The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 2014



   Time Trap
by Michael Shanks (Shanks, director)
First release: circa 2014 (straight-to-video)

After a spaceman crashes on a barren Earth with no apparent minerals to power his ship, he uses his Portable Time Bubble Generator (for the eight minutes of this short film) to determine whether anything in the past might be useful for fixing his damaged ship.

 
collision approaching
correct
course
manual override required
 


   “The Carl Paradox”
by Steve Rasnic Tem
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jan 2014

Future Carl informs Carl that the life he’s leading is the only one that’s insignificant enough that no paradox or disaster can possibly occur as a result of his time travel.

 The only difference, apparently, is the major dressing used on a roast beef club sandwich at a place called Garalfalos. 


   The Chronos Files
by Rysa Walker
First book: 1 Jan 2014

The first book in Rysa Walker’s Chrons Files series, Timebound, won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The book follows 16-year-old Prudence “Kate” Pierce-Keller to 1893 where a murder risks wiping out everything she knows, including herself.

The rest of the series has two more novels and two interregnum novellas.
  1. 1.0. Timebound (1 Jan 2014) 16-year-old Kate Pierce-Keller
  2. 1.5. Time’s Echo (25 Apr 2014) Kate in another timeline
  3. 2.0. Times Edge (21 Oct 2014) to Kate’s grandfather’s time
  4. 2.5. Time’s Mirror (30 Jun 2015) to 2305
  5. 3.0 Times Divide (20 Oct 2015) the final chapter
  6. 3.1. Gambit (2 Nov 2015) Chronos historian Saul Rand
  7. 3.5. Simon Says (8 Dec 2015) Marilyn Monroe’s death
  8. 3.6. Whack Job (29 Jan 2016) Simon meets Lizzie Bordon

 I was feeling very shaky on my feet. Id never had any sort of hallucination, and the sounds and images had seemed so real, like I was actually experiencing them firsthand. 




   Papa John’s Back to the Future Commercial
aka Peyton Manning to 1984
First aired: 2 Jan 2014

 Professional driver. Closed course. Do not attempt! 




   Pepsi Halftime Commercial
First aired: 4 Jan 2014

 I like halftime! 


Six of Rountree’s earlier stories appeared in this collection.

   “Cigarette Lighter Love Song”
by Josh Rountree
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 17 Jan 2014

Every ten years, Melissa casts a spell that makes her and the narrator flit back, experiencing earlier times, all in the spot where the roller rink used to be.

 See, this is how it happens. Im in that place I want to be, then suddenly its twenty years later and Melissa is telling me what a son of a bitch I am and why did I have to screw the whole thing up just as shed finally got the fucking spell right? 




   “The Future Faire”
by Dustin Adams
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 21 Jan 2014

When people from the future put on a faire outside of Portland, Tyler and his parents are among the first in line to visit. As a reader, I’m hoping that deaf Tyler will come away cured, despite the prominent sign announcing: NO TECHNOLOGY IS TO LEAVE THE FAIREGROUNDS!

 Im curious why people from the future would need cash, but my father says, “Business is business, no matter when youre from.” 




   “The Cartography of Sudden Death”
by Charlie Jane Anders
First publication: tor.com, 22 Jan 2014

In a future Earth with an mixture of space colonies and a rigid caste system on Earth, retainer Ythna witnesses a peculiarly dressed red-haired woman emerge from nowhere at the very moment of Ythna’s mistress’s sudden death.

 “No, I swear I had nothing to do with her death,” the woman said sadly. “Except that it created a door for me to step through.” 


   A Murder in Time
by Jonas Saul
First publication: 23 Jan 2014

Things start going wrong as soon as Marcus Johnson staged the fake robbery at the store that he managed—not the least of which was himself appearing outside the store and looking in at himself getting ready to undertake the robbery, presumably because of those time-travel experiments his mother participated in when she was pregnant.

 Last night when he locked up and stared out the window, he had seen someone familiar starting back at him from the parking lots light standard. That someone appeard to be crying and was dressed exactly as he was right now. 




   Comcast/Xfinity Commercial
First aired: Superbowl XLVIII, 2 Feb 2014

 We must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. 




   The Lego Movie
by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, et. al.
First release: 7 Feb 2014

Do legos time travel? Maybe not, but they do go to an old west universe where Emmet asks, “Do you think you can explain to me why I'm dressed like this? And what those big words in the sky were all about? And, like, where we are . . . in time?” Those questions, together with the quote shown below, get the movie into my time-travel list.

 Come with me if you want to not die. 




   Uncle Grandpa
created by Peter Browngardt
First time travel: 18 Feb 2014

When the main character of a tv show is the uncle/grandpa/brother/dad of every person in the world (including, presumably, himself), you have to expect time travel sooner or later. In this case, I think the first time travel was when a future Uncle Grandpa delivered a future pizza. The only time traveling that I’ve seen, however, involved the wayward pants that Christopher Columbus refused to return
  1. Future Pizza (18 Feb 2014) pizza from tomorrow
  2. 1992 Called (21 Aug 2014) wayward pants travel five centuries
  3. Time Burgers (21 May 2015) meat from history

 If I dont get my pants back by the end of the day, m calling the time police. 

—“1992 Called”


   “Drink in a Small Town”
by Peter Wood
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Mar 2014

A down-on-his-luck physicist who’s invented a faster-than-light drive stops to watch the first manned Mars landing in a small-town Georgia diner. This is one of the few stories I’ve seen that ties together ftl with time travel.

 And youll discover something else when youre tinkering with that drive. 




   “Mrs. Darwin Has Visitors”
by David Barber
First publication: Flash Fiction Online, Mar 2014

This is the first time-travel story that I ran across in the enjoyable monthly, Flash Fiction Online. Among others, Andrew J. Salt from the Creation Museum of Petersburg, Kentucky, has an interest in getting by Charles Darwin’s gatekeeper.

