The concept of time travel has always intrigued writers, from HG Wells with his Time Machine, to all the many temporal rift plots in Star Trek. We’re fascinated by the possibilities of traveling back in time to a favourite historical period, or forward to see what the future brings.
We love the idea of a paradox, where something altered in a previous time period could affect our lives today. Stephen King uses this to great effect in 11.22.63, where his protagonist, on discovering a portal back to 1958, tries to prevent the assassination of JFK.
Portals are also used in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, where Claire Randall steps between standing stones and finds herself in 1743 with a handsome, plaid-wearing Highlander. Similarly in Kindred by Octavia Butler, a young black woman from the 1970s is catapulted back to the 1800s and must assume the role of a house-slave to survive. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguci is about a cafe in Japan where patrons can travel back in time, but cannot leave their seats and must return before their coffee gets cold.
Some books use the invention of time machines, not unlike HG Wells’ to facilitate temporal travel. The Chronicles of St Marys by Jodi Taylor, and the Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis both use time travel as a means of historical research. In Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel the various interwoven strands of the story are all connected to a “time glitch” which needs to be investigated.
Then there are time loops, as used in Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, in which Ursula Todd is born and reborn over and over again until she manages to live the life that is her destiny. Also used to great effect in an especially good Doctor Who episode Heaven Sent with Peter Capaldi.
In The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Henry is suffering from Chrono Displacement Disorder which means he can suddenly be catapulted into his past or his future. He and his wife have an intriguing non-linear relationship. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F Scott Fitzgerald the protagonist is born an old man and lives his life in reverse.
There are many children’s books which use time travel too. Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce uses the portal device. Tom hears the clocks strike thirteen and finds a gateway to the past. In A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle the children must travel through time and space to save their father. Eoin Colfer has a great series called WARP, featuring the unlikely combination of a Victorian street urchin and a young FBI agent with a time-key.
Some of these books delve more deeply than others into the mechanisms and paradoxes of time travel. Could you cease to exist if you prevented your grandmother from being born? What is the physics behind time-travel? The theories are many and involved, but they intrigue us nonetheless. As a plot device, it allows authors to delve into themes of regret, redemption, the cyclical nature of history, and the human desire to alter our fate. Time travel narratives often examine the ethical implications of playing with time, as characters grapple with the consequences of their actions. The possibilities for adventure and danger are almost limitless when you throw time travel into the plot mix. Hence the wide and varied genres in which it appears.
If you have an SF or Fantasy subscription you may already have had some of these books in your monthly book box subscription, but time travel, as I said, crops up in many genres, so if you fancy a bit of time travel in your box, just let us know.
