The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century

by Harry Turtledove (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Poul Anderson (Contributor)

Stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Finney, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin
H.G. Wells's seminal novella The Time Machine, published in 1895, provided the springboard for modern science fiction's time travel explosion. Responding to their own fascination with the subject, the greatest visionary writers of the twentieth century penned some of their finest stories. Here are eighteen of the most exciting tales ever told.

Genres: Time Travel, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Fantasy, Travel

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Megan]

I'm listing all the stories so I can remember which authors to read more by.

1. "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg - This was one of my favorites. I thought its premise was really original and yet it was largely character-driven.
2. "The Man Who Came Early" by Poul Anderson. - Okay. I don't remember a great deal about this one, so I don't think it made much of an impression.
3. "Fire Watch" by Connie Willis. - Another favorite. I enjoyed the premise of this one a lot too, about a future where graduate students of history go back in time for their practical exam.
4. "Rainbird" by R.A. Lafferty. - Good. Has a trite message but it doesn't take itself too seriously and was therefore enjoyable.
5. "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury. - Dated and flat. One of the worst stories I have ever read, ever.
6. "Time Locker" by Henry Kuttner. - This reminded me a lot of Bester at the beginning. The ending was kind of silly, sort of dated.
7. "A Gun For Dinosaur" by L. Sprague du Camp. - A lot of dinosaur stories in this collection. This one was pretty good.
8. "Another Story or The Fisherman of the Inland Sea" by Ursula K Le Guin. - One of my favorite stories I've read in a long time.
9. "Leviathan!" by Larry Niven. - Just okay.
10. "Yesterday Was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon. - I liked this one.
11. "The Price of Oranges" by Nancy Kress. - Harry and Manny were great, but the granddaughter's character was two-dimensional and the ending was so ham-handed.
12. "Death Ship" by Richard Matheson. - Not great, but okay.
13. "Trapalanda" by Charles Sheffield. - I liked this one a lot.
15. "The Pure Product" by John Kessel. - I liked this one a lot. It reminded me of Joey Comeau.
16. "I'm Scared" by Jack Finney. - Another great one. I really liked the ending.
17. "Timetipping" by Jack Dann. - A little jumbled.
18. "The Anniversary Project" by Joe Haldeman. - I can't even remember how this one ends.

[Oziel Bispo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este livro contém uma deliciosa coletânea das maiores histórias de viagens no tempo já publicadas.

São histórias algumas curtas outras longas mas sempre nessa mesma temática. São autores consagrados do gênero tais como Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Connie Willis e várias outros grandes escritores.

O livro é longo mas devido a qualidade das histórias você nem vê o tempo passar. São várias horas desfrutando as viagens desses personagens retornando ao passado para combater dinossauros, retornando à época do nazismo para  evitar a destruição de uma capela, são homens indo ao futuro para descobrirem serem apenas uma programação robótica, são aventureiros indo até a Argentina para descobrir uma cidade desconhecida..enfim o livro todo é um deslumbramento. Amei.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As is true in so many compilations, the stories in this book vary from so-so to wonderful. In the process of making my way through them, I discovered that maybe time travel per se is not the type of science fiction I really enjoy. There were more than I needed of encounters with dinosaurs and other real or imaginary creatures of the past. I find I much prefer stories that explore the complex possibilities and impossibilities created by time travel, and the confusion of people as they try to deal with it. Examples are "Yesterday was Monday," "Time Locker," "I'm Scared," "The Man Who Came Early," and "Timetipping." The last 3 stories in the book may be the best. I've long been a fan of Nancy Kress & Ursula Le Guin, but didn't know of Charles Sheffield (even though he was Kress's husband), and now want to explore more of his works.

[Amber the Human · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I am not a science fiction fan, I am a fan of time travel. This book had some amazing stories. Getting to read the original story about dinosaur hunting by Ray Bradbury that the Simpsons toaster vignette was based on -awesome. Sailing to Byzenteam was a long one, but interesting. My favorite was probably Tranpalanda. Where is my book currently? I lent it to an intern at work ... I'll ask her mom about it soon. :-) And shout out to Kat for giving it to me!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

For over a century time travel has stood as one of the most enduring categories of science fiction. Authors such as Mark Twain and H. G. Wells established many of the premises that were subsequently employed in numerous stories that have entertained millions of readers. Assembling a collection of the “best” can be challenging because of this: not only is such an effort subjective, it’s one that invariably leaves out many quality stories. In this respect, Harry Turtledove and Martin Greenberg do a commendable job of selecting a good mix of the acclaimed and the underappreciated for this anthology. Organized chronologically, it brings together eighteen stories from many of the giants of the field. These are:

“Yesterday Was Monday” by Theodore Sturgeon – This is one that I first encountered not in published form, but as an episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone revival. While the premise frays the more you think about it, Sturgeon captures nicely the sense of surreality that someone might feel when they find they’ve stumbled behind the scenes of how reality works.

