I love the concept of time travel in books (and movies!). It just opens up so many creative possibilities, which make them so fun to read. So, here’s my list of the 50 Best Time Travel books!
This list includes titles released at any point in time, but has a slight preference for newer titles. It’s divided up into General Time Travel, Literary, Romance and Young Adult titles .
And feel free to drop a comment if you have a favorite time travel book that belongs on this list!
General Time Travel
11/22/63 Stephen King
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 24, 2012
out of 5 on Goodreads
Recursion Blake Crouch
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 11, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
Doomsday Book Connie Willis
What It's About:
Publication Date: January 1, 2012
out of 5 on Goodreads
Lightning Dean Koontz
What It's About:
Publication Date: September 2, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
Replay Ken Grimwood
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 22, 1998
out of 5 on Goodreads
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Claire North
What It's About:
Publication Date: October 21, 2014
out of 5 on Goodreads
Timeline Michael Crichton
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 4, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
Hyperion Dan Simmons
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 15, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Door into Summer Robert A. Heinlein
What It's About:
Publication Date: December 12, 2013
out of 5 on Goodreads
The House on the Strand Daphne du Maurier
What It's About:
Publication Date: January 1, 2000
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1) Jasper Fforde
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 25, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
Night Watch Terry Pratchett
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 29, 2014
out of 5 on Goodreads
The End of Eternity Isaac Asimov
What It's About:
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
out of 5 on Goodreads
Time Enough for Love Robert A. Heinlein
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 15, 1988
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Neal Stephenson
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 13, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
All Our Wrong Todays Elan Mastai
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 20, 2018
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Shining Girls
What It's About:
Publication Date: Not Available
out of 5 on Goodreads
Life After Life Kate Atkinson
What It's About:
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Time Machine H. G. Wells
What It's About:
Publication Date: March 21, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Time Ships Stephen Baxter
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 27, 1995
out of 5 on Goodreads
Thrice Upon A Time James P. Hogan
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 1, 2000
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Man Who Folded Himself David Gerrold
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 10, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Accidental Time Machine Joe Haldeman
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
out of 5 on Goodreads
Time and Again Clifford D. Simak
What It's About:
Publication Date: September 25, 2018
out of 5 on Goodreads
Just One Damned Thing After Another Jodi Taylor
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
out of 5 on Goodreads
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Stuart Turton
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 7, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
Literary Time Travel
Kindred Octavia E. Butler
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 18, 2024
out of 5 on Goodreads
Slaughterhouse-Five
What It's About:
Publication Date: Not Available
out of 5 on Goodreads
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 2, 2004
out of 5 on Goodreads
Time Travel Romance
The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
out of 5 on Goodreads
Outlander Diana Gabaldon
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 18, 1992
out of 5 on Goodreads
Time and Again Jack Finney
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 1, 1995
out of 5 on Goodreads
Little Shop of Found Things Paula Brackston
What It's About:
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Rose Garden Susanna Kearsley
What It's About:
Publication Date: October 1, 2011
out of 5 on Goodreads
Somewhere in Time Richard Matheson
What It's About:
Publication Date: October 15, 1998
out of 5 on Goodreads
To Say Nothing of the Dog Connie Willis
What It's About:
Publication Date: December 1, 1998
out of 5 on Goodreads
Young Adult
The Ten Thousand Doors of January Alix E. Harrow
What It's About:
Publication Date: September 10, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
This Is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 16, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
One Word Kill Mark Lawrence
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 1, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 1, 2010
out of 5 on Goodreads
Timebound Rysa Walker
What It's About:
Publication Date: January 1, 2014
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Girl from Everywhere Heidi Heilig
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 7, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
A Thousand Pieces of You Claudia Gray
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 3, 2015
out of 5 on Goodreads
Into the Dim Janet B. Taylor
What It's About:
Publication Date: April 11, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
out of 5 on Goodreads
Both Sides of Time Caroline B. Cooney
What It's About:
Publication Date: January 1, 1997
out of 5 on Goodreads
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
out of 5 on Goodreads
Other Time Travel Books
A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
What It's About:
Publication Date: September 23, 2018
out of 5 on Goodreads
Wow. What a great list. I have only read a handful of these and have added another big handful to my TBR list. So glad to see Kindred here. It is a favorite of mine. Thanks for the post.
thanks rosi, glad you liked it! :)
I’m really interested in time travel nowadays, especially going into the past. I always wonder how I would manage 100, 200, 500 years ago. Life was so different!
yes! and I love how the change in time periods make for interesting perspective clashes that are a lot of fun to read about :)
An amazing list, thank you.
One of the best recent additions to the time travel genre is Novikov Windows: A Time Travel Novel, by Chris Cosmain.