Time travel + Going into books

[trinityofone]

Two book questions for you today inspired by my desire to avoid the stuff I need to be doing:

1. I love time travel books and am always interested in recommendations in general, but right now I am specifically looking for books where characters from the past come forward to the (relative) present. Can anybody think of any?

2. I got way too much guilty pleasure out of the recent BBC miniseries Lost in Austen. It made me want to try other books (or other media?) that involve characters going into books or book characters coming out of them. I can only think of three others:

a. The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde (meh)
b. Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready (appallingly awful)
c. Travel Far, Pay No Fare by Anne Lindbergh (absolutely delightful and sadly under-recognized YA book that I heartily recommend to everybody)

I know there must be others. Can you help me find them?

*goes back to not filling out unemployment paperwork, la la la*

Comments

[leupagus.livejournal.com]

1) I remember reading a book in college called Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. It's one of those required reading books that gets a bum rap because it *is* so often required reading. It's set in the year 2000, but it was actually written in 1887 - so some of the things that the author gets wrong and right are kind of creepy. *Highly* recommended - plus, it's pretty short.

2) Inkheart, a children's book, has some of this idea, I think. (I confess I only know about it because there's a movie coming out starring Brendan Fraiser. Don't judge me!) Of course, there's always "Pleasantville," the movie version of this idea.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

The Bellamy's not quite what I'm looking for, but I've heard it rec'd before so I'll add it to my list. Thanks!

Inkheart I tried to read a while back and was terribly bored. Maybe I should give it another shot? :\

And I didn't think of Pleasantville, but you're right, that does fit!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Ooh, and for other interested parties, it is worth noting that Looking Backward is available for free online (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/25439). \o/

[spankys.livejournal.com]

How about the Inkspell series: Inkspell, Inkheart, and Inkdeath, by Cornelia Funke. An independent Reader/YA series where characters come out of books and go into them.

[spankys.livejournal.com]

Great minds think alike!

[blueraccoon.livejournal.com]

Do comics count? Because the Fantastic Four is doing a miniseries (I think it's subtitled "The True Story") where they go into fiction. It's pretty cool.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Comics totally count! And that sounds fun; I guess I'll have to hope it gets collected in a TPB soon.

[reginagiraffe]

I assume you've read the Diana Gabaldon series. Starts with Outlander and there are at least 4 after that, each one a bazillion pages long. That's a woman from now-ish going into the past, though.

[reginagiraffe]

Also, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure sort of qualifies. *g*

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Haha, true!

I could never get into Outlander. I did make it through the first of the Lord John books, but Gabaldon's prose just fails to engage me for some reason. :\

[sheylindria.livejournal.com]

An oldie but goodie about time travel is 'Lightning' by Dean Koontz.

[lazar-grrl.livejournal.com]

The Time Scout Series by Robert Asprin & Linda Evans features characters who are accidentally pulled forward in time from a variety of eras and places. They're not the main characters, but play a very big supporting role. Although one of the main characters was a kid who got sent back in time, raised by Mongols, and then was "rescued" and sent forward to his own time, where he sees himself as a modern-day Mongol raider (read: con artist extraordinaire).

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

ST:TNG had Holmes and Moriarty and probably some others I forget if you check all SG series' holodecks. Hundreds of old cartoons (short films) liked to play with that trope, see the creators around Tex Avery for examples. So if you don't want the main story to be the fictional-character-interaction, there are too many films over the ages that play with this to recall at the moment.

Blast from the Past in a way fits (Brendan Fraser again). Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan in that easily imdb-able movie did the forwards-from-past-time thing that most commenters here seem to rec, so I mention it as well. As does nearly every TV series at some point.

I don't get why you dislike Funke and Fforde yet love Lost in Austen.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

So if you don't want the main story to be the fictional-character-interaction, there are too many films over the ages that play with this to recall at the moment.

I kind of am hoping for ones where it's the main story? That seems tougher, though!

Man, Brendan gets around! I remember that movie being pretty blah. And that Jackman/Ryan movie...*struggles to remember name* That was pretty bad. :( Though I find it funny that the original version apparently had an incest B-plot that nobody caught until after some preview screenings. Oh, Hollywood.

Funke I didn't read enough of to really comment on—I just got very bored, very quickly. I have been meaning to give her another chance, though. As for Fforde, I just don't think he's a very good writer. I've read all of the books in the series except for the most recent, and they're just very...flat. The characters are kind of wooden, and though there's a lot of creativity to the books, to me they're presented entirely without verve. Lost in Austen at least had spunk. I found it involving in ways I never did the Thursday Next books.

