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Beyond Time: Classic Tales of Time Unwound
With an introduction and history of time travel in literature by Mike Ashley, the authors featured in the book range from science fiction giants such as H G Wells and Arthur C Clarke to lost gems from the science fiction magazines in the Library collection. Discover the influential short stories which inspired Doctor Who, Back to the Future and The Terminator! Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction.
Removing the bonds of time on a story allows for many interesting possibilities, but it also presents complicated problems and paradoxes. In this collection, featuring stories from the 1880s to the 1960s, we are taken to the remote future and back to the distant past. We are trapped in an eternal loop and met with visitors and objects from the future. We come face to face with our past selves, and experience the chaos of living out of sync with everyone else in the universe. These are just some of the thrilling narratives to discover as we unwind the constraints of time.
Removing the bonds of time on a story allows for many interesting possibilities, but it also presents complicated problems and paradoxes. In this collection, featuring stories from the 1880s to the 1960s, we are taken to the remote future and back to the distant past. We are trapped in an eternal loop and met with visitors and objects from the future. We come face to face with our past selves, and experience the chaos of living out of sync with everyone else in the universe. These are just some of the thrilling narratives to discover as we unwind the constraints of time.
272 pages, Paperback
Published October 17, 2019
21 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Mike Ashley
195 books130 followersMichael 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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 20, 2020
The past is the future...
My heart sank a little when I started this collection of thirteen stories on the theme of time travel. Like Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager, time paradoxes tend to give me a headache, and the first couple of stories did nothing to relieve my anxiety, since both were rather mediocre. But they were followed by a little run of four star stories and then boom! The five star stories started coming thick and fast! These collections are always arranged more or less in chronological order and I suspect that when the early ones were written, the idea of time travel itself was so original that the writers didn’t feel the need to do much with it. By the time of the later stories, though, the writers were vying to give an original direction to a well-worn path, so there’s much more diversity in how they use the theme.
There’s the usual mix of well-known and lesser known authors, although since I’m not well read in science fiction all but three of them – HG Wells, Elizabeth Sanxay Holding and JB Priestley - were unknown names to me. Some of the stories are mildly humorous, some tend more towards horror. There’s less variation in length than in some collections, with most of the stories coming in around twenty to thirty pages, which I always find to be a great length for pre-bedtime reading.
Here’s a flavour of a few of the ones I enjoyed most:
Friday the Nineteenth by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding – a story that is almost as much horror and almost as much psychological crime as it is science fiction. A husband wants to embark on an affair with his friend’s wife and she’s not unwilling. But somehow the day keeps repeating and only they are aware of it. Caught in a loop, they keep making the same assignation but never get to the point of keeping it, and we see how their guilt and selfishness begins to change how they feel. It’s very well told and manages to pack in a lot of suspense for such a short space.
Look After the Strange Girl by JB Priestley – a man slips back in time to an evening in 1902 and finds himself at a big party in the house which, in the present, houses the school he runs. There he meets a woman who seems to have been caught in the same time slip. It has elements of the tragedy of war, as the man knows the future of some of the people of the house, some of whom will die in France. It also gives a little comparison of the attitudes and habits of Edwardian women to modern women. Very well done, strange and mildly thought-provoking – quite a literary story.
Manna by Peter Phillips – this is a great story about two ghosts who were once monks and are doomed to haunt their old priory, which has now turned into a factory for making ‘Miracle Meal’ - a kind of food substance that is nutritionally perfect and tastes so wonderful it can be eaten for every meal. Remembering the hunger of their own time, they find a way to transport cans back to the 12th century, where this is seen as a real miracle. It’s well written, interesting and very amusing – the two mismatched ghosts themselves are a lot of fun.
Dial “0” for Operator by Robert Presslie – the last story in the book and a great one to finish with. An operator in the telephone exchange takes a call from a woman in distress. She tells him she’s in a phone box and there’s something outside – a kind of dark blob – that’s trying to get in. He promptly sends the police but when they get there the box is empty. However, the woman is still on the line and begs the operator not to hang up. The tension is great in this as gradually the operator realises the woman is speaking from a different time and there’s nothing he can do to help her except talk...
