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The Science of Time Travel: The Secrets Behind Time Machines, Time Loops, Alternate Realities, and More!
Travel back in time with Doctor Who, the Terminator, the X-Men, and all your favorite time travelers! Science fiction is the perfect window into the possibilities and perils of time travel. What would happen if you went back in time and killed your own grandparent? If you knew how to stop a presidential assassination, would time travel allow you to make your wish come true? Can we use time travel as a tool to escape the destiny of our future or mistakes of the past? The Science of Time Travel explores time travel through your favorite science-fiction franchises, from the classic time travel paradoxes of Star Trek to the universe-crossing shenanigans of Doctor Who. Discover the real science behind questions such Can time travel really erase our past regrets like in A Christmas Carol?Is it worth killing people in the past to prevent a horrible future like in Terminator?What can we learn from living the same day over and over again like in Groundhog Day?Could time travel destroy our right to privacy like in Deja Vu?And so much more! It's time to fire up the DeLorean to 88 mph, jump into the TARDIS hiding in plain sight, or warp space with the USS Enterprise to explore what time travel means for us.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 2, 2020
59 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Howell
5 books7 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Elizabeth Howell, PhD, is one of the few people who lived in a simulated Mars base. An award-winning journalist, she regularly contributes to Space.com, Sky & Telescope, Forbes, and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. Now president of Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, she holds an undergraduate degree from Carleton University and two postgraduate degrees in space studies from the University of North Dakota. She's witnessed five human space launches--three from Florida and two from Kazakhstan. She lives with her husband in Ottawa Canada.
Elizabeth Howell, PhD, is one of the few people who lived in a simulated Mars base. An award-winning journalist, she regularly contributes to Space.com, Sky & Telescope, Forbes, and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. Now president of Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, she holds an undergraduate degree from Carleton University and two postgraduate degrees in space studies from the University of North Dakota. She's witnessed five human space launches--three from Florida and two from Kazakhstan. She lives with her husband in Ottawa Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 10, 2020
Sturgeon's law, is an adage cited as "ninety percent of everything is crap." And, this book proves that adage. If you open this book up expecting a complex physics discussion about the science of tine travel, you are going to be sorely disappointed. This book has literally almost no science and certainly nothing complex or head spinning. It is a light, frothy detour through time travel as featured in literature and movies. Sadly, it barely even focuses on the merits of such literature, but detours into ridiculous virtue-signaling discussions about whether enough genders and persons of various ethnicities are featured in Dr. Who. It reads like a college undergrad’s most banal thoughts. What a disappointment!
June 18, 2020
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I think I should give this book 2.5 stars based on how I felt about it, but I also think that maybe it's not really fair to round down, cause I think the book simply wasn't quite for me (somehow despite me being a big scifi and time travel nerd.) So I'll round up and give it 3 stars. You might like it, who knows.
The Science of Time Travel looks into a lot of well-known time travel stories in the media, starting with the earliest ones, and dissects them explaining their impact. It is all told in the form of short essays about each piece of work, chronologically, and can be read in sequence or out of sequence as well.
I must warn though that it may contain some spoilers for these stories. A lot of them are either old and rather well known (Rip Van Winkle or The Time Machine) or obscure and forgotten (a short story about a clock that turns time forward), and some are hugely well known (Back to the Future or Terminator), but the book analyzes these stories and that is the main idea of the essays, so it's to be expected that there will be spoilers. It's best to read this book if you've read/watched a fair share of time travel stories already. There is also another reason why you'll want to have read/watched all this media beforehand - otherwise, the chapters on a specific story will not make much sense. For most of them, the plot is outlined in short, but for one or two there was no outline so I felt like I read a chapter about I-don't-know-what. That's why it's best to be familiar with the contents of the media discussed beforehand.
I have to admit though that while it was rather an interesting read, it doesn't focus on the 'science' of time travel - quite a lot of it is dedicated to analyzing the social impact of the stories as well. What the book does is point out ethical issues with older works - ideas that were propagated in older time travel stories such as eugenics, "the woman's place" and so on. The whole book is like a critique of time travel stories, one by one - it's not just about the science of time travel and how it's been used in the media. It kind of felt like reading a blog with media reviews, in a way.