“Time Locker” by Henry Kuttner – Kuttner is one of the underrated greats of the Golden Age, and this tale of an unusual invention exploited by a shady lawyer is an excellent example of his wryly humorous stories.

“Time’s Arrow” by Arthur C. Clarke – Clarke is a giant of science fiction thanks to his sweeping tales of man’s encounters with the wider universe. This makes his story of paleontologists uncovering an unusual encounter in the past one that feels a little small by comparison.

“I’m Scared” by Jack Finney – While Finney’s Time and Again has long been regarded as a classic of the genre, his tales are better regarded as nostalgia-fueled fantasies than true science fiction. This story embodies that aspect of his work nicely.

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury – As the banner on the cover indicates, Bradbury’s tale of time-traveling dinosaur hunters is by far the most famous of the ones in the collection, thanks to its memorable depiction of how the tiniest of changes can have enormous consequences.

“Death Ship” by Richard Matheson – This is another story that I experienced first as a Twilight Zone episode, this one from the original run of the series. And while it may not be a time travel story strictly speaking, it does a good job of capturing one of its tropes, which is that of discovering unpleasant evidence of one’s fate.

“A Gun for Dinosaur” by L. Sprague de Camp – Another account of voyaging into the past to hunt dinosaurs, de Camp’s story feels in many ways a direct rebuttal of Bradbury’s earlier effort, especially when combined in the same collection.

“The Man Who Came Early” Poul Anderson – One of the common premises of a time travel story is that of the modern man (or occasionally, a modern woman) suddenly thrust back into the past. Anderson’s take on the trope demonstrates why the Twain-esque fantasies of modern man’s dominance of his ancestors are so implausible.

“Rainbird” by R.A. Lafferty – This story about the greatest inventor you’ve never heard of is an absolute gem.

“Leviathan!” by Larry Niven – This humorous tale about the imperfect knowledge people in the future have about their past wasn’t among my favorites, but that didn’t make it any less entertaining.

“Anniversary Project” by Joe Haldeman – Despite his impressive range of time travel stories, I’ve often felt that Haldeman’s other work overshadows his mastery of the genre. This account of the horrifying result of a newlywed couple transported into the far future is not even the best of them, yet it’s a great example of his unique explorations of the genre.

“Timetipping” by Jack Dann – Dann’s story of people randomly bouncing through time is one I might have appreciated more had I a better understanding of the Jewish culture infused throughout it, but it’s an interesting tale nonetheless.

“Fire Watch” by Connie Willis – The diary entries of a 21st century graduate students who is sent into the past to observe the Blitz firsthand, it’s the inaugural entry in what became Willis’s superb Oxford Time Travel series and one that deserves fully all of the awards it won.

“Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg – While Silverberg’s classic novella about a 1980s New Yorker in a far future of perpetual tourism is possibly my all-time favorite short story, it’s another one that isn’t a time travel tale in the strictest sense, making its inclusion here questionable, particularly given the many genre stories Silverberg has written over the decades.

“The Pure Product” by John Kessel – In a lot of ways, Kessel’s story of two time travelers using the past as their hedonistic playground is one that is truer to how humans would likely use such a discovery than some of the others in this collection. The nihilism of it can be a little off-putting, but it doesn’t make it any less worthy of inclusion.

“Trapalanda” by Charles Sheffield – The time travel element sneaks up on the reader in Sheffield’s story, in which a group of explorers searching Patagonia for a legendary lost city. Weighed against the stories from earlier in the collection, the contrast between their plot-driven focus and Sheffield’s character study particularly stands out.

“The Price of Oranges” by Nancy Kress – Kress’s story of an elderly man in 1988 New York literally living in the past is another great example of the focus on character rather than plot, and among my favorites here.

“Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea” by Ursula K. Le Guin – I have long avoided delving into Le Guin’s corpus, as its depth and sophistication is a little intimidating to me. This story is giving me reason to reconsider, as I found her tale of a temporal researcher in her far future Hainish universe being offered a second chance to be incredibly charming.

Given the impressive balance of stories from different premises, authors, and eras, it would be more than a little churlish to focus on criticisms of the choices made for it. Fans of time travel will find much to enjoy in this book, while anyone seeking to learn what the field has to offer will be impressed with the imagination and the writing contained within these pages.

