3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years: The Time Traveler's Passport

The Time Traveler's Passport #1

by John Scalzi, Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

A time travel technician must step away from the controls and take action in a twisty short story where timing is everything, by New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi.

Time travel is real—and used for high-end tourism. Every moment of the past is open to visitors, and no matter what they do then, everything now waits for them, thanks to the sure hand of an experienced time travel technician. Come spend a day behind the controls of the time machine, and discover why, this day of all days, it’s time for this technician to make a change. Because sometimes, time travel is more than just an adventure. Sometimes, it’s a moral imperative.

John Scalzi’s 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years is part of The Time Traveler’s Passport, an unforgettable collection of stories about memory, identity, and choice curated by New York Times bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Watch time fly as you read or listen to each short story in a single sitting.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Time Travel, Fiction, Audiobook, Novella, Fantasy

Audible Audio

First published November 1, 2025

About the author

John Scalzi, having declared his absolute boredom with biographies, disappeared in a puff of glitter and lilac scent.

(If you want to contact John, using the mail function here is a really bad way to do it. Go to his site and use the contact information you find there.)

Reviews

[JJtheBookNerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book one in a six-part collection of short stories titled 'The Time Traveller's Passport', all of which surround the theme of time travel. Each book is written by a different Author and can be read as a standalone.

In this first book we follow the day of a technician who is the operator of a time machine. When his clients go through the portal and return, the technician has aged only 1 second, but the client will have aged either 3 days, 9 months, 27 years or the nearest equivalent length of time. There are certain rules; most notably, clients cannot go back less than 27 years.

A variety of millionaire/billionaire clients come and go through the machine for a variety of reasons. Some are hoping to maybe try and change major world historical events. The results of their endeavours don't always have the result that they wish for—some clients end up returning with injuries and other conditions that they did not enter with.

As a general rule, if a client has not returned within 10 seconds, then they have more than likely died on their expedition or have decided to stay in the time they have travelled to.

The last client of the day turns out to be… an interesting one.

A mind-bending tale that delves into all the positive and negative connotations of what can happen when you travel through time; the ending let it down a little—it was quite abrupt, but otherwise this wasn't a bad short read.

[Jayme · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a FIRST READ selection this month (October 2025) for Amazon Prime members and the first in a series of SIX short stories, but unless the next are unrelated to this one, I am not inclined to continue.

Perhaps THIS installment is just setting up how the time travel works, and the next installments will be more exciting but the writing style of this one was SO DRY.

The title is referring to the retrieval intervals for the clients who choose to TIME TRAVEL-you stay for 3 days, 9 months, or twenty seven years-your last chance to come home-but that was the most interesting part of the story.

Perhaps I missed something?

[The Belladonna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I gassed the client with a tranquilizing spray."

My review of this shortie in 2 words: Mental gymnastics. Scalzi, you are wild for this one! 😆

[Brooke (~!Books are my Favorite!!~) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would you be a Temporal Tourist? This sci-fi short got me thinking. The writing feels scientific. The mechanism of the time travel device's workings are described in detail. A lot of time travel stories add their new rules to the trope. In this one, you return to present reality within 3 days, 9 months, or 27 years and no time in between. This is due to some kind of temporal resonance thing, and he makes it sound like it makes sense for this reality :D

When time traveling, the events of history always get changed. But not in the way of traditional time travel as I'm used to it. You don't change your own reality, but you create a new timeline branch which was changed by your temporal tour of the past. Some travel for love, for vacation, many go to known historical events. It's the butterfly effect, but the butterfly is in a new timeline. In the age of the multi-verse this story fits well and gets my brain gears spinning. I don't think I would temporal travel because speculating on the what might have happened and we'll never know would give me a huge guilt complex. Plus I probably couldn't afford it. Some people travel to the Cretaceous period. Scalzi imagines some wild scenarios of what if in a very short story.

There is a twist at the end. I honestly didn't even need the twist. I think I was still trying to process how time travel works for this temporal travel agency and imaging what happened to the clients who didn't return. So when the twist came and I had to do more timey wimey mental gymnastics to undo the twist, I sort of timed out. :P But overall very cool sci fi short, one of my favorite Scalzi's so far.

[Alya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoughts
I don't usually pick up books like this but since this is a short read ( 38 pages ) the first book in a collection of stories, I thought I'd give it a go -- I don't know what I was expecting going into this but it clearly wasn't for me.. I don't know if I'll give this collection another chance as there are six short reads .. This felt more like a boring short science lesson rather than a story.. maybe I'm the problem

My Bookstagram

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time, Time, Time, See What's Become of Me
Review of the Amazon First Reads Kindle eBook edition (October 1, 2025), released in advance of the official publication by Amazon Original Stories in eBook format & by Audible Originals in audio format (November 1, 2025).