What I found a little funny and unusual for a book, is how many times internet sources were credited. Usually in nonfiction books, you will see different kinds of publications quoted, but in The Science of Time Travel, it was just... Websites. I don't know how to feel about that. Rationally, I understand that in this day and age, getting your info from the internet is just a thing that happens - it's completely normal. But then again, a book quoting HowStuffWorks as its source? I don't know. It has a "blog post" sort of feeling. But I'll leave it up to you to decide. After all, there is probably nothing wrong with that information, and we will gradually be moving more and more towards citing these kinds of sources in essays, I imagine.
What I didn't particularly enjoy was how many tangents the book goes on. Social, ethical dilemmas and legacies, explaining how radiation, fission or even PTSD works and then going on a tangent about that... Sometimes it goes as far as when talking about the impact of, say, Star Trek, the impact is analyzed for the whole show, instead of just time travel. It appeared a bit too wide for me and felt like the author was trying to compensate for not having anything to say on that particular instance of time travel in media and its impact. Maybe other readers will like it. For me it felt like straying away from the topic and made the book feel more like a jumble of trivia.
Continuing this trend, there were also a lot of "by the way..." insertions about the author and their experiences and personal life. Again, it felt like a blog. I don't think a nonfiction book should have so much stuff about the author or their views, which is completely unrelated to the subject (it was anything from "why I'm nerdy" or "what we bonded over with my husband".) That's not why I am reading this book. So I was baffled as to why all that info was there.
However, what I did enjoy was the later chapters on newer science fiction in media. For example, the chapter on Doctor Who and the TARDIS was a lot of fun! To imagine that a bunch of guys wrote a scientific paper, also named it TARDIS and tried to explain how it might work? Brilliant. I love it. I also enjoyed the chapter on Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But... I just sort of pushed through the rest of the book.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
I think I should give this book 2.5 stars based on how I felt about it, but I also think that maybe it's not really fair to round down, cause I think the book simply wasn't quite for me (somehow despite me being a big scifi and time travel nerd.) So I'll round up and give it 3 stars. You might like it, who knows.
The Science of Time Travel looks into a lot of well-known time travel stories in the media, starting with the earliest ones, and dissects them explaining their impact. It is all told in the form of short essays about each piece of work, chronologically, and can be read in sequence or out of sequence as well.
I must warn though that it may contain some spoilers for these stories. A lot of them are either old and rather well known (Rip Van Winkle or The Time Machine) or obscure and forgotten (a short story about a clock that turns time forward), and some are hugely well known (Back to the Future or Terminator), but the book analyzes these stories and that is the main idea of the essays, so it's to be expected that there will be spoilers. It's best to read this book if you've read/watched a fair share of time travel stories already. There is also another reason why you'll want to have read/watched all this media beforehand - otherwise, the chapters on a specific story will not make much sense. For most of them, the plot is outlined in short, but for one or two there was no outline so I felt like I read a chapter about I-don't-know-what. That's why it's best to be familiar with the contents of the media discussed beforehand.
I have to admit though that while it was rather an interesting read, it doesn't focus on the 'science' of time travel - quite a lot of it is dedicated to analyzing the social impact of the stories as well. What the book does is point out ethical issues with older works - ideas that were propagated in older time travel stories such as eugenics, "the woman's place" and so on. The whole book is like a critique of time travel stories, one by one - it's not just about the science of time travel and how it's been used in the media. It kind of felt like reading a blog with media reviews, in a way.
What I found a little funny and unusual for a book, is how many times internet sources were credited. Usually in nonfiction books, you will see different kinds of publications quoted, but in The Science of Time Travel, it was just... Websites. I don't know how to feel about that. Rationally, I understand that in this day and age, getting your info from the internet is just a thing that happens - it's completely normal. But then again, a book quoting HowStuffWorks as its source? I don't know. It has a "blog post" sort of feeling. But I'll leave it up to you to decide. After all, there is probably nothing wrong with that information, and we will gradually be moving more and more towards citing these kinds of sources in essays, I imagine.
