The best time travel stories of all time Book

A varied collection of short stories involving time travel. Individual stories vary in length from a few pages to several dozen. Tones of the stories range from comedic to light to serious to disturbing.

I am not typically a fan of time travel stories. I find usually that the author has a very anti-physical concept of the logical issues involved; one or two of the stories in this anthology declare the problem of causality paradoxes closed by declaring that no human beings may witness the effects of time travel. This type of paradox resolution is more of a fantasy element than science fiction; it sounds like a caveat that a wizard would put in his spell.

And yes indeed, the type of thinking necessary to write something like this is everywhere in the stories collected here. It may be that there are "harder" time travel stories than these, which consider physical reality in addition to the world of human affairs; Malzberg, the editor, does seem a bit dainty and foppish, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were a selection bias in favor of Dune-like fantasy.

But regardless of plausibility, the real test is pure enjoyment. Many of the stories are well written, and some are not. The worst is Brooklyn Project by William Tenn. After a few pages of dull, semicompetent writing, there is a short sequence betraying an insipid misogyny from the author; I skimmed the rest to find the punchline ridiculous and empty of meaning. I could probably guess Tenn's weight and annual hygiene budget without missing by much.

But again, most of the stories are better than this. Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg is elegantly beautiful and accomplishes the best that I personally can expect from a time travel plot, which is that it steers the mind away from the preposterous aspects of the device with skillful, engaging writing. I'd never heard of Silverberg but I'm now inclined to pursue more of his material, and in my opinion this piece elevates the entire collection.

There are other pieces falling on the good end of the scale. The Battle Of Long Island by Nancy Kress is imaginitive, and Time Travelers Never Die is as expertly written as Hawksbill Station. I don't feel obligated to rate each story, but the upshot is it wouldn't kill you to read this book if you have a long plane ride coming up.