Exploring Time Travel in Different Genres

Stephen King, 2016

Thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher Jake Epping is enlisted on a bizarre mission traveling back in time to 1958. While there, he has the opportunity to prevent disastrous events: like the gruesome murder of a student's mother and siblings by the father, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Along the way, he meets Lee Harvey Oswald and falls in love with a high school librarian named Sadie. But history seems to be fighting back as Jake's attempts at preventing murders produce unexpected consequences. This may be my all-time favorite King novel.

Katherine Locke, 2017

Sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum accidentally time-travels to 1988 East Berlin. While there, she meets members of an underground resistance who help people escape Communist East Berlin using a red balloon. The stakes are raised when they discover someone is using dark magic to change history. This is a great read blending historical fiction, mystery, and magic.

Blake Crouch, 2019

NYC cop Barry Sutton investigates a phenomenon called False Memory Syndrome, a bizarre disease that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. Meanwhile, neuroscientist Helena Smith has created a technology that will preserve memories. As their lives intertwine, the two struggle to preserve reality as the very fabric of the past crumbles around them.

Dean Koontz, 2003

Laura Shane has a guardian. A mysterious stranger who appears in lightning, throughout her childhood to protect her. Thirty years later, the stranger appears wounded and in need of her help. Laura protects the man who is pursued by others tampering with history, thrusting herself into a dramatic conclusion.

Matt Haig, 2020

Struggling with depression, Nora Seed finds herself in a library full of books containing all the choices she could have made in her life. She must decide which book to choose. What if she had made different choices? Would her life have been any better? We all have regrets, but Nora is allowed to experience the outcomes of different choices. A thoroughly enjoyable read dealing with depression and regrets.

H.G. Wells, 2011

First published in 1895, a time traveler transports 800,000 years in the future where he meets two races – the childlike Eloi who live on the surface and the war like Morlocks who live underground. The term "time machine" was coined by Wells in this classic post-apocalyptic science fiction novella. A must read for any sci-fi fan.

Jack Finney, 1995

Advertising artist Si Morley is recruited by a covert government operation and travels back in time to 1882. While there he investigates a mysterious letter his girlfriend has that is linked to New York City in 1882. The book meticulously recreates New York in the late nineteenth century, explores the possibilities of altering history, and spins a love story between two people from different eras. First published in 1970, Stephen King called Time and Again, "THE great time-travel story."

John Turiano, 2020

My debut novel. Sam Reilly plunges into a mystery taking him back to another era. He travels back in time to investigate a pattern of scientists who died or disappeared dating back to 1942. But he soon finds himself trapped in another time, alone, and hunted by a killer. Meanwhile the military has taken control of the time device and is using it to alter history. Flash Back explores the dangers of science vs nature and advanced technology out of control.