Time Machines

Posted: 2019/01/13 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust II, Fiction | Tags: 2018, Anthony Boucher, Bill Adler Jr, book lust ii, book review, Connie Willis, december, Derryl Murphy, Edgar Allan Poe, Fiction, Geoffrey Landis, Harry Turtledove, Isaac Asimov, Jack Finney, Jack Lewis, Jack McDevitt, John Campbell, Larry Niven, Mack Reynolds, Mark Clifton, Molly Brown, Ray Bradbury, Robert Sawyer, Rod Serling, Rudyard Kipling, science fiction, Steven Utley, Wayne Freeze |Leave a comment

Adler. Jr., Bill. Time Machines: the Greatest Time Travel Stories Ever Written. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998.

Reason read: December is Star Man month and that makes me think of time travel.

Time Machines is made up of twenty-two really diverse short science fiction stories all centered on time travel or time machines.

• A Shape in Time by Anthony Boucher – Agent L-3H is hired to prevent marriages until she fails to seduce her man. This story has one of my favorite quotes, “Temporal Agent L-3H is always delectable in any shape; that’s why the bureau employs her on marriage-prevention assignments” (p 1).
• Who’s Cribbin’ by Jack Lewis – someone from the past is stealing a young sci-fi writer’s work. Who is the plagiarist?
• The Business, As Usual by Mack Reynolds – a 20th century souvenir hunter visits the 30th century.
• The Third Level by Jack Finney – Somewhere in the bowels of Grand Central Station there is another level which will take you to 1894 New York.
• A Touch of Petulance by Ray Bradbury – what happens when you meet your future self and he tells you you will murder your wife.
• The History of Temporal Express by Wayne Freeze – what if you could go back in time to meet a deadline you previously missed?
• Star, Bright by Mark Clifton – a widower’s child, abnormally bright, learns how to transport herself through time but her father isn’t as smart. Interestingly enough, someone drew a Mobius slip in the book possibly to illustrate the phenomenon of a one-sided plane.
• The Last Two Days of Larry Joseph’s Life – In This Time, Anyway by Bill Adler, Jr. – Two roommates watch as their third roommate quietly disappears.
• Three Sundays in a Week by Edgar Allan Poe – Two lovers get around the stipulation they can only marry when there are three Sundays in the same week.
• Bad Timing by Molly Brown – an archivist in the 24th century falls in love with a woman from the 20th century but he’s a bumbling idiot when it comes to time travel. As an aside, this story reminded me of the movie, “Lake House.”
• Night by John W. Campbell – a pilot testing out an anti-gravity coil has an accident and he needs the help of aliens to get home.
• Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt – a crazy story about a man who has two deaths.
• Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation by Larry Niven – what if time travel doesn’t work?
• What Goes Around by Derryl Murphy – a ghost from the future comes to help a washed up actor.
• You See, But You Do Not Observe by Robert Sawyer – Sherlock Holmes visits the future to find alien life.
• Ripples in the Dirac Sea by Geoffrey A. Landis – a man tries to flee his own destiny by using a time machine but keeps returning to the same moment when he is to die.
• The Odyssey of Flight 33 by Rod Serling – an airplane en route to New York curiously picks up speed and somehow lands 200 million years ahead of schedule.
• Fire Watch by Connie Willis – not read (on Challenge list elsewhere)
• What If by Isaac Asimov – not read
• There and Then by Steven Utley – not read
• Wireless by Rudyard Kipling – not read
• The Last Article by Harry Turtledove – a sad tale about the nonviolence moment being unsuccessful against the Nazis of World War II.

Author Editor fact: Adler has written a few books of his own (including a short story in Time Machines.

Nancy said: Time Machines was in a list of other books about time travel the reader might enjoy.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Time Travel” (p 220).

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