Time travel? Anyone?

[ivyfic]

I've asked for this before, but does anyone have recommendations for good time-travel novels? I'm in the mood for something meaty and emo and angsty that won't make me throw it at the wall. And even though time-travel romance is such a big category it's a browse category on amazon, it's that "not throw it at the wall" bit that seems to be the stumbling block.

I don't actually care if it's romance or not, but if it's not, it still needs to be more about characters than mechanics.

And if you say Outlander or Time Traveler's Wife, that's it, you've disqualified yourself from giving me recommendations by proving you have no taste.

Comments

[airspaniel.livejournal.com]

Have you read Making History by Stephen Fry? It's not exact time-travel, per se, but it's certainly time-stream fuckery and I enjoyed it a lot. In places it's a little evident that it's an older man writing the POV of a grad student, but I have actually know grad students like that so... it didn't bother me so much.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_abulafia/]

Seconding this.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I love Stephen Fry, but I'm generally not a fan of the "witty" novel. If this isn't too meta, I might enjoy it, though. (I like my self-indulgent fiction presented without irony, thank you very much.)

[mithrigil.livejournal.com]

Agreed, Outlander sucks.

See if you can pick up 1632 by Eric Flint. I'm not sure you'll like it but I am definitely interested in what you'll think of it. An entire coal mining town in West Virginia is dropped into Thuringia during the Thirty-Years War. Acculturation ensues.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. Acculturation, yum.

I was googling for recs last night and EVERY GODDAMN LIST started with Outlander and Time Traveler's Wife. I was always like NO. NOW I CAN'T READ ANYTHING YOU REC.

[newredshoes]

Are you familiar with Connie Willis? Like, for me she's the biggest name in the genre, but I'm never sure if she's a foregone conclusion for other people too.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I have not. Any specific recs?

When I googled looking for rec lists last night, they all started with Outlander and Time Traveler's Wife. And trawling for books without recs, I'm likely to end up with something like the time-traveling Viking Navy SEALS, which would definitely invoke the book against wall clause.

I have this vague memory of loving a YA book when I was a kid that was about a girl transported back to medieval England and posing as a squire. (I actually wrote for a class assignment a story about a girl totally not at all like me time travelling back (in a washing machine?) and becoming a cabin boy on Sir Francis Drake's ship.) I want something like THAT. I don't want something about how manly macho men used to be before feminism made them all wimpy.

[newredshoes]

Oh yes! Her short stories can be great (Impossible Things is a good collection to start with), but it's her Oxford Time Travel universe that's most well known, I think: they're about historians who do in-person research. Doomsday Book is about a woman who is accidentally sent to 1348 and has to deal with being the only person inoculated against the Black Death. To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last is sort of a merry romp/caper/mystery/comedy through everything that's ridiculous about Victorian English culture, while also dealing with the Blitz, university politics, poetry, cats and "is it timelag or is it true love?"

She won the Hugo and the Nebula this past year for her double novel Blackout/All Clear, which is in the same universe, but which I found much diminished from her earlier works. (I love the lady, but damn, these days she needs an editor who will actually say no to her.) But at her best, she's wonderful with humanity and emotions and women and satire.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

OMG, the old cover of Doomsday Book is A-MA-ZING (http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0553562738/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0).

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Good lord, that cover is so inappropriate to that book.

I have feiran's copy of Doomsday Book on my shelf literally right now. If you clear it with her first, I can loan it to you. It just has to get back to her in the end.

Orson Scott Card's got his issues, but I really liked Pastwatch anyway.

I feel like you read The Anubis Gates, in all its problematic glory. Chrichton's Timeline isn't too bad.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Did read Anubis Gates. I'll email feiran--she has that pesky don't crack my spines clause that I don't deal well with. But it sounds like I'd like that one. I may actually have Not to Mention the Dog--I'll have to check my shelves (though I may be confusing that with Mr. Norrell and Dr. Strange...).

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

This book came pre-beaten up, at least by the time I got it.

[fairest.livejournal.com]

It's our loaner copy. Loan, loan! I fully support spreading the Connie Willis appreciation. :)

[fairest.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I second Pastwatch. I really enjoyed it, in spite of excessive exposition.

We have To Say Nothing of the Dog as well, if you can't find or lay hands on a copy.

And that YA sounds *so* familiar -- but I think I'm probably conflating the Both Sides of Time books with the Song of the Lioness series.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've read the Both Sides of Time books! After college, in fact. I thought the first books were stronger than the later ones. Since Song of the Lioness only came out recently, it can't be that one.

But gosh, I'd like too find it again. Course, it would probably be a lto worse than I remember.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

It's well-loved! It was my original copy. I think I got one autographed for Carrie which is in better shape. Ideally, I'll get a hardcover with the old jacket at some point.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

It is well-loved--and continues to be passed around to acquire more love.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

I think you've just sold me on an author I have never heard of. Good job, you ought to be this woman's publicist!

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol adventures are readable fun. Of course, I have been widely accused of having no taste (by just about everybody in my family, at the least).

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

LOL! I love your discerning tastes.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I actually quite liked Time Traveler's Wife, but I agree it's not the kind of thing you're looking for here.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I've read enough about Time Traveler's Wife to think I'd hate it. And the thing about Outlander is, I do actually want a Mary Sue. Just, a good one. And Outlander...jesus, there are some hilarious recaps of that book. And Diana Gabaldon has proven to herself to be cray-cray.

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

Christ, I love Outlander. Well, you can say I have no taste now. ;)

However, the one kid's book I remember really loving was Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander, which may not hold up anymore, but...

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I actually loved The Time Traveler's Wife, but if you've made up your mind about it already... I didn't like Replay by Ken Grimwood though, so you might check that one out.

I definitely recommend highly highly highly Connie Willis, specifically Doomsday Book and her short stories, though Blackout and All Clear are also quite good.

An oldie but a goodie: Time And Again by Jack Finney, with bonuses for historic NYC. Somewhere in Time's time travel method bears some resemblance to the one used in this book.

For something completely different, there's also Octavia E. Butler's book Kindred.

And don't forget the classic Slaughterhouse Five.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I have read Slaugherhouse Five, yes. :)

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Also, it occurs to me that perhaps you haven't read the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L'Engle, at least the first three. And relatedly, you might check out the excellent middle grade book When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I read the Wrinkle in Time series when I was a kid, but then I read Many Waters, and that pretty much put me off L'Engle. I don't know if it's actually a bad book, but ten-year-old me hated it.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

I have Three Days to Never, which is Tim Powers second time-travel novel, though it's not as traditional time travel as Anubis Gates is, and I'm happy to lend it to you (I have no spine clause). Night Watch is probably the LEAST standalone of the Discworld novels, but is a clever time travel narrative. Anathem contains portions that can be conceptualized as time travel, though it depends on which observer you choose to consider as the actual narrative pov, ditto Singularity Sky (which I do not have a copy of).

If you like comics, The Invisibles is full of time travel.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Also, I can't believe I'm going to admit believing this, but the Quantum Leap tie-in novels were not at all bad for tie-ins.