 It seemed Mr Salt had completed a difficult journey today and was impatient. He was in possession of a powerful new idea that must be brought to Mr Darwins notice. 


I don’t like to use the same cover illustration twice, so here’s an interior illustration for a poem in the March 2014 Asimov’s.   “Through Portal”
by Dominica Phetteplace
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Mar 2014

During a picnic on a planet under study, eight-year-old Emmy wanders away and through a portal that is only partly a time machine.

 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, . . . 




   “The Uncertain Past”
by Ted White
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2014

JFK-viewers are clichéd in time travel, but Ted White—a favorite of mine from his time as Amazing and Fantastic editor—has a new twist as every observer sees a different version of the assasination attempt.

 Kennedy wasnt hit. Neither was Connally. I didnt bother sticking around after that. 




   Mr. Peabody & Sherman
by Craig Wright (Rob Minkoff, director)
First released: 7 Mar 2014

The movie had some good one-liners and even some good (albeit worn) puns in the style of the original cartoon, but for me, the plot lacked even enough structure to hold the attention of a child and the writer was writing down to his audience so much so that not even Patrick Warburton’s voice in a small part was sufficient to rescue the story from the fast-forward button.

 Very well, then: If a boy can adopt a dog, the I see no reason why a dog cant adopt a boy. 


from Gilbow’s home page

   “Running Late”
by S.L. Gilbow
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 7 Mar 2014

The traveling companion of a reluctant time-travel tourist is running late again.

 Time machines, after all, run on a tight schedule. 




   Predestination
adapted by Micheal Spierig and Peter Spierig (both also directed)
First release: 8 Mar 2014

I was so disappointed with this movie that I’m going to have to write a spoiler. So if you don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading now.

Here’s the problem: Heinlein’s story “—All You Zombies—” was the last word on one specific kind of time travel story: The story is which there is but one timeline. If you travel to the past and do something, it is because you traveled to the past and did that thing. But the Spierig brothers completely missed this point by introducing an older version of the Unmarried Mother who has newspaper clippings of other timelines that he has changed. The nice closed sexual loop is still present in the movie, but that wasn’t enough to stop my disappointment at the drubbing that the central story idea took. I wasn’t so hot on the music either (except for “I’m My Own Grandpa”), but the relationship between the Barkeep and the Unmarried Mother was spot on as was the depiction of time travel and the foreshadowing.

 Unmarried Mother: So I can do this, I can change my past?
Barkeep: Yes, you can.
U.M.: Have you ever thought about changing yours?
BK: I never deviate from the mission.
U.M.: Never?
BK: Never. . . . Look, Ill pick you up when youre done, all right?
U.M.: No, whoa, where are you going?
BK: Dont worry. Ill be around, trust me.
U.M.: Do I? . . . Do I have a choice?
BK: Of course. You always have a choice. 




   Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey
presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson
First episode: 9 Mar 2014

Although the 2014 version didn’t capture me as did the original, the new time-traveling Ship of the Imagination is wondrous, as are the other new special effects (but, for me, the animation was weak).

 Lets go back 30,000 years to a time before dogs . . . 




   Resurrection
developed by Aaron Zelman, Brad Pitt and Jason Mott
First episode: 10 Mar 2014

After eight-year-old Jake Langston drowns in a river, 32 years pass before he reappears, unchanged, in a rice paddy in China. They can call it resurection, but it quacks like time travel to me, even if Jake’s original body is still in that mausoleum.

 Whats red and green and goes a million miles an hour? 




   “The Sentence Is Always Death”
by Brian Hirt and Ken Gerber
First publication: Daily Science Fictioin, 14 Mar 2014

Forty-three-year-old Paul Beaumont, who used to switch places with his twin brother Thomas, faces sentencing in a court where the sentence is always death and the worst death option involves government time-traveling executioners—although the universe will allow the sentence to be carried out only after the condemned no longer has a future contribution of importance.

 “I order death from category K.” Somehow these words sound less insidious than the proper name. There is only one type of death in this category. It's called “Erasure.” 




   “Lookback”
aka Time Well Spent
by George Zebrowski
First publication: Nature, 27 Mar 2014

A man enjoys dropping into the life of his own younger self to spend time with his own lover’s younger self while his younger self is not at home.

 I always prepared by losing a pound or two, colouring my hair a bit and exercising, even using make-up to look younger than my late 60s, so that she would notnotice in the dim light of the apartment at night. Nearsighted and in bed, it would help that she would not be wearing glasses. 




   One-Minute Time Machine
by Sean Crouch (Devon Avery, director)
First release: 29 Mar 2014 (festival)

James takes his one-minute time machine to a park bench to try to pick up quantum physicist Rachel.

Janet showed this five-minute film-festival film to me on my first prime birthday of the 2010 decade.

 Rachel: Whats that?
James: Huh? Oh, nothing.
Rachel: Sure its not a One-Minute Time Machine? 


   “It’s Not ‘The Lady or the Tiger’,
It’s ‘Which Tiger?’”

by Ian Randall Strock
First publication: Analog, Apr 2014

When searching for a long-lost ancestor (possibly depressed) whose actions literally gave you a good life, a time traveler would be well advised to frequent said ancestor’s watering holes.

 I came back to offer you comfort, love, happiness, a life of ease. 


Jacobsen also authored this 2012 sf novel.

   “Prometheus . . . ?”
by Mark Jacobsen
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 13 Apr 2014

A pair of time travelers try to learn the old skills such as starting a fire from rubbing sticks.

 You know, Ive seen this in books, but never in real life. 




   Time Lapse
by Bradley D. King and BP Cooper (King, director)
First release: 18 Apr 2014

Three friends stumble across a camera that produces pictures from 24 hours in the future. Gambler Jasper thinks to use it to make a fortune, but painter Finn sees a painting that he’s going to paint, resulting in a nice example of the artist paradox. From there, the plot turns into a horror movie in which whatever the photo shows, they must make happen or die.

 Mr. B. invented a camera that takes pictures of the future. 




