The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF

by Mike Ashley

This thought-provoking collection not only takes us into the past and the future, but also explores what might happen if we attempt to manipulate time to our own advantage. These stories show what happen once you start to meddle with time and the paradoxes that might arise. It also raises questions about whether we understand time, and how we perceive it. Once we move outside the present day, can we ever return or do we move into an alternate world? What happens if our meddling with Nature leads to time flowing backwards, or slowing down or stopping all together? Or if we get trapped in a constant loop from which we can never escape. Is the past and future immutable or will we ever be able to escape the inevitable? These are just some of the questions that are raised in these challenging, exciting and sometimes amusing stories by Kage Baker, Simon Clark, Fritz Leiber, Christopher Priest, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, John Varley and many others.

Contents:

vii • Introduction: Time After Time • essay by Mike Ashley
1 • Caveat Time Traveler • (2009) • shortstory by Gregory Benford (variant of Caveat Time Traveller)
5 • Century to Starboard • (2004) • shortstory by Liz Williams
18 • Walk to the Full Moon • (2002) • novella by Sean McMullen
45 • The Truth About Weena • [H. G. Wells' Time Machine Universe] • (1998) • novelette by David J. Lake
83 • The Wind Over the World • [Silurian Tales] • (1996) • novelette by Steven Utley
117 • Scream Quietly • (2005) • shortstory by Sheila Crosby
129 • Darwin's Suitcase • (2007) • shortfiction by Elisabeth Malartre
143 • Try and Change the Past • [Change War] • (1958) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
151 • Needle in a Timestack • (1983) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg
170 • Dear Tomorrow • shortfiction by Simon Clark
198 • Time Gypsy • (1998) • novelette by Ellen Klages
228 • The Catch • [Company] • (2004) • novelette by Kage Baker
253 • Real Time • (1989) • shortfiction by Lawrence Watt-Evans [as by Lawrence Watt Evans ]
258 • The Chronology Protection Case • [Dr Phil D'Amato] • (1995) • novelette by Paul Levinson
282 • Women on the Brink of a Cataclysm • (1994) • novelette by Molly Brown
316 • Legions in Time • (2003) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
343 • Coming Back • (1982) • shortstory by Damien Broderick
365 • The Very Slow Time Machine • (1978) • novelette by Ian Watson
387 • After-Images • (1983) • shortstory by Malcolm Edwards
401 • "In the Beginning, Nothings Lasts ..." • (2007) • shortfiction by Mike Strahan (variant of In The Beginning, Nothing Lasts)
419 • Traveller's Rest • (1965) • shortstory by David I. Masson
437 • Twember • (2012) • shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
453 • The Pusher • (1981) • shortstory by John Varley
470 • Palely Loitering • (1979) • novelette by Christopher Priest
515 • Red Letter Day • (2010) • shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

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

544 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2013

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[WarpDrive · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful, mind-blowing collection of superbly-selected time-travel stories.
Well worth a read and highly recommended.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been said often, often enough to be a cliché, that the novella is science fiction's natural length, but I've always liked the impact of sf's short stories too. This may seem scoffworthy in the age of thousand-page doorstops and multi-volume series, but when I first started reading adult science fiction and fantasy many years ago, I burned through every short-story anthology I could get my hands on.

I still remember the really great ones—Robert Silverberg's still unparalleled collation of pre-Nebula Awards authors' favorites, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame; Anthony Boucher's aptly-named two volume set, A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, with its wonderful contrasting red-white-and-black dust jackets; Isaac Asimov's Hugo Awards compendia; A Science Fiction Argosy, edited by Damon Knight; that Galaxy Reader in which I first ran across Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman"; newer giants like Gardner Dozois' Year's Best... anyway, I've read a lot of different science fiction and fantasy anthologies, assembled using a myriad of organizing principles (as well as some that were altogether disorganized)—by year or by decade, by country or region, by broad topics or narrow themes... One might be tempted to conclude that the market is already saturated, as editors reach for ever-more-contrived themes—who would've thought there were a book's worth of stories where Jack the Ripper turns out to be a unicorn? (Actually, I only know of one of those...)