Presumably the client goes back to their life, where everyone they know has aged, like me, only that one second. The client, however, has aged three days, or nine months, or twenty-seven years. They have been through a time machine, after all. This is how the time machine works.
There are additional resonances at (again, not precisely) 810 years and 243,000 years. Humans can’t use those. We are told to stress to the clients that the twenty-seven-year resonance is, practically speaking, their last chance to come home.

I completely enjoyed this latest Amazon Original Story. Perhaps that was because its multiverse angle tied into my recent read of Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths. In a future age time travel has become possible, but the expense means it is primarily for the elites.

The actual mechanics are not explained, only that certain "resonance" periods allow for a return. The common time travel paradox that you can't go back in time because it might effect our present in a potentially catastrophic manner is conveniently bypassed by the multiverse theory that it is another universe that is being disturbed.

Too much information here would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that this is a view of one day in the working life of the time machine operator, who describes various clients and their situations. At the end there is a twist reveal about the operator themselves.

Soundtrack
It has nothing to do with the story, but I couldn't help but think of the Simon and Garfunkel song A Hazy Shade of Winter, which also provided the words for my lede. The song was recorded & released as a single in 1966, and later on the Bookends (1968) album. You can hear the song on YouTube here or on Spotify here.

Trivia and Links
3 Days ... is the 1st of 6 stories in The Time Traveler's Passport anthology collection from Amazon Original Stories. The complete collection will be released on November 1, 2025. The promo for the collection reads:

Six short stories. Infinite possibilities.
Embark on a mind-bending journey through time with six of today’s most visionary authors. Brimming with humor and heartache, this collection of short stories maps the roads we took to get here and the paths that lie ahead. The present may be a gift, but the future and the past both come with a price. Curated by John Joseph Adams, New York Times bestselling anthologist.

Amazon Prime First Reads advance reading copies (ARCs) are available to Amazon Prime subscribers. They offer advance reads of books in Kindle eBook format one month before the date of official release. The current month's selection is available here (Link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).

You can watch for current and past Amazon Original Stories which are usually paired with their Audible Original narrations at an Amazon page here (link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).

[Alina ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

☆☆☆☆

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi is a compelling, thought-provoking story that blends time travel and memory manipulation with Scalzi's signature wit. While the premise is rich with potential, I couldn't help but wish it was expanded into a full novel to explore its ideas more deeply. Fans of The Ministry of Time will appreciate its mind-bending take on time.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking and entertaining, with just the right amount of head scratching - exactly what you'd expect from a good time travel story. Scalzi delivers a clever, unexpected twist that leaves the reader with a somber, fatalistic sense of inevitability.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years
by John Scalzi
This was a short little thing about time travel and how it works in this one office where this person worked. The length of time to be on this adventure was 3 days, 9 months, or 27 years. So, if they missed the 3-day mark to come back, they had to wait 9 months. If they missed this time, they had to make the 27-year or they were forever in the past. It was very interesting as he gave so many examples of the customers and how long they traveled. Especially how they appeared when they returned. Fascinating short read! I wish it were a full-sized novel!

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was interesting. It's almost like Scalzi set out to explain all the things I have problems with in time travel books. And I was (mostly) ok with it all. But the story was more a dissertation on time travel tech with an interesting little twist at the end, which I won't spoil here. No worries.

Another short review for a short story. This definitely wasn't a favorite, but Scalzi is a favorite. I'm settling on 3 stars because it held my attention, and that subtle little twist at the end was nicely done.

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this short story about a company that offers time travel tourism, told from the point of view of the technician whose only job is to open the time travel gate and wait for the client to go in and come back.

This was my first time reading John Scalzi's work and I enjoyed the dry humor in his writing. I'm now intrigued to read his other books!

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories via NetGalley for providing an ALC

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

Scalzi is one of the true descendants of Sci-Fi author, Robert A. Heinlein. He has the everyman touch and a gift for conjuring enthusiasm for technology in his plots. Here he tackles the complex world of time travel and attempts to make the reader comfortable with the concept.

"The average person does not understand or care how a lizard going one direction and not another, or an energized particle hitting a sensor rather than a rock, matters at all in the grand scheme of things. A scientist, however, knows that initial conditions are everything, and that small differences at the outset make for huge differences in results down the line. The observer and the observed always interact. Everything changes. Send a historian to observe, say, the assassination of Julius Caesar, and their presence changes the scene. There is one more person present at the murder who wasn’t there before. The historian interacts with Roman citizens on the way to the assassination and after it. Every single action spins out novel reactions that compound from that moment. Jostle a random Roman on the way to the Senate, and 1600 years later a different pope is named. Jostle a different one and the assassination doesn’t happen at all. “History” stops being accurate the moment you observe it."