   Zits
by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman
First time travel: 20 Apr 2014

Strangely enough, on Saturday, April 19, my friend Jim Martin sent me a copy of the Sunday, April 20, Zits comic strip, which was the first one that I’ve noticed with time travel.

 Ignoring the space/time continuum helped. 




   Brewster Rockit, Space Guy
by Tim Rickard
First time travel (that I saw): 21 Apr 2014

I’m not a regular reader of the funnies any more, so I can’t tell you when Dr. Mel in the Brewster Rockit strip first made use of his time machine, but my friend Jim (see Zits, above) also showed me the doctor’s use of his time machine to avoid having a late taxes penalty.

 Dr. Mel, you forgot to file your taxes last week! You missed the tax deadline! 




   “The Gift of Time”
by Maggie Clark
First publication: Clarkesworld, May 2014

From his little office where he works for an esteemed antiquities dealer, Mr. Mouse Musset wills himself back in time to retrieve objects in a way that only he can, but the secretary above him—the very secretary that Mouse worships—does not appreciate Mouse’s finds.

 I have had quite enough assurance, Mr. Musset, from the carbon dating Mr. Hazlitt had performed. Granted, the calligraphy is clever, and the materials all true to form—but how old would you say Beowulf is? Tenth century? Maybe eighth? 




   “Presidential Cryptotrivia”
by Oliver Buckram
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014

A list of amazing but true facts about U.S. presidents, some of who traveled through time.

 . . . he traveled back in time to 1898 in order to engineer the unlikely annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii into the United States. 






   Once Upon a Time
created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
First time travel: 4 May 2014

I loved the first season of this show in which the Evil Queen casts a spell that takes all of Fairy Tale Land to a small town in Maine. The show definitely jumped the shark in Season 3 when they went to Neverland, but I came back to watch the last three episodes of that season when a time portal opened into the pre-spell Fairy Tale Land.

 Im still here. How is that possible? We saw her die. I should never be born. 




   X-Men: Days of Future Past
by Simon Kinberg (Bryan Singer, director)
First release: 10 May 2014

Wolverine comes back from 2013 to 1980 to persuade Professor X to take a different path.

 Are we destined to destroy each other, or can we change each other and unite? Is the future truly set? 




   “The Santa Anna Gold”
by Michael Bunker
First publication: Third Scribe, 20 May 2014

In addition to the audio/text version on Third Scribe (nicely formatted with images of the area, Jack Finney, and Einstein), this story also appeared as the first story in the Synchronic anthology (22 May 2014). The story follows an off-the-grid man who helps his son, Rick, track down the legendary Santa Anna gold stash by traveling to the past in a Jack-Finney-manner.

 “Historys about finding out what happened and whats true,” and that was that as far as he was concerned. 


   “Corrections”
by Susan Kaye Quinn
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel 22 May 2014

Dr. Ian Webb works in criminal corrections, traveling back in time to stop murders that were committed by remorseful murderers such as Owen—but now Owen has gone back to his story of innocence.

 The blue spider-web hologram springs to life, surrounding Owens head with a neural net. Its the final piece in the technology puzzle, the part that allows me access to Owens mind, once he relaxes enough to let me in. 


Before this short story, Robertson released this post-apocalyptic series.   “The First Cut”
by Edward W. Robertson
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Fresh from graduation (last in his class at the time travel cop academy), Blake Din is assigned to Senior Agent Mara Riesling (pretty and not much older than him) for field training.

 I wasnt overjoyed about running solo through a strange city where every other one of the barbarians was carrying a gun, but that was the job. The job Id been working toward for six years of secondary school and another three years in the Academy. 


The story was also released in this separate e-book.   “Hereafter”
by Samuel Peralta
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Caitlyn, a military nurse, instantly falls in love with a time traveler who must then disappear. The next time they meet, he dies in her arms, and each subsequent time follows a Fibonacci sequence in the number of years of separation.

 You know how some satellites stay in the same place in orbit, where the gravity of the earth and moon balance each other? 


from Isaac Hooke’s website   “The Laurasians”
by Isaac Hooke
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Middle-aged palentologist Horatio Horace and his student Megan tag along with the military boys on a trip to the time of the dinosaurs.

 He hoped to put to rest the debate on protofeathers—or “dinofuzz” as some of his lesser-esteemed colleagues dubbed them—and to prove exactly which species, at least in this time period, had them. 


A plague doctor from the middle ages, who kind of looks like one of the spies in Spy vs Spy   “The Mirror”
by Irving Belateche
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

A rambling story of a young man who comes to New York, eventually takes over the ownership of an antique store, and comes upon a young woman who has a mirror (with slight time-travel powers connected to the time of the Black Plague) to sell and a heart to capture.

 I was working late as usual, when our new employee—Dolores, whom Id hired myself—came into the back office, now my office, to let me know tht a Rebecca Ward was on the phone and wanted to have Remembrance broker a sale for an antique mirror she owned. 


from Eric Tozzi’s website   “Reentry Window”
by Eric Tozzi
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Brett Lockwood, first astronaut on Earth, finds himself inexplicably out of contact with the rest of the mission astronauts and with Earth.

 It was the Mars atmospheric anomaly that resurrected the planetary and deep-space exploration programs from the ashes of oblivian. 


What else am I going to put as an image for this story?   “Reset”
by MeiLin Miranda
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Sandy tells about her life-long friend Catherine who on her 50th birthday always has her mind transferred back to her sixteen-year-old body.

 Sandy, youre the one thing that never really changes, no matter how many times I go through this. 


This is the first book in Ellis’s YA series.   “The River”
by Jennifer Ellis
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Ironman runner and trainer Sarah steals a personal time machine from physicist and running partner Paul in order to fix the past mistake that killed her own daughter.

Although I enjoyed the romantic parts of the story and the adult being back in her childhood body, I felt that the walking through of well-trod genre ground didn’t display full understanding of the grandfather paradox: The paradox is presented as being the problem that the time-traveling grandfather-killer cannot return to his own future because he won’t exist. The actual paradox is deeper than that.

