The Best Time Travel Stories Of All Time (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
A varied collection of short stories involving time travel. Individual stories vary in length from a few pages to several dozen. Tones of the stories range from comedic to light to serious to disturbing.I am not typically a fan of time travel stories. I find usually that the author has a very anti-physical concept of the logical issues involved; one or two of the stories in this anthology declare the problem of causality paradoxes closed by declaring that no human beings may witness the effects of time travel. This type of paradox resolution is more of a fantasy element than science fiction; it sounds like a caveat that a wizard would put in his spell.And yes indeed, the type of thinking necessary to write something like this is everywhere in the stories collected here. It may be that there are "harder" time travel stories than these, which consider physical reality in addition to the world of human affairs; Malzberg, the editor, does seem a bit dainty and foppish, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were a selection bias in favor of Dune-like fantasy.But regardless of plausibility, the real test is pure enjoyment. Many of the stories are well written, and some are not. The worst is Brooklyn Project by William Tenn. After a few pages of dull, semicompetent writing, there is a short sequence betraying an insipid misogyny from the author; I skimmed the rest to find the punchline ridiculous and empty of meaning. I could probably guess Tenn's weight and annual hygiene budget without missing by much.But again, most of the stories are better than this. Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg is elegantly beautiful and accomplishes the best that I personally can expect from a time travel plot, which is that it steers the mind away from the preposterous aspects of the device with skillful, engaging writing. I'd never heard of Silverberg but I'm now inclined to pursue more of his material, and in my opinion this piece elevates the entire collection.There are other pieces falling on the good end of the scale. The Battle Of Long Island by Nancy Kress is imaginitive, and Time Travelers Never Die is as expertly written as Hawksbill Station. I don't feel obligated to rate each story, but the upshot is it wouldn't kill you to read this book if you have a long plane ride coming up.
Over the years, I've found that a collection of the "best" stories of a year usually lives up to its title. Any other "bests" tend to fall short. This one came close, however. Mr. Malzberg has collected tales from the forties through the nineties--ah, given the focus of the book, I should say the nineteen-forties through the nineteen-nineties. There are nice, solid time travel tales in here, including one of my personal favorites, "Brooklyn Project". While not spectacular, it's definitely a keeper.
What do You think about The Best Time Travel Stories Of All Time (2003)?
A very nice collection of short stories. Of course in any collection about one topic there are bound to be some repeats of themes and ideas but overall I think the stories here are all of good quality. In some of the stories the best of Science Fiction comes out where the Science fades into the background and it is about the characters and telling a story from a different angle. The details that will be problems for future (or past) time travelers are examined and in most stories the elasticity of Time is at least a major part if not the key part of the Science. Perhaps the stories would not run together so much in my head if I had picked up and read one story then switched books and read a different story later. If you like Science Fiction or if you like Short Stories this is a good collection to keep around for those few moments of time you do have to read.
—Robert
Overall I found this to be a great collection of stories, giving a broad range of some of the different kinds of rules and laws involved in time travel and how they might affect the world at large.I found the first couple of stories I had to chew through a little, but afterwards it picked up and grabbed my interest enough to quickly gobble up the rest of the book.The big names in the anthology proved once again why they are so well remembered in the genre. I would recommend this book to anyone who has in interest in SF or time travel in general.
—Niamh Brown
