The best books on time travel you need to read yesterday

Okay, hear me out, I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t this a deep dive into quantum mechanics and theoretical physics that will break my brain and take an age to read?

Well, yes. And no.

The brilliance of this beautifully written work is that it’s chock full of Mr. Hawking’s humour. Best read in short bursts rather than in one night, there’s a real joy in learning from the best. And by the end of it, you may just have a firm grasp on everything from black holes to how to avoid a grandfather paradox.

Total gear shift, I know, but this is going somewhere, I promise.

I was late to the party with the Potter series, and whilst not many will have the luxury of experiencing this book spoiler-free, the reason I’m recommending this is because of the impact it had on my writing.

There I was reading a book about a magic school and then out of nowhere (okay there was some allusion and one helluva Chekhov’s Gun with that necklace Hermione was rocking) it went full-on sci-fi! This wasn’t just a brief foray into time travel either, it was an entire arc that as a time travel fan I did not see coming and I hoovered up every glorious page of it like a Dyson*.

*Other brands of hoover/vacuum are available.

Whilst technically a short story rather than a full novel, this thing was written all the way back in 1952, but set in the year 2055. Yet somehow…it reads as if it could have been written in the 80s. It involves an agency that allows the rich to travel back in time and hunt prehistoric animals for kicks. Horrid, right? Well, yes. But the hook here is the caveat: Don’t deviate from the path laid out by the event organisers.

This story blew my mind as a kid and my own series wouldn't exist without it. It’ll teach you everything you need to know in order to understand the history of the butterfly effect.

It had such an impact on my imagination that I just had to include an easter egg in my own series entitled The Flutterby Effect. This story has influenced so much more than you realise too, in terms of mainstream time travel related media. Everything from Back to The Future to The Simpsons have all riffed off it. See where it all began by reading this hidden gem.

It also led to a movie in 2005. But…we don’t talk about Bruno.

A sound of thunder. Hear the T-Rex roar….

An oldie but goldie, I’m sending you even further back into history for this rec’ to the year 1895 and even as I’m writing that I can’t get my synapses around how ahead of his time ol’ Herbert was.

Sure, it’s got that time travel razzle dazzle surrounding the time machine itself, but what this book is really about is actually more a case of putting class systems under the microscope and proving that if we don’t learn from past mistakes humanity will end up in the same state as the dinosaurs from my last recommendation. That is to say, extinct, not hunted for sport.

The whole thing is essentially a first-hand account of what it may be like to travel so far into Earth’s future that every single shred of life as you knew it has been destroyed.

But the more things change the more they stay the same, as so begins a journey through the human condition.

This story launched Wells’ career, and it’s easy to see why.

“I’ve had a most amazing time....” the protagonist declares.

I promise, you will too.

I adored this entire series from beginning to end, but I’m recommending Book 1 in the series because…well, it’s the start and also my favourite. This series launched all the way back in 2010 and even though it’s written for a young adult teen audience, it’s so well written and a joy to just kick back with on a Sunday afternoon with a cuppa.

The characterisation is brilliant, has some brilliant set pieces, and it has that Harry Potter kind of vibe with young protagonists forced into growing up a little too fast and getting to wield an altogether different kind of magic. There’s so much to love, as you learn all the rules and quirks of this universe.