 Just stole a time device from the hottest guy ever. 


from Ann Christy’s website   “Rock or Shell”
by Ann Christy
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Gertie lives on a mattress with all her stuff attached to her by wires so that it won't go wandering away in the no man’s mist where time is in constant flux. I admit, though, that I didn’t understand what was happening in the story which is mostly a conversation between Gertie and a younger girl in the misty land.

 You know that whatever were connected to—even if only through some conductive medium—comes with us? 


Cole also wrote this military sf novel, which he describes as Call of Duty meets Diablo.   “The Swimming Pool of the Universe”
by Nick Cole
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

Private Dexter Keith, a soldier fighting aliens on an asteroid, is caught in the blast of a time bomb that sends his mind back through his own lifetime.

 You got to understand, a phase grenade messes with your mind, grunt. 


Pompey the Great   “A Word in Pompey’s Ear”
by Christopher Nuttall
First publication: Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, 22 May 2014

After a history graduate student has her research proposal dismissed by her professor, she runs into a woman who offers to put her ideas about Pompey the Great and the Roman Civil War to a real-world test.

 And then I told her that if I had been there, I could have steered Pompey toward saving the Republic. 




   Edge of Tomorrow
aka Live, Die, Repeat
adapted by Christopher McQuarrrie, et. al. (Doug Liman, director)
First release: 28 May 2014

Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day.

 Come find me when you wake up. 


   “Sidewalk at 12:10 P.M.”
by Nancy Kress
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jun 2014

Sarah, now living on Mars at age 110, uses new technology to revisit the day when she thought life couldn’t possibly be worth living. Be sure to take the quote below with a grain of salt.

 No. No travel is involved. A user cannot affect anything that has happened, ever. All the Chrono does is show on a screen what is already there, was there, will always be there. 




   I’ll Follow You Down
by Richie Mehta (Mehta, director)
First release: 6 Jun 2014 (internet)

What would you do if your wormhole-physicist father took a trip to Princeton and never came back? The obvious answer for nine-year-old Erol is to grow up to be a wormhole-physicist yourself so that you can go back in time and prevent Dad’s disappearance.

 The first move is Pawn 5 to Pawn 3. 




   Experimental Simulation of
Closed Timelike Curves

by Martin Ringbauer, Matthew Broome, Casey Myers, et. al.
First publication: Nature Communications, 19 Jun 2014

With a title like this, it would be a sin to not put this research on the time travel list. The paper describes an experiment by Australian Professor Timothy Ralph and his student Martin Ringbauer (plus the additional authors that seem to be required for any paper in experimental physics). The starting point of the research is David Deutsch’s proposition that the probabilistic quantum behavior of nature can overcome certain kinds of cause and effect violations that seem inherent in closed timelike curves (i.e., time travel!) that are allowed by general relativity. The Australians don’t actually create a time travel situation, but instead they used entangled photons to simulate how Deutsch’s original particle and from-the-future particle would interact.

 One aspect of general relativity that has long intrigued physicists is the relative ease with which one can find solutions to Einsteins field equations that contain closed timelike curves (CTCs)`-causal loops in space-time that return to the same point in space and time. 




   Audi A8 Commercial
First aired: 24 Jun 2014

 Youre me, right? 




   “The Color of Paradox”
by A.M. Dellamonica
First publication: tor.com, 25 Jun 2015

The Allies, facing the inevitable end of the world at the hands of the Russo-German Axis in the second Great War, send a young man back to 1920 Seattle where he hopes to enlist the aid of Agent Sixteen and change the course of the next three decades provided, of course, that he can overcome the psychological-horror-story side effects from the time travel.

Alyx Dellamonica says that this story is just the start of a longer work that she originally conceived but hasn’t yet developed. I would like to see the longer piece and have a better understanding of the psychological effects of time travel in Dellamonica’s universe.

 My stomach cramped and I was, all at once, brimming with fury. I had an urge to chase her out of the room, to smash her head against the banister until her blood ran between my knuckles. To lick, drink . . . I touched my tongue to the notch between my clenched index and middle fingers, imagining salt, and saw a flash of color . . . 


   “How Do I Get to Last Summer from Here?”
by M. Bennardo
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 2014

This story has a method of time travel that’s remniscent of that in Janet’s favorite time travel novel, Time and Again by Jack Finney, but it’s also tied in with the time in your life that you most long for.

 You cant go back there, no matter how much you pay. 




   Premature
by Dan Beers and Mathew Harawitz (Beers, director)
First release: 2 Jul 2014

On the day of his college interview, things don’t go so well for Glenbrook High School senior Rob Crabbe, but right at the climax of the day (so to speak), he finds himself waking up again and again to relive the day, leading to a kind of oversexed Ferris Bueller meets Groundhog Day.

  




   “The LevoGyre”
by Wendy Wheeler
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 8 Jul 2014

The narrator of the story is the test subject for an experiment in gravitational time dilation that instead causes time travel and reveals the meaning of everything.

 Then my theories are correct. The mind is the eternal constant. 


Miles has published several novels, including this one, under the name Julian M. Miles.

   “Cleanup Crew”
by Jae Miles
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 29 Jul 2014

Two paleontologists discover a fossilized mammal in an impossible location.

 Were going to be famous! 


This story also had an audio production on podcastle.com.

   “Makeisha in Time”
by Rachael K. Jones
First publication: Crossed Genres

My favorite Star Trek episode from the entire franchise is The Inner Light, where Picard lives an entire life on a long-dead alien planet. That episode has no time travel, since the life was a virtual life lived out in minutes in his mind, but Makeisha’s form of repeated living past lives on Earth is actual time travel.

For me, Makeisha’s story suffered from having no sustaining characters outside of Makeisha herself, although I did enjoy the idea.

