Time Travel: A Writer's Guide to the Real Science of Plausible Time Travel (Science Fiction Writing Series)

He's literally writing for the lay person here-- the book is intended for writers who would like write science fiction, but want to be scientifically updated on the scientifically possible realities of time travel (both to the past and to the future), teleportation (through wormholes, bending of the 4 dimensions, etc.), the special and general theories of relativity and more. His premise is that science fiction could get away with anything even 50 years ago, when most people and most scientists thought time travel to be impossible, but nowadays, you have to be scientifically sound if you don't want to be laughed out of the literary world. True Sci-fi readers will know if you're legit or not, so Nahin is educating them.

I'm not a writer, but because of the nature of his premise, the book is extremely clear and thus much more informative than the first one ever was. This book even answers questions that I was high-and-dry on before (after reading the first book I picked up). Some of the math may be over the layman's head (some of it's over mine!) and more than you care to know, but he includes a lot of thought-provoking information about the paradoxes of time travel and explains things in pictures very well. He colors his book with quotes and anecdotes from all kinds of works of science fiction and from scientists in the past to make the book fun (and sometimes humorous!).

It's a must-read for anyone interested in the possibilities of time travel and a must-MUST-read for anyone interested in writing a book on anything scientific.


A must-read for anybody!   June 7, 2002
I'm a layman when it comes to science, but I was interested in the theories of the reality of time travel. I tried another book (that will remain nameless) which didn't work at all for me. It was just way over my head. This one's great! It's got all of the same kind of information that the first one had, but Nahin is so much more understandable and gets his points across in a much more organized way.

He's literally writing for the lay person-- the book is intended for writers who would like write science fiction, but want to be scientifically updated on the scientifically possible realities of time travel (both to the past and to the future), teleportation (through wormholes, bending of the 4 dimensions, etc.), the special and general theories of relativity and more. His premise is that science fiction could get away with anything even 50 years ago, when most people and most scientists thought time travel to be impossible, but nowadays, you have to be scientifically sound if you don't want to be laughed out of the literary world. True Sci-fi readers will know if you're legit or not, so Nahin is educating them.

I'm not a writer, but because of the nature of his premise, the book is extremely clear and thus much more informative than the first one ever was. This book even answers questions that I was high-and-dry on before (after reading the first book I picked up). Some of the math may be over the layman's head (some of it's over mine!) and more than you care to know, but he includes a lot of thought-provoking information about the paradoxes of time travel and explains things in pictures very well. He colors his book with quotes and anecdotes from all kinds of works of science fiction and from scientists in the past to make the book fun (and sometimes humorous!).

It's a must-read for anyone interested in the possibilities of time travel and a must-MUST-read for anyone interested in writing a book on anything scientific.


Nahin could have done better...   July 23, 2001
 2 out of 9 found this review helpful

Although Dr. Nahin may be a seasoned explorer of ideas involving time travel, his failure to used organized paragraphs and effective examples greatly lowered the value of this how-to book.

Nahin also omitted the concept of parallel universes entirely. (A now popular belief, that as soon as a traveler breaks his own space-time barrier and moves back in time, the universes splits into two identical entities, the original universe where you came from is the one you can never return to. This may sound disheartening, but this is the only conceivable way in which the time traveler would not induce changes in histories, and therefore time paradoxes.)

Books like this deserve to be better.


Taking the "fiction" out of SF   January 31, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

So, you think you'd like to write a story about time travel? If you think it's as easy as writing a fairy tale, read this book. Surprisingly, the theory of time travel lies well within the laws of physics. In this book, Paul J. Nahin explains the basics, the possibilities, the paradoxes, and best of all, common mistakes science fiction writers make when plotting literary courses through time.

Unless you want to leave your editors laughing at your lack of research, read this book. Base your story as much in real science as you can. Also, check out Nahin's Time Machines, for more information.


Must-Have for the Sci-Fi writer   November 28, 2000
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is one of the best writer's reference books that I have come across. The text is very accessible. The science is very readable and very precise.

Nahin does a fine job of walking the line between the novice and the and experts in the fields. Although this could hardly be considered a physics text book, the Author's theories and ideas should make for excellent reading to anyone who enjoys the nature of science and the possible overlap of science fiction and reality.

For the novice in the field, the author takes good care to be as involving and complete as possible without boring the rest of his audience.

The text is