Customer Reviews

The Best Time Travel Stories of All Time

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Only a third of these stories are worthy to be in a collection of the best of all time travel stories, many of the others being only competent re-tellings of other authors original ideas.

Although I liked many of the stories I was disappointed that it wasn't a collection of all top notch original time travel stories as it's title advertises, and I was especially irritated by reading an introduction to one story that referred to Robert Heinlein's "By his bootstraps" - which isn't in this anthology claiming to collect the best time travel stories!

As a whole it's a worthwhile book, though don't buy it for the comic version of "A sound of thunder". The comic is printed on good quality paper in full colour process - but as a few small pages printed in paperback format it's not a good way to see Richard Corbens art.

But it is NOT a collection of The Best. More a collection of "Some of the Best Time Travel stories, and some other ones".

I found the premises of most of the stories intriguing. The stories were very well written. I particularly liked "Hawksbill Station." However, I found that most of the stories, including the latter, had unsatisfying endings. This collection did not live up to its title.

...

Not by a long-shot. I'm something of a fan of the genre, and I think that most of the stories in this collection are mediocre, at best. And there's so much to choose from in this realm - I'm not sure what the editor was thinking. For starters, consider Heinlein's short story _By His Bootstraps_, or his novel _The Door Into Summer_. For lighter-hearted, more emotional fare, try any of Finney's time travel stories, several of which are the collection _About Time_. And if you want a real roller-coaster of a story, try John Varley's _Millennium_ which, in addition to being the best (IMHO) time travel novel ever written, has the rather unusual trait of having the name of each chapter borrowed from a classic science fiction time travel short story. So the book, in addition to being a great romp through time, is also a pretty good bibliography of the genre. A much better place to start than this disappointing collection.

CAUTION: Do NOT, under any circumstances, view the *movie* of Millennium. How someone could ruin that good a book boggles the mind. Those responsible for that screenplay should be ashamed of themselves.

Best of All Time? I guess that is relative to who is picking. Is this a very good collection of stories? Yes, definitely, as the stories here average 3.80.

Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : The Battle of Long Island - Nancy Kress
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : The Man Who Cme Early - Poul Anderson
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket - James Tiptree Jr.
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Anachron - Damon Knight
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : On the Nature of Time - Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : A Little Something for Us Tempunauts - Philip K. Dick
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Ripples in the Dirac Sea - Geoffrey A. Landis
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Hall of Mirrors - Fredric Brown
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : 3 RMS Good View - Karen Haber
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Time Trap - Charles L. Harness
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Brooklyn Project - William Tenn
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Timetipping - Jack M. Dann
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : The Chronology Protection Case - Paul Levinson
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Hawksbill Station - Robert Silverberg
Best Time Travel Stories of All Time : Time Travelers Never Die - Jack McDevitt


Nursing multiple realities.

4 out of 5


American is a Viking misfit.

4 out of 5


Youthful elderly mortal indiscretion.

4 out of 5


Time vault trouble.

3.5 out of 5


Paradox a tad Oedipal.

3 out of 5


Time to avoid own deaths.

4 out of 5


Don't let the past catch up to you.

4 out of 5


Time immortality revelation decision.

4 out of 5


Burnt by past real estate deal.

4 out of 5


Particle regeneration consumption recycling.

4 out of 5


Past alterations pseudopocryphal.

4 out of 5


Chronal spousal variation.

2.5 out of 5


Extreme quantum censorship publication falsification.

5 out of 5


The authorities have come up with an unconventional but effective way of controlling dissidents. Send them back a billion or so years into the past. A bit hard to escape from there, really.

When a new prisoner is sent back, the current top dog, an aging main with a recent serious injury has to try and hang onto his life, and work out what is up with the new guy.

3 out of 5


Paradox pyre problems.

4 out of 5

I've only read the first four stories in this collection. But I have been extremely disappointed. The authors explored diverse and interesting takes on the concept of time travel. But their narration was sloppy and amateurish. Considering that these authors are some of the biggest names in Sci Fi (Nancy Kress, Damon Knight, Poul Anderson), this is beyond disappointing.

What can I say, I love time travel stories, and this is a great collection of short stories covering a wide range of topics. I bought mine on recommendation from a big chain store, then after reading it several times, traded it out at a give-a-book, take-a-book coffee houses and regretted it ever since, because it is so hard to find.

Whether your new to time travel stories or a vet, I highly recommend adding this to your holdings!

I might have gone for three and a half stars - or four - if the editor had not written little self-love introductions to each story. At one point Malzberg claims that Silverberg's "Up The Line" might be the best time-travel story ever written, so I picked it up used from Amazon. What a trite piece of trash it was.

Buy this book if you're hooked on time-travel and don't need much new to keep you going, or if you need any excuse to keep from vacuuming your abode.

This is a terrible collection. A couple of the stories are very good, but the vast majority are no better than filler. Malzberg's introductions, however, are even worse than the stories.