 She will be yanked from the present without warning, and live a whole lifetime in the past. When she dies, she returns right back to where she left, restored to a younger age. It usually happens when she is deep in conversation with her boss, or arguing with her mother-in-law, or during a book club meeting just when it is her turn to speak. 


   “Of All Possible Worlds”
by Jay O’Connell
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Aug 2014

When Costas Regas bonds with his 90-year-old landlord, Mr. Hieronymus, and discovers that the old man is editing the 20th century, that’s a fairly cool idea on its own, even without the possible smidgen of backward time travel that occurs when Costas writes poetry.

 Contained within the poem was a way to close a loop of time, pinch it off, and discard it. Id broken time. 




   “6 Attempts at
Winning Jennifer’s Heart”

by James Aquilone
First publication: Flash Fiction Online, Aug 2014

An assistant to the brilliant Dr. Tomokats hijacks various of the doctor’s technology for purposes of the heart.

 Note: Time travel solves nothing. 




   “Time Crash”
by Jane Elliot
First publication: Crossed Genres, Aug 2014

So far, Catherine has repeated the same day with the same deadly robbery 10,376 times.

 10,376 times the womans mouth opened in a small ‘o,’ her brown lids pulled back to show the whiteness of her eyes, and she stared straight out into space before looking down and sticking a single finger in the slowly spreading blood. Every time it happened, Catherine dropped her half gallon of milk, and she waited for the end to come. 




   2035 Forbidden Dimensions
by Christopher James Miller (Miller, director)
First release: 5 Aug 2014 (straight-to-video)

I get that somebody (Jack Slade) has come back from a dystopic, mutant-filled future to stop the events that led to the aliens creating such a future—but the movie was unwatchable for me, even if the writer did portray Jean-Luc Picard’s young nephew in Star Trek Generations.

 My name is Detective Giger . . . Im contacting you from the year 2035. Dr. Shector has taken over society with a toxic drug made from the flesh of alien beings . . . 




   “1:40 AM”
by Eliza Victoria
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 8 Aug 2014

Peter, a worker at the science institute, is stuck babysitting “John” in the middle of the night when a gunman enters and a time loop ensues.

 Is there something in your past that you want to change? An action you want to reverse? A death you want to prevent? 




   Outlander
developed by Ronald D. Moore
First episode: 9 Aug 2014

Based on the wildly successful romance novel series, this Housewives in Time tv series takes World War II nurse Claire back to 1743 Scotland where the muscular Scottish highlander Jamie Fraser immediately rescues her from a sinister ancestor (and lookalike double) of her husband. In that long-ago time period, Claire longs to return to her life, but that doesn’t stop her from a Jamie romance.

 Perhaps I had stumbled onto the set of a cinema company filming a costume drama of some sort. 




   “Futures Market”
by Mitchell Edgeworth
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 21 Aug 2014

A man travels back in time with stock tips for himself every ten years.

 Youre going to buy stocks in these companies. Biogen. Kansas City Southern. Middleby Corp . . . 


NY Daily News,
23 Nov 1963


   “Changing the Past”
by Barton Paul Levenson
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 27 Aug 2014

A traveler from the 29th century returns to 11/22/63 to change the course of Lee Oswalds actions.

 You know what happened on November 22nd, 1963, and the results. 




   The First Fifteen Lives of
Harry August

by Claire North (aka Catherine Webb)
First publication: 28 Aug 2014

Harry August is living his life over and over again, always born to the same mother in the same time and place, but living in a world that’s altered each time because of the actions of the others who are also reliving their lives. The world Claire North (aka Cat Webb) built has a rich, interlocking structure: The repetitions are synchronous in that the entire life of the universe plays out before restarting from the beginning for everyone, but only a handful, such as Harry, remember the previous time around. Those who do remember have formed a society whose overriding purpose is to keep the status quo because once a change is made and a person is not born during a cycle of the universe, that person will never again be born. The society also arranges a system to send messages back through the generations by having young reborn children contact older society members who are near death. From time to time, changes in the universe cause new members to be born, and thus, Harry appears just in time to become embroiled in a vicious plot to change everything.

I was fortunate to meet Cat Webb at the 2015 Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, where she cheerfully talked to me and Rob Maslen about anything and everything during the week leading up to the announcement of Harry August as the winner of the 2015 Campbell Award for the best novel of the year. Yay, Cat (and yay for your friendliness and wry sense of humor)!

 My first life, for all it lacked any real direction, had about it a kind of happiness, if ignorance is innocence, and loneliness is a separation of care. But my new life, with its knowledge of all that had come before, could not be lived the same. It wasnt merely awareness of events yet to come, but rather a new perception of the truths around me, which, being a child raised to them in my first life, I had not even considered to be lies. 


Cattail hearts from prairieinfusions.com

   “Cattail Hearts”
by Kate Heartfield
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 29 Aug 2014

After spending five years in the late 19th century at the Indian Industrial School for Native American children who were taken from their families, a young girl’s teacher tells her about her future in Manitoba. As with so many stories of grandfather paradoxes, it deals with only half the paradox that it brings up, although I did like the twist.

 If someone peeled all of me away bit by bit, what would be left would be you. 


   “Embrace of the Planets”
by Brenda Carre
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sep/Oct 2014

For a long time, maybe the entire ten years since that horrific accident, Eleanora Watson has been hoping that the strange little shop calle Trove would be open some day, and now it is. Inside, she finds the even stranger owner and a lost book by Jules Verne (who pointedly never wrote of time travel).

 Ah, yes. Embrace of the Planets. As far as I know its the only copy of Vernes theories of the universe ever printed. 




   Steven Universe
created by Rebecca Sugar
First time travel: 4 Sep 2014

With the help of three aliens, Steven discovers the magical powers that he inherited from his alien mother. In one episode (“Steven and the Stevens”), the boy time travels with the help of a magic hourglass, whereupon he attempts to divert a disaster at his dad’s carwash but only makes things worse. Eventually, though, he forms a singing group with other versions of himself.

 Dont make me hurt me, Steven! 


