Please suggest a book or book series about time travel
I’m really into sci-fi and supernatural. I’m currently looking to read some time travel books. Points for any that are family friendly as sometimes I read my own books out loud to my kids. Thank you in advance!
*The Space Between Worlds* by Micaiah Johnson is excellent sci-fi/dimension hopping adventure. Not sci-fi in the “pew pew spaceships” way, but more of experimenting with time and alt-reality. A lot of it takes place in an “Indian Reservation” style rural town.
*This Is How You Lose the Time War* by Amal El-Mohtar is written like a series of love letters. Very interesting and romantic.
*The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton is filled with manipulative characters and nothing is quite what it seems. A man wakes up without memories and is trying to not only piece together his identity, but also solve a murder in the process! Do yourself a favor and don’t read spoilers on this, just dive in.
*A History of What Comes Next* by Sylvain Neuvel is about generations of a mysterious family who are in process of shaping human history. The daughter traverses Nazi Germany to get the American space program jump started. Pretty interesting read however you’re wanting more information by the end.
*The Light Brigade* by Kameron Hurley is a neat mystery book about a soldier in a space war. We figure out what happened to them as they experience time jumps. The way it’s presented tells a twisty tale.
*The Gone World* by Tom Sweterlitsch – A time traveling government worker finds the end of the world, and goes back in time to try and figure out how to stop it.
*Recursion* by Blake Crouch is a popular book here because it’s a trippy time/dimension hopping adventure. Only thing I’ve read that’s quite like it is another one of this author’s books *Dark Matter.*
*The Electric Kingdom* came out in 2021 and is a post-apocolytic YA book that features a young girl trying to track down the origins of a mysterious “fairy tale.” Took me a while to get into it, but has some interesting twists and setting. Like a lighter Blake Crouch.
*The Hike* by Drew Magary is a story that follows a man who becomes lost on a hiking trail and ends up traversing an alt-reality/surreal landscape. Pretty straight forward weird-read, but the devil is in the details. After a jaw dropping final chapter, you realize that this is much more than just a goofy journey book and perhaps worth re-reading to find nuggets the author left for you to find.
*Oona Out of Order* is an easy and fast read about a young woman who is thrown into a different year of her life on New Year’s Eve while remaining in her 20’s “inside.” Good in that it doesn’t get too predictable or “safe,” but stumbles a bit in Oona’s personality and making some pretty bold assumptions for plot.
*All Our Wrong Todays* is a time travel book that was just optioned to be made into a series/movie on Peacock. Starting off like a goofball first person adventure about a down on his luck dude from the future who gets messed up in his father’s time travel experiment… the story turns into a surprising depth of emotion that creeps up on you in the last third.
*The Paradox Hotel* is from 2022 and is a humorous and quirky tale about a security guard who works in a hotel made for time travelers. They find a dead body caught in a time fracture and must figure out what’s going on. Then it’s a serious thriller, then it’s a romantic tragedy, then it’s a mysterious house puzzle, then it’s a Jurassic Park sequel.
*Meet Me In Another Life* is billed as a romance through time, however as the book reveals itself it has some rather surprising paths that you don’t expect while reading the early chapters.
*Flux* by Jinwoo Chong is a time travel/reality bender that talks about a man who figures out that his employers are using time travel.
*Wrong Place Wrong Time* is a “mom book club mystery” that is a good palate cleanser. Easy to read and interesting enough to hold interest. A woman finds herself traveling backwards in time to figure out why her teen son kills.
perpetualmotionmachi on
It feels a bit dated now, but try H.G Wells’ The Time Machine; go back to where it all began.
Other than that I’ve enjoyed Recursion by Blake Crouch, a couple of Thee Time Police series by Jodi Taylor (a spin off of another time travel series she has, but I haven’t read that one), Oona out of Order (I forget the authors name for this one).
melodramatic-cat on
The timesmith chronicals by Niel Bushnell are pretty good if you’re reading to your kids, but may be a bit young for your own enjoyment (I think they’re like middle school level)
GuruNihilo on
Michael Crichton’s **Timeline** has a group of grad students travel back to 14th century France to investigate a mystery while another group stays in the present to support/protect them.
