Time Travel discussion

If you need ideas, there are plenty in this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Or feel free to read a group book that you missed out on... old discussions never close!

You're doing a grand job, Cheryl.

Are we basically free reading now and posting about it here? I hoped we could all be reading the same thing to discuss.

Yes, reading the same thing at the same time hasn't been working, at least on my watch. :(

That being said, we can say here what we're planning to read, and hopefully someone else would join in.

For example, I plan on trying to reread Remembrance by Jude Deveraux because I remember enjoying it many years ago. And I'm going to try to finish Throwback by Peter Lerangis (but I'm unmotivated because it's an ebook).

So if anyone is interested in anything romance-adjacent, or intended mainly for 'tweens, please join me!

I will buddy-read Remembrance in September with you. I have never read it. I just have to get through Fourth Wing first so it might be closer to the end of the month.

I'm going to start reading "All This & More" by Peng Shepherd, which is a quantum reality show about time travel and alternate realities. Oh, and it's told in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style, so I simply couldn't resist!

I know I'm not exactly the most active participant in this group, but I'd be happy if anyone else would join me in reading it!

Oh that does sound good. Not sure I can finish by end of September but will do my best. Worst case I will get in my time machine and zip back to today and start it so I can finish in a timely manner;)

That's the spirit!

All This & More does look interesting. I've requested it. And I'll wait a bit on Remembrance. :)

I started All This & More. I am enjoying it so far.

Steven says:

I just started Recursion.
Who would like to discuss it?

Not me, sorry, not after I didn't like his breakout book.

I liked Recursion but when I was at the airport for some reason I swapped the plot in my brain with Punch Escrow which had the teleportation paradox. I got home and felt really stupid. The guy is going to read Recursion and wonder what the heck I was talking about. Oh well.

Is The Punch Escrow Time Travel?

(And, you're not alone, I often have to back up, take a moment, to untangle stories that my brain tried to mash-up or remix.)

The Punch Escrow is not Time Travel but is Science Fiction. To mix the teleportation paradox and time travel would be very interesting though I guess that is why my brain shuffled them together!

:smiles:

will there be a thread started to discuss All this and More? I have requested it from the library.

Good question. We do have several people interested, so, sure!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Turns out Remembrance is not the book that I thought it was (or my memories are confused in a different way). It's hooked on Past Lives, not Time Travel, but that's the least of its problems, imo. Dnf p. 125 (and honestly I'm surprised I got that far).

I've been re-reading Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, the 2nd in her Oxford time travel series. I adore her work, but this book took me several times to get through the first time around, and it seems the second time is proving the same even though this time I'm listening to the audio. It takes a long time to get going and seems to wander all over the place from the jump. She was inspired by Three Men in a Boat, and when I finally got into this novel and ended up enjoying it, I sought out that novel too and liked it.

Who else is a Connie Willis fan?

I really liked To Say Nothing of the Dog. I will have to re-listen to it. I never knew what a jumble sale was before reading that book. I enjoyed Three Men in a Boat but read it after To Say Nothing of the Dog and preferred To Say Nothing of the Dog more. I really like those kind of chapter headers with little mini clues about what is to come.

I'm not a big fan of hers, but I did enjoy To Say Nothing of the Dog. I'm afraid a lot of it was too challenging for me to untangle, though, and the humor wasn't always what I consider funny. But that's on me.

Samantha wrote: "I've been re-reading Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, the 2nd in her Oxford time travel series. I adore her work, but this book took me several times to get through the first time around,..."

The only Connie Willis book I read was Doomsday Book and it has lingered in my mind for many years. It is the most powerful novel I have read and is number one in my best reads list. But it isn't the most, how to say, happy novel and because I generally like to be uplifted, I'm not sure if I could read that book again. Yet, I highly recommend it (though, we did read it in a past group read).

Connie certainly does have a dark or wry sense of humour and strangely prophetic because when we all endured the Covid era, I realised Connie had got a lot of things right about our societal behaviour. Things that I thought were silly in her book and just there for the sake of her wry humour which I never thought would happen in real life...bloody happened! I think judging by that book alone, Connie is (was? is she still with us?) a tremendous writer who really draws you in to the minds of her protagonists through the mundane and the absurdity of her narrative world that turns out to be very much like ours.

Gosh, if I didn't have my "readers block", i would actually want to make To Say Nothing of the Dog my next read which I believe Doomsday is part of the same world, right?

EDIT: Just looking up the "Oxford time travel" series and there are five books of which Doomsday Book is the first. I had no idea this was a substantial series. To Say Nothing of the Dog being the second (as you mentioned, Samantha). And Connie is still with us and seems busy writing another entry into this series.

You're right. Doomsday Book is an incredible novel and although it is difficult, I've read it twice. She has a knack for writing children and older male parts (also in Passage and Blackout/All Clear). To Say Nothing of the Dog is much more lighthearted so it is a bit of a palate cleanser if you read them sequentially.

Her most recent novel The Road to Roswell is in the lighthearted vein that ...The Dog is. I can't wait to see what she delivers next. I'm a pre-order fan, and I can't say that of many other writers.

Has anyone read "Time Shelter" by Georgi Gospodinov?

Came across it at the bookstore the other day. While the description seemed intriguing, I didn't get a good sense of what kind of ride it is

Time Shelter - yes, we read it in the group "speculative fiction in translation." It's more concept than story, and our group discussion was more about history & about some themes. I didn't regret reading it, but I'm glad I didn't pay money for it!

good to know. I'll keep that in mind if I decide to give it a shot.