Of course, they're also different mediums. I think I'm probably more critical of flaws in prose fiction than I am of wobbles in a TV show.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

The Jackman one was infuriating/disappointing me, but the start was good.

I am never going to read Funke and don't like Fforde either, agree with you on flatness and waste of ideas, which is why I wondered why you would love LiA, which as you might have seen I loathe. Please tell me where all the characters end up in the end, I cannot watch it.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Hugh Jackman wandering around in period dress certainly is a good start. ;-) Too bad they did so little with it!

***MAJOR SPOILERS FOR LOST IN AUSTEN: LOOK AWAY IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT BUT MAY WANT TO GET DRUNK AND DO SO***

Okay, so I don't know how far you got, but basically, a combination of Amanda's presence and Elizabeth's absence fuck everything up. Jane doesn't think Bingley loves her so she marries Collins, Charlotte goes to Africa to be a missionary, and though Amanda has sparkage with Darcy, she ruins it by admitting she's not a virgin, which is of course unacceptable. Bingley becomes a drunk and runs off—chastely but stupidly—with Lydia. Everyone rushes to try to stop Lydia from being ruined, including Wickham (who's an ass but not quite as bad a guy—Georgiana lied about what happened between them because she was in love with him and he refused her). Mr. Bennet impulsively challenges Bingley to a duel and badly injures himself in the process. Amanda's fear that he's dying is finally enough to get her back to the present/real world, only Darcy follows her. (The scenes of him in London looking utterly out of his depth were actually my favorite part, and likely the reason that I want people from the past in the present stories so badly.) Amanda and Darcy find Elizabeth, who's doing really well in 2008 and loves it and doesn't want to go back. But Amanda insists that the story needs to be put back the way it's supposed to be, and Elizabeth finally agrees out of concern for her father. He does indeed pull through and everything finally looks like it's slotting back into place—Darcy seems to have decided 2008 was just a bad dream, Amanda manages to bribe/convince Lady de Bourgh to get Jane's marriage to Collins annulled because it's not been consummated, and while Elizabeth and Darcy aren't exactly getting along, he's invited her to Pemberley. Amanda is on her way out the magic door when she finds a note Darcy left there saying he remembers everything. So both she and Elizabeth decide to pursue what they really want: Elizabeth is given her father's blessing to go back to the future, and Amanda goes to Pemberley in her place to make out with Darcy but never enjoy sushi or indoor plumbing again, which seems like a drawback to me, but I guess that's the price of love!

Phew! Okay, that was probably more detail than you needed, and yeah, written out like that, it sounds COMPLETELY FRICKIN' RIDICULOUS, and it is, but for whatever reason, it worked for me. *shrug* Sometimes things that certainly aren't great literature and aren't even great television appeal anyway. I say, thank god—we all need some guilty pleasures.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Thanks for that recap. I'm sorry I missed D and E in 2008, but not enough to watch it myself. The end is just the cop-out I feared but fits with everything that me and my friend thought historically and emotionally wrong. Worse though - now I wish I could remember which other film finished with such an implausible swap, women happily stuck in wrong time forever with nothing but possibly nookie as compensations; gahd, so annoying to not be able to put finger on right grey cells now ... wait, no explanation why fiction is fact? So there may be something like Ashes to Ashes in the future, Lost in Persuasion perhaps.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

1. Stig of the Dump by Clive King is the only forward-in-time one I can think of, though it maybe isn't quite that clear cut.

There's also a Tom Holt called Grailblazers though I think that just has the Knights of the Round Table survive until now. I'm sure I read another Arthurian one that was a bit more serious as well, but I can't remember much about it other than the newly awoken knights switching to motorbikes instead of horses, and possibly a descendant of Arthur? Argh, that's going to bug me now.

(And for a back-in-time one I'd rec another children's book: A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley.)

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

I'm sure at least one of Edward Eager's wonderful

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I'm sure at least one of Edward Eager's wonderful <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Magic-Boxed-Edward-Eager/dp/0152025464/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223326255&sr=1-1"books of magic</a> has scenes of the older generation as kids meeting their children, with everyone the same age. Maybe in The Time Garden?

Oh god, I love those books. I still re-read them for comfort, nearly fifty years after finding them.

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Oops. Forgot a closing bracket. Sorry!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Edward Eager! I don't remember that, but then I haven't read any of them at all recently, other than Half-Magic. I'll see if I can dig up my copy—it's probably at the bottom of my parents' closet or something. :\

[esther-a.livejournal.com]

Knight Life by Peter David has King Arther and some other characters running around in the present, which could count for either of the categories mentioned.

replay. Replay!

