Tag Archives: time travel

Book Review of “Time and Again” (1970)

time and again

© James Pyles

This review requires some explanation.

Spoiler alert: Before I get going, just be warned that there are tons of spoilers in this review. If you want to be surprised, stop reading after the break.

I originally saw the 1980 movie Somewhere in Time on cable TV within a year of it being in the theater. I became a fan of Christopher Reeve after seeing him in Superman the Movie (1978) and it was a pleasure seeing him in a very different role.

I was looking up the movie (not Superman) online a while back and came across a reference to the book upon which it was based. That would be Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson. Matheson is best known (to me anyway) for his novels I Am Legend (1954) and The Shrinking Man, both of which have had movies made from their material.

So, what does all this have to do with reviewing Jack Finney’s 1970 novel Time and Again?

The Christopher Reeve movie, Matheson’s book, and Finney’s book all have to do with a unique form of time travel, that a person can be hypnotized or so conditioned to believe that they belong in a certain place and year that they are actually transported there.

I read Finney’s rather than Matheson’s book because it was supposed to be a superior treatment of the subject.

Stephen King called it “The great time-travel story” and even science purest Carl Sagan said that it was among stories:

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Two For The Price Of One

rainy night

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

“Change the past to save the future,” complained Simon as he trudged through Queens in the October rain.

“Go back to 1946 and kill him as an infant, they said.” He patted the loaded pistol in his pocket. “At least they got me off of death row and out of the joint,” he snarled.

“I’ll show them change. Yeah, I’ll do the kid, but I know where the other guy is in Boston right now.” He turned a corner and headed toward Jamaica Estates. “I’ll hop a train and do him, too. History’ll be really messed up without both Presidents.”

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Going to Shea Stadium

guitars

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“Have a seat.” Jackie’s voice was young and encouraging.

“Learn to play guitar at my age?” Anxiety from the time he tried learning the trumpet when he was ten surged in his seventy-one-year-old chest.

“Learning something new will keep you young,” his granddaughter said. “It sharpens the mind and…”

“There’s nothing wrong with my mind,” he complained. “I’m still inventing and just made a breakthrough.”

“I know you like music,” she said.

“Sure, as a consumer,” he said. “Look, I know you’re trying to help, but my time machine’s warmed up by now. August 15, 1965 and Shea Stadium await.”

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Iconic

icon grill

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

Time traveling tourist Glinn Tanning staggered into the restaurant dressed in surplus fatigues and dragging a canvas rucksack in his right hand. It contained a couple of canisters of pepper spray and the makings of several Molotov cocktails.

“Where are the protesters?” he complained to the bored looking woman behind the counter.

“We’re closing soon,” she said. “Didn’t you see the sign?”

“Where is everyone? Isn’t this December 1st?”

“It’s the last day in January,” she said. “You’re late.”

He checked his wrist-mounted chromotron. “Damn. Eight years late. I knew I should have had this thing adjusted before I left.

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“Ruth and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Volume II” Available Today!

guide to time travel

Cover art for the anthology “Rush and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Volume II

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This is it! Ruth and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Volume II is available starting today in both digital and paperback format.

The anthology contains my science fiction short story “The Joker and the Thief.”

Here’s a little something to whet your appetite for the whole story:

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Coming Soon: Ann and Ruth’s Guide To Time Travel, Volume 2

ruth and ann 2If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Coming soon! (Before the end of November)
Featuring a Foreword written by Henry L Herz.

With 30 stories written by:

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The Punch and Judy Holiday

punch

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

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“Swanage Punch and Judy Show.” Donovan read the words as if they were in an unfamiliar language.

“Punch and Judy. That doesn’t narrow it down much.” The sign could be early 21st century or late 20th. He had a headache and wasn’t sure how long he had been standing on the beach.

“Wait. There’s a URL on the sign. Definitely 21st century then. Oh, God, I hope it’s not during that COVID mess.”

He checked his wallet. Donovan had a proper ID and credit cards. “Driver’s license expires in 2028. Maybe I’ll spend a few years living here after all.”

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Chasing Talent

chihuly

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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Toliver hated what Seattle would become, but it’s where she went so he followed. They’d been arguing again over her premature use of “the talent.” She left training, dashing off to October 17, 2024.

“Admit it, Daddy.” Constance’s hand was on his shoulder as he examined a peculiar glass object. “It’s quite lovely, isn’t it?”

He turned and she was smiling.

“I suppose in its own way, but we need to get home.”

“You only enjoy living in the 1980s because of nostalgia,” she chided.

Tol countered, “We can see the first showing of ‘The Terminator’ again if we hurry.”

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Book Review of “Replay” (1986)

replay

© James Pyles

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I forget where I saw Ken Grimwood’s 1986 novel Replay promoted, but it sounded like an interesting story, so I picked up a copy at my local public library. It’s a highly unusual and compelling time travel story.

Jeff Winston is a radio news producer in this late 40s. His job is lackluster as is his childless marriage. He’s at work and gets a phone call from his wife. As she starts speaking, he has a sudden heart attack and dies.

Jeff wakes up in his dorm room, an eighteen-year-old college freshman in the early 1960s. He has all of the memories of his life up to the moment he died twenty-five years in the future. Except that none of that has happened yet. Does it have to happen at all?

The first quarter of the book follows Jeff as he reconstructs his life based on what he knows of the future. In this case, he makes himself fabulously wealthy. Of course he drops out of college. Still feeling like a middle-aged man, the prospect of going through another four-year drudge as an undergraduate looks so depressing. But he does know a lot about major sporting events and which companies are going to be successful in the 1960s and beyond.

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It’s So Peaceful With All The People Gone

rock garden at blandford

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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It was too hot to go for a picnic, so we escaped. I’d promised my granddaughters we’d go on a picnic, just the three of us. But the highs have been over a hundred degrees F for nearly a month now and even at noon, it was too oppressive.

I thought about the past, but there was too big a chance of running into someone or changing something. I found a future where things had cooled off again. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would once there were hardly any people around.

Nice and cool and peaceful.

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