Forum: Story Recommendations

Time Travel - Alternate History

NC-Retired 🚫

In my mind there are only so many scenarios for time travel and alternate history do-over kind of tales.

Lightning strike. Discovery of a 'time machine'. Unexplained 'natural' phenomenon. Wormholes. Alien intervention. God/Goddess intervention. Maybe there's more than these, but I think these are the most common.

I especially like the tales where the protagonist has some negotiating leverage with the entity that's providing the transportation.

Many different authors here on SOL have written tales in this genre. Some of my favorites, in no particular order.

cmsix
FantasyLover
SW MO Hermit
Kraken
Gordon Johnson
The Blind Man
A Acer Custos
John Wales
Howard Faxon
The Old Guy
rlfj
GraySapien

I'm presuming that if you also like time travel and alternate history do-over kind of tales these are some of your favorite authors also.

But the question is: are there other authors that have good tales in the genre?

Which are your favorite authors?

Dinsdale 🚫

@NC-Retired

Lazlo Zalezac's final story was https://storiesonline.net/s/18499/emend-by-eclipse and that was partially about accumulating minor changes to make the world a different place.

awnlee jawking 🚫
Updated:

@NC-Retired

I'd also add Lumpy, for his 'Imperium' saga.

(In similar vein in somethin fishy's Medieval Marine series but I don't rate it as highly)

I'm enjoying Greven's 'Just When I Thought It Was All Over, It All Starts Again' but it's in-progress and is in danger of over-escalating.

Dayum, I nearly forgot Charlie Foxtrot's 'A New Past'!

And Coaster2's 'Life on Another Planet'.

AJ

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@NC-Retired

In my mind there are only so many scenarios for time travel and alternate history do-over kind of tales.

Lightning strike. Discovery of a 'time machine'. Unexplained 'natural' phenomenon. Wormholes. Alien intervention. God/Goddess intervention. Maybe there's more than these, but I think these are the most common.

Another would be the Bob Newhart ploy. The comedian Bob Newhart had two TV sitcom series in which he played a character using his real name.

In the first series, he was a psychologist in Chicago. In the second he ran an inn in Vermont.

In the finally of the second series, they threw in the twist that the entire second series was just a dream by the Bob Newhart character from the first series.

NC-Retired 🚫

@NC-Retired

Got an email from someone that did not post here suggesting Al Steiner and his "Doing It All Over".

Another good one.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@NC-Retired

Al Steiner and his "Doing It All Over".

Another good one.

Hear hear!

AJ

Radagast 🚫

@NC-Retired

https://storiesonline.net/a/Gina_Marie_Wylie
Tangent is an alternate universe story rather than time travel.
https://storiesonline.net/a/ScotlandtheBrave
Scottish nationalists will probably enjoy his works.

D.T.Iverson has a time travel / paranormal story that is one of his better works.
https://storiesonline.net/s/18148/beyond-measure

The Night Hawk's Once More With Feelings is a do-over body swap.
https://storiesonline.net/a/The_Night_Hawk

SmokinDriver's Hindsight 20/20 series is worth checking out.
https://storiesonline.net/a/SmokinDriver

Don Lockwood's classic
https://storiesonline.net/s/42289/rewind

Open Book has a 'negotiating with the spiritual power' type do over: https://storiesonline.net/s/47591/why-didnt-i-just

somethin fishy's The Medieval Marine is on my to be read list:
https://storiesonline.net/universe/1300/the-medieval-marine

Lumpy's Imperium series is another variant of the soldier thrown back in time:
https://storiesonline.net/series/1633/imperium

As is Fantasy Lover's When in Rome.
https://storiesonline.net/s/20316/when-in-rome-by-fantasylover

Radagast 🚫

@NC-Retired

Building a Better Past by Tendertouch is a good read.
https://storiesonline.net/s/60750/building-a-better-past/

West Coast Willy started an isekai / alternate world that was engaging. Unfortunately it appears to be abandoned.
https://storiesonline.net/s/27713/the-once-and-future-man

Dark Apostle's Wishes stories are good.
https://storiesonline.net/s/22919/the-wishes-tempus-fugit

Radagast 🚫

@NC-Retired

https://storiesonline.net/s/53355/pauls-redemption
by Novascriptus is another character based do over, with the anti-social genius trying to be a better human on his second go around.

Replies: NC-Retired

NC-Retired 🚫

@Radagast

I read this yesterday. This was one I'd not read before and I scored it a 9.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Nizzgrrl 🚫
Updated:

@NC-Retired

Don't miss "Again" by Timm. https://storiesonline.net/s/28578/again-by-timm

Replies: NC-Retired

NC-Retired 🚫

@Nizzgrrl

Don't miss "Again" by Timm. https://storiesonline.net/s/28578/again-by-timm

Thanks for the recommendation.

I just finished this tale. For some reason it did not resonate with me.

limab 🚫

@NC-Retired

Lexi Redux by Harry Carton, Not GREAT but readable.

Radagast 🚫

@NC-Retired

https://storiesonline.net/series/1668/the-fifty-something-teenager

Another do-over where the change agent keeps interfering with the MC's life.

NC-Retired 🚫

@NC-Retired

Thanks all for the various links.

The do-overs are good, but my original idea was recommendations for authors that wrote about time travel to the more distant past or to an alternate earth like planet.

My original list was for the authors that wrote stories that featured that more distant perspective.

cmsix
FantasyLover
SW MO Hermit
Kraken
Gordon Johnson
The Blind Man
A Acer Custos
John Wales
Howard Faxon
The Old Guy
rlfj
GraySapien

Regardless of the exact means of travel, magic or aliens, I have found that authors that can write a logical tale about survival and success in the distant past can also write other tales that are just as enjoyable to read as the time travel ones.

Simply, they are accomplished authors.

Let's keep this going as there are lots of great tales that we might overlook for various reasons.

redthumb 🚫

@NC-Retired

As I recall Monbade in his Traveling science collection has the MCs negotiating with the aliens. In one story I there is intense negotiating going on.

itsmehonest 🚫

@NC-Retired

Second Chance by Number 7

Johnny Pulaski and the Cult of Amun-Ra and El Paso by Joe J

Times 7 by RoustWriter

Replies: sunseeker

sunseeker 🚫

@itsmehonest

Haven't read Times 7 so I will give it a go, thanks!

Joe J always a good read and Second Chance did nada for me and I lost interest in reading it...

SunSeeker

Replies: itsmehonest

itsmehonest 🚫

@sunseeker

Times 7, he stopped writing it because life got in the way according to his blog, good start though

MarissaHorne 🚫
Updated:

@NC-Retired

Lightning in a Bottle by Sage Mullins is one I particularly enjoy.

samuelmichaels 🚫

@NC-Retired

Paul Phenomenon: Hawk, the Stone Age Spirit Guide
Lazlong: the "Washed Up" series.
The Old Guy.
Scotland-the-Brave (e.g. Surviving)
Celtic Cowboy: Finding Peace.
Warlord: Wild West (incomplete).
A bunch of stories by aubie56.
Barneyr: Bob's Great Adventure.
Old 1 Eye.
Swabby: Steve and Kemon.

No longer on SOL:
Oh Hell No! and Winds.

Replies: solitude

solitude 🚫

@samuelmichaels

Also no longer on SOL: Magestic by gwresearch/Geoff Wolak. Now on the big river site. (Yes, it is g not j in the name.)

Replies: NickV

NickV 🚫

@solitude

Magestic really was one of the best stories in this category on the site.

itsmehonest 🚫

@NC-Retired

if incomplete stories are accepted check out author Grey Dragon his Aw Fuck Me!

Replies: NC-Retired

NC-Retired 🚫

@itsmehonest

Keeping with the theme of this thread - do-overs…

Set the scene… 1966, central Florida, well-to-do family, Dad presenting a 1966 Mustang convertible as a birthday gift to his 16 year old daughter that just got her drivers license.

OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!

This is so cool! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

itsmehonest recommended Grey Dragon and his Aw Fuck Me!

Thank you for this! This recommendation is why I pose these broad questions and ask for your favorites. This is a tale that I would not have stumbled across by myownself.

In the first 1900 words the author succinctly defines the last 6,000 (at least) years of human history and even though the tale was first written 10 years ago, brings us to the state of society in 2024.

I've finished my morning espresso and am now off to continue reading Aw Fuck Me!

Thanks again for this recommendation.