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Has anyone said Replay (http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223339078&sr=8-1)?? Replay, without question. Replay.

Re: replay. Replay!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THAT BOOK!

Sadly, that means I've already read it. :( But it rocks!

Re: replay. Replay!

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Alas! Also there's Charlotte Sometimes (http://www.amazon.com/Charlotte-Sometimes-Review-Childrens-Collection/dp/1590172213/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223339246&sr=8-3) (the book, not the band) which hits lots of those kinks, and which I remember loving but def haven't read in 20 years.

Re: replay. Replay!

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

And there's the Jack Finney books, though those go the other way too, present -> past, and plus I found Time and Again really boring. But other people seem to love it.

And you should watch "Life" if you aren't already. He's all, "how does this Internet thing work again?" and "look how tiny cell phones are!"

Re: replay. Replay!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Oh, Charlotte Sometimes! I haven't thought about that book in years, but I remember really liking it. I wonder whatever happened to my copy?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found Time and Again boring. I've always been vaguely ashamed of that fact. :\

*adds another reason to my long list of reasons to finally watch Life*

Re: replay. Replay!

[bmouse.livejournal.com]

::Joins crowd waving "Life" flag:: ::hope she hasn't mistakenly wandered into a pro-life rally:: SUCH a good show.

[daraq.livejournal.com]

Doomsday Book (http://www.amazon.com/Doomsday-Book-Connie-Willis/dp/0553562738/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223344811&sr=8-1) by Connie Willis is one of my favorites.

[flamelikegem.livejournal.com]

So most of this story takes place in the past, but then a few of the characters come forward as well:
The Sterkarm Handshake, by
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sterkarm_Handshake

[jx-walker.livejournal.com]

This is a children's book but I loved the author when I was younger and still do, keeping in mind they are children's books.

Alexander Key
"The Sword of Aradel"

A Medieval boy and girl transport themselves 1000 years through time into modern New York City to find a magic sword.
It was written in 1977.

You might be able to inter-library it if you don't want to buy it. I've found a few of his books on Amazon used, and some off Ebay. Almost all are old Library copies.

[soho-iced.livejournal.com]

Kage Baker's Company series is good value (who am I kidding, I LOVE them), if you can get past her slightly flippant narrative voice and often highly coloured plots. Naturally though she has it that you can't travel forward in time, only backwards, so not that much use to you at the moment.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

A Rag, a Bone, and a Hank of Hair (http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&id=v_VRAB8XIsQC&dq=bone+and+%22a+hank+of+hair%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=31LqNrNJVB&sig=bnHXu4LwuSZ7TLDJNokkZxnXgMc&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result) by Nicolas Fiske.

Not quite what you're after, but good: Emma Tupper's Diary by Peter Dickinson.

Les Visiteurs (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108500/), 1993.

The Planet of the Apes series comes close to fitting your criteria.

I know there are others, but I can't for the life of me think of them.

As for the meta-texts. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll is in the ballpark, as is Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog. Austen's own Northanger Abbey also comes close. Neverending Story by Michael Ende is fantastic and is right on the money, except that the story within the story is... the story. And quite a few of Diana Wynne Jones's also come close (eg. Fire and Hemlock, Homeward Bounders).

Again, I know there are more, but I can't think of them right now. Hopefully this will get you started anyway.

[bmouse.livejournal.com]

Did you ever read "The Time Traveler's Wife"? It was absurdly popular a few months back. My friend lent me the novel but I didn't get around to reading it yet. It seemed rather well done but since the focus is a married couple one of whom is temporally-challenged there might be some age squicks. If you don't mind films there was a great high-quality indie film called 'Primer' about some young engineers who accidentally break physics in their garage one day and then decide to build a time machine. It's the most eerily realistic, "I could absolutely picture this" portrayal of time-travel I've ever seen, but then again half of my university could have been cast in it >_>.

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

good Austen-inspired books:
Austenland Shannon Hale.
Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen Syrie James
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict Laurie Viera Rigler

Austen-inspired scifi you should read anywho:
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent Galen M. Beckett

and there's ages and ages of BAD Austen-inspired books (or just books that make me sad), like Mr. Darcy's Daughters and others whose authors I won't attempt to look up. I work in books, I shelve the fiction section, I see millions of books involving Darcy or Elizabeth.

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

Charles de Lint's Moonheart is somewhat similar to what you're looking for, I think. It doesn't really strictly involve time travel per se as much as a character who was turned to stone for a thousand years and dark forces from the past reawakening in the present day (well, present when it was written in the 1980s).