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andrejt's review against another edition
3.0
A short and mildly acidic history of the idea of time travel in the Western culture. Time travel is defined very broadly and includes things like time capsules or even memory. The book discusses mostly literature and to some extent film and philosophy. There's surprisingly little physics. It focuses mainly on the period since H. G. Wells, but there are a couple of digressions to St. Augustine, and such. 2.5 stars.
captain_a's review against another edition
3.0
The book is certainly well-researched as it examines time travel through the lens of physics, philosophy, pop culture and more. I find parts of it clunky and a bit disjointed, and some chapters I found far more fascinating than others. Some chapters, particularly the science heavy ones, felt a little over my head (sorry, I studied social sciences!) but I give him credit for being thorough. My biggest disappointment was time travel to the past didn't really come up until the final third of the book, which is the part of time travel I am most fascinated by.
simpulacra's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this was an excellent exploration on the history of the culture surrounding the concept of time travel. If you're looking for something specifically about how time travel may or may not be possible this is probably not the book you're looking for. If you're looking to understand it as a cultural phenomenon this is a good place to start.
terrypaulpearce's review against another edition
2.0
I was a bit disappointed in this. The topic has so much potential, but this history took way too much time quoting strange old blusterers who hadn't the faintest clue about time travel. I get that their point of view was part of history, and great to learn about it, but there was way too much time devoted to poor prose about poor opinions. Also, the structure of the book is absolutely all over the place. I don't know if it was deliberate that it kept coming back to the same topics and then wandering off on tangents and circling back again (imitating time travel?), but it made it hard to follow. Also, nowhere near enough time was devoted to the idea of alternate timelines and the MWI and ideas around time travel that fit with that. Lastly, Rob Shapiro is not my favourite narrator. There were some interesting ideas here for sure, but they seemingly got to me despite Gleick and Shapiro's efforts, not because of them.
samharnold's review against another edition
3.0
This book is well written and well researched. The work that has gone into this book is evident throughout. Some of the writing is a little scientific for me hence the three stars. This however is more to do with my ignorance than the authors writing. A good interesting read.
annauq's review against another edition
2.0
Really, really dissapointed in this book. I was so looking forward to this, but it just didn't grip me at all. So sad.
fantasticalsam's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.5
This book gets deep into metaphysics, rhetoric, history, physics, psychology, sociology, and pretty much every other facet of the human connection to time travel as a concept - incredible
geeisforgrace's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this! A super fun mix of history of sci fi/literature, physics, and philosophy on our inquiry into time travel. Really engaging fun read.