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century consists of sixteen stories, ranging from short ones to novellas, all on the theme of time travel. There are big names here, from Arthur C Clarke to Ursula Le Guin, who would be familiar names even to those not especially clued into sci fi—to others, possibly less familiar.

The stories, edited (and with a very useful introduction) by Harry Turtledove, seemed to me to be arranged in a way that would benefit the novice reader, someone new to this genre: shorter stories first; longer stories later. Simpler stories, the type that one has seen adapted to screen again and again, first (hunting dinosaurs in the prehistoric world, anyone?); more complex stories, which examine facets other than pure adventure, later.

The sheer variety in the theme of time travel that these stories depict is stunning in itself. The reasons for time travel, the extent of the travel, the direction of the travel, the consequences of the travel: all of these, and more, are explored in sixteen very interesting ways. And there’s also a fair bit of genre crossover: other genres interwoven with time travel. History, of course, is the obvious and most impactful, especially in Robert Silverberg’s pretty epic Sailing to Byzantium, where a man finds himself in some very far distant future where Earth’s iconic cities—Alexandria, Mohenjodaro, Timbuktoo among them—are routinely recreated, to entertain tourists. History and historical events also play an important part in Connie Willis’s Fire Watch and Poul Anderson’s The Man Who Came Early, the latter a somewhat unusual story in this collection, since the narration is from the point of view, not of the time-traveller, but of a befuddled medieval Icelander who meets him.

Where Henry Kuttner’s darkly humorous Time Locker uses crime as an interwoven genre, Richard Matheson’s Death Ship ventures into the supernatural (if you consider time travel as something other than supernatural, that is). There are warm stories of love here (Nancy Kress’s The Price of Oranges is a case in point), and stories of pure ambition. There’s hard core science in some, in others there’s only a brief indication that something acts as a conduit between eras. There’s plenty of variation to not make each story a variant of the others.

As is natural, there were some stories here that I liked more than others. There were only a couple I didn’t like, and one (Charles Sheffield’s Trapalanda) where I felt thoroughly let down by the end.

On the whole, though, a fine collection, and very enjoyable.

[Jersy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, rating a short story collection also means finding a compromise between rating individual stories and rating this as a collection.
For this collection, I can say that the preludes to every story were great, they presented the authors works and recurring themes and only vaguely described the story one is about to read. The stories were vastly different from each other, which is always a plus for me, however in this case it also meant that there were some clear misses and some stories only barely qualified as time travel tales. There were some that really gave me what I expected from this collection but the aim didn't seem to be to collect the most iconic, groundbreaking or influential stories in this field, but good and varried works of science fiction in general.
While it contains highlights I'll probably reread at some point, this isn't the treasure trove for time travel enthusiasts I imagined it to be.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's difficult to apply a rating to the entire anthology, since some of the stories were not as fun to read as the others. In any case, since I'm a big fan of time travel, I read through every one of them. As with a lot of short stories, you're sometimes left wishing the story was a whole novel. At least this anthology is a good way follow-up with the authors you really liked. Turtledove does a good job of highlighting each individual authors' notable novels.

My favorites (not necessarily in order of preference):
Time Locker
Another Story or The Fisherman of the Inland Sea
Trapalanda

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Time’ s Arrow” "In Arthur C. Clarke’s classic, two brilliant physicists finally crack the mystery of time travel–with appalling consequences." Dependent upon the punch, would make a reader of a magazine issue stand up and cheer, but unnecessary. 3*

“Death Ship” "Richard Matheson, author of Somewhere in Time, unveils a chilling scenario concerning three astronauts who stumble upon the conundrum of past and future." Well done, was a Twilight Zone episode, would stand up to rereading, but I didn't care much for it. 3*

“Yesterday was Monday” "If all the world’s a stage, Theodore Sturgeon’s compelling tale follows the odyssey of an ordinary joe who winds up backstage." Funny the first time but I've read it elsewhere, maybe 3*

“Rainbird” "R.A. Lafferty reflects on what might have been in this brainteaser about an inventor so brilliant that he invents himself right out of existence." Brief, but nevertheless I liked the 'story' itself better than the punch, which is hand-wavium. Wouldn't stand up to a reread. 2*

“Timetipping” "What if everyone time-traveled except you? Jack Dann provides some surprising answers in this literary gem." Um, no, it's just a bit of shtick. Unstarred.

"I'm Scared" "Jack Finney" When too many people yearn nostalgically for the past, or strive to the accomplishments of the future, can time itself resist the pressure? Bad title for a nice little story, almost literary. Imagonna give it 4*

"The Man Who Came Early" "Poul Anderson" More like literary fantasy? I dunno; I skimmed it because I remembered reading it before and not liking it, & it's kinda long. Unrated, to be fair.