What I didn't particularly enjoy was how many tangents the book goes on. Social, ethical dilemmas and legacies, explaining how radiation, fission or even PTSD works and then going on a tangent about that... Sometimes it goes as far as when talking about the impact of, say, Star Trek, the impact is analyzed for the whole show, instead of just time travel. It appeared a bit too wide for me and felt like the author was trying to compensate for not having anything to say on that particular instance of time travel in media and its impact. Maybe other readers will like it. For me it felt like straying away from the topic and made the book feel more like a jumble of trivia.
Continuing this trend, there were also a lot of "by the way..." insertions about the author and their experiences and personal life. Again, it felt like a blog. I don't think a nonfiction book should have so much stuff about the author or their views, which is completely unrelated to the subject (it was anything from "why I'm nerdy" or "what we bonded over with my husband".) That's not why I am reading this book. So I was baffled as to why all that info was there.
However, what I did enjoy was the later chapters on newer science fiction in media. For example, the chapter on Doctor Who and the TARDIS was a lot of fun! To imagine that a bunch of guys wrote a scientific paper, also named it TARDIS and tried to explain how it might work? Brilliant. I love it. I also enjoyed the chapter on Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But... I just sort of pushed through the rest of the book.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
Read
January 13, 2023After reading this book and the reviews here, I realize I'm not the only one who struggled a bit with this book.
I enjoyed this book overall but was disappointed not to find more "science" in the science of time travel. Luckily I was only reading this for pleasure and not actually trying to use this book as a reference for my own Delorian time machine weekend project.
I thought an author with a PhD would have provided better sources than what seemed to be a lot of internet websites. I get the wanting to appeal to a public and not academic audience, but I wouldn't have minded a little bit of literary theory or academic science thrown in the mix.
Finally, the author's constant need to discuss books and films' failings regarding gender and racial equality was clumsy. I appreciated the effort, but perhaps an overarching discussion point in the introduction could have sufficed. I can't imagine anyone opening this book would think that novels written in the 19th century or the original Star Trek were not without critical flaws to a contemporary audience.
Good read, but I was hoping for more.
I enjoyed this book overall but was disappointed not to find more "science" in the science of time travel. Luckily I was only reading this for pleasure and not actually trying to use this book as a reference for my own Delorian time machine weekend project.
I thought an author with a PhD would have provided better sources than what seemed to be a lot of internet websites. I get the wanting to appeal to a public and not academic audience, but I wouldn't have minded a little bit of literary theory or academic science thrown in the mix.
Finally, the author's constant need to discuss books and films' failings regarding gender and racial equality was clumsy. I appreciated the effort, but perhaps an overarching discussion point in the introduction could have sufficed. I can't imagine anyone opening this book would think that novels written in the 19th century or the original Star Trek were not without critical flaws to a contemporary audience.
Good read, but I was hoping for more.
August 10, 2021
The title and description makes this sound like a fun mix of science and pop culture. The reality? Boring descriptions of time travel in books and movies, with scarce connections to science and avoidance of even describing the lack of science.
Disappointing. A topic of potential snuffed out. There was more preaching about social issues than actual talk of time travel. This is fine, but categorize and describe your book appropriately if that’s the subject you’re going into.
Disappointing. A topic of potential snuffed out. There was more preaching about social issues than actual talk of time travel. This is fine, but categorize and describe your book appropriately if that’s the subject you’re going into.
June 23, 2020
Not actually about the "science" of time travel but rather how various science fiction stories can be vaguely related to valuable life lessons for young teens. All the citations are to web articles, and the whole book seems like something hastily slapped together.
August 9, 2020
This was a quick read. And while I certainly enjoyed The Science of Time Travel, I also found that it lacked the depth I was looking for. And I'm a bit dubious about the scholarship that went into this book. However, this is a fun, quick romp through the history of time travel stories in literature and film and the scientific/social/ethical aspects of each time science fiction story explored. This is a fun read, and I did learn information about new scientific concepts, I just think the execution could of been a little more in-depth.
