The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century: Stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Finney, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Larry Niven, Theodore Sturgeon, Connie Willis, and more

I'm not sure I would pick the same 16 stories Harry Turtledove and Martin Greenburg did as my favorites from the twentieth century. But they have selected some very good ones to share with us. They hit the mark on an important feature of story collections, too--the introductions. Each intro in this anthology is a well-crafted balance between a brief author bio, overview of primary works, and a story set-up that whets expectations without spoiling. Nicely done!The offerings are of two kinds: great stories and classic stories. While a few fall into both camps, the reader does get a sense that most were selected to fit only one category. The great stories speak for themselves, with interesting ideas, unexpected twists and memorable characters. The classic stories are sometimes less complex or polished, but have important places in the historical development of time travel fiction. They are the good-for-us vegetables to be eaten along with the tastier main course items.My favorite two classics are:Henry Kuttner's "Time Locker" has the feel of a mid-twentieth century detective story told from a criminal's viewpoint. Its mystery is complicated by an uncalibrated time machine in a nondescript piece of office furniture.L. Sprague de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur" is one version of the now-cliché hunting expedition to the prehistoric past story. It's still an enjoyable trip, with one or two surprises for first-time readers.My favorite two "great" stories:Robert Silverberg's "Sailing to Byzantium" introduces us to a man from the 1980s who must cope with society tens of thousands of years in the future. We learn this new world along with him as he slowly discovers who and what is real. And what can be done about it.Ursula K. Le Guin's "Fisherman of the Inland Sea" follows a man who gives up much in his quest for other worlds--and finds that his regrets both drive him forward and draw him backward. This is good writing, imaginative anthropology, and innovative technical speculation all in one. It's a good introduction to this talented author, in case you've been needing one.The collection is highly recommended. Fans of good time travel shorts may also enjoy  Time Twisters  and  Time Pieces .

This is a collection of stories and short novellas dealing with time travel...arguably that most science-fiction-y of all science fiction premises.As with any such collection there are good stories and bad stories here, and which ones you like and dislike out of the 18 here will necessarily vary. For the most part I liked the ones selected though I thought there were a couple of duds--I just couldn't figure out "Fire Watch" at all and just plain didn't care for "Anniversary Project". But with 18 stories it was easy enough to skip forward to the next, and overall I liked more stories than I disliked.Recommended for any fan of time travel and alternative history stories. There are some duds here but they're easily skippable.

No way are these the best time travel stories of the 20th Century. Most are vintage 50s and “pulp.” Many authors selected for this collection have better time travel stories. I am almost finished with “The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF” by Mike Ashley and find it to be a much better collection. Many of the stories in this collection are available free online. So here goes a thumbnail review of every story in this collection. Grades are my personal assessment not so much of the story but as a time travel story.WARNING Spoiler alert.Yesterday was Monday – Theodore Sturgeon. This has to be one of the weakest Sturgeon stories. Arguably it is not even a time travel story. The premise is that we are all actors on a stage advancing through time, powered, and staged by some super beings bearing remarkable resemblance to biblical figures. It has 1941 flavor stamped all over it. C-Time Locker – Henry Kuttner. One of the better stories in this book. It is both cute and quaint. Alas, dated. Classic 1943. Would have made a great Outer Limits episode. It is available online from Google Books. A-Time’s Arrow – Arthur C. Clarke. Vintage 1950. Clarke became a much better writer some years later. Here a group of paleontologists is excavating a track of a huge dinosaur, which came upon a facility from their own time transported back in time” B-I’m Scared – Jack Finney. Again, Finney wrote better than this one. It is worth a read because it probably is the source of an urban legend of Rudolph Fentz who magically travelled from 1870s to 1950s only to be hit by a car. 1952. B-A Sound of Thunder - Ray Bradbury. I happen not to be a Ray Bradbury fan. This is the source for the “butterfly effect” of small changes in the past resulting in significant changes in the present. One of the few stories that I have read before. Most of the science fiction readers got to be familiar with it. Killing a single butterfly in Paleozoic results in significant changes to the present. 1952. BDeath Ship – Richard Matheson. This short story has actually been used as a Twilight Zone episode. Astronauts find a crashed copy of their starship together with their own duplicates dead inside. 1953. BA Gun for Dinosaur – L. Sprague de Camp. Very similar in nature to Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” 1956. BThe Man who Came Early – Poul Anderson. Ok a 20th century man mysteriously finds himself in medieval Iceland. Not surprisingly he cannot survive in that society. Even with his superior knowledge of science and history. 1956 C- (as was the case with Sturgeon, this has to be one of Anderson’s weakest stories)Rainbird – R.A. Lafferty. An aged inventor travels back in time to his youth to alter the future of his younger self. Repeatedly. 1961. A (I liked this one. In some ways it is similar to Grimwood’s novel “Replay”)Leviathan – Larry Niven. Clearly written with tongue in cheek. Repeated trips back in time to retrieve extinct animals end up in fetching mythical creatures. 1970 CAnniversary Project – Joe Haldeman. A depressing story of a couple abducted by “humans” living in a very far future. Upon returning to their present the abducted woman lives out the rest of her life backwards. 1975 BTimetipping – Jack Dann. Something like a mediocre story out of Jack Dann’s (editor) “Wandering StarsAn Anthology of Jewish Fantasy & Science Fiction” A man (sometimes he is an orthodox Jew, sometimes pretty much unaffiliated) gets tossed around different realities by people tripping through time and altering “the present” One has to be familiar with ins and outs of Judaism to appreciate the humor in this story. 1975. CFire Watch – Connie Willis. A time-traveling graduate student of history from the future goes back to the Blitz in London, to participate in the fire lookout at St. Paul's Cathedral. 1982 C.Sailing to Byzantium - Robert Silverberg. Funny how many stories the poem of this same title by William Butler Yates has spawned (“No country for old men” is another). This novella by Silverberg is not even a time travel story. It has the same theme as the poem of Yates – journey to self-discovery. This time the narrator is an animated software who / which discovers that it/he is not a man from distant (21st century) past. 1984 C (might have earned a grade of B, had it not been classified as time travel)The Pure Product – John Kessel. A psychopath from the future is travelling through 20th century USA aimlessly killing people. 1986 D-Trapalanda – Charles Sheffield. A quest for a mythical land in South America. The time travel aspect of the story is pretty much irrelevant. It is more a (good) study of some interesting personalities involved than any kind of time travel speculations. 1987 C-The Price of Oranges – Nancy Kress. An old-timer goes back to 1937 to fetch a husband for his punky grand-daughter. Turns out the fellow is married… and meets his own grand-daughter in his future (our present). 1988 BAnother Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea – Ursula K. LeGuin. Working on FTL travel a man from LeGuin’s Hain universe teleports to his own past and chooses to live a different life than the lonely one he chose before as a scientis. 1994 B

