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There’s something about election season here in the US that makes me want to escape to different worlds and different times. Sometimes, I feel hopeful, but oftentimes, I just need to check out and get lost in a science fiction book about time travel. What if we could go back in time and correct our mistakes? What if we could correct the larger horrors of humanity? What if we could leap forward and behold what’s to come? The theme is a classic one in science fiction that never fails to capture our imaginations.
Fortunately, there are many incredible books out there that explore time travel in myriad ways. Just a couple of years ago, we covered some great ones. Now it’s time to introduce you to some others. A couple are classics of the genre that we just can’t stop talking about. Most are newer and are hopefully new to you, too.
From genetic predisposition to time travel to unexplained body swapping and from time-travel machines to alternate timelines, this list covers just about every variation on the classic theme of time travel.
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Up first is an under-the-radar classic of time travel that you might have missed. Kivrin lives in the 21st century, using time travel to study a 14th-century plague. When things go wrong in the 14th century, Kivrin’s fellows are forced to launch a rescue mission. While she should strive not to change the past, Kivrin might be history’s greatest hope.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
This book is trippy, metafictional, and very funny. Charles Yu (character, not the author, or maybe both) is a time travel engineer in Minor Universe 31. It’s a universe populated by people and places from science fiction. These misguided characters are constantly trying to use time travel to change the past, of course, and it’s Charles’s job to stop them. Also? His mother is stuck in a time loop and his father is lost in time. What’s a low-level technician to do?
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
I’ve written about this classic before and I’ll keep writing about it because everyone should read it. Dana is a Black woman living in the modern world, about to celebrate her 26th birthday. Suddenly, she’ll pulled back to the Antebellum South, living on a plantation under the thumb of white landowners. Back and forth she goes, somehow connected to one of the men who owns her in the past. What is their connection, and when will the time travel stop?
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I couldn’t overlook this great book that saw such wide recognition and love, particularly for a sci-fi novel. The Midnight Library is a strange place. Each book allows the reader to live as if they’d made different decisions. When Nora stumbles across this strange place, she does just that. But will her reading put her in more danger than before?
The Moon Represents My Heart by Pim Wangtechawat
A family of time travelers? Sign me up. Every member of the Wang family has the ability to travel through time. One day, the parents leave for the past but never return. The children, Tommy and Eva, are left as orphans and devoured by grief. While Eva is working to find her place in the present, Tommy keeps slipping further and further into the past, even falling in love with a woman from long ago, which only compounds his heartache.
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
Time travel, feminism, and historical fiction all blend together in this great book. In 1967, four woman scientists are on the verge of creating time travel. Just before they go public, one of them suffers a breakdown, and the other three cut her out. Fifty years later, time travel is a booming business, and Ruby knows her grandmother was part of it, but that history is shrouded in secrets. Was she murdered? It’s up to Ruby to find out.
Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch
Why yes, science fiction about time travel can also be rather literary. Benjamin and Helen Rask are famous. In the 1920s, this Wall Street wunderkind and daughter of a wealthy socialite were two of the most famous people in the world. In 1937, a book debuts that fictionalizes their rise and postulates that there are dark mysteries behind their successes. What is fact? What is fiction? Where does the truth of power and excess sit between these two?
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
I’m all about these books that blend other genres with time travel sci-fi, like this romance. In 1937, Joe runs into Nora under the big clock in Grand Central Terminal. In the midst of the Great Depression, her flapper clothing and bright demeanor are out of place. Just as quickly as they meet, she vanishes. This book is the story of their lives, briefly intertwined over and over as Nora appears and disappears from Joe’s life.
The Upper World by Femi Fadugba
Finally, this YA book has been optioned to Netflix, so now is the time to read it before you watch it. Esso is having a very bad time before he is suddenly thrown into a place where he can see glimpses of the past and future. In that future is a young woman named Rhia. She has a lot of questions about life that she doesn’t expect her new physics tutor, Esso, to answer. But he needs her help. Her past and his future are intertwined, and only together can they save both of their lives.
Want more excellent speculative fiction and time travel? Take a trip through these historical time travel books, as well as these 20 must-read time travel books.