August 15, 2022
Not as in-depth as I would have liked and as the title suggests. It's not really about the "science" of time travel at all, but brief descriptions of literature and movies that feature time travel, mixed with a lot of lecturing on social issues. Also written as if it was aiming for a YA audience.
February 20, 2021
I found the title of this book to be somewhat misleading. I really expected more science, possibly because I am a physics nerd. What it actually is is a history of time travel in pop culture with a look at how the creators imagined that happening. There is some discussion as to the feasibility of each method, and some sections do have a decent explanation of some scientific theories. For the most part, however, I thought this book read a little like someone's research paper, including a plethora of footnotes. Each section seemed to have been written independently resulting in a certain amount of redundancy. I did appreciate the author's philosophical views neatly couched in the analysis of each work under consideration which often called on the reader to help create a better world. I also found myself with a list of book and movie recommendations that I would like to pursue.
April 1, 2020
Not as described but still good
I liked this book. While I was expecting to see more discussion of the science behind time travel, the book instead looks at how science fiction has explained time travel. And since most science fiction doesn’t really explain time travel, this part of the book is weak. However the book is strong at discussing the stories told around time travel, in books and pop culture. As a fan of science fiction, I enjoyed this discussion. I recommend the book for fans of the genre.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Edelweiss for review purposes.
I liked this book. While I was expecting to see more discussion of the science behind time travel, the book instead looks at how science fiction has explained time travel. And since most science fiction doesn’t really explain time travel, this part of the book is weak. However the book is strong at discussing the stories told around time travel, in books and pop culture. As a fan of science fiction, I enjoyed this discussion. I recommend the book for fans of the genre.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Edelweiss for review purposes.
Read
February 25, 2024Howell, de manera entretenida, ofrece un panorama de la forma en la que han sido representados los viajes en el tiempo, sobre todo en el cine y en la televisión, pero también en la literatura —claro que esta representación se circusncribe, sobre todo al ámbito anglófono, con primacia de los Estados Unidos y de Inglaterra—. Plantea en cada caso la ciencia detrás del viaje en el tiempo, cómo funciona según las reglas de cada mundo narrativo en el que se presenta —por supuesto se enlista la Máquina del tiempo, Volver al futuro, Terminator, Star Trek, La guía del autoestopista intergaláctico, entre otras—.
May 7, 2022
DNF. For a book about time travel, there's too little time travel and too much of everything else. I dropped the book when the author went off on a tangent about the lack of diversity on the writing staff of Doctor Who. Yes, diversity is important, but what does it have to do with the science of time travel?
September 3, 2022
I came across this book on display at my local library and thought that it sounded interesting.
Boy, was I wrong.
The title is misleading. This is rather a discussion of various novels, stories, films, TV shows, with time travel themes.
The book is filled with errors, shoddy research and more.
At least I was reading a borrowed copy, and had not spent any money on it.
Boy, was I wrong.
The title is misleading. This is rather a discussion of various novels, stories, films, TV shows, with time travel themes.
The book is filled with errors, shoddy research and more.
At least I was reading a borrowed copy, and had not spent any money on it.
September 16, 2025
It was cute but unfortunately useless as a hard science look at time travel. She spent more time listing the flaws in the old stories and the impact the stories had with web based sources. There was some discussion on time travel, but it tended to go over the same things again and again.
October 21, 2025
The title is misleading. It is a book that discusses old shows, books, movies about time travel. She didn't even write the appropriate decade for Back to the Future. This book is not a good read if you are really in to the science of time travel.
April 26, 2022
Lots of discussion of how "time travel" works in movies and books
February 21, 2023
Not What II Expecred
I guess I'm just not meant for text books. I found tis unable to hold my interest although I am s sci-fi fan.
I guess I'm just not meant for text books. I found tis unable to hold my interest although I am s sci-fi fan.
April 5, 2024
To be honest, I was expecting a lot more theoretical science based on the title of the book. Oh well.
December 3, 2024
Could have been better without all the author’s “woke ideology” thrown in everywhere.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews