Time-Travel Fiction

  Storypilot’s Big List of Adventures in Time Travel


David Brin’s Out of Time Series
created by David Brin
First book: 1999
The 24th century needs heroes—teenaged heroes from our time. [-] [May 2011]

 TitleAuthor 
1. Yanked! (1999)Nancy Kress
2. Tiger in the Sky (1999)Sheila Finch
3. The Game of Worlds (1999)   Roger MacBride Allen

Timeline
by Michael Crichton
First publication: 1999
Three bland archaeology graduate students, one of whom envisions himself as a knight, are sent back to 14th-century France to rescue their professor. The novel mentions a multiverse model of time-travel, but gives no explication (nor does it enter the plotline); the most interesting characters and developments appear for a few pages and are never again heard of (at least not in this universe). [Apr 2011]

I don’t mean time travel at all. Time travel is impossible. Everyone knows that.


The Devil’s Arithmetic
adapted by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Avrech (Donna Deitch, director)
First aired: 28 Mar 1999
Hannah Stern, reluctant to listen to her elders’ talk of their Jewish heritage, finds herself thrown back to the time World War II Germany in this made-for-tv movie. [-] [May 2011]

“Remembrance of Things to Come”
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
First publication: Analog Science Fiction, Apr 1999
As a first experiment in a new technology, the memories of English Professor Richard Williams are sent back in time into the mind of writer Dorrie Ledbetter right before her untimely death to see if those memories can cause her to leave a clue about the meaning of an ambiguous story. [May 1999]

We think we have a way to record the quantum state of a present-day brain onto a brain somewhere in the past in such a way that the patterns in the receiving brain will duplicate those in the source brain, and that as a result the receiving brain will acquire the memories of the source brain.


Family Guy
created by Seth MacFarlane
First time travel: 25 Apr 1999
Nikolaus Correll turned me on to time travel in Family Guy. There may be other time-travel episodes that I haven’t yet seen. [-] [Oct 2011]

 TitleEvent 
Mind over Murder (4/25/99)Stewie tries to avoid teething
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005 dvd)   Stewie meets adult self
Meet the Quagmires (5/20/07)Peter goes back to age 18
Road to Germany (10/19/08)Back to Nazi Germany
The Big Bang Theory (5/8/11)Bertram tries to kill da Vinci
Back to the Pilot (11/31/11)Back to Family Guy’s 1st episode
Viewer Mail #2; Internal Affairs (5/20/12)   To save Kurt Cobain


It’s called a temporal causality loop. The universe created me, so that I could create it, so it could create me, and so on.
—Stewie in “The Big Bang Theory”


The Smedley Faversham Stories
by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
First story: Analog Science Fiction, Jun 1999
If a particular conclusion is a good one, what makes you think that only one person will think of it? That’s why Smedley Faversham, in his first time-travel escapade, ran into more than one other time traveler. In all, the punster has had five adventures, each sillier than the last. [May 1999]

 TitlePublication 
Time Lines (Jun 1999)Analog
A Real Bang-Up Job (Jul 2000)Analog
“Put Back That Universe!” (Oct 2000)Analog
Schrödinger’s Cat-Sitter (Jul/Aug 2001)Analog
A Deadly Medley of Smedley (Apr 2003)   Analog
Annual Annular Annals (Jan/Feb 2004)Analog


When Smedley Faversham traveled back in time to Munich in 1919, the first thing he saw was a large sign reading “THIS WAY TO KILL HITLER.”


“Tempora Mutantur”
by H.G. Stratmann
First publication: Analog Science Fiction, Jul/Aug 1999
While dining at his favorite quiet rib joint, a private man is interrupted by billionaire businessman Rem Caesar who is being chased by time travelers. [Jun 1999]

If someone built a time machine, they’d be famous for all time. A magnet for every time traveling historian, media-type, tourist—or just “fans” with no lives of their own, coming back to bask in their idol’s luminous prescence.


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J.K. Rowling
First publication: 08 Jul 1999
In the third Harry Potter book, (among other things) Harry’s friend Hermione uses a time-turner amulet to travel short distances in time so she can attend more classes, and the device also proves useful when Harry and friends must rescue Sirius and Buckbeak. [Dec 1999]

Mysterious thing, time. Powerful ... and when meddled with, dangerous.
—Professor Dumbledore


“Rappaccini’s Other Daughter”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: in The Compleat Boucher, 1 Aug 1999
You know of Nathanial Hawthorne’s tale of “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” but do you know of the second, equally beautiful, daughter who had a significant effect on all time travelers? [Jan 2013]

And that is why our time machines are not permitted to travel back farther than the middle of the twentieth century.


Walker, Texas Ranger
created by Albert S. Ruddy, et. al.
First time travel: 16 Oct 1999
Somebody has to say it: Chuck Norris doesn’t travel to the 19th century after a 1999 encounter with a Shaman (“Way of the Warrior”); the 19th century travels to Chuck Norris. [-] [Dec 2010]

The shaman sent for me. He brought me here to help you.




The Justin Counting Stories
by Harry Turtledove
First publication: Asimov’s and Analog, Dec 1999
At twenty-one, Justin Kloster has it made: one more year of college and then happily ever after with his sweetheart Megan. Then his forty-year-old self shows up to prevent Justin from making terrible mistakes that will lead to an eventual nasty divorce with Megan.

Turtledove tells the story twice: Once from the POV of Justin-21 (“Twenty-One, Counting Up”) and once from the POV of Justin-40 (“Forty, Counting Down”). I loved this technique when Orson Scott Card used in Ender’s Shadow, but for me, it fell flat with Justin, perhaps because the stories didn’t add much to each other. [Aug 2012]

I was stupid. I didn’t know enough. I didn’t know how to take care of her.


Galaxy Quest
by David Howard and Robert Gordon (Dean Parisot, director)
First release: 25 Dec 1999
Some tv shows (we won’t mention any names) live on for their fans decades after cancelation. The result might be that aliens think the heroes of these shows are real, in which case the aforementioned heroes could be kidnapped to rescue the aforementioned aliens (and to figure out whether the Omega 13 will destroy the universe in 13 seconds or reverse time for that aforementioned amount of seconds).

Tim and I watched this at Lake Cushman during a trip to the northwest in 2003, and I was as surprised as anyone about how much we laughed at Tim Allen’s parady. [-] [Mar 2003]

Larado: Your orders, sir? [pause] Sir, your orders?
Commander Taggart: Activate the Omega 13. [To be continued...]

12 items are in the time-travel list for this year.
Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links in the menu at the top). —Michael (main@colorado.edu)