Time travel books

[MargotMoon]

Are there any time travel novels that are well-written with a tight plot, or am I just picking bad ones?

I love the concept of time travel novels but in my experience the writing is really crap and never really fulfils its potential. I’m currently halfway through the Ministry of Time and it feels like the author has lost faith in her conceit and the idea is going nowhere so it’s going to turn into a romance thing, which just feels really boring.

See also: Connie Willis, Jodi Taylor, the Time Travellers Wife…

I re-read Charlotte Sometimes recently, on the back of this thread. I read it decades ago and enjoyed the story. This time around I appreciated the craftsmanship as well. Superb.

Sea of Tranquility was wonderful. I really love her writing.

I see where your user name comes from 😁

I like the accidental time traveller

Also beswitched and Charlotte sometimes if you like children's books

It’s by Scott Goodfellow. At least I can’t find one by Wyndham.

Ignore me - I see Wyndham’s is part of a collection.

I tracked it down and read it. It was a short story. Very short.

If you are open to YA and not recently published, Tim Kennemore's Changing Times is the best tome travel novel I have ever read

If you don’t mind a bit of comic weirdness with your time travel then try “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”. It’s my most re-read book. Hilarious and clever and totally bonkers but I never tire of it.

(BTW it has absolutely nothing to do with the TV series of the same name. That was a complete re-imagining and nothing like the book.)

“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”

I relistened to the audio book of this recently on a couple of long car journeys - it's so good. I think i might even like it more than Hitchhiker's Guide.

I read Ministry of Time but I did not connect with it.

Yes, for The House on the Strand (Tywardreath, in Cornish).

Yes, also to David Mitchell's universe. Not time travel but travelling back and forth in time with interconnecting characters. Slade House certainly has a parallel dimension.

I recently read The Traveler by Joseph Eckert and thought it was brilliant.

Charlotte Sometimes (children’s book)
Space Hopper