So from an uninspiring beginning this turned into a great collection, leaving me with a whole raft of new-to-me authors to investigate. Great stuff!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
My heart sank a little when I started this collection of thirteen stories on the theme of time travel. Like Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager, time paradoxes tend to give me a headache, and the first couple of stories did nothing to relieve my anxiety, since both were rather mediocre. But they were followed by a little run of four star stories and then boom! The five star stories started coming thick and fast! These collections are always arranged more or less in chronological order and I suspect that when the early ones were written, the idea of time travel itself was so original that the writers didn’t feel the need to do much with it. By the time of the later stories, though, the writers were vying to give an original direction to a well-worn path, so there’s much more diversity in how they use the theme.
There’s the usual mix of well-known and lesser known authors, although since I’m not well read in science fiction all but three of them – HG Wells, Elizabeth Sanxay Holding and JB Priestley - were unknown names to me. Some of the stories are mildly humorous, some tend more towards horror. There’s less variation in length than in some collections, with most of the stories coming in around twenty to thirty pages, which I always find to be a great length for pre-bedtime reading.
Here’s a flavour of a few of the ones I enjoyed most:
Friday the Nineteenth by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding – a story that is almost as much horror and almost as much psychological crime as it is science fiction. A husband wants to embark on an affair with his friend’s wife and she’s not unwilling. But somehow the day keeps repeating and only they are aware of it. Caught in a loop, they keep making the same assignation but never get to the point of keeping it, and we see how their guilt and selfishness begins to change how they feel. It’s very well told and manages to pack in a lot of suspense for such a short space.
Look After the Strange Girl by JB Priestley – a man slips back in time to an evening in 1902 and finds himself at a big party in the house which, in the present, houses the school he runs. There he meets a woman who seems to have been caught in the same time slip. It has elements of the tragedy of war, as the man knows the future of some of the people of the house, some of whom will die in France. It also gives a little comparison of the attitudes and habits of Edwardian women to modern women. Very well done, strange and mildly thought-provoking – quite a literary story.
Manna by Peter Phillips – this is a great story about two ghosts who were once monks and are doomed to haunt their old priory, which has now turned into a factory for making ‘Miracle Meal’ - a kind of food substance that is nutritionally perfect and tastes so wonderful it can be eaten for every meal. Remembering the hunger of their own time, they find a way to transport cans back to the 12th century, where this is seen as a real miracle. It’s well written, interesting and very amusing – the two mismatched ghosts themselves are a lot of fun.
Dial “0” for Operator by Robert Presslie – the last story in the book and a great one to finish with. An operator in the telephone exchange takes a call from a woman in distress. She tells him she’s in a phone box and there’s something outside – a kind of dark blob – that’s trying to get in. He promptly sends the police but when they get there the box is empty. However, the woman is still on the line and begs the operator not to hang up. The tension is great in this as gradually the operator realises the woman is speaking from a different time and there’s nothing he can do to help her except talk...
So from an uninspiring beginning this turned into a great collection, leaving me with a whole raft of new-to-me authors to investigate. Great stuff!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
March 21, 2020
A truly great anthology.
First, there is this wonderful introduction that shows how time travel fiction has developed over the years. It was not only really interesting but also puts you in the mood for these stories.
The stories were written between the 19th century and 1959, mostly arranged by writing date, so reading them in order feels like progressing through time yourself. Even though the earlier ones clearly follow a pattern, there are so many varied and creative ideas.
If you like classic SF (or classic short stories in general) and enjoy the topic of time travel, give this anthology a shot. The stories aren't too similar to each other and are a lot of fun. Even though you'll already know the "twist" is time travel, there is so much to offer and some stories really surprised me. Some were really gripping, some more atmospheric. There wasn't a story I disliked and a lot of them made me want to check out more by the authors.
First, there is this wonderful introduction that shows how time travel fiction has developed over the years. It was not only really interesting but also puts you in the mood for these stories.
