11 time travel novels that will transport you

Originally published in 2013, Keith Laymon’s novel about racism was reprinted in 2021. This is the story of “Urban” Coldson, a teenager who spectacularly fails a nationally televised spelling bee. His timeline begins in 2013, but soon after he’s sent to stay with his grandfather in a small southern town, things get… weird. When the character finds a book called Metafiction, things change Long division In the year Written by the author of the same name in the 1980s. And then 1964 pops up, and before you know it, Lymon takes you on a wild ride that spans half a century and confronts racism over the years.

Simon Vegas found a time machine in Vietnam…and has been trying to get it to work ever since. Once he gets down to business, things go really fast. Simon’s Time Machine has a focus: seeking injustice and delivering its victims to a utopian afterlife. There are a lot of famous names sprinkled in there, but the real focus of this novel is on questions of power (or, perhaps more accurately, powerlessness), compassion and humanity, and horror and justice. Since Alfredo VA, Jr. is writing the script, there is a masterful blurring of genre lines and the big question in the time travel is is it real or is it all in Simon’s head?

This is a time travel novel with an unmistakable contemporary feel. It’s already a book that gives readers a lot to think about, but since it was released a year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the global context adds another layer of meaning. In the year It’s 1981 and America is in the middle of a deadly epidemic. (Sound familiar?) Frank is sick, but the humans in the future have mastered time in order to reverse the epidemic. So Polly puts her future on the line to save him. Of course, when love and time travel happen, nothing goes wrong – their plans to reunite at a certain location are foiled when Polly is sent too far into the future. As Polly tries to find Frank, Lim’s novel asks deep questions about love, relationships and where we live in these troubled times.

Nyx is a time traveling girl, and she seems to be everywhere and at all times. It’s been a great adventure… but her father is going into the unknown past: the year before Nyx was born in the place where she was born. The problem is, Nyx’s mother died in childbirth. The big question is, what will her father plan to do when they arrive? And Cash, Nyx’s seductive love interest, throws another wrench into his career. It is a Heilig novel. Very difficult To save, and if you want The girl from anywhereThe second book of the trilogy, The Ship After Time, is also available!

It’s almost impossible not to be at least mildly interested in a semi-epistrian novel co-authored by the likes of Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Their unlikely protagonists are on opposite sides of a war: technology and biology (obvs, I’m digressing a bit). And yet…Love. Although all this is not impossible, despite the war in which they are engaged, despite the real danger that their letter represents to each of them. Love.

This is an unusual time travel novel, to be sure. For starters, the protagonist Lu is immortal. She, too, is an amnesia patient, waking up on the streets with no memory of her past. Set in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, The one that disappears It follows Lou as she makes a name for herself and breaks all kinds of barriers as a professional journalist. But later she makes a new friend and is shocked to discover that his face has been drawing her for years. Deón has crafted a fascinating mystery that will have you pondering all sorts of ideas, big and small, long after you’ve turned the last page.

How can you go wrong with a time travel novel featuring a secret agent protagonist? I would argue that you cannot. Keen Stewart is living a suburban lifestyle in San Francisco, but it’s not a suburb to be saved. It is his life that is a façade, waiting for someone to come and bring him back to his real life more than a century and a half into the future. But it takes nearly two decades for help to appear, and in the meantime, Keane is living his life — with a wife and daughter. Chen’s novel is incredibly deep, exploring the many dynamics of self-expression even as it pokes fun at time travel.

Miko Kings It’s the oldest book on this list, but it’s an amazing read. Howe’s novel follows an intriguing cast of characters as Oklahoma’s Native American baseball team, the Micah Kings, strive to win the championship. In the year 1907. Yes, the same year Oklahoma (mostly known as Indian Territory) was granted US territory. While that political story looms in the background, Tesfaye is caught up in events that far outweigh the role the young leader plays for the team. And then there is the rare and fascinating Ezol Day, whose theories are intertwined with linguistics and indigenous peoples over time. This book has it all: intrigue, romance and political intrigue. To top it off, here you’ll find some wonderfully informal pieces of text, such as newspaper clippings and handwritten journal entries.

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the 50s, your high school days as your real 16-year-old self? That’s what happens to Kenya Daniel in Pepper Pace’s funny and smart time travel novel. Time bubble. She’s 16 again, but with half a century of life experiences alive and well remembered. For anyone who lived through the ’80s, there’s a real sense of humor, as it’s fun to follow Kenya as she’s forced to revisit the decade when she was younger. But Pace’s time travel novel is also by turns thoughtful, poignant, and unexpected.

If you could travel in time, what would you do? What if you could travel through time, but only for a short time and without the ability to change the current? In Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s time travel novel, there is a cafe in a Tokyo basement where this is possible. But only from the cafe. With these interesting constraints on their time, customers (and employees) at the cafe travel for small but profound reasons. It’s a beautiful meditation on the little regrets we carry with us throughout our lives. If you’re a fan of this book, you’ll be happy to know that it’s the first part of a trilogy. Tales from the Cafe came out two years ago and the third book is out in November before your memory fades!

Governments It’s a wild ride! It’s as much a historical novel as a time travel novel. It opens with the confusion of Joe Tournier in 19th century England, but this is a very different England from the one you may know in history books – this England is a French colony. Shortly after his arrival, a mysterious postcard arrived. Not only was it written in English (a forbidden language in this alternate reality) but it was spoken for him. As Joe searches for answers, he travels to Scotland (which is an alternate Scotland) and beyond. It’s a fascinating read – this should come as no surprise if you’ve read Pulley’s other works.