Times of Trouble: A Time Travel Anthology

by Lane Adamson (Editor), Matthew Baugh, Thom Brannan

Time travel is the ultimate do-over. It’s funny how second chances usually wind up being just another opportunity to make the same mistakes, though.

The authors represented in the collection you now hold were tasked to create grim and gritty tales of time travel gone horribly wrong.

They have done so, in some wildly varied ways.

There are stories of rare and exceptional beauty; stories of dark, otherworldly horror; stories of white-knuckle thrills and even some that will make you laugh out loud.

In fact, if you pay close attention, in at least one of these adventures, you’ll realize that no time travel at all ever takes place.

All of them will take you places - and times - you’ve yet to be, and make you think about the experience.

Genres: Short Story Collection, Time Travel

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2013

About the author

Joel A. Sutherland makes his living as a librarian, surrounded by books both at work and at home. His short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, and his first novel, Frozen Blood, has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. He is currently working on his next project, a creative writing book for middle grade and YA readers, to be released by Scholastic Publishing in 2010. He's happiest when he's hanging out with his wife, Colleen, and their goldendoodle, Murphy. They live in Courtice, Ontario."

Reviews

[Nay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology of stories are all about time travel. I chose to read this book simply for the short story written by Peter Clines - Mulligan, which was good. There were quite a few other good stories in this anthology. I particularly enjoyed Let Me Take You There by Rakie Keig, Screwing Christa by Wayne Helge, Forgetting by Frank Farrar, The Transcendental Man by Timothy Martinez, Rabid Season by Mathhew Baugh, biodegradable by Gregory L. Norris, and Among Flowers and Bones by Frank Summers.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually like short story collections. It's funny, they're what I tend to write - but I don't like reading them very often... I think it's because I like reading detailed character exposition and complex plotlines, especially those that aren't fully revealed until several books in, and those aren't typically found in short stories. Still, every now and then I find someone or some collection whose shorts I really really like - and this was one.

Perhaps it's due to my well-documented (teehee) obsession with time travel. I will give almost any time travel novel a try - it's become quite the over-populated genre since the popularity explosion of things like Outlander (if you only know the Showtime series, you must pick up the Gabaldon books, they're everything amazing about the shows and then some), but there are still quite a lot of decent things out there. This collection is MORE than one...

I picked it up for the Peter Clines short (if you don't know him, you must look him up too - fantastic quirky sci-fi with incredible characterization and truly unique world-building, something becoming increasingly difficult due to the population explosion sci-fi has also enjoyed of late). His story was fabulous, as expected. But the delightful find for me was how many of the others also were... It's a great organizing construct too - when time travel goes wrong it goes REALLY wrong - so if you like weird, unusual, "be careful what you wish for" tales, check this one out!

[Jeff Swystun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Time travel fiction is either a guilty or intellectual pleasure. The latter gets your mind to fold and stretch as you consider implications and possibilities. The former are silly, fun romps that are often explorations on the same theme (and border on plagiarism). Either way, I enjoy the genre but struggled over a couple of months to finish this collection. I feel guilt if I do not make the effort with a book even if it is trying. I would put Times Trouble down for a week and read something else. When I returned the next story would be as poor as the previous. I could create no momentum. Three were passable and one was quite good but that failed to balance the scale.