kindle.

piebald · 19/05/2016 20:42

Kindred by Octavia E Butler
www.amazon.co.uk/Kindred-Octavia-Butler/dp/1472214811
I think it is an extraordinary book,I
have read it several times and proabably will again.

HonniBee · 17/05/2016 08:39

I've just read Cherry Picking by Tim Heath. Quite a good read which keeps you guessing.

KarenCBC · 17/05/2016 08:29

I'm currently reading Look Who's Back about Hitler waking up in Berlin in 2011. Very funny. Also reading 11.22.63 and loving it. I'm a big fan of time travel too with Time Traveler's Wife being my favourite book ever.

Witch91 · 16/05/2016 23:26

My mum also passed a traveller in time to me and I loved it.

I would also add the April white immortals series - the first book, Marking Time is free on Amazon, and there are now 4 books, they are really good.

Also I enjoyed both sides of time and out of time by Caroline B Cooney.

Both are more YA, but I enjoyed getting lost in them!

cressetmama · 16/05/2016 13:24

Another fan of A Traveller in Time here; a favourite of mine since I was about nine! It was also one my mum adored, and my son enjoyed it when I read it to him as a bedtime story at about the same age. Three generations can't be wrong!

FraggleMountain · 15/05/2016 14:07

A Yankee at the court of King Arthur by Mark Twain, and Outlander by D Gabaldon (first two books). They are funny, and cleverly discuss how a sensible and scientifically minded person would think and get on in the past.

AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou · 12/05/2016 23:58

time and again by Jack Finney

There is a sequel too, from Time to Time. Both good.

AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou · 12/05/2016 23:56

Connie Willis's books: "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and "Doomsday Book" are both great reads. The first has the added bonus of being laugh out loud funny

YY to this! I adore these books. Also in the same universe are Blackout and All Clear. Just wonderful.

KeithLeMonde · 12/05/2016 20:03

Yyyyyyyy to A Traveller in Time Wilding. I can't hear Greensleeves without thinking of the book and feeling sad.

jobnockey · 12/05/2016 13:15

time and again by Jack Finney

MontyFox · 11/05/2016 20:26

Just finished Harry August - would also recommend, was fantastic!

snozzlemaid · 11/05/2016 17:51

Anothe vote for Outlander and Stephen Fry's Making History.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 11/05/2016 17:41

Yes to King's Kennedy book.
Yes to Wells.
If you don't object to children's books, Charlotte Sometimes and Goodnight Mr Tom are both lovely.
Liz Jensen - My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time

ElectroStallion · 11/05/2016 15:09

What about Well's The Time Machine?

Original poster
ArriettyMatilda · 11/05/2016 14:49

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August looks like my kind of book, as does 11.22.63. I will give the Jodi Taylor ones a go (though I've not managed to get into a series since Harry Potter). I'm currently reading Life After Life as a God in Ruins is going to be our next book club read and I felt I ought to read them in order. Any that I can reserve at the library will probably be read or at least flicked through at some point as I get free reservations for any books in the county Grin

I like the concept of alternate realities and read a lot of dystopian fiction as a young adult. It was beginning to all feel a bit samey so I started to read more science fiction, but fairly light reads. I can't seem to enjoy fantasy genres such as monsters, aliens or vampires. I've only just started reading historical fiction. It helped that in Time and Time Again it starts with the present and goes back. Any more suggestions for books on alternate realities, changing the course of history or travelling to the future/set in the future would be great. Thanks for the recommendations so far.

OP posts:
Wilding · 11/05/2016 10:53

Kage Baker's Company books are brilliant - they are SF style time travel books but there are no aliens! They're about the Dr Zeus Company, who retrieve lost treasures from the past. The first one, In the Garden of Iden, is set mostly in Elizabethan times, the second one in pre-Columbian USA, and so on.

Would also second the recommendation of the Jodi Taylor books, I enjoyed those a lot.

Probably my favourite time travel book ever is A Traveller in Time, by Alison Uttley, about a girl who travels back to the time of Mary Queen of Scots - be warned though, it always makes me cry!

jobnockey · 11/05/2016 10:41

Replay by Ken Grimwood. About someone who dies and goes back to a particular point in his life... over and over again... so gets to live his life in lots of different ways. I really enjoyed this book...

JoylessFucker · 11/05/2016 10:39

Connie Willis's books: "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and "Doomsday Book" are both great reads. The first has the added bonus of being laugh out loud funny.