The stories were written between the 19th century and 1959, mostly arranged by writing date, so reading them in order feels like progressing through time yourself. Even though the earlier ones clearly follow a pattern, there are so many varied and creative ideas.
If you like classic SF (or classic short stories in general) and enjoy the topic of time travel, give this anthology a shot. The stories aren't too similar to each other and are a lot of fun. Even though you'll already know the "twist" is time travel, there is so much to offer and some stories really surprised me. Some were really gripping, some more atmospheric. There wasn't a story I disliked and a lot of them made me want to check out more by the authors.
February 19, 2022
A nicely put together anthology. I was surprised how fresh and contemporary many of the stories felt in terms of writing style (if not attitudes). Particular standouts were:
Arthur Selling’s The Shadow People- an interesting take on the effects of time travel, displacement out of time as well as space.
Friday the Nineteenth by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding- could completely imagine it as a Twilight Zone episode. Poignant and dark, left questioning what had truly happened.
Omega by Amelia Reynolds Long- a great descriptive piece regarding the end of everything
The Clock that Went Backwards by Edward Page Mitchell- for a narrator who amused me by being so put out with his circumstances and a fantastic opening feat. his mysterious great aunt Gertrude.
Arthur Selling’s The Shadow People- an interesting take on the effects of time travel, displacement out of time as well as space.
Friday the Nineteenth by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding- could completely imagine it as a Twilight Zone episode. Poignant and dark, left questioning what had truly happened.
Omega by Amelia Reynolds Long- a great descriptive piece regarding the end of everything
The Clock that Went Backwards by Edward Page Mitchell- for a narrator who amused me by being so put out with his circumstances and a fantastic opening feat. his mysterious great aunt Gertrude.
March 9, 2020
A nice collection of science fiction stories, ranging from 1881 to 1959. The theme of this anthology is "Time" and "Time Travel". As with all collections, there are stories I like and stories I'm not particularly fond of. Still an entertaining read!
Read
December 31, 2024On the face of it, I ought to be more into the British Library's science fiction imprint than the Tales of the Weird, certainly the crime classics – but in practice this is only the second I've read, and the first anthology. A little bit of it may be that they simply don't have such inviting covers, but mostly it's that nothing ages like the future; a murder mystery or ghost story will naturally turn on something of the past coming to light, so having another layer of past around that, a little extra creakiness, only bolsters the mood. Whereas if a story is trying to give the impression of operating at the frontier of progress, the effect takes a blow every time some crusty Cholmondely-Warner type comes out with absolute rot such as "thought waves, like sound waves, travel upwards and outwards; rarely, if ever, downwards. So you see, there is little danger from the skylight."
Still, even if it's at an angle to the original appeal of SF, there's a distinct retro-futurist buzz to be had from stories written when progress still seemed like it might be a thing, not to mention historical interest. So Ashley opens with a story that precedes even Wells in offering time travel by mechanical means, centred on a clock – Edward Page Mitchell's The Clock That Went Backward. It's also an early example of not just visiting the past but affecting it, with all that follows – something which Ashley's introduction explains is known as a 'Jonbar hinge', a phrase I've never encountered in at least 35 years of reading and watching stories on that theme (maybe it's a relic of another timeline?). Of course, writing in 1881, the most popular fulcrum for this sort of story hadn't happened yet*, but interestingly Mitchell doesn't opt for the runner-up, Rome, instead picking a wild card: the Siege of Leyden. I'm still not entirely convinced it was as world-historically crucial as he makes out, but I respect both the selection and the selling.