When I got my first Kindle for Christmas in 2009, this was the first e-book I read. Being a big fan of time-travel stories, I immediately searched the Kindle archives for any stories on this subject. And since I hadn't read anything in years (other than listening to an occassional audio book), I figured a collection of short stories would be a little easier to digest and help get me back into a routine.As with any collection of short stories, some selections are better than others. The stories I enjoyed the most were "Yesterday was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon, "Timetipping" by Jack Dann, and "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverburg. This last story was not only an excellent addition to the time-travel canon, it also offers an interesting look at a society's obsession with youthful perfection (not unlike our current society).

There is some outstanding writing in this collection. L Sprague de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur" conjures up a vivid and believable picture of Earth's remote past while Robert Silverberg's "Sailing to Byzantium" is entirely worthy of the WB Yeats poem which inspired it. My preference is for what you might call the mid-period stories. Henry Kuttner's "Time Locker" reads more like 1950's hard-boiled crime fiction than Sci-Fi while the Ursula K Le Guin story is just so tiresomely and self-consciously "modern" that I couldn't finish it.

only 3 stories deal with time travel, other stories are poor and have nothing to do with the subject.

Quality time travel stories. For years I found I couldnt finish a novel and so started reading short stories instead. The older writers have a special quality that modern writers lack. This book is great

As in most collections of short stories, there are good ones, bad ones, indifferent ones, and plain odd ones.A time-travel addict, I managed to find some rewarding tales here, and my favourites were:Henry Kuttner's "TIME LOCKER".Jack Finney's "I'M SCARED", which contained interesting mini-tales within it.Richard Matheson's "DEATH SHIP", where inevitability rears its ugly head.R A Lafferty's "RAINBIRD" was riveting, showing us a man re-visiting himself in order to improve his life's goals and successes.Robert Silverberg's "SAILING TO BYZANTIUM" takes us on a fascinating journey to the fiftieth century, where we marvel as ancient cities, long since dead, are resurrected for mere pleasure.But far and away my favourite of them all is Nancy Kress's "THE PRICE OF ORANGES", where an interfering grandfather finds a suitable suitor for his granddaughter, kidnapping the hapless chap from fifty years in the past. The end result is a majestic belly-laughing piece of poetic justice.But it's the park bench discussions between the grandfather and his old friend Manny which tickled me, and it was a real shame that the story had to come to an end.So, all in all, eighteen stories, six - top notch, seven or eight - so-so, and about four that were just odd.That's pretty good, so I heartily recommend it.

I am a sucker for a good time travel story and love the genre. But this book was plain cheating with a misleading title.If you think this book has 'the Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century', you have been taken for a royal ride. This is waste of money, and time if you read it full.Out of 18 stories in this book, there are eight well known stories that are anthologized innumerable times. They have stood the test of time. These are:Yesterday Was Monday- Theodore SturgeonTime Locker- Henry KuttnerTime's Arrow- Arthur C ClarkeI'm Scared- Jack FinnyA Sound of Thunder- Ray BradburyDeath Ship- Richard MathesonA Gun for Dinosaur- L Sprague de CampA Price of Oranges- Nancy Kress.The rest of the stories (10 of them) are utterly boring overly pretentious verbiage, and they are not even 'time travel' stories. And the greatest time travel story of 20th century, if not of all time, the famous 'As Never Was' P Schuyler Miller, is not in this anthology!