Doctor Who is back with a brand new face and we can’t wait to see Ncuti Gatwa’s take on the Doctor! While we were waiting for the return, here are some of the books we’ve been reading with the same kind of quirky, moving time-travel adventures.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Seconds before the Earth is demolished, Arthur is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford, a researcher for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who has been posing as an actor. They journey through space aided by fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox — the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend, whom Arthur once tried to pick up at a cocktail party; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the pens he bought over the years.
The Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his 11th life, a little girl appears at his bedside. “I nearly missed you, Doctor August,” she says. “I need to send a message.”
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
Cassie Andrews lives an ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers leaves her a book after his death. This is no ordinary book. It promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them. A gaunt stranger who calls himself Drummond Fox explains that the tome now in Cassie’s possession is coveted by those who collect these rare volumes. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors — and the other books in his secret library’s care— from those who will do evil.
Vaulting Through Time by Nancy McCabe
As 16-year-old gymnast Elizabeth faces the challenges of adolescence, she uncovers a shocking truth about her identity. With her friend Zach’s help, she discovers a hidden time machine, propelling her on a journey through time to find answers. Along the way, Elizabeth encounters intriguing characters and races against a thief to safeguard her future and the world as she knows it. Can she use her gymnastic skills and determination to secure her place in history and protect her loved ones?
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Henry DeTamble is a dashing, adventurous librarian who is at the mercy of his random time-traveling abilities. Clare Abshire is an artist whose life moves through a natural sequential course. This is the celebrated and timeless tale of their love. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair is built and endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes from California in 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slave owner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
One night, constable Peter Grant tried to take a witness statement from a man who was dead, which brought him to the attention of Chief Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in Britain. Now he is the first apprentice wizard in 50 years, and dealing with nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the River Thames and digging up graves in Covent Garden. But there’s something festering at the heart of the city, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The patched-up, aging Wayfarer offers Rosemary a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and some distance from her past. She’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain. Life aboard the Wayfarer gets dangerous when the crew is offered the job of tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet. The tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other.
Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt
Every time Zax Delatree falls asleep, he travels to a new reality. He never knows what he will see when he opens his eyes. All he has to live by are his wits and the small aides he has picked up along the way — technological advantages from techno-utopias, sedatives to escape dangerous worlds, and stimulants to extend his stay in pleasant ones. Thankfully, he can take people with him, if they’re unconscious in his arms when he falls asleep. But someone unwelcome is on his tail, and they are after something that Zax cannot spare — the blood running through his veins, the power to travel through worlds.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Great Britain, circa 1985. Time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: It’s a bibliophile’s dream. Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detections, is faced with the challenge of her career when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë’s novel.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Every day in Minor Universe, 31 people get into time machines and try to change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician, steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls, Yu visits his mother and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. The key to locating his father may be found in a book. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and somewhere inside it is information that will help him. It may even save his life.
Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers.
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