The theme of The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF is, in contrast, entirely straightforward. These are science fiction stories—some more rigorously scientific than others, but all leaning towards the SF rather than fantasy end of the spectrum—about time travel.

That's one of the oldest science-fictional tropes, of course, and there must have been dozens of anthologies on the topic already. And this entry, while large enough to be a satisfying package, isn't really mammoth in anything but name—it's relatively lightweight, printed on pulpy paper, with a busy cover that looks like a mass-market paperback's writ large.

So why did I enjoy this one so much? Simply stated: because Mike Ashley is an excellent editor.

The stories here feel fresh. Most of them are what I would call recent works (nearly half are from the 21st Century), and only a few have already been much-anthologized. Ashley chose carefully and well, and while there is no overall plot—these are very different stories, written across a span of decades by different people—Ashley also carefully arranged them, moving smoothly among various leitmotifs within the larger theme. There are voyages into the deep past (like the late Steven Utley's "The Wind Over the World") and the far future (such as David J. Lake's homage to Wells, "The Truth about Weena"); there are time loops, time slips and parallel universes, meetings with famous historical figures ("Darwin's Suitcase," by Elisabeth Malartre) and with one's own selves...

If I had to pick one story that stuck with me best, though, it'd be "Time Gypsy," by Ellen Klages. Its scope is relatively limited, compared to some of these eons-spanning tales, but Klages' tender story pinpoints one thing about all of our own travels through time: how quickly times can change.

Ashley's thoughtful introductions to each story, fitting it into his overall structure without spoilers or irrelevant digressions, were a worthwhile addition too. It's rare to see editorial introductions that enhance and unify so well. I was surprised by one oversight: Ashley's introduction to Molly Brown's "Women on the Brink of a Cataclysm" makes no mention of Marge Piercy's enormously influential time-travel novel, Woman on the Edge of Time, despite Brown's title being an obvious homage to Piercy's work. But by and large, this anthology makes the case for its own continued existence in this timeline astoundingly well.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read any of my reviews of short story anthologies, you'll know that I tend to be hard on them. All too often they're stories loosely strung together with the subject and are of very very mixed quality. Often it's like reading the same story over and over, only with different locations and character names.

I have to say, this anthology is different. 25 stories, most of them by authors I either read or at least know of, each taking an entirely different approach to time travel, and each a distinctly different read. I won't say I liked every one of them, but I will say that I appreciate how each one was crafted. In the end, and even in the getting there, this was well worth the time.

[Cookie M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good anthology. This book is chock full of unique time travel stories that really made me think. A few of them defied convention, as good speculative fiction should do. It was a treat from start to finish. Speaking of finish, the final story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch broke my heart. Mike Ashley knows how to order his books.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting, entertaining, but mixed bag, collection of 25 science fiction short stories and novellas about time travel by a variety to authors.  There were a few stories that simply didn't hold my interest, most were generally well written and had a point to make or explored the possible effects of time travel.  There were about 4 stories I thought were beautifully written and original in concept.  My favourite stories were:

~Century to Starboard by Liz Williams:- unintended time travel to the future via a luxury cruise ship, caught up in a storm and reminiscent of those Bermuda Triangle missing planes and ships stories. 

~Walk to the full Moon by Sean McMullen:- prehistoric humans appear in modern Spain.  This story is delightful.

~The Truth About Weena by David J. Lake:-  this is something of a continuation of H.G. Wells' Time Machine.  The ending was interesting.

~Red Letter Day by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:-  which deals with how our future selves might seek to influence their younger selves.