A lot of the early stories are like that – fascinating, but often for context as much as content. Brownlow's Newspaper, say, which sees Wells returning to one of his old themes – but in 1932, so that he's more interested in geopolitical prescriptions than biffing Morlocks. Or Miles Breuer's Book Of Worlds, grasping for ways of talking about a multiverse before that was even a word, much less one about which you'd see regular hot takes in entertainment coverage. But where the book really comes into its own is later on, excavating forgotten writers from the heyday of the SF magazines, the ones who never quite made the jump to being big with books in their own names, or else were better known in other fields, like Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, whose suspense writing was admired by Chandler but is represented here by Friday The Nineteenth which, if cloying in its morality, still intrigues as a sort of reverse Groundhog Day long before Groundhog Day. JT McIntosh's Tenth Time Around also anticipates that most mainstream of time loops, but with a better understanding of how perverse some people's hearts can be. It may be telling, though, that my two favourites here could just as easily have been in a Tales of the Weird, especially Peter Phillips' genre-bending Manna, whose monastic spooks may be aware of their own scientific explanation, but would have livened the Holy Ghosts collection up no end. And JB Priestley's Look After The Strange Girl doesn't bother with much attempt at a scientific explanation for its timeslip, instead concentrating on the atmosphere and using the device as a new way to remind us of that poignant moment before the Great War, the golden generation who seemed so invulnerable until it turned out they really weren't.
*You have to wonder if WWII is going to retain that pre-eminence; it was much more interesting when it could be fondly imagined as the triumph of democracy over totalitarianism and not, as now seems to be the case, only a slight delay to the fall of night.
Still, even if it's at an angle to the original appeal of SF, there's a distinct retro-futurist buzz to be had from stories written when progress still seemed like it might be a thing, not to mention historical interest. So Ashley opens with a story that precedes even Wells in offering time travel by mechanical means, centred on a clock – Edward Page Mitchell's The Clock That Went Backward. It's also an early example of not just visiting the past but affecting it, with all that follows – something which Ashley's introduction explains is known as a 'Jonbar hinge', a phrase I've never encountered in at least 35 years of reading and watching stories on that theme (maybe it's a relic of another timeline?). Of course, writing in 1881, the most popular fulcrum for this sort of story hadn't happened yet*, but interestingly Mitchell doesn't opt for the runner-up, Rome, instead picking a wild card: the Siege of Leyden. I'm still not entirely convinced it was as world-historically crucial as he makes out, but I respect both the selection and the selling.
A lot of the early stories are like that – fascinating, but often for context as much as content. Brownlow's Newspaper, say, which sees Wells returning to one of his old themes – but in 1932, so that he's more interested in geopolitical prescriptions than biffing Morlocks. Or Miles Breuer's Book Of Worlds, grasping for ways of talking about a multiverse before that was even a word, much less one about which you'd see regular hot takes in entertainment coverage. But where the book really comes into its own is later on, excavating forgotten writers from the heyday of the SF magazines, the ones who never quite made the jump to being big with books in their own names, or else were better known in other fields, like Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, whose suspense writing was admired by Chandler but is represented here by Friday The Nineteenth which, if cloying in its morality, still intrigues as a sort of reverse Groundhog Day long before Groundhog Day. JT McIntosh's Tenth Time Around also anticipates that most mainstream of time loops, but with a better understanding of how perverse some people's hearts can be. It may be telling, though, that my two favourites here could just as easily have been in a Tales of the Weird, especially Peter Phillips' genre-bending Manna, whose monastic spooks may be aware of their own scientific explanation, but would have livened the Holy Ghosts collection up no end. And JB Priestley's Look After The Strange Girl doesn't bother with much attempt at a scientific explanation for its timeslip, instead concentrating on the atmosphere and using the device as a new way to remind us of that poignant moment before the Great War, the golden generation who seemed so invulnerable until it turned out they really weren't.
*You have to wonder if WWII is going to retain that pre-eminence; it was much more interesting when it could be fondly imagined as the triumph of democracy over totalitarianism and not, as now seems to be the case, only a slight delay to the fall of night.
March 1, 2025
It was worth it for the finer bits.
It seems that time travel has had a long way in fiction since its conception. As a reality, I'm convinced that it will never be possible for us; philosophically, it's absurd, even more if you subscribe to the classical concept of time as "the measure of movement according to before and after". However, as fiction is the land of the impossible, it's always fascinating to explore human topics using these kinds of concepts. And I think time travel as a trope is at its best when used for adventure, or for developing themes and exploring subjects such as grief, regret, redemption and so on. That's why, to my knowledge, the best iteration of time travel in fiction may be Doctor Who's "Heaven Sent".