"A Gun for Dinosaur" "L. Sprague de Camp" Frustrating pulp adventure, but nicely detailed and thought out in some ways. 2.5*

"Anniversary Project" "Joe Haldeman" Cute tale about the no-longer-quite-human beings of the imaginably far future and how they study 2oth C. man. 2.5*

"Time Locker" "Henry Kuttner" Kinda like detective noir. 3*

"A Sound of Thunder" "Ray Bradbury" Two readings would have been plenty, but I suppose it's groundbreaking or something. 3*

"Leviathan!" "Larry Niven" Very clever. Definitely 4 full *. I don't want to spoil it for you.

"Fire Watch" "Connie Willis" skipped, too long for me to care to reread

"Trapalanda" "Charles Sheffield" required some patience to see the points of the side stories and characters... and then after all the payoff was minimal as was the TT element. 3 *

"Sailing to Byzantium" "Robert Silverberg" Did not expect to like this as I never have liked Silverberg before. But I'm giving this novellette 4*! Hmm...

"The Pure Product" "John Kessel" I don't get it. Yuck.

"The Price of Oranges" "Nancy Kress" Cute. Like a very nice Twilight Zone episode, but it would have had to have been a two-parter because all the details add to its charm. 4*

"Another Story or A Fisherman on the Inland Sea" "Ursula K. Le Guin" dnf... Le Guin and I are very seldom in sync.

(Ok, now, to average all the stars... 39 * / 12 actual ratings... close to three... interesting, because overall I really didn't feel as if I liked it that much. Hm. Will def. look for more by Kress, and consider more by Silverberg after all, already have read Finney and tried Niven. Alrighty then.)

(Please forgive formatting. Afaik, this is the only complete list of contents on GR. I don't have the energy to put it in order and tidy it up though. Fyi, in the book the stories are in chronological order of publication, which surprised me at times because some writers' long careers overlapped and so someone I thought of as younger would have an earlier story.)

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea by Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★★★
Another beautiful Hainish social science fiction story: second chances and timeless love.

Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg ★★★★½
That was beautiful. I wept. Tragedy made into immortal love - into hope.

Fire Watch by Connie Willis ★★★★☆
I started over and then let myself sleep on it. Yes, there were some massive gaps but they were patched over with human kindness. Not my kind of story, but these feels hit home.

The Man Who Came Early by Poul Anderson ★★★★☆
“I wonder if Gerald thought the strangeness of his weapon would unnerve us. He may not have understood that every man dies when his time comes, neither sooner nor later, so that fear of death is useless.”

And that is my favorite thing about Viking philosophy. The story also made me feel better about my crafting prowess, I would not be useless. 😆

Trapalanda by Charles Sheffield ★★★★☆
Love is as complicated as space-time. A millionaire hires a mountain guide and his wife to find a mysterious treasure in Patagonia.

Rainbird by R.A. Lafferty ★★★★☆
A leave-better-off-alone story. I had to go back and check the differences between his retrogressive advice sessions. I wouldn’t trust any old man whose wisdom began with giving up my pet either.

The Price of Oranges by Nancy Kress ★★★½☆
A grandfather decides to make his sullen granddaughters life better with a beau from the 1930s. It was a strange story. Published in 1989 it would have been an early LGBT positive story.

Time Locker by Henry Kuttner ★★★½☆
That took ages to get going, but from the first squish I knew where it was going and was on board for the ride!

Death Ship by Richard Matheson ★★★☆☆
A spooky SciFi story. Basic but effective.

A Gun for Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp ★★★☆☆
Another humans are the worst story. We invent a way to go millions of years into the past and use it for sport hunting. One of the final episodes of Terra Nova showed this dark possibility.

Leviathan! by Larry Niven ★★★☆☆
Time travel becomes fantasy travel as the wealthy and collect all manner of beasts.

Yesterday Was Monday by Theodore Sturgeon ★★½☆☆
A Christian theater kid’s version of a time slip story. The protagonist was whiny and nothing much happened. It was a boring story.

Time’s Arrow by Arthur C. Clarke ★★½☆☆
I feel cheated by this story. It was so achingly boring I had to read it in three sessions and then suddenly it ended. Something cool happened at the end and I’m not sure what. Did they slightly Jurassic Park or full on Terra Nova.

The Pure Product by John Kessel ★☆☆☆☆
That was terrible. Time travelers, or aliens, randomly killing people.

Anniversary Project by Joe Haldeman DNF
Sometimes when people write about the future it’s so deeply foreign as to be unintelligible. That may be accurate, but it makes for a crappy story.