There isn’t a big tech hurdle to overcome in Scalzi’s approach to time travel; just some simple “facts.”

"We are told that there are more retrieval intervals than those at three days, and nine months, and twenty-seven years, but that they are impractical in terms of time travel. There is one interval at one second, more or less, which no one ever uses, because they literally just walked through to their destination and need to take a moment to get their bearings. There are additional resonances at (again, not precisely) 810 years and 243,000 years. Humans can’t use those. We are told to stress to the clients that the twenty-seven-year resonance is, practically speaking, their last chance to come home."

Our narrator is a “time travel technician” and this very short “book” is just a teaser or prequel to what is going to happen. Interesting premise and we will have to wait to see how it is made use of.

[Tammie P ℓօรƭเɳαɓօօҡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi as an interim read. The story is written from the first-person point of view (POV). Specifically, it uses a first-person observer perspective.

​What makes the premise unique is that the story is told through the eyes of the observer: a time travel technician who is little more than a button-pusher responsible for all client time travel logistics. This includes everything from manning the machine's door and portals to sterilizing clients and decontaminating the chambers. All functions are conveniently consolidated in one place and performed with the push of a button.

Documenting sections of the story, client by client, is an interesting take, though the narrative never shifts to the clients' perspectives. Furthermore, the concept of monetizing time travel as "temporal tourism" is intriguing. ​However, the fundamental issue is not the intriguing concept, but its execution. The story felt disappointingly one-dimensional, favoring 'tell' over 'show.' It read less like a novel and more like a detailed thought experiment on time travel. If I had to describe it in one word, I'd choose 'bland.'

​The story only picks up marginally toward the end with a twist regarding who the technician really is and what he set out to achieve. The book then concludes with a final, ambiguous statement (meant to be hauntingly philosophical), which leaves readers with more questions than answers. Nevertheless, I will not be thinking about the story now that it is over.

​While I love a good time travel story (like Doctor Who), this one ultimately didn't land for me. Perhaps it will for you. In light of the above, I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Amazon First Reads for the advanced copy.

[Dead Inside · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satisfying morning quickie on the kitchen counter

[Linda Galella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Absolutely nothing like what I expected. A bit on the erudite side, this story is told by a single voice - that of a technician who operates a time travel machine.

There’s no dialogue but the unnamed technician provides an historical context for time travel and more than cursory theory about the science involved. Mixed into those is some gentle social commentary that I didn’t find offensive or particularly partisan.

Travelers are called “Temponauts” and their high end, tourism travel is required to be at least 27 years in the past. Read this 38 page beauty for the details on why. Many folks go wanting to change history but:

“Each historian you send to observe a past event will return and report a slightly different version of events. Which means, historically speaking, that the results are junk. The reportage of the event is accurate only for that reality. You can’t be “careful” and attempt to interact only minimally; one can’t know which actions, however seemingly trivial, will be directly consequential, immediately or over time. Every step changes everything, always. It took years, and many arguments about the truth, before historians accepted that time travel could not tell you what “really” happened in the history of our own reality, and that, as every trip back branched into a different reality, every trip back would likewise produce differently inaccurate results.”

— 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years (The Time Traveler's Passport) by John Scalzi
https://a.co/aYZgsCu

That quote and section of the story got me thinking that book reviews are not so very different!

About 3/4 thru this tiny treasure, readers will learn our narrator is over qualified for his job. While it’s a great and unexpected twist, it’s also what had me detract a star from the rating. The ending is too brief. A few more pages with resolution information would be much more satisfying. Well, there’s always the possibility this is a teaser for a full book but I could find no information about that on Amazon or author, John Scalzi’s “Whatever” website.

Regardless of my minimal cranky state about the ending, this was 30 minutes of reading joy and a whole lot longer of pondering pleasure. Completely free from any and all warnings and triggers. Grab your 12 year olds and your centenarians for an enjoyable, thinking persons short story about time travel, truth, our perception and responsibility📚

[Obsidian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't think I am going to finish this anthology. I usually like Scalzi okay, but this story took way too long to get going and even one you get to the point of the story, I just didn't care that much about it. That said, the ending was a game changer, but that was way too late for me to even really think this was a good story. I did think that Scalzi did a great job with time travel, paradoxes, etc. I usually don't like time travel stories though because I think most people don't follow the the idea the whole way through.

The story follows a man who is a time travel technician whose job is to send clients back to the time period that they request. The story is very slow and it honestly in my mind just seemed sad throughout. The ending definitely drove that point home. Time travel to undo and or experience things seems to never end well. 

