The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century: Stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Finney, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin,

by Harry Turtledove, Martin H. Greenberg | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 0345460944 Global Overview for this book
Registered by kelleyanne of Raleigh, North Carolina USA on 1/4/2007
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5 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by kelleyanne from Raleigh, North Carolina USA on Thursday, January 4, 2007
Lots of really good time travel stories, from the early 1940s to the mid 1990s.

Journal Entry 2 by kelleyanne from Raleigh, North Carolina USA on Wednesday, March 7, 2007
released to a paperbackswap.com member via USPS

Journal Entry 3 by Ghost_Dog at Merrimack, New Hampshire USA on Monday, October 26, 2020
Received this from a paperbackswap.com member, but never got around to reading. I hope the next reader enjoys this.

Journal Entry 4 by Ghost_Dog at Little Free Library, Granite Circle in Merrimack, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (10/27/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library, Granite Circle in Merrimack, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Enjoy!

Journal Entry 5 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, October 30, 2020
I was pleased to find this book-of-respectable-age still in the LFL when I stopped by on this snowy day; I like time-travel stories and look forward to this collection! (I can see from the cover that it contains Bradbury's classic cautionary tale "A Sound of Thunder", which inspired a (sadly, not very good) 2005 film.)

Later: Lots of excellent stories here, with some old favorites and some that were new to me. Among the most notable:

"A Sound of Thunder," of course, with its butterfly-effect plot and atmospheric dinosaur-hunt.

"Death Ship" by Richard Matheson, in which three astronauts find themselves stuck in a loop that may be of their own making - or perhaps not; this one inspired a "Twilight Zone" episode.

"A Gun for Dinosaur" by L. Sprague de Camp - yes, another one about time travel and dinosaur hunts, but with a different spin on things than in Bradbury's story (which preceded this one). Here, time doesn't allow itself to be messed with in any significant way, to the bane of a careless and angry client - but that's all after we've learned how dangerous dinosaur-hunting can be.

Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early" is an interesting spin on time travelers who use advanced knowledge and tech to succeed in the past; here, the time traveler winds up in an old Norse settlement where his cultural assumptions make them think he's the lowest of the low.

"Fire Watch" by Connie Willis is set in her time-traveling-students universe, and touches on the events of Blackout; it also features a character who will have a central role in Doomsday Book. But the story is complete in itself, and highlights the joy of using time travel to see long-destroyed artistic marvels as they once were - with some all-too-painful examples of stress, paranoia, and PTSD resulting from the ill-prepared time traveling student having to face the Blitz. [He'd planned to go to the time of Saint Paul, you see; somebody added an "s" to his application form and he was sent to the fire watch on St. Paul's in London instead. Ah, bureaucracy!] There are humorous bits, such as his first encounter with a cat (pet cats no longer existing in his time), and not-so-humorous ones as he encounters more death and destruction. (The eventual fate of St. Paul's is a central theme - but little asides in the text reveal that other places suffered a similar fate, comparing the last building at the center of Hiroshima to a similar structure in Denver. While the future world has a lot going for it, it's come through some nightmarish situations to get there.)

"The Price of Oranges" by Nancy Kress is a low-tech time-travel story - an older man has stumbled across a time portal in his own closet, leading back to 1937, and uses it both for recreation and to pick up inexpensive items from the past to gift to his modern-day crony. His friend refuses to believe the story - until the protagonist decides to travel back and pick up a nice young man for his single and (he presumes) unhappy granddaughter... The whole story's full of good intentions, even if some are misplaced, and treats the meet-your-ancestor/descendant tropes with rather sweet respect. And while the unintended trauma to the "nice young man" from the past - who reads up on history post-1937 and is aghast to see what the world has in store - is pretty harrowing, the story as a whole is quite sweet, with a truly lovely ending that I'd call a "deft twist".

"Another Story, or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" by Ursula Le Guin is from her "Hainish" stories, and deals with the unusual four-way marriage customs of Planet O culture. I'd read about that in another story, "Unchosen Love," and was interested to see it here as well - though in this case the plot takes the main character through some rather different choices and situations.

[There's a TV Tropes page for "A Sound of Thunder", and may be more for some of the other authors/stories in the collection.]

Journal Entry 6 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Released 3 yrs ago (2/11/2021 UTC) at Nashua, New Hampshire USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm adding this book to the Otherworldly bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop shortly. Hope it travels safely, and that people enjoy the selection!

*** Released for the 2021 Great Backyard Bird Count challenge (see www.birdcount.org to join the count). ***

*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 TV Series challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***

Journal Entry 7 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Saturday, February 20, 2021
I picked this book out of emmejo's Otherworldly Bookbox (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Horror). I was excited to find this book in the box. I love time travel stories. I hope the next person, who signed up after me, does too. I added 5 (out of 7) to the box. Ha! Thanks for sharing!

Journal Entry 8 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Friday, November 11, 2022
This was a very nice collection of time travel tales. If you are a fan of this genre, it is worth a read. I like that the various authors had their different take on way they worked their time travel theories. I am partial to Connie Willes books, so it was fun to find one of her stories in this collection. As in most short story collections, there are always a couple that didn't really trip my trigger but most of these stories were quite imaginative and interesting. Thanks so much for sharing! I hope to get this book back on a journey, soon.

Journal Entry 9 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Friday, February 3, 2023

Released 1 yr ago (2/3/2023 UTC) at Neenah, Wisconsin USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Put this book into Spatial’s To the Stars: A Sci-Fi Bookbox 2.0.

Journal Entry 10 by wingerishkigalwing at Salt Lake City, Utah USA on Sunday, March 5, 2023
The second book I’m pulling from Spatial’s To the Stars book box. There should be some good ones in here, and I enjoy books short stories, as I can read them a bit at a time. (without being lost when I pick it up again lol.)

Actually, as I now read through previous journals, I know there are going to be some really good stories in here… Cause I’ve read some of them previously😉

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