Timetipping by Jack Dann DNF
I lost interest.

I read 14/16 stories for a total of 3.39 stars.

[Bruna Gomes · Rating 2 out of 5]

"As melhores histórias de viagem no tempo" só que depende.

Sempre acontece nas coletâneas de contos de ter uma ou duas histórias ruins, mas nesse caso foram vários contos ruins seguidos. Teve mais histórias ruins do que boas e isso é trágico.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

É uma boa coletânea de contos, talvez não os melhores, como o organizador pretende com esse título, mas bastante interessantes.
Os contos são apresentados em ordem cronológica, o que permite ver a evolução do tema viagem no tempo, ainda que alguns textos tenham o tema como um detalhe, um pano de fundo.
Claro que temos que ter em mente que uma seleção de contos depende do ponto de vista do organizador, mas achei ok até (exceto pelo número de contos com dinossauros).

Minha lista dos melhores, em ordem:
- O preço das laranjas, de Nancy Kress (1989)
- Vigia de incêndio, de Connie Willis (1982)
- Rumo a Bizancio, de Robert Silverberg (1985)
- Estou com medo, de Jack Finney (1951)
- Nave da morte, de Richard Mateson (1953)
- Outra história ou um pescador do mar interior, de Ursula K. Le Guin (1994)

Aí vem todo o resto.

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

“Yesterday Was Monday”, Theodore Sturgeon (1941) ✭✭✭✭
“Time Locker”, Henry Kuttner (1943) ✭✭✭½
“Time’s Arrow”, Arthur C. Clarke (1950) ✭✭✭✭
“I’m Scared”, Jack Finney (1951) ✭✭✭
“A Sound of Thunder”, Ray Bradbury (1952) ✭✭✭✭½
“Death Ship”, Richard Matheson (1953) ✭✭✭✭
“A Gun for Dinosaur”, L. Sprague de Camp (1956) ✭✭✭½
“The Man Who Came Early”, Poul Anderson (1956) ✭✭✭½
“Rainbird”, R. A. Lafferty (1961) ✭✭✭
“Leviathan!”, Larry Niven (1970) ✭✭½
“Anniversary Project”, Joe Haldeman (1970) ✭✭
“Fire Watch”, Connie Willis (1983) ✭✭✭½
“Sailing to Byzantium”, Robert Silverberg (1985) ✭✭✭✭
“The Pure Product”, John Kessel (1986) ✭✭✭
“Traplandia”, Charles Sheffield (1987) ✭✭✭✭
“The Price of Oranges”, Nancy Kress (1989) ✭✭✭½
“Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea”, Ursula K. Le Guin (1994) ✭✭✭✭½

[Kaethe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just the other day I was thinking that I should give away my old Asimov's books, since I had no desire to revisit them. There are just too many new and tasty books coming out all the time. And too the newer works have fresh takes, richer characterization, more action, humor, or whatever I showed up for.
But I love time travel stories, or short stories, and it's fun to pick up an anthology then walk away with some new-to-me writers. I made it through the first two stories and that was too much. I'm guessing this is arranged chronologically, since I noticed an absence of female bylines until the last three.
And then the introduction spoke of Wells as the first sci fi novelist in English. Seriously.

So the first two stories take place in an alternate earth where there are only men. No women, no children. It was disturbing. Not even someone to ogle, or an unattractive woman who was over the hill and all alone and unloved. And the guys in the stories, they never noticed or commented on the weirdness.

Truly, I didn't expect it to be impossible to suspend my disbelief, since I grew up reading this stuff, and didn't have an assigned text by a woman until college. I'm sending this one back to the library.

[Lincoln · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh...Time travel

Its kind of an authors get out of jail free card. Wait that can't happen he is my favorite character he can't die...oh stop time go back fix it. I like real history and the idea of manipulating factual events. The big what if questions. Good old "The Sound of Thunder" stepping on a butterfly 65 million years ago changes language and culture in the present.

[Tim Fitzpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so first of all, any book with the words Best, Time Travel, and 20th Century that doesn't include Heinlein's By His Bootstraps or All You Zombies, that's a non-starter.

I gave this one 3 stars overall, as it was really hit or miss for me. A number of the stories didn't even fit in the theme of Time Travel, in my opinion, and that included a few I really liked. Some were pretty good, others meh. I guess that's to be expected in an anthology, but I had hoped for more given the "Best" title, plus Harry Turtledove and Martin H. Greenberg's involvement.