Radagast 🚫

@NC-Retired

Mad King Olaf's MC meets Truck-kun and in the Green Room of Judgement is offered a deal by the reality TV producer of Fate. Cease to exist or go to an alternate stone age world and try to make a life, all for the entertainment of alien viewers. A re-write of a previous work, recently posted to the level of the original work. Hopefully posting will continue. https://storiesonline.net/n/35727/round-two-by-mad-king

Replies: NC-Retired

NC-Retired 🚫
Updated:

@Radagast

. https://storiesonline.net/n/35727/round-two-by-mad-king

Thank you! Another one that I'd not have discovered by myownself.

Radagast 🚫

@NC-Retired

Behind the pay wall, Alistair Acorn has a British soldier drive through a time warp / fairy ring and end up in Bronze Age Britain, where he collides with the remains of previous time warped vehicles.
https://storiesonline.net/s/46779/journey-into-the-past

Replies: NC-Retired

NC-Retired 🚫
Updated:

@Radagast

Agreed, journey into the past is another good one!

Mushroom 🚫
Updated:

@NC-Retired

I will admit, I have loved the "Do-Over" genre for decades. For me, it goes all the way back to 1988 when I first read "Replay" by Ken Grimwood.

However, the problem with most of them is that the main character tends to become insanely powerful, and a great many turn into essentially Mary Sue's. They get the girl (or all of them), insanely wealthy and/or powerful, almost nothing bad ever happens to them. Like the moment they return, almost everything becomes perfect.

Which is probably why my story like that ended up being very different.

https://storiesonline.net/s/24465/another-life

Time Travel itself is quite different, and I still read that constantly. But my favorites are Harry Turtledove and SM Stirling (who is more Alternate History). Along with Harry Harrison and John Birmingham.

Grey Wolf 🚫

@NC-Retired

My own story is a do-over. No large-scale time travel, but it's definitely an alternative history both from the start (the MC realizes it's not the same world nearly from the start, though close) and ongoing as characters slowly affect the world. It's definitely a slow-burn one where things slowly diverge, not one where people are making huge changes off the bat (though individual lives may be very divergent), though.

https://storiesonline.net/series/1583/variation-on-a-theme

Replies: Paladin_HGWT NC-Retired

Paladin_HGWT 🚫

@Grey Wolf

I too will recommend the Variation on a Theme series! Well written, both in terms of engaging plots, and writing style, humor and drama, as well as spelling, grammar, and other technical aspects.

Without giving away specifics, many chapters into the story an incident occurs in the story (that Anyone from Our Timeline) that is not consistent with the history we know... Not something changed by the Character(s). It gave me a different Perspective on this series. Unlike similar series, the Character(s) cannot be certain that investments, or other things they attempt will be successful based upon "Knowledge of the Future"...

In many similar stories, readers can presume that the MC will certainly be successful, because we KNOW how things turn out.

Also, I appreciate the consideration of the MC(s) to try to never "steal" from others by doing something another person will (likely) do in the future.

Grey Wolf and I have some very different opinions on some matters, mostly matters of politics and/or social matters. That said I very much enjoy his story. Any "political issues" from matters of a local school board, to opinions (and actions) with national effect are depicted well, and such that a person who might disagree with them would have to admit are consistent to the Character(s). Politics and social matters are key elements of this story; but depicted in a manner that (I think) most people would enjoy. Such matters develop as part of the story. To be clear, politics are absent from most of the story.

Not everything in this story occurs in a manner favorable to the MC (or other characters). Despite being clever as well as smart, and having foreknowledge, they don't always succeed. Often the characters have to opt for "smaller" victories and "lesser evils" making times when they achieve a major success even sweeter! Too often in these types of stories, everything the MC does is a Huge Success.

This is my favorite series. If it continues the way it has, I would enjoy reading about the entirety of these characters potentially very long lives.

NC-Retired 🚫

@Grey Wolf

I've read the first tale and am starting on your second.

Good stuff!

Thanks!

itsmehonest 🚫

@NC-Retired

Not time travel, but history spanning

Bob's Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon — a series by aroslav
Bob is a 4,000-year-old demon set free in the world at his summoning. This is his story as he remembers it--which is sometimes not in order.

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Forum: Story Recommendations

Time Travel - Alternate History

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