Time Travel: A Writer's Guide to the Real Science of Plausible Time Travel (Science Fiction Writing Series) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When Kurt Vonnegut needed protagonist Billy Pilgrim to time-travel in Slaughterhouse Five, he simply had him become "unstuck" in time--still perhaps the most poetic way to trip the chronological fantastic yet devised in literature. But electric engineering professor and science fiction writer Paul Nahin doesn't want you taking short cuts in your epoch-journeying yarns--at least, not because you were lazy about research. Subtitled A Writer's Guide to the Real Science of Plausible Time Travel, this is a tasty blend of quantum theory, worm holes, causal loops, and the famous "grandfather paradox"--the better to sell your heroine's time-skipping to even the most skeptical suspender of disbelief.

Review

It's a very nice summary of the subject, but it really shouldn't be marketed just to writers. I can easily see it being used in a high school physics class, with the frequent mention of SF stories helping to make the physics and math involved very accessible. -- Analog, Tom Easton

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books; illustrated edition edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898797489
• ISBN-13: 978-0898797480
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #32 in

  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Writing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST-READ for anyone interested in real time travel!, June 6, 2002

By	Phillip A. Sousa (Springfield, MO USA) - See all my reviews

I'm a layman when it comes to science, but I was interested in the theories of the reality of time travel. I tried another book (that will remain nameless) which didn't work at all for me. It was just way over my head. This one's great! It's got all of the same kind of information that the first one had, but Nahin is so much more understandable and gets his points across in a much more organized way.

He's literally writing for the lay person here-- the book is intended for writers who would like write science fiction, but want to be scientifically updated on the scientifically possible realities of time travel (both to the past and to the future), teleportation (through wormholes, bending of the 4 dimensions, etc.), the special and general theories of relativity and more. His premise is that science fiction could get away with anything even 50 years ago, when most people and most scientists thought time travel to be impossible, but nowadays, you have to be scientifically sound if you don't want to be laughed out of the literary world. True Sci-fi readers will know if you're legit or not, so Nahin is educating them.

I'm not a writer, but because of the nature of his premise, the book is extremely clear and thus much more informative than the first one ever was. This book even answers questions that I was high-and-dry on before (after reading the first book I picked up). Some of the math may be over the layman's head (some of it's over mine!) and more than you care to know, but he includes a lot of thought-provoking information about the paradoxes of time travel and explains things in pictures very well. He colors his book with quotes and anecdotes from all kinds of works of science fiction and from scientists in the past to make the book fun (and sometimes humorous!).

It's a must-read for anyone interested in the possibilities of time travel and a must-MUST-read for anyone interested in writing a book on anything scientific.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Taking the "fiction" out of SF, January 30, 2001

By A Customer

So, you think you'd like to write a story about time travel? If you think it's as easy as writing a fairy tale, read this book. Surprisingly, the theory of time travel lies well within the laws of physics. In this book, Paul J. Nahin explains the basics, the possibilities, the paradoxes, and best of all, common mistakes science fiction writers make when plotting literary courses through time.

Unless you want to leave your editors laughing at your lack of research, read this book. Base your story as much in real science as you can. Also, check out Nahin's Time Machines, for more information.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book!, April 4, 1999

By A Customer

Before you read this book, when someone tells you, "Time travel is not real," you will agree. After you read this book, when someone tells you, "Time travel is not real," you will object strongly and start explaining to them all of the REAL laws of time travel and the REAL concept of time travel. If you are a science fiction writer, I STRONGLY suggest that you read this so that you story will not be a heap of junk in a garbage can. You will learn many, many, things such as the REAL science of hyperspace, which is the possible fifth dimension,(the fifth dimension is not simply something that someone made up) and the REAL science of wormholes. This book will thoroughly educate you on the real idea of time travel.