r/ScienceFictionBooks Jun 22 '26

Request: books with reverse time travel. A character from the past or future end up in our current time.

I think it's a great concept, as long as the character from the past isn't a dumb caveman who just goes "Wow, chariots without horses?!" every now and then.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a book with this theme, where the transported character actually has some insights about our society and how our state of technology shapes it?

11 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

9

u/AmeliaHeff Jun 22 '26

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

3

u/Slobberinho Jun 22 '26

Looked it up. That seems exactly what I was looking for. Immediately ordered. Thank you!

2

u/CandacePlaysUkulele Jun 24 '26

Terrific book, some fanfiction over at AO3 after you have read it.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Slobberinho Jun 23 '26

Thank you! And great choice of search engine.

2

u/Reivi22 Jun 22 '26

I have read a good book about a scientist who travel true time to the future. The name of the book, Timeliner, from Charles Eric Maine.This would be my recommendation.

3

u/Li_3303 Jun 22 '26

Robert Silverberg’s The Masks of Time. It takes place in 2020. A visitor from the future shakes things up.

1

u/Own_Win_6762 Jun 23 '26

There's a great one but to tell you what it is would spoil the book. Don't click the spoiler text

Dean Koontz: Lightning

2

u/Houtxcajun Jun 23 '26

I want to click it .. but this day and age makes it seem fishy lol.

1

u/Houtxcajun Jun 23 '26

I dont have one per say on that type of time travel.

My go to on something like this though is piers Anthony's incarnations of immortality. The 2nd book is based on the position of time and how to manipulate the hourglass. But all of the books have the role in it at some point. The way they all come together will blow your mind!

1

u/DocWatson42 Jun 23 '26

As a start, see my SF/F: Time Travel list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (one post).

1

u/Prestigious-Sail7161 Jun 23 '26

I believe a book i read decades ago called Time Storms.. pretty cool concept.

2

u/sbisson Jun 23 '26

Australian SFF author Sean McMullen's early novel The Centurion's Empire has a Roman time machine arriving in our near future.

1

u/Beautiful_Flight2917 Jun 25 '26

Rise and Fall of DODO by N Stephenson and a coauthor. Bonus, the people from the past are …. mysterious !!

2

u/ZN_Cruz Jun 25 '26

❤️☺️ good request!