The Final Two Time Travel Books

 

Not long after I had finished reading Kindred by Octavia Butler, I decided that I had become nearly burned out on time travel novels and I would go on to some other genre when April arrived. When I made that decision, there was still enough time left in March to read two final time travel books. The two would be All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and Robert Silverberg's The Masks of Time .

Sakurazaka's book had been listed on the 23 Best Time Travel Science Fiction Books. Silverberg's book was not.

I had managed to read 21 time travel books since the first of February. Many of the books chosen had come from the above linked to list. Six of the books were not on the list.

All You Need Is Kill is pretty much a standard Sci-Fi novel. Aliens invading the Earth - a united Earth fighting the aliens. The "time travel" in the book is actually a "time-loop". Does that count? Lots of killing and violence, but few surprises. I enjoyed the book, but I don't think it qualifies as one of the 23 Best Time Travel Science Fiction Books. The Masks of Time does, on the other hand.

I first read Silverberg's book more than 40 years ago. I can't get more specific than that. Even after all that time, I could remember more than I thought possible. The time traveler, Vornan-19 arrives in Rome, Italy on Christmas Day, 1998 to much fanfare. He soon becomes a world wide celebrity. As the world of 1998 is looking with dread upon the up coming millennium, many see the time traveler as a sign of hope.....a sign that the world continues beyond the year 2000 AD.

The book was written in 1968 - a long way from the craziness of Y2K. Of course, Silverberg did not predict the insanity of the Y2K scare, but I was reminded of that time with Silverberg's description of the apocalyptic cult of 1998.

Like many Sci-Fi writers of the mid to late 1960's, Silverberg was expecting that we'd have colonized the Moon by the end of the century. He foresaw the prevalence of computers in our time, although he expected the computers to be like the 1960 era computers - giant sized.

Unlike several of the time travel books I'd read during the past 2 months, The Masks of Time fits within the genre. Of the 21 time travel books, this one may not make the top five, but it does belong in the top ten.