I would recommend:

"Yesterday Was Monday" (Theodore Sturgeon)
"Time Locker" (Henry Kuttner)
"Time's Arrow" (Arthur C. Clarke)
"Death Ship" (Richard Matheson)
"Leviathan!" (Larry Niven)
"Fire Watch" (Connie Willis)
"Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea" (Ursula K. Le Guin)

[Kev Willoughby · Rating 2 out of 5]

More misses than hits for me. I think other time travel fans may enjoy this more than I did though. There were several stories with made-up places, names, words, etc., and I don't usually enjoy those (especially in a short story). Trying to figure out basic stuff like where we're at, what year it is, who's who, and what the strange words mean actually distracts from the story, and by the time I figure out what's going on (if I'm even able to do that), the story is over.

There were a few good stories in this collection that take place in towns like Detroit, and eras like the 1930s. With those, I already have a basic idea of the setting and I can enjoy the story.

The thing about time travel stories is that they are usually very good or just don't make any sense at all. There's usually not much in between. The great thing about a collection of short stories is that you can just move on to the next one if you come across one that isn't making sense.

[Michael X · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

[Craig Koller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with some very good time travel stories. Good reads. Yes, I would suggest this book

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to be a very interesting review for two reasons. 1) It's a busy couple of days, so I'll be writing it off an on for the next 48-72 hours; 2) This is the first book that they my girlfriend ever bought me as a gift. She picked it out because I'm a huge science fiction and especially love the time travel subgenre, a relationship fostered by both H. G. Wells' *The Time Machine* and my beloved series Doctor Who. Hence, there was a lot of pressure on me to like this book. *Really* like this book. I'll admit that at first I feared it would not be as good as she had hoped, but luckily, after three-and-a-half days of marinating my brain in time travel, I'm happy to say that every story in here is at least *good* and that I really look forward to word-vomiting all over my keyboard about these myriad tales.