   The Copernicus Legacy
by Tony Abbott
First book: 9 Sep 2014

Chased by a secret order, thirteen-year-old Wade Kaplan (plus step-brother, cousin, and cousin’s best friend) spans the globe searching for parts of an age-old astrolabe that doubles as a time machine—although in the first book (The Forbidden Stone), an actual spanning of time is limited. There is a second book (The Serpent’s Curse) and a collection of novellas (The Copernicus Archives).

 After their arrival at a local hospital, the students, aged 7 to 14, and teachers on the bus claimed that it entered the south side of the Somosierra Tunnel and was immediately struck by . . . 




   Monster High: Freaky Fusion
by Keith Wagner (William Lau and Sylvain Blais, directors)
First publication: 30 Sep 2014

The animated gang of teen monsters travel centuries into the past to the first day ever at Monster High, but when they return they have each merged with another in the group creating freaky hybrid monsters all around. I’m not sure, but I’m betting that Mattel used this dvd release as an opportunity to also sell freaky hybrid fashion dolls.

 Its 1814: Theyve never seen fasion styles like ours before. 




The Cloisters
   “The Cloisters”
by Jeff Grimshaw
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Oct/Nov 2014

I freely admit that I don’t take to dreamlike stories, but Grimshaw’s 15-minute surreal read about a jilted man who wanders through the Cloisters with a cute pony-tailed guard drew me in; and I’m sure it would have done so even if the space-bending tunnels that connected the medieval gardens to sundry places throughout New York hadn’t also connected to sundry times.

 Actually it wasnt cool, but I threw the scarf around my neck and headed for the Cloisters, inertia being my guiding principle. 


Lafayette, CA, memorial to the American dead in Iraq

   “The Recent Future”
by Dani Ripley
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 7 Oct 2014

Two sixth-graders, Scout and her genius best friend Billy, build a time machine to go back and save Billy’s dad who was “blown up in Iraq.”

 He surprised everyone by declaring his intention to build a time machine so he could go back and save his dad. 






   The Flash
adapted by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns
First episode: 7 Oct 2014

Time travel is implied right from the first episode of the CW’s rendition of The Flash where a newspaper from the future is seen in the closing scene. The rest of the first season builds a fine time-travel arc that includes a nefarious time traveler from the far future, a classic grandfather paradox (sadly not examined), a do-over day for the Flash (which Harrison Wells calls “temporal reversion”), and a final episode that sees the Flash travel back to his childhood (as well as a hint that Rip Hunter himself will soon appear on the CW scene). The primary time-traveling nemesis, wiped out in Season One, reappears in Episode 11 of Season 2. I suspect that more time travel is on the horizon for Barry Allen and his cohorts (especially Cisco).

 Wells: Yes, its possible, but problematic. Assuming you could create the conditions necessary to take that journey, that journey would then be fraught with potential pitfalls: the Novikov Principle of Self-Consistency, for example.
Joe: Wait—the what, now?
Barry: If you travel back in time to change something, then you end up being the causal factor of that event.
Cisco: Like . . . Terminator.
Joe: Ah!
Wells: Or: Is time plastic? Is it mutable, whereby any changes in the continuum could create an alternate timeline?
Cisco: Back to the Future.
Joe: Ah, saw that one, too. 




   Dodge Brothers Commercial
First aired: 18 Oct 2014

 As boys, the Dodge brothers built their own bicycle. 


   “The Bomb-Thing”
by K.J. Kabza
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2014

Blaine’s high school buddy Mason wants to get into the pants of a visiting hottie from Cal Tech, so naturally Blaine and Mason help her break into the physics lab at the local university where the bomb-thing they find takes them back to the sixties.

 Phyllis pointed at something on a table. It looked, no joke, like a bomb: kinda half-finished, with wires and plugs everywhere, and blinking lights and a countdown clock that said 03 10:11 02 05 1968. 




   The Conroyverse
aka The Amazing Buffalito and Conroy Books
by Lawrence M. Schoen
First time travel: “Calendrical Regression” in Nov 2014

I stumbled across one of the Amazing Buffalito and Conroy stories while reading something else, and it seemed that the Buffalito Reggie (the cute miniature bison that eats anything and farts oyxgen) just had to be living in a universe with time travel. In “Trial of the Century,” Reggie's companion Conroy (the billionaire ex-ceo turned spacefaring on-stage hypnotist) has a time-travel gag in his act; and in the first novel, Buffalito Destiny, the entire ex-state of Texas has differing time rates from one spot to another. But I had to know for sure whether the amusing pair ever ran into real time travel, so I wrote to Lawrence Schoen, and he quickly and happily pointed me toward the most recent novella, “Calendrical Regression” wherein Conroy brings a Mayan high priest to the present day from 89 generations in the past.
  1. 1. “Buffalo Dogs’ (Summer 2001) in Absolute Magnitude
  2. 2. “Telepathic Intent” (29 Jul 2003) in Buffalogic, Inc.
  3. 3. Buffalogic, Inc. (29 Jul 2003) collects 1-2
  4. 4. “The Matter at Hand’ (Mar 2005) in Aliens and AIs
  5. 5. “Requiem’ (Spring 2005) in Absolute Magnitude
  6. 6. “Buffalogenesis’ (2006) novelette
  7. 7. “A Buffalito of Mars’ (25 Jun 2007) in Visual Journeys
  8. 8. “Buffalogistics’ (2008) collects 4-5
  9. 9. Buffalito Destiny (2009) has Texas temporal distortions
  10. 10. Buffalito Contingency (Jun 2011) novel
  11. 11. “Yesterday’s Taste’ (3 May 2012) in Transtories
  12. 12. “Barry’s Tale’ (12 Nov 2012) in Buffalito Buffet
  13. 13. “Trial of the Century’ (Dec 2013) has time-travel insurance gag
  14. 14. “Calendrical Regression” (Nov 2014) novella

 . . . and fed all of it to my buffalito, . . . 


