Time machines Book

Reading this book is like spending hours upon hours with some kind of physics dissertation that tries to use science fiction to prove the possibility of time travel. The catch is that dissertations usually contain clear hypotheses and proofs, whereas this book goes almost nowhere for 300 pages.

Instead of spelling out concepts, author Paul Nahin instead references entire works inline without any context, as though the reader ought to have digested the entire body of science fiction works on his topics prior to picking up his book. There are ample notes to accompany his text, but these are more of a distraction than guidance when navigating his chaos.

Finally, after pages and pages of exposition and postulation that go apparently nowhere, the book wraps up with a series of "Tech Notes" (presumably intended to provide more concrete and organized information about the theories surrounding time travel and faster-than-light speeds) that replace poorly-utilized literary references with advanced (for the lay person the former portion of this book might attract) mathematics that leaves one feeling stupefied rather than at ease with any clear conclusion.

To be fair to Mr. Nahin, the topics he approaches are advanced exercises in physics and philosophy, and there are aspects of the book that effectively lead the reader into flights of fancy and awestruck speculation; unfortunately, these are as rare in his work as stable wormholes in the universe.