[Ned Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is shorter than The Time Travelers Almanac, I like it better. With fewer stories, there are fewer weak stories, fewer slow spots, and fewer stories that are borderline time travel tales. I also like the way Mike Ashley has organized the works. Although the stories are divided into categories in the Almanac, I find it less jolting to go from story to story in the Mammoth collection. It seems appropriate to begin with "Caveat Time Traveler" and end with "Red Letter Day." There's a kind of progression, a journey through the volume that I just don't feel in the Almanac. I recommend both volumes wholeheartedly. How can your knowledge of time travel be complete without "A Sound of Fury," or "Vintage Season," for example? On the other hand, the Almanac sorely misses "The Truth about Weena," "The Catch," "The Very Slow Time Machine" and several others from this volume. The two collections have only three stories in common. Both are incomplete. They make good companions.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice collection of 25 stories sharing a time-travel theme. I'm finding that I am having good luck with all of the "Mammoth Book of..." anthologies, no matter what the subject matter is.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice concept, competently executed. It should be rated 3.5

The concept: Humans have thought about the past and the future for as long as there has been any kind of civilization. Traveling in time has been a theme of many novels and short stories.

The execution: Editor Ashley leads us with competent introduction to appreciate the varieties of time travel. He also points us to other books and stories that have similar themes or mechanisms. The stories, themselves, are somewhat uneven but at least entertaining and sometimes delighting.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twenty-five takes on time travel can be a bit disorienting. There are so many ways to examine time and the paradoxical aspects of distorting causality. The editor has done a great job in providing an introduction to each story and its author, which also provides some specifics for reading other works by authors who are interesting to the reader, especially the reader who doesn't subscribe to a dozen or more of the Sci-Fi magazines that still exist.

As pure, fun, recreational reading, this volume kept my attention from beginning to end. Each story is a gem.

[Magnus Stanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal collection of time travel short stories- highly recommended.
As a rule I don't really like reading short stories, but I picked this up as de facto reserach for a future time travel book. I must say the selection is amazingly well executed. Really interesting and mindboggling stuff.
It's dense and there's a lot to be taken in so I didn't manage to read all the stories without interruptions, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Very rewarding

[Eric Higginbotham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. Most of the stories were good. A few were great. Recommend if you love time travel stories. They are grouped by type. For example, stories where the person communicates with the self over time to change an outcome, etc.

[FM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love time travel stories! This was a really nice collection of stories--some of which I had read before, but the editor did a nice job trying to find the less "obvious" stories, and those written by a wide variety of authors. Quite enjoyable and thought provoking!

[Jael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy time-travel novels and short stories. This had a nice variety, plus an introduction to each story that gave me more authors to consider.

[Chlorine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was rather good. While I did not enjoy all the stories most were at least nice and there were several that I really enjoyed.
I appreciated the efforts that the editor put in featuring very diverse means and interpretations of time travel.

Some of the stories I enjoyed most were:
Needle in a time stack by Robert Silverberg
Women on the Brink of a Cataclysm by Molly Brown
Red Letter Day by Kristine Kathryine Rusch

[Ross Weinberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of reviewing this on a five star scale seems a little silly to me, since it's a collection of short stories. Some are bound to be (and were) better than others. So I gave the average rating, of the 3 stars. But overall I enjoyed this collection. Among favorites are Time Gypsy, and the final story in the book, Red Letter Day.

[Naga Sravika Bodapati · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Taldragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This thought-provoking collection not only takes us into the past and the future, but also explores what might happen if we attempt to manipulate time to our own advantage. These stories show what happen once you start to meddle with time and the paradoxes that might arise. It also raises questions about whether we understand time, and how we perceive it. Once we move outside the present day, can we ever return or do we move into an alternate world? What happens if our meddling with Nature leads to time flowing backwards, or slowing down or stopping all together? Or if we get trapped in a constant loop from which we can never escape. Is the past and future immutable or will we ever be able to escape the inevitable? These are just some of the questions that are raised in these challenging, exciting and sometimes amusing stories by Kage Baker, Simon Clark, Fritz Leiber, Christopher Priest, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, John Varley and many others

[Peter Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up for a couple of quid not expecting a great deal from it. Like many anthologies you hope for at most half a dozen great tales buried in twice much dross. For time travel as a subject I was expecting fewer gems. For such a well-worn path I was not convinced that there was that much more to surprise or delight in that sub set of SF. However I was pleased to be proven very, very wrong. Out of 25 tales at least 23 shone and I had only read two of those before. Even those few that don’t have a strong ending were a delight to read (in which category I would particularly place “Palely Loiterering” by Christopher Priest). Well recommended and (if you are in the UK) probably still to be found in Bargain Books if you look hard enough….