-The first story is "Yesterday Was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon, which I wouldn't even considered science fiction, but fantasy. A man wakes up very confused about what part of the week it is and soon finds out that he's just an actor in a play that encompasses all of life put on by God . I love religious humor and sly nods so I did like a lot of the dialogue of this story, but I'm not sure what the point was overall. A little forgettable, but still well written. 7/10.
-"Time Locker" by Henry Kuttner is one of those clever stories like a chapter out of Asimov's I, Robot, but it's also a fun introduction to drunken Professor Gallagher and the unfortunate life of a lawyer after he sees Gallagher's latest invention, a box that's bigger on the inside with the help of the fourth dimension. One problem: how does mucking about with resizing things lead to time travel? In a very amusing way. Once again, the prose was enjoyable. 8/10.
-The weakest story in the book may be "Time's Arrow" by Arthur C. Clarke. It shows some archaeologists bumbling around while wondering what their boss is keeping from them before they get a whiff of the neighboring government's time travel team and, at the end, find that their boss probably travelled back in time and got mauled by a dino . Eh. Not bad, mildly enjoyable, but not too meaningful or anything. 7/10.
-I just learned who Jack Finney is when I bought The Body Snatchers last summer, but "I'm Scared" is the first work of his that I've read. I'm not sure what the point was besides "being weird," but it's a list of different strange stories about the space-time continuum, such as when a woman is harassed by a dog but realizes, years later, that that dog was her now-disappeared puppy. I like some of it, but like I said, a little hollow... another 7/10.
-"A Sound of Thunder" by Bradbury is when this collection gets interesting. It's that classic story of a man going back in time to hunts dinos who ends up changing the future by stepping on a butterfly that many of us may have read for school, like I did, although I didn't care for it much. I liked reading it on my own a lot better, with Bradbury's typically well-written prose and the vivid description of the dino attack striking a chord. Might be one of his best shorts, in my opinion. 8/10.
-Richard Matheson's "Death Ship," which is about a crew of crash-landed astronauts who see themselves dead in a replication of their own ship wreck is probably one of the first time loop tales, although it's looked at through a folklore lens rather than that of a technological or fantastical one. The characters were interesting enough and the writing was as good as I've come to expect from Matheson, but it wasn't extremely *interesting*, so 7.5/10.
-"A Gun For Dinosaur" by de Camp is ripe with comparisons to "A Sound of Thunder," and I had a lot of fun comparing and contrasting them. This story's a little drier yet a little bouncier and handles dino-hunting from a much more technical angle. Also, that part at the end where paradox laws write the rouge hunter out of existence was clever and wrapped up this story with a bow that made me officially really enjoy it. 8/10.
-One of my favorites was Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early." It's a fantastical tale where a modern man gets zapped into the Nordic 1900s by lightning. He falls under the "protection" of a local king and fall in love with his daughter. It flips the usual "time traveler brings futuristic technology back with him to uplift humanity" trope on its head because our main character tries to do that but is unsuccessful. It's a solemn but heartened look at what could happen when two cultures and two separate ideas of masculinity collide a thousand years apart. 8.5/10.
-Finally, some genuine R. A. Lafferty in "Rainbird," in which our titular inventor goes back in time to tell himself how he could've made more inventions than he really did. Then he goes back after that life and scares himself away from inventing, no longer allowing humanity to reach spaceflight in the early 1800s! . Sure, it's a parable about greed, but there seems to be something deeper and more intriguing lurking under the surface of this relatively whimsical prose. Easy 8/10.
-"Leviathan!" by Larry Niven, one of his Svetz stories, was a reread for me; hence, I didn't feel bad about getting a bit drowsy during it. I find this series to be really fun, and my old rating of 8/10 stands.
-"Anniversary Project" by Joe Haldeman has a young couple as the protagonists who are snatched by shriveled up researchers from the far future and... examined. I dunno, Haldeman is a good (if frequently inconsequential) writer, and it's a bit interesting, so 7/10.
-One of the lesser stories is "Timetripping" by Jack Dann. This was my first Dann and it features a man who lives in a world where everyone is constantly being thrown between dimensions, seemingly by some god of dimensional chaos, except for him. I mean, cool concept and all, just not as gripping. Still, nothing in this book was written badly or even flatly, so 7/10.
-I guess "Fire Watch" is my first Connie Willis. This time traveler is sent back to learn about time travel through a stay at a cathedral in the middle of WW2's Blitz. It's got some meaning, and the writing is nice, but it does lack the weight of other similar stories like "The Man Who Came Early." It was also a bit long. Still, it was good. 7.5/10.
-"Sailing to Byzantium" is the first Robert Silverberg I've read in a while, and man, do I need to read more. There's this guy from the past in a future America where there are only five cities, which are constantly destroyed and reconstructed into other cities from Earth's past, and a bunch of robotic "temporaries" peppered with sentient and polyamorous civilians. It's not really about time travel, but instead a robot who thinks he's human , but it's still an emotional and impactful read. I want to give it an 8.25, but I think my gut leans towards an eight.
-"The Pure Product" was also my first John Kessel; this anthology did definitely make me a better science fiction reader... anyways, it's about these twisted from the people who travel back in time to kill people and cause other chaos. They're just a bunch of psychotic weirdos, but it's interesting to watch go down. 7.5/10.
-I think that "Trapalanda" by Charles Sheffeld was a bit long. It's about this guy who's hired as a guide for a South American expedition who ends up taking his PTSD-riddled wife with him after he sleeps with his employer's wife... with this setup, it's no wonder that things go wrong once they all discover a blue dimensional portal thing in the lost land of Trapalanda . I liked it, but it wasn't the most engaging or inventive. Didn't fit the theme too well, and it was a little too inconclusive. Still, 7/10.
-My favorite was without a doubt "The Price of Oranges" by Nancy Kress. I first read it in my first issue of Asimov's, and I'm proud to say that it holds up sixish years later. This sweet old man in a very not-sweet 1989 goes through the portal back into 1939 in order to pick up a man for his pissy, feminist granddaughter to marry. It's funny, it's charming, it's touching, it just put me and the rest of my day into a good mood when I read it to kick off my morning. At least a 9/10 and worth the price of admission.
-Finally, "Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" by LeGuin. It's a folklore-laced tale of a man who leaves his home to study teleportation in the big-city world of Hain and ends up sending himself back in time by eight(?) years at the end of the story . That's done very well and it really feels authentic. I need to read more of her... 8/10.

All in all, this was a pretty good collection. Even though the average story rating here is 7.6, I tossed and turned between a rating of 8 and 8.5 for the overall book. I've chosen the latter because this provides a really good summary of time travel fiction and doesn't contain a single dud. These stories have also certainly pointed me towards other books to read by these authors. It might not feature enough cool paradoxes for me, but who am I to complain; I read some touching stories and some real good writing. I guess there are more volumes in this series of themed anthologies to collect, so I should probably track those down. And as for the person who bought this for me? Thank you, as always.

