The most immersive stories centered around time travel

I was repeatedly impressed by H.G. Wells’ book, constantly reminding myself that it was written in the 19th century before relativity and the concept of spacetime, even before the game Red Dead Redemption 2 took place.

Conceptually, I found the ideas remarkably ahead of their time and enjoyed seeing the different eras of sci-fi that would follow represented to varying degrees, especially the Golden Age and New Wave. I went through a period of going through all of the fundamental science fiction I’d never read, and this was by far the most meaningful.

I frequently drive between L.A. and the bay, and the time I listened to it on my way home was the fastest the trip ever felt.

The best book recommendation my dad has ever given me was The Forever War. I tend to find the shorter, pocket book sci-fi a bit rushed on details for my liking, but they’re entirely his jam, and The Forever War had such a unique setting I still became immersed.

It tickled all of the motifs I love most about 70’s science fiction: space is dark and cold and unforgiving. And what’s not to love about a dystopian military-industrial complex? Because of the setting, it is a time travel story in which the time traveling happens progressively throughout, which gave me the sense of a new type of adventure with every jump forward.

I’m a big fan of genre-bending and trope manipulation, and I was completely blown away by this rare creation of a book. It’s a carefully crafted plot of time manipulation, blending science fiction, fantasy, espionage, and romance, told through letters between two rival agents in a style more akin to a war drama.

Those contrasting styles notably elevated the story for me, accenting the cybernetic future by experiencing the naturalistic one and enhancing the love story through the suspense of corporate espionage.

At no point did I feel as if either empire was the “good” or “bad” one, only that I wanted both of the protagonists to succeed, and that made my first read of this book nothing short of a page-turner.

Crichton is, without question, my favorite author, and what I love most about his books is the singular word that defines them all: immersive. As one of the later Crichton books I read, I actually saw the movie adaptation of this book first, and I cannot stress enough how much better the book is.

The details involved build both a compelling representation of 14th century France, complete with indecipherable language, and a believable mechanism for that time travel based on quantum mechanics, more than a decade before the boom of multiverse fiction.

I’d characterize the title story of this book as having Animal Farm energy—a huge idea in a short story—and a prime example of why Heinlein’s era is called the “Golden Age” of science fiction. I listened to multiple sections of this story twice after realizing my bearings had been off, slowed the audio to normal speed (I typically listen at 1.25x), and even looked up diagrams online outlining the order of plot events, which exist because this story pushes time travel to its limits.

Completing the story wasn’t the end, either. I wanted to read the analysis, discussions, and the aforementioned diagrams. It is a masterfully written, thought-provoking tale whose big reveals and revelations were legitimately jaw-dropping at times.