That's why I liked more the short stories that tied the time travelling to personal human affairs. For me, the only five stars were "The Shadow People" by Sellings. I also liked "Dial 'O' for Operator" for its mystery and suspenseful build-up, and, for the same reasons, "Thirty-Seven Times". "Friday the Nineteenth" and "Tenth Time Around" were also connected in the matter of human relationship, and the last one could become a whole novel due to the imaginative setting. On the other side, the other stories bored me or were utterly stupid; I'm thinking especially of "Omega" and "The Reign of the Reptiles". I would like to forget about the last one, but my mind is scarred forever. Yikes!
Overall, the editing is well-done, and I appreciate the editor for his research and passion.
It seems that time travel has had a long way in fiction since its conception. As a reality, I'm convinced that it will never be possible for us; philosophically, it's absurd, even more if you subscribe to the classical concept of time as "the measure of movement according to before and after". However, as fiction is the land of the impossible, it's always fascinating to explore human topics using these kinds of concepts. And I think time travel as a trope is at its best when used for adventure, or for developing themes and exploring subjects such as grief, regret, redemption and so on. That's why, to my knowledge, the best iteration of time travel in fiction may be Doctor Who's "Heaven Sent".
That's why I liked more the short stories that tied the time travelling to personal human affairs. For me, the only five stars were "The Shadow People" by Sellings. I also liked "Dial 'O' for Operator" for its mystery and suspenseful build-up, and, for the same reasons, "Thirty-Seven Times". "Friday the Nineteenth" and "Tenth Time Around" were also connected in the matter of human relationship, and the last one could become a whole novel due to the imaginative setting. On the other side, the other stories bored me or were utterly stupid; I'm thinking especially of "Omega" and "The Reign of the Reptiles". I would like to forget about the last one, but my mind is scarred forever. Yikes!
Overall, the editing is well-done, and I appreciate the editor for his research and passion.
March 18, 2025
This is an interesting collection of time travel stories dating from the 1800s up to the early 1950s. There are early conceptualizations of a multi-verse theory, time loops and what will become known as the butterfly effect. There are also discussions about time travel as also a time/space issue since our planet is constantly moving, and whether you can send your current consciousness into your own body at an earlier point of time and try to make a change in your life.
I think my favorite story was a rather melancholy one by JB Priestly where a person is at an old country home in modern time and somehow travels back to the same house in the 1910s, where he realizes that a whole generation full of optimism and hope will be destroyed by world wars.
I think my favorite story was a rather melancholy one by JB Priestly where a person is at an old country home in modern time and somehow travels back to the same house in the 1910s, where he realizes that a whole generation full of optimism and hope will be destroyed by world wars.
March 17, 2021
I found the first two stories plain and boring. The two after that were enticing/ entertaining, the one after that was respectable quality also. No doubt recommend for fans of sci fi. Particularly concerning time travel
February 15, 2023
An excellent collection. There’s the natural variety in quality that you always get in a collection of different authors, but the average quality is more than high, and there are several absolutely superlative stories, particularly the Priestly and Sellings ones.
October 1, 2023
The stories themselves are likely two start to three star. But I didn't buy this for the intrinsic qualities of the stories, many of which have aged poorly. Rather, I wanted a selection of hand picked time travel stories from way-back-when. Ashley delivers on that, so it's a full on win.
October 7, 2021
Very hit and miss.
Some poor, some decent a couple of good ones- it's worth a read but some of them just fill like placeholders.
Some poor, some decent a couple of good ones- it's worth a read but some of them just fill like placeholders.
May 30, 2024
Sometimes a bit corny. Good introduction.
July 4, 2021
Ashley has collated a grand collection of time travel stories from a selection of great writers.
As ever with time travel tales, readers should prepare for their imaginations to be fired and spend some time contemplating the underlying concepts.
As ever with time travel tales, readers should prepare for their imaginations to be fired and spend some time contemplating the underlying concepts.
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