[Fila Trece (Liantener) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenida aunque fallida colección de historias sobre el tiempo.
En primer lugar hay que señalar que las historias son más sobre "el tiempo" como concepto, y entre ellas varias tocan el "Viaje en el tiempo".
Las historias se nota que fueron seleccionadas porque representan un punto de vista diferente sobre el tiempo, su funcionamiento y/o las consecuencias de intentar cambiarlo o viajar a través. Desde ese punto de vista todas las historias son interesantes.
Pero por otro lado, no creo que sean "las mejores", ya que en varias el valor literario es pobre, o simplemente la historia no es lo suficientemente entretenida. Y en este sentido, la colección es bastante dispareja.
Me gustaron "Yesterday was Monday" de Theodore Sturgeon, "The Man Who Came Early" de Poul Anderson, y "Another Story of a Fisherman of the inland Sea" de Ursula K. LeGuin.
Me parecieron regularmente buenas "Time's Arrow" de Arthur C. Clarke, "Death Ship" de Richard Matheson, y "Sailing to Byzantiunm" de Robert Silverberg.
Y mi favorita fue "The Price of Oranges" de Nancy Kress, que fue la que más evoca el viaje en el tiempo que me gusta.
Las demás fueron sólo interesantes, pero no divertidas o agradables. Incluso hubo una que ni siquiera acabé: "Anniversary Project" de Joe Hadelman.
Tengo en mi lista otra colección de cuentos de viaje en el tiempo que leeré más tarde en el año, y espero que sea mucho mejor que esta.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read a collection of short stories, I generally start not at the beginning, but with the shortest stories first. If those first few "really short" stories whet my appetite, I'll move up to the longer stories.

This collection grabbed me from story #1. Just about every one of them held my attention and my imagination. Granted, some of them read like episodes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits" (in fact, several were adapted for TV). This only adds to their appeal, in my opinion, especially if you've seen the episodes - you get to see just how much was left out (even from a short story).

Perhaps the weakest (or most incoherent) story was "Timetipping", but it is overloaded with great stories. I think the best thing about this collection is that it spans the range of *ways* of time traveling: machine, magic, aliens, future visitors, and even just leaving it mysterious about what is happening or why. There's even suggestions in the forward for other yet-to-be-written stories. In other words, it's not all "Back to the Future" "butterfly effect" stories, and that makes it fun.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I got my first Kindle for Christmas in 2009, this was the first e-book I read. Being a big fan of time-travel stories, I immediately searched the Kindle archives for any stories on this subject. And since I hadn't read anything in years (other than listening to an occassional audio book), I figured a collection of short stories would be a little easier to digest and help get me back into a routine.

As with any collection of short stories, some selections are better than others. The stories I enjoyed the most were "Yesterday was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon, "Timetipping" by Jack Dann, and "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverburg. This last story was not only an excellent addition to the time-travel canon, it also offers an interesting look at a society's obsession with youthful perfection (not unlike our current society).

[Paulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um bom livro sobre viagens no tempo.

Grandes autores, mas nem sempre grandes histórias. Tudo uma questão de gosto.

Um exemplo: adoro as histórias da patrulha do tempo, todavia, não consegui me adaptar ao estilo de "Sailing to Byzantium", de Robert Silverberg, a qual se passa em um futuro extremamente distante.

Por outro lado "The price of Oranges", de Nancy Kress, é uma história tocante de um avô que se preocupa com a neta e as implicações de trazer alguém do passado. Mesmo que a forma como se passa a viagem tenha sido vista mesmo em "As Crônicas de Nárnia", de CS Lewis.

Não dou cinco estrelas, pois não gostei de todas as histórias.

[Jennifer Paton Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to rate this book, since it's an anthology.

There is an intro to each story about the author, which is interesting background information and helpful to set the context for the story.

I enjoyed some stories more than others. I particularly enjoyed the following stories:

"I'm Scared" by Jack Finney
"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury
"Death Ship" by Richard Matheson
"A Gun for Dinosaur" by L. Sprague de Camp.
"The Man Who Came Early"
"Leviathan"
"Sailing to Byzantium"
"Trapalanda"
"The Price of Oranges"
"Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea"

[Jamie Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very entertaining collection of stories. If you like time travel as a plot device, this book will probably be pretty enjoyable for you. There were 1 or 2 stories that took some getting into, but I can say without hesitation that there were no duds in the whole anthology.

This is my first GoodReads suggested book. Good job GoodReads!

[Fabiana Mattiazzi]

A decepção literária de 2016: bem poucos contos se salvam, são bons, até os de autores consagrados são desinteressantes, fracos. Me custa muito crer que estes sejam os melhores contos de um tema tão profundamente interessante. A edição também decepciona: introdução horrorosa e achei a leitura bem desconfortável.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid collection; all of them good reads but none really outstanding. Apart from the Le Guin at the end, of course :)

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

All good with the slightest caveat - I could not read the Robert Silverberg story no matter how many times I tried - I found it to be tedious, ponderous dreck.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some bad ones, many ordinary ones, and a few notable selections.