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

[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!