I don’t think it is ‘family friendly’. Much of the book is set in the past and goes into the brutality of life back then.
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*The Space Between Worlds* by Micaiah Johnson is excellent sci-fi/dimension hopping adventure. Not sci-fi in the “pew pew spaceships” way, but more of experimenting with time and alt-reality. A lot of it takes place in an “Indian Reservation” style rural town.
*This Is How You Lose the Time War* by Amal El-Mohtar is written like a series of love letters. Very interesting and romantic.
*The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton is filled with manipulative characters and nothing is quite what it seems. A man wakes up without memories and is trying to not only piece together his identity, but also solve a murder in the process! Do yourself a favor and don’t read spoilers on this, just dive in.
*A History of What Comes Next* by Sylvain Neuvel is about generations of a mysterious family who are in process of shaping human history. The daughter traverses Nazi Germany to get the American space program jump started. Pretty interesting read however you’re wanting more information by the end.
*The Light Brigade* by Kameron Hurley is a neat mystery book about a soldier in a space war. We figure out what happened to them as they experience time jumps. The way it’s presented tells a twisty tale.
*The Gone World* by Tom Sweterlitsch – A time traveling government worker finds the end of the world, and goes back in time to try and figure out how to stop it.
*Recursion* by Blake Crouch is a popular book here because it’s a trippy time/dimension hopping adventure. Only thing I’ve read that’s quite like it is another one of this author’s books *Dark Matter.*
*The Electric Kingdom* came out in 2021 and is a post-apocolytic YA book that features a young girl trying to track down the origins of a mysterious “fairy tale.” Took me a while to get into it, but has some interesting twists and setting. Like a lighter Blake Crouch.
*The Hike* by Drew Magary is a story that follows a man who becomes lost on a hiking trail and ends up traversing an alt-reality/surreal landscape. Pretty straight forward weird-read, but the devil is in the details. After a jaw dropping final chapter, you realize that this is much more than just a goofy journey book and perhaps worth re-reading to find nuggets the author left for you to find.
*Oona Out of Order* is an easy and fast read about a young woman who is thrown into a different year of her life on New Year’s Eve while remaining in her 20’s “inside.” Good in that it doesn’t get too predictable or “safe,” but stumbles a bit in Oona’s personality and making some pretty bold assumptions for plot.
*All Our Wrong Todays* is a time travel book that was just optioned to be made into a series/movie on Peacock. Starting off like a goofball first person adventure about a down on his luck dude from the future who gets messed up in his father’s time travel experiment… the story turns into a surprising depth of emotion that creeps up on you in the last third.
*The Paradox Hotel* is from 2022 and is a humorous and quirky tale about a security guard who works in a hotel made for time travelers. They find a dead body caught in a time fracture and must figure out what’s going on. Then it’s a serious thriller, then it’s a romantic tragedy, then it’s a mysterious house puzzle, then it’s a Jurassic Park sequel.
*Meet Me In Another Life* is billed as a romance through time, however as the book reveals itself it has some rather surprising paths that you don’t expect while reading the early chapters.
*Flux* by Jinwoo Chong is a time travel/reality bender that talks about a man who figures out that his employers are using time travel.
*Wrong Place Wrong Time* is a “mom book club mystery” that is a good palate cleanser. Easy to read and interesting enough to hold interest. A woman finds herself traveling backwards in time to figure out why her teen son kills.
It feels a bit dated now, but try H.G Wells’ The Time Machine; go back to where it all began.
Other than that I’ve enjoyed Recursion by Blake Crouch, a couple of Thee Time Police series by Jodi Taylor (a spin off of another time travel series she has, but I haven’t read that one), Oona out of Order (I forget the authors name for this one).
The timesmith chronicals by Niel Bushnell are pretty good if you’re reading to your kids, but may be a bit young for your own enjoyment (I think they’re like middle school level)
Michael Crichton’s **Timeline** has a group of grad students travel back to 14th century France to investigate a mystery while another group stays in the present to support/protect them.
I don’t think it is ‘family friendly’. Much of the book is set in the past and goes into the brutality of life back then.