Favorite Time Travel books (novels, book club, fantasy, teenage)

[BlueWillowPlate]

Some of mine:

Time and Again - Jack Finney

Time Out Of Mind - by John R. Maxim

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series

Anyone else have some favorite time travel novels?

[RDSLOTS]

I've enjoyed a few of these too, BlueWillowPlate.

Will you share the storyline for The Time Traveler's Wife with me? Knowing details doesn't spoil a book for me. I have read such mixed reviews.

I also liked some of King's time traveling tales -- the Dark Tower series. Are The Chronicles of Narnia more fantasy? I enjoyed Lewis's work. Twain's A Connecticut Yankee was fun as a kid, as were a number of other titles that escape me.

Recently, I really enjoyed a novel I think Deepak Chopra wrote, where he brings Merlin to the present -- has him riding motorcycles, white beard and all, after Arthur who is a cop. I'll check my shelves for other titles. I like the concept -- becoming immersed in another world, another time.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by RDSLOTS

Will you share the storyline for The Time Traveler's Wife with me? Knowing details doesn't spoil a book for me. I have read such mixed reviews..

Warning, this link leads to the plot where *everything* that happens is told.
The Time Traveler's Wife
The novel tells the story of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Chicago Newberry Library, and his wife, Clare Abshire (born 1971), an artist from a wealthy family who makes paper sculptures.

When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry in 1991, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Clare's past is still in Henry's future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare's childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present. In the novel, the future cannot be changed, and many tragic events are foreshadowed in the past.

Henry has a very rare genetic disorder known as Chrono-Displacement that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. He is unable to control when he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trip will last. His destinations are tied to his subconscious, as Henry most often travels to places he has visited or will eventually visit.

In my original Colorado book club, only I and one other person liked the book.
In my Florida book club, the same thing happened.
It is definitely *that* type of novel, where you either love it or you hate it.

[LovinDecatur]

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut...probably the most creative treatment of time travel that I've read.

[kensgirl]

Well, as mentioned in another post, I really like Time and Again by Jack Finney. I also read the sequel, From Time to Time (liked the original better). I also liked the parallel universe concept in Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde, and in the Magic Kingdom for Sale series by Terry Brooks. I enjoy thinking about all the possibilities of alternate realities!

[karibear]

Andre Norton did a small series on Time Traders, if you like early Norton. There was another one - and I canNOT remember either the title or author, though I can 'see' it on the library shelf - that started off on another world, and a group of Native American shamans provided transportation through various galaxies and star systems in a spirit canoe they paddled through space while chanting. They frequently helped the hero, because he was some kind of key to their own future line. It sounds kind of hokey, but it was fascinating and very well done.

[movingtohouston]

Love, love, love the Outlander series. I am so sad that we still have to wait another year for the next book in the series.

[poconoproud]

I am an H.G. Wells fan...The Time Machine.

[RDSLOTS]

BlueWillowPlate, it sounds intriguing to me. What did others not like about it? I can't imagine it had to do with the storyline? The author's style? Strange. . . methinks.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by RDSLOTS

BlueWillowPlate, it sounds intriguing to me. What did others not like about it? I can't imagine it had to do with the storyline? The author's style? Strange. . . methinks.

I think perhaps the premise turned some of them off?
Myself, I thought the author structured it rather plausibly, but after all, time travel is a lot of disbelief for some to suspend. (Henry meets his own self as a young boy, a teenager, etc.)
In addition, you really had to pay attention to what was going on. I devoured the book, then immediately reread it just to make sure I got everything.
I dunno, Henry de Tamble was the most attractive male protagonist I've come across since Mr. Darcy.