[Kev Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

★★★½
I always enjoy a time travel story and this one is an interesting and very quick read. It is also the first in a sequence of six short pieces by different writers, all centred on the same theme. I like the idea of dipping into the rest of the series now and then as a palate cleanser between longer books.

What stands out here is the way John Scalzi approaches the question that usually sits at the heart of time travel fiction. Why would anyone choose to go back at all. The story moves through several reasons people decide to make the trip and treats them with a mix of curiosity and practicality. The idea that any change in the past does not alter our present but instead creates a separate reality is explained in a clear and thoughtful way. I found that idea genuinely engaging and it gives the story more weight than I expected from something so brief.

The drawback is the length. There is enough here to suggest a world that could hold a full novel. The story offers glimpses of a larger setting waiting to be explored and I would have liked more room for the characters and ideas to develop. Even so, it works well as a self contained piece. It is direct, entertaining and thoughtful, and it sets an inviting tone for the wider project.

A strong three and a half star read and one I am glad to have picked up.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's almost more of a thought experiment about time travel, than science fiction story and way more tell than show. There is a mild twist at the end.

I've never been a big fan of Scalzi's writing. Old Man's War was OK, with each of the sequels a bit worse. Forgettable, I'd call those stories and this one, too.

[Kayla T (kaylabobayla) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

Short story, and a quick good read! These kinds of stories make me love time travel as a story mechanic! Just enough science to be understandable but not dumbed down, feeds that part of my brain that disdains commercialism and profit off of anything and everything, and a dash of “I just work here lady”, with an ending that makes me wish it was a fully fledged novel!

[mimi (depression slump) · Rating 2 out of 5]

An essay about the reasons why time travel is pointless and beneficial only for big corporations, with a mid plot twist at the end.

↠ 2 stars

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ohhhh I liked this!! Time Traveling… but with a twist. People can purchase their way into time traveling! Such a good short story.

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC

[trashraccoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this was longer, it was enjoyable and would be interesting to see it made into a film.

[Brok3n · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun twist at the end

John Scalzi's 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years is the first book in a new Amazon Original series of novellas, The Time Traveler's Passport, by "six of today’s most visionary authors," meaning Fantasy and Science Fiction. When I say "first," I mean only that 3-9-27 is listed first on the Amazon page for the series. As far as I know the stories are unrelated and not in any particular order. I learned about 3-9-27 from Scalzi's blog. Since it's short and Scalzi is a known quantity it was a low-risk choice for a quick read. I will probably read the rest on the same basis.

The result was the usual result of low-investment low-risk projects. I got the reward I was expecting. It was worth it, but not extraordinary.

3-9-27 is told in the first person by an employee of a business that offers time-travel services to temporal tourists. Our hero's job is essentially just to push a button for each client. Clients are sent back to a date and place of their choice. They return by entering a retrieval portal after either 3 days, 9 months, or 27 years, those being the intervals after which physics permits return. Not at all is also an option. The first 88% of 3-9-27 is essentially just educational. It is Scalzi explaining to you, the reader, how this time-travel system works and how clients use it.

Scalzi, as I said, is a known quantity -- he's been writing for a long time, and he manages to make this education interesting.

It is at 88% that you get your reward. The story takes a twist that I, at least, did not see coming. I've been reading for 70 years, I am not often surprised, and it is usually welcome. This one was.

Blog review.

[Zana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This is like Westworld meets that one Brando Sando book about time travel but from the POV of a time travel technician instead of the client. Fun stuff.

[Gerhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear, I was looking forward to this latest Kindle Singles collection. Scalzi sets a rather low bar for the first instalment. His trademark anarchic humour is completely absent in this dull and perplexing story, which has an ending I still do not think I understand properly. Onwards ...

[Akankshya · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more sciency scifi short stories I've read lately. This was wickedly funny and surprisingly thought-provoking. This story takes time travel and twists it into a luxury tourism service, which is equal parts hilarious and realistic.

Published as a part of The Time Traveler's Passport series, I recommend picking it up without looking at the blurb, especially if you know you like stories about wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

The Time Traveler's Passport series
3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years: ★★★★
Making Space: ★★
For a Limited Time Only: ★★★
A Visit to the Husband Archive: ★★★★★
All Manner of Thing Shall Be: ★★★★
Cronus: ★★★★★

[Kelsey Cornelsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a refreshing different kind of story. The book is about time travel it was very interesting to see the choices and why people choose certain periods of time to go to and made you wonder if you could where would you choose to go given the chance.

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this was really good!

[Karen’s Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very intriguing wibbly wobbley timey wimey short story. Loved the unique way the time travel was structured.

[☕️Kimberly (Caffeinated Reviewer) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing teaser. I need more.