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time travel is one of my favorite subgenres of science fiction, even though it's right up there with faster-than-light travel as a technology that is most likely to be impossible due to laws of physics. That's okay. It's still fun to read about. This collection of short stories has a little of everything - observation of the past, actual travel through the use of a machine ala H. G. Wells (in fact, one of the stories takes his Time Machine story and carries it a bit farther), an amusing little side note in one of the stories that tells of the government's efforts to control time travel, efforts to influence one's own past. It's a nice collection of 25 stories by relatively new writers, some recent masters, and a couple by old masters.

[Darrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well curated anthology of time travel stories. My most liked were The Wind over the World by Steven Utley, The Truth about Weena by David J. Lake, Needle in a Timestack by Robert Silverberg, Dear Tomorrow by Simon Clark, Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages, The Catch by Kage Baker and Red Letter Day by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

At least two of the stories, The Wind over the World and The Catch have spurred me to continue reading more from these authors.

Red Letter Day is, in my opinion, the best story in the anthology. There is a lot to unpack in this story including religious vs. secular education, guns in schools, the role of school counselors and the choices we make as we grow older and how they affect our lives. A lovely, brilliant short story.

[Brittney Rz. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection of a number of time travel stories. I love the fact that the collection went through and explored a number of different time travel areas. The stories weren't thrown together haphazardly, the like stories stayed together allowing you to slowly go through the different ideas. I also liked the number of different areas that were explored from meeting past selfs to changing moments in time. Almost all of the stories were easy to follow without too much jargon bogging them down.
If you enjoy the idea or theme of time travel and its consequences you will enjoy this collection.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delighted how much fun this has been (give it an extra half star).
Good ones:
Gregory Benford - Caveat Time Traveller
Liz Williams - Century to Starboard
Sean McMullen - Walk to the Full Moon
Fritz Leiber - Try and Change the Past
Robert Silverberg - Needle in a Haystack
Simon Clark - Dear Tomorrow
Ellen Klages - Time Gypsy
Kage Baker - The Catch
Molly Brown - Women on the Brink of a Cataclysm
Michael Swanwick - Legions in Time
David I. Masson - Traveller's Rest
Steve Rasnic Tem - Twember
John Varley - The Pusher
Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Red Letter Day

[Sue Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best stories: THE PUSHER John Varley, PALELY LOITERING Christopher Priest, RED LETTER DAY Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The problem is that there are too many 1950s style sexist boys’ adventure stories.
July 5, 2023: I just reread those 3 stories. Red Letter Day is by far the best. I must have missed something in Palely Loitering. The ending doesn’t make sense. Also, Time Gypsy is wonderful.
December 25, 2025: Palely Loitering: who were the elderly people? just reread Red Letter Day…intriguing exploration of free will vs. fate.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some very clever short stories on Time Travel here. I particularly enjoyed 'The Truth about Weena' which gave the most sensible explanation of the concept of time travel. Other notable stories were; Time Gypsy, Women on the brink of cataclysm, Twember, Palely loitering and Red Letter Day. Also, there is a five page gem called 'Real Time'. I must admit there are a couple of stories were I thought 'what did I just read' at the end of them, but overall a very clever collection of interesting stories.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has to be near impossible to put together a collection that will please any one person let alone an entire audience. But, what Mike Ashley has done is bring together a great mix of stories within the genre. I assume if you are reading this you must be a time-travel fan to begin with so half the battle is won. I enjoyed most seeing how different imaginations deal with the subject.
Naturally, some you will enjoy, some you won't, but that's half the fun.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection, spanning a wide range of concepts. The editor did a very good job of picking a good variety. A lot of the authors I have not read, or (with some) never heard of. It whetted my appetite to check out a lot of the authors' other works. Near the end, some of the stories got a little heavy for me. But that was okay, it stretched me beyond the stuff I normally read. If you like time travel, this is a great collection.

[Johanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really excellent stories in here, I particularly enjoyed Greg Benford's Caveat Time Traveller, Ellen Klages' Time Gipsy & the homage to HG Well's traveller; The truth about Weena. For me as always the best ones are people focused rather than focusing on the mechanics and practicalities of time.

[Shelby Gambino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best short, time-travel sci-fi I have read. Worth your time, 100%

[Andrea Valente · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting concepts, but the vast majority of the stories were very depressing and predictably gloomy/dark. I felt sad at the beginning of a story, only to feel even worse at its end.

[Ashley Suvarna · Rating 4 out of 5]

OVERVIEW:

Time travel has been one of the biggest and most exploited sub-genres of speculative fiction. Almost everyone, at some point, wishes they could have visited the past or the distant future to serve their own purposes. But what exactly is time? Is it only a construct of the human mind, created to measure everything based on the cycles in nature and harnessed onto a little device on your wrist? Or is it something beyond that? If there are other beings scattered across the universe, do they understand time the same way we do? Come to think of it, are we even sure we really know what time is, or do we just think we know it, based on whatever our minds can make out of it?

Maybe it'll be a long time before these questions can be answered, but in the meanwhile, we have books like these to feed our curiosity. Multiple authors, multiple ways of looking at and conceptualizing the same thing, and multiple perspectives of what they believe time could truly be.

The line between what's believable and what's not will be blurred.


THE UPS AND THE DOWNS:

I have laid my hands on as many stories based on time travelling as I could, from books to movies to television shows. And as a hardcore sci-fi reader, I know that these stories, in general, are based on done-and-dusted premises. The plot may be original, and maybe there's an interesting new twist here and there, but the basics, like how time works, how does time travel occur, and what effects human intervention can have on it? Those hardly change. So I picked this anthology only out of curiosity. To see in how many ways a concept can be exploited before giving the reader 'repetition fatigue'. And guess what? I DID end up getting tired once I had wrapped it up. But not from boredom. From having my mind blown. Over and over and over.

For example, The Truth About Weena (an alternate sequel to H. G. Wells' The Time Machine) tells the story of the Traveler bringing back Weena the Eloi, the girl he once loved and lost, to his own time before she is killed. But every time the Traveler makes one of his trips, he splits the timeline, so the Weena he brought back isn't really the Weena he had met the first time around. In another story, Needle In A Timestack, time traveling is commonplace. And one guy realizes that a romantic rival has gone back and undone his marriage, causing his memories to be slowly overwritten with new ones. He must correct the course of events before he loses all his memories and his wife forever. And these two, in fact, are some of the less complex ones.

After about 10-12 stories in, it became so hard to process all the different ways in which the principles of time were laid out before me. What if someone can slip through time to random eras? If you visit the future, will you remember anything when you come back? What if time protects itself by killing off anyone who comes close to figuring out the secrets of time travel?

If you've noticed, this entire review is full of questions I seem to be asking, although to no one in particular. And that's the effect these stories have on you. I don't need to elaborate much on this one, but if you love time travel scifi and have even a rudimentary understanding of the science surrounding it, you need to get this book right now. Not all of the shorts are that impressive, but each of them can, and probably will, leave you thinking for long once you're done.


HOW TO READ:

Slowly. Preferably in batches of 2-3 at a time. Some stories may need your unwavering attention, while others are relatively less demanding. Be prepared to reread a story from the start if you leave midway and revisit it some other day.


DIFFICULTY:

Novice to Expert


RATING & VERDICT:

7.5/10. Tick tock. Tick. Tock.


______________________________


Review and images available on theflittingbookmark.wordpress.com.

Short review at https://www.instagram.com/p/B2F25GugMtt/