In the second book of The Forgotten World Books, THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD (October 2009), I have an extended time travel subplot going on.
Why?
Because time travel is cool! And because I’m the author! That’s why! It’s one thing I love about being an author. If I think something is awesome, I can shove it into a book!
On a first read from my editor (probably a year and a half ago), one bit of feedback I got was that the explanation for how the telegens* were able to time travel was not technical enough for a science-fiction story.
Fast forward a year to when I revised it again. First off, I way amped up the whole time traveling subplot. I added more twists and turns amid time. I think the time travel story is consistent, but there’s bound to be at least one person who reads it and says, “this could never happen because of this other thing.”
I’m OK with that. Really. If something thinks this hard about my book, that’s a good thing.
As for making the time travel more technical, most of this was making different word choices. Instead of swirling, I used crunching. Instead of vanishing, I used compressing. Okay, sure, I added a bit more on the DNA aspects of why telegens* can time travel. Because the solutions to many science-fiction problems are found in DNA. It’s awesome, amazing, well-known enough, but still nebulous enough, that with it, we writers can get far.
When I think of time travel, I always come back to Star Trek. (All answers in life can be found in Star Trek.) It started with the Enterprise slingshotting around the sun. This, though cool the first time, got old from the second time on. Come on, no more slingshotting around the sun.
My favorite Star Trek time travel episode is Time’s Arrow where Data’s head is found in San Francisco. This stuff is awesome-making (to coin a little Scott Westerfeld slang).
What is your favorite time travel story, and what about it worked well?
*Curious what a telegen is? Read the first book in the series, THE EMERALD TABLET!
Parker Peevyhouse
lindajoysingleton
Joni Sensel
Chris Eboch
Nick
Greg R. Fishbone
Hmmm….favorite time travel story….I like the ones with Twilight Zone-like twists. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but if you’re going to have time travel, I believe in Twilight Zone-like twists.
Other than that, I think Douglas Adams did good things with time travel in his Hitchhiker’s series. Also, The Time Traveler’s Wife had an interesting take on time travel (although, personally, I wasn’t really taken enough with the story).
Beth, I liked so many elements of the Time Traveler’s Wife. I thought it was really well written, and such a cool concept. But I’ve heard others not really liking it much either.
Twilight Zone rocked! Ditto Douglas Adams.
I was impressed by The Time Traveler’s Wife. It reminded me of Slaughterhouse Five, except that the time jumps were physical and had physical consequences. The process of writing that book must have required horrendous amounts of planning and outlining because it has to read well linearly and make sense in the character’s timeline as well.
It was always too easy to time travel in Star Trek. You could slingshot around the sun, step through the Guardian of Tomorrow, take out the wrong book from an alien library, fly through a temporal anomaly, or maybe just piss Q off enough for him to snap his fingers at you. Sometimes the Enterprise would show up in the 20th Century without any explanation at all!
I love time travel stories!
Love Slaughterhouse Five. Love Twilight Zone twists. Love Harry P and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Love the Star Trek episode where the Enterprise has to keep going back and figuring out how to keep from blowing up (thanks to Q).
I do not love The Time Machine.
Last Midnight has some time travel twists in it too.
So this is the 2nd book in your EMERALD TABLET series? It sounds intriguing. I really enjoyed your first book. Can’t wait to read it!!!
I may be dating myself, but “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle had me riveted in grade school, and still enjoyed it as I read it with my kids.
That book is the best! Very interesting theories and great characters.
Greg, totally agree. The amount of planning for TTTW is awing. It all fit together so well! And as for Star Trek and the 20th century, that’s cause the 20th century was just so darn awesome. And the ease of time travel is one of the endearing things of Star Trek, isn’t it!
Yes, Parker! I thought the HP:POA was done really well! It’s actually what got me reading the books (after seeing the movie). And I can’t wait to read Last Midnight!
Thanks, Linda! Yes, the sequel to The Emerald Tablet!
I read this in grade school, Anna Springer’s Mom, but haven’t re-read it since. I loved it back then! I’m almost scared to pick it back up, but I think it would stand the test of time!
yeah i am really into the concept of time travel at the moment