posted
I know, I know, do your own homework. Let's get all that out the way first.
I'm taking this course, called "Time". It's actually a seminar course, but not only is it about Time and the scientific side of Time it's about science fiction and Time in stories. (It's my soulmate course, the professor would probably be a great Jatraquero, if he's not one already )
By Christmas, I have to read ten Time-related (Time travel, stopping time, playing the time, destroying time, slowing time etc) short stories by "authors who know what they're talking about" (professors words, not mine- we're not allowed to read our little brother's story, for example).
Now, the professor is going to give us a list of possible stories, but being a ignorant first year student it'd be marvellous if I could also read stories recommended by you fabulous folk who know what's good and what's not, because you're all so much older and wiser than I am.
If you really don't want to help me do my homework (you know you want to! All I need is names and, if possible, online sources) you can tell me the name of that story with the dinosaur-hunting butterfly-squashing future-changing person.
(And I know someone's going to write in the very next post, (that is if I get one), "Do your own homework ", so at least let's have some variation, for instance, "Your own homework, do your.")
Thank You!
EDITED: to add the word 'also'.
EDIT: I need to stipulate that they have to be short stories. And I realise yours was a joke, Dagonee.
posted
I was gonna say that's not a short story , but I know there's one set in the Pastwatch world somewhere on this site. I don't think it actually involves time travel, though. More like, time observation?
There's a short story somewhere in MiaM by OSC about time travel...can't remember what it's called though...it's where people go back in time to experience death. Anyone?
posted
What does "knows what they're doing" mean? If it doesn't require Stephen Hawking-like brilliance, you should try All You Zombies- by Heinlein.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I like Robert Silverberg's Up the Line, about a guy who's a guide for time tourists, set against the backdrop of medieval Byzantium. Lots of time paradoxes...
(And, speaking of guides, I suppose you could do Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker books.)
[edit: OK, these'll be too long, they're not short stories.]
posted
If you can find a copy, The Green Futures of Tycho by William Sleator is one of my favorite books, and has been since the fifth grade. And it's a quick and easy read, so that helps too.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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There was a short story I read once about a man who transported himself back in time to the day of Christ's death. He sort of, well, I don't want to spoil it, but it was one of the best short stories I have read. Grr. I have no clue whatsoever as to its title or author, but it was a fascinationg story.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Oh, yeah. If you're not put off by LDS literature, there's a sci-fi story with a Mormon slant (about the same level as existed in Lost Boys, for example) called Eddie Fantastic. I read it when I was a kid, and I thought it was the greatest. It's one of the ones about slowing down time. I don't know how it'd stand up now, but it had me fully hooked when I read it the first time. And it'd be quick and easy, so that's another plus.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
This is a fantastic list, if you think of any more put them down. I'm going to chase down the accesible ones and see if they are what I'm looking for.
posted
Elizabeth, I think I've read about the story you're talking about. (How's that for convoluted?) It was in a book of Science Fiction lists which I don't have access to anymore.
That might be a good place to look, though, Teshi, you're library should have a few. They're an interesting read and you learn alot of the history of the genre.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Spider Robinson did quite a few in his Callahan's series.
Did you hear the one about...? is fantastically hilarious, if you can catch the puns and the tip of the hat to various sci-fi authors.
Posts: 472 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Back in the day I found three short novels in a book that I don't remember the name of. The time-related one was "The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything". I don't know for sure if it qualifies as a short story, though, and it has some sexual content. In some ways it was a lot like the movie Clockstoppers.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything is a short pulp novel by JohnD.MacDonald of the TravisMcGee mystery novel fame. It isn't really about time travel, but rather a stopwatch which allows the user continue moving normally while stopping the flow of time for everyone else, at least from the user's perspective. Clockstoppers was essentially the same story using younger protagonists.
The "short story about a man who transported himself back in time to the day of Christ's death" may have been MichaelMoorcock's Behold The Man, which was later expanded into a novel.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
It's too bad you're only looking for short stories. Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time handles all of the concepts you are looking to learn about.
Posts: 392 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
"Firewatch" by Connie Willis, found in the book by same title. Of course, I don't know if she knows what she's talking about Posts: 99 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
My favorite time travel book is "The End of Eternity" by Asimov. I guess it is not a short story, but it is only 189 pages and Asimov's writing is so clear you can fly right through it. Posts: 1592 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I think "Behold the Man" is the one, according to a summary I found. It sounds right. Hmm. I must have read it before I read Moorcock, or I would have remembered he wrote it. The story fits him.
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posted
My favorite I cannot name its title or author, but its about a man who doesn't recoginize his future selves as they come back in time to convince him to travel in time until he becomes the all powerful ruler of a pathetically timid future.
But my favorite anti-time travel bit was a forward done by Asimov for his first novel "Pebble in the Sky." I don't know what addition has this forward, but in it he explains why time travel cannot work (if you traveled back in time 100 years, you'd find youself breathing vaccum in the midst of space somewhere where Earth isn't anymore) and why he uses the literary device anyway.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I'm reading a book of short stories by Gene Wolfe called Storeys From the Old Hotel, and I LOVE it.
One of the best stories in there is called "Rubber Bend," and is about a professor who succeeds in reversing the way he comprehends verticality with time. Fabulous, fabulous.
And someone else reccommended Einstein's Dreams, which is a book, but is full of reeeely short stories about weird worlds that handle time in different ways.
*really wants to take this class*
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I read a Richard Peck one about time once, but I can't remember what it was called. Something about "time" and "electric," maybe?
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
The Jaunt is an excellent choice, as it explores the difference between physical time and the perception of time. It's not an obvious choice, either, since it doesn't deal with time travel.
posted
Perhaps contrast and compare all the theories and uses of time and time travel used in Star Trek, especially TNG.
Oh wait.
There was a requirement that the person "knows what they are doing." That leaves the Star Trek writers out.
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