   “I’ll Follow the Sun”
by Paul Di Filippo
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2014

A Paul Di Filippo time travel story imbued with Steve Ditko and Robert Heinlein seems like it should be right up my alley, but I was sadly disappointed by the lack of time travel complications as college math student Dan Wishcup travels from his home time (and mine) of 1964 back to 1914 and forward to 2014.

 Dan expected some weighty math tomes, but the books disclosed themselves as a Signet paperback and a larger one from City Lights Press. The pamphlet proved to be a comic book! Specifically, Strange Tales No. 126, just out last month. 


from Shvartsman’s
home page


   “Letting Go”
by Alex Shvartsman
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 3 Nov 2014

When your girlfriend heads into space on a journey that will age her only two years while you age sixteen, you do the only logical thing.

 Because it amuses you and—more importantly—because you know it would make her laugh, you design the time machine prototype to look like a blue phone booth. 




   Interstellar
by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (C. Nolan, director)
First release: 7 Nov 2014

On a future Earth that is fast succumbing to worldwide drought and poltergeists in bedrooms, farmer-girl Murph’s father Cooper and a professor’s daughter lead a mission through a wormhole to a possible new home for mankind.

 Time is relative. It can stretch, it can squeeze, but it cant run backwards. It simply just cant. 




   Xfinity Scrooge Commercial
First publication: 10 Nov 2014

Yes, I remember about Rules #1 and #2 (viewing the past or viewing a possible future is not time travel), but future Tiny Tim does interact with Scrooge and the ghost!

 Now remember, Mr. Scrooge, we can see them, but they cant see us. 


Another of Trexler’s stories is available on smashwords.

   “The Prisoner”
by Roger Dale Trexler
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 13 Nov 2014

A time-travel researcher awakens as an ape-like mammal in the Jurassic where he meets at least one other modern animal.

 The plants, he thought. They’ve been extinct for a million years. 


When he was just a babe in arms, Soto moved to Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, about a mile from Isaac Asimov’s boyhood home.

   “Making Time for the Kids”
by Julion J. Soto
First publication: Daily Science Fiction, 20 Nov 2014

The story (about a man who goes back in time to a school shooting) promises to say something interesting about time-travel paradoxes and the butterfly effect, but the promise is never fulfilled.

 I didnt know, nobody did, but I was going to find out about time paradoxes and the butterfly effect in one fell swoop. 


   “Blake Takes a Case”
by Belinda Whitney
First publication: Still Out of Time, 30 Nov 2014

Loquat T. Blake, time detective, takes the case of one Mrs. Kate Alston’s neice who disappeared from the face of teh Earth back in 2037 at a location that could just create the biggest time paradox this side of John Wilkes Booth’s pistol.

 I thought the Time Agency was going to be fun when I joined. I didnt expect them to be a bunch of old fogies, petrified of time paradoxes, with red tape up the wazoo for every trip they made. So I “borrowed” some of their old equipment from storage and struck out on my own under-the-radar business. 


from Robeson’s website   “Occupational Hazard”
by Teresa Robeson
First publication: Still Out of Time, 30 Nov 2014

Ex-temporal emissary Bernard Rolfe finds himself slipping in and out of past and future times, a sad symptom of Dirac’s Syndrome—no, not thatDirac, but rather Alexa Dirac, the freckled and beautiful first-known sufferer of the syndrome.

 That changed when he was plucked out of bed and plopped in the Pleistocene ice age, where he found himself, with nothing on but his pajamas, facing the tusked end of a wooly mammoth. He decided then tht he sould let the Agency know before something carnivrous made a meal of him, or, worse, died from weather exposure. 


from Horn’s website   “Of Time and Treasure”
by Kelly Horn
First publication: Still Out of Time, 30 Nov 2014

Anthony Corbin remembers little of his life as a young bouy before being adopted by a wealthy time-traveling philanthropist who is now dead.

 “But in her younger days, before she married Jonathan, she was an accomplished academic. She was a brilliant woman.” Harris stopped and cleared his throat. “She built a time machine.” 


   “The Tether”
by Janet Guy
First publication: Still Out of Time, 30 Nov 2014

Carnival barker Richard Hunt and his assistant Lana strap the tourists into The Tether day after day, launching them into the future and bringing them back—but only if they use preapproved safe coordinates of future events.

 The colossal, the stupendous, the first ride in the world to bring you back from the future, The Tether. Im your conductor, Richard Hunt, but you can call me Mister Richie. 


an xkcd comic explains the no-communications aspect of quantum entanglement   “To Dream of Future Yesterdays”
by Paul Siluch
First publication: Still Out of Time, 30 Nov 2014

After quantum theoretician Ben Hill’s time travel/wormhole project is shut down by the frugal government, he realizes where it all might have gone awry, which triggers one iteration after another of better and better (or maybe darker and darker) lives.

 I bought the qubit microscope. It was just sitting there, forgotten after the inquiries started. I scanned my own brain and noticed the telltale quantum irregularities we had only seen in the hart of the collider. Which meant the crazies on the internet were right: our brains are quantum computers.
It also meant something else very, very important. If we used quantum particles to think, we must be entangled with quantum particles somewhere else. Of some
when else. Suddenly the whole doomed Project offered up a small ray of hope, but in an entirely new direction. We would never be able to send a person back in time, but I might be able to send information back. 


a SPAD VII biplane
from roden.eu
   “Touch and Go”
by Russell James
First publication: Still Out of Time, 30 Nov 2014

Gerald Greene, a failed World War I pilot on his final SPAD VII mission, ducks into a cloud in a dogfight only to emerge in the next world war.

 What are you doing landing this antique at a military airfield? 




  Dino-Mating #2
“Dino Mate”
by Rosemary Claire Smith
First publication: Analog, Dec 2014

The love triange between Marty Zuber, his arch-nemesis Dr. Derek Dill, and Julianna Carlson continues as they study the mating habits of the kentrosarus in the Jurrasic.