OK, I'm 67 pages into Recursion, and am finally enjoying it.

I like Barry, the cop who's trying to figure out what is behind the seemingly contagious FMS (Faulty Memory Syndrome) and some of the characters affected by it.

And I'm intrigued by Helena, the scientist who is trying to save her mother (who has Alzheimer's) by building a "memory chair" in which subjects can vividly relive past experiences.

It took me awhile to get into the novel. And I have not yet seen how time travel comes into play, but I can see it coming.

Thanks for the update, Steven. I may give it a shot someday, esp. if you finish and laud. ;)

Cheryl wrote: "Thanks for the update, Steven. I may give it a shot someday, esp. if you finish and laud. ;)"

I will be sure to finish the book, since it has gotten better and better, with a complicated time-travel plot! There are plenty of twists and turns, as Helena and Barry join forces to save the world!

I am now 50% into the novel.

I am enjoying the audiobook of Piercing the Elastic Limit by Howard Loring. I really like the historical fiction and the mystery of the travelers. The narrator does a great job. I think that makes the biggest difference.

Piercing the Elastic Limit for the link. (The author is a member here, so I want to make sure he gets credit. :)

I have a hard time posting links on my phone so thank you Cheryl.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... I would love to discuss Piercing the Elastic Limit with others.

I finished Recursion and can recommend it. Once I got into this time-travel, suspense novel, it was hard to put down. It's a bit like Replay, with many time loops, but is unique in many ways.

The story centers on Helena (the brilliant scientist who accidentally invents a memory chair that can transport people back in time) and Barry (the depressed cop whose marriage has fallen apart after the death of his teenage daughter). Helena is motivated to help her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease.

Barry investigates a suicide of a FMS (false memory syndrome) victim, who is tormented by a previous life that may not have happened. Is FMS real? Is it contagious? We find out gradually.

The two try over and over again to prevent a world-ending event, which the chair has brought about.

And they fall in love repeatedly in their many lives spent—in part—to save the world.

Of course, at one point the government gets involved, even if the involvement starts with good intentions, such as to prevent serial killings. It's downhill thereafter, however.

Will the world end? Read Recursion to find out!

Sounds like I have two more books to add to my lists!

Steven, I'm the literary equivalent of a cat chasing a laser pointer. I'm all over the place until I finally lock onto the plot and then I'm laser-focused. But if it takes more than 50 pages to find that red dot, I'm likely to yawn, stretch, and start hunting for a more immediate source of entertainment, like the fridge.

Avery wrote: "Steven, I'm the literary equivalent of a cat chasing a laser pointer. I'm all over the place until I finally lock onto the plot and then I'm laser-focused. But if it takes more than 50 pages to fin..."

Avery, I've been in your shoes with other novels, but as I wrote previously, it took me about 60 pages to get into Recursion. But once I did that, it was well worth my time.

I am into the Alex Hawk Time-travel series, in which a man is thrown into a primitive future Earth. As for most of Shawn Inmon's novels, it is attention-grabbing and well written.

I just started the 3rd book (of 9), Return from Kragdon-ah.

Anyone else want to discuss these books?

Steven wrote: "I am into the Alex Hawk Time-travel series, in which a man is thrown into a primitive future Earth. As for most of Shawn Inmon's novels, it is attention-grabbing and well written.

I just started ..."

I'm now starting Book 6 in the series, Mists of Kragdon-ah.

Each book is at least 4 stars, in my opinion. They feature occasional people from the past (who are more technologically advanced than those in the future), warfare between tribes/countries, and personal relationships.

I'm so glad you found a series worth sticking through!

Cheryl wrote: "I'm so glad you found a series worth sticking through!"

Finally finished the ninth and last book in the Alex Hawk series. Very worthwhile!

Quick review: A terrific final book in this nine-book adventure/time-travel series. A twentieth-century man, Alex Hawk, is thrown into the distant future (albeit a primitive, mainly stone-age one), and with his two daughters, tribal members, and new comrades, they battle a number of conquering armies, along with gigantic beasts of prey!

Reading Future Proof. Lots of fun to read so far.
Has anyone else read this book?

A depressed failure signs up for experimental therapy treatments and gets to go back in time to do things differently!

That does look like fun. Unfortunately it's not avl. at any of my libraries.

I finally finished Continuum: French Science Fiction Short Stories for another group discussion and I'm not the only one who wasn't thrilled by it.

Next up is The New Voices of Science Fiction which is, fortunately/unfortunately, not brand-new... if I find an author from whom I want to read more, their work should be as avl. as it'll ever be.

Thanks Steven. Future Proof had such hit-and-miss reviews I wasn't sure about it.

Started The Ministry of Time. It's interesting and witty, but now that I'm 20 percent into the novel, it is getting a bit tedious to read. I'll update again soon.

Update: Read 40 percent of the book and did not want to finish it. So boring!

Lizz wrote: "Thanks Steven. Future Proof had such hit-and-miss reviews I wasn't sure about it."

88% 5- and 4-star ratings on Goodreads. Not too shabby.

Following the nine-book Alex Hawk series ( A Door Into Time ) and the four-book Across Horizons series ( Obsolete Theorem ), I am into the three-book Neander one ( Neander )!

All the series center on a modern man thrown into a primitive world: the Hawk series into the future; the Horizons and Neander series into the past. Neander obviously involves Neanderthals (living about 40,000 years ago in Gibraltar), with the Horizons books going back 47,000 years to Neanderthal times.

All three series are quite good and I recommend them!

Do you prefer series in general, or is it more coincidental that you've been reading series, or...?