Best time freezing or time loop books?

[tm37]

I've recently had a craving to read stories of time loops and/or time freezing. Are there any books I should be reading?

 

[j d worthington]

I'd certainly recommend both Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time books and A. E. van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher (which, as Anthony Boucher once said, has one of the best final lines in all fiction -- and it only works if you've read the novel....)

 

[chrispenycate]

There are a couple of Heinlein shorts that you have to have read: "All you zombies", and "By his bootstraps". For reverse causality, you can try "Up the line"by Robert Silverberg and "Timescape" by Gregory Benford. Perhaps for mutable timelines, with no need for loops "The big time" (Fritz Lieber)

Oh, dear, aren't they all old?

 

[manephelien]

By his bootstraps is a great story.

 

[biodroid]

You should try Dean Koontz - Dragon Tears, it's about a criminal who can control time with his mind and plays deadly games with 2 cops trying to catch him. He freezes time for the world except for the cops and they do wierd and freaky stuff to accomplish their missions. I really enjoyed it, it starts out like a crime thriller but has an SF/paranormal twist which actually is the main plot line of the book. Amazon.com: Dragon Tears: Dean Koontz: Books don't be put off by the reviews, this is one of his good ones.

 

[Fried Egg]

"Replay" by Ken Grimwood is definitely in this category.

 

[tm37]

I have already read "Replay", it is one of my favorite books of all time. I just finished "By His Bootstraps" and quite liked it. I will be reading "The Weapon Shops of Isher" next, I've had it for a long time on my pile of books to read. I always get distracted by wanting to read specific types of stories, I should really just be less discriminant.

 

[J-Sun]

If you like van Vogt and the Weapon Shops, you might like Harness' The Paradox Men. I'm not sure of how narrow a focus you want, though. I would mention Leiber's The Big Time and other "Changewar" stories, as well, along with Asimov's The End of Eternity and maybe Kuttner's The Time Axis. Then there are books doing weird things with time via near-light speed travel, black holes, etc.: Haldeman's The Forever War, Anderson's Tau Zero, Pohl's Gateway, Sheffield's Between the Strokes of Night (which does a neat thing with the "times" both inside and outside the ship). Then there's a sort of time freeze inside the "bobbles" in Vinge's "Peace War" stuff. Hamilton chucks a city a million years into the future in City at World's End, IIRC. Then there are zillions of stories that do funky things with time like "Slow Glass", though I forget who wrote it right now. Many specialized theme anthologies might suit.

I don't tend to care much for time travel as such, unless it's messing with physics as in the Tau Zero group I mentioned, so I haven't read a lot of famous specifically focused stuff like Piper's Paratime stuff and Anderson's Time Patrol stuff, but I suspect that gets more into alternate history and branching more than looping or freezing.

Anyway - hope some of that helps.

 

[J-Sun]

Oh, dear, aren't they all old?

Huh. Mine, too, it seems.

 

[David Gullen]

Then there are zillions of stories that do funky things with time like "Slow Glass", though I forget who wrote it right now.

That would be Bob Shaw, first with 'Light of Other Days', then the collection 'Other days, Other Eyes.'

Two more:
'Chronocules' by DG Compton - Compton is a forgotten writer these days
'The Anubis Gates' by Tim Powers - a wonderful book.

 

[Kissmequick]

Blimey Dave, when did you join?

How come with the enormity of the internet I keep bumping intro people I know?

And back to the regular scheduled thread.

 

[iansales]

'Chronocules' by DG Compton - Compton is a forgotten writer these days

Not entirely forgotten.

 

[Luca Scozzi]

I've recently had a craving to read stories of time loops and/or time freezing. Are there any books I should be reading?

Although tis isn't a time loop it is a book about time travel.

Steven Kings 11.22.63 the book is about a man called Jake Epping who travels back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination. The book deals with the classic time travel paradoxes in a relatively new way and the book is a great read.
Hope I've helped,
Luca

 

[Toby Frost]

John Wyndham did quite a good short story on time jumping, as per Groundhog Day. I think it was called "Odd".

 

[yogibayer]

Old topic, but I found it today searching for new time loop books to read and thought I should add: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, which is a great time loop book.

 

[Temperance]

Ben Elton's latest, Time and Time Again, is a good time loop story, a few problems such as Turkey being dry country, but there are some interesting twists.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Old topic, but I found it today searching for new time loop books to read and thought I should add: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, which is a great time loop book.

Thanks for the recommendation, and welcome to chronicles.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

What about Nick Gifford's most recent book.