 “What do we want?&rdauo;
“The present!”
“When do we want it?”
“NOW!”
 


   “Videoville”
by Christopher East
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Dec 2014

In late 1986, geek Tim Stanek (he prefers the term “nerd”) and his high-school buddy Louis are approached one night by an unheard-of sort of person: a sensitive and inclusive football jock who asks them to come with him on a mission that needs their particular kind of resourcefulness.

 AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, NFLX 




   Odd Squad
created by Tim McKeon and Adam Peltman
First time travel: 3 Dec 2014

This Fred-Rogersish gang of mathy kids teach a small lesson in each episode, including more than one episode with time travel.
  1. Ms. O Uh-Oh (3 Dec 2014) Ms. O from the past
  2. 6:00 to 6:05 (22 Jan 2015) dinosaurs
  3. Back to the Past (21 Jun 2015) to the future and back
  4. Drop Gadget Repeat (9 Nov 2016) a time loop

     Because I traveled through time, I dont know if Im 10 or 11 . . . I just know I cant see color any more. 

    —6:00 to 6:05




   The Librarians
adapted by John Rogers
First episode: 7 Dec 2014

Under the guidance of the Warehouse caretaker (John Larroquette), three apprentice Librarians and their Guardian venture forth each episode to contain various rogue magic threats while the actual Librarian (Noal Wyle) who put the team together tries to find the library which is lost in space and time. Apart from that lost library, there is no time travel until the final episode of the second season (“. . . And the Final Curtain”) when two of the team depart for the year 1611.

For me, the characters, acting, writing, and plot arcs were well below that of Warehouse 13, although the setup was nice.

 More than that, Im offering you an opportunity to save the world every week. 




   Back to Christmas
aka Correcting Christmas
by Rachel Stuhler (Tim O’Donnell, director)
First release: 20 Dec 2014

One year after breaking up with her boyfriend on Christmas Eve, still-regretful Ali runs into her fairy godmother at a diner, and the next morning Ali wakes up in the previous year.

Janet and I watched this movie on Black Friday, and at the 23:00 mark, she told me how it would end!

 Isnt this supposed to be like déjà vu where everything happens the same and I get to react differently and fix everything? 


More of Lerch’s stories, including this one, are available at smashwords.

   “Paradox for Dinner”
by Burke Lerch
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 22 Dec 2014

Why time travel at all? Dinner!

 Arguably the best patty melt anyone had ever had, unless someone else out there was so inspired by a sandwich that they had also built a time machine just to eat the same patty melt again, again, and yet again. 



And Still More Time Travel of 2014

The story pilots haven’t yet taken these adventures out for a test drive.
  “Time Was” by Roger Dale Trexler, 365 Tomorrows, 23 Feb 2014
—physicist visits movie star

  “Love Beatrice” by Clint Wilson, 365 Tomorrows, 5 Mar 2014
—phone call to the past

  “Missed Connections” by Tyler Hawkins, 365 Tomorrows, 11 May 2014
—not-very-accurate time machine

  “Update” by Duncan Shields, 365 Tomorrows, 24 Jun 2014
—time traveler meets future tech

  “Guardian Angel” by Elijah Goering, 365 Tomorrows, 7 Sep 2014
—man visits himself repeatedly

  “The Hero of Time” by Glenn Leung, 365 Tomorrows, 26 Sep 2014
—time-traveling superhero appears today




Romance Time Travel of 2014

Bodice rips are a more workaday mode of time travel than time ships.
Ravenhurst 4: Dreams of Tomorrow by Lorraine Beaumont

Ravenhurst 5: Now and Forever by Lorraine Beaumont

River of Time 5: Deluge by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Forever Mine by Monica Burns

Outlander 8: Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon

Duncurra 1: Highland Solution by Ceci Giltenan

Second Chances 3: Diamond in the Dust by Peggy L. Henderson

Tales of a Traveler 1: Hemlock by N.J. Layouni

Tales of a Traveler 2: Wolfsbane by N.J. Layouni

Celtic Brooch 3: The Sapphire Brooch by Katherine Lowry Logan

Magic of Time 1: All the Time You Need by Melissa Mayhue

Loch Moigh 1: True to the Highlander by Barbara Longley

Loch Moigh 2: The Highlander's Bargain by Barbara Longley

Elizabethan 1: The Thornless Rose by Morgan O'Neill

Elizabethan 2: Begun by Time by Morgan O'Neill

Elizabethan 3: Ever Crave Rose by Morgan O'Neill

Must Love 1: Must Love Breeches by Angela Quarles

Heritage 3: Forevermore by Dana Roquet

Tennessee Waltz 3: Kiss Me, I'm Home by Bella Street

St Mary's 3: A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor

St Mary's 4: A Trail through Time by Jodi Taylor

After Cilmeri 8: Ashes of Time by Sarah Woodbury

After Cilmeri 9: Warden of Time by Sarah Woodbury




No Time Travel.
Move along.
“Static” by David Austin, Crossed Genres, Dec 2014 [just memories ]

“The Dark Age” by Jason Gurley, 9 Jan 2014 [time dilation ]

“Schools of Clay” by Derek Künsken, Asimov’s, Feb 2014 [time dilation ]

Doritos Time Machine Commercial, Super Bowl XLVIII, 1 Feb 2014 [despite appearances, no time travel ]

In the Name of the King 3: The Last Job by Joel Ross (Uwe Boll, director), 26 Feb 2014 [secondary worlds ]
aka In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission

“All of Our Past Places” by Kat Howard, Jour. of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014 [despite title, no time travel ]

Iceman by Fung Lam and Mark Wu (Wing-Cheong Law, director), 19 Sep 2014 [long sleep ]

Mind Dimensions by Dima Zales, 2 Oct 2014 [stopping time ]

“Calvera by Rachel Barber, 9 Dec 2014 [no definite time travel ]

 


132 items are in the time-travel list for these search settings.
Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links and Credits in the menu at the top). —Michael (
main@colorado.edu)