If you like Time Travel

Here we are, combining Top 10 Tuesday with… time travel! The first time I came across time travel was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in which miserly Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Since then, I’ve become something of a time travel fan. I’ve also discovered that there are two schools of thought. One school believes that through time travel you can change the future. The other school believes that the future is inescapable, through time travel you can only change the paths to that future.

Let’s take a look at 10 (or more) books that use innovative devices for time travel.

1/ A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The best description of time travel perhaps: a wrinkle in the great fabric of time that lets you to fold it and jump across. All those spaceships, that’s what they do in “space jumps” and wormholes.

2/ Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

How about using the standing stones of Craigh na Dun to travel back into 18th century Scotland? Just make sure you take your modern medicine bag, these be difficult times.

3 / To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Time Machines! Willis’s backlist has a whole treasure trove on time travel. This one is homage to the humor classic, Three Men on a Boat (To say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome.

4/ Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown

Unique time slip from a Viking inspired virtual reality game to actual Viking era. Be careful how historically accurate you make any set-up, it might become true!

5/ Kindred by Octavia Butler

The time travel device in this one was a bit perplexing. But the story of time slip of a free African American woman to an 1815 plantation as a slave was harrowing.

6 / The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Another early classic on time travel. It’s important because it also considers the (woeful) impact of time travel on the people in the traveler’s life.

7 / Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

We see the same events moving in different directions, with hopefully different outcomes. Whether this is time travel or parallel multiple universes – you decide.

8/ Lake House (Nope, not a book.)

Can two different timelines actually meet? That’s the theme of this charming movie about pen pals separated by a few years.

9 / A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

A blow on the head transports an engineer to Arthur’s court where he then gives Merlin serious competition. I adored this book as a kid (had a special abridged edition with illustrations!).

10/ The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

This one’s a time loop instead of a time slip. Events of the same day are repeated till you get it right. Dizzying. A lot like Groundhog Day.

11 / The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Hermione uses the time-turner to attend extra classes, and Harry uses it to save his godfather. And it’s literally like an hourglass with Cinderella-type warnings.

Are you fascinated by time travel? What are your favorite time travel books? Add on to the list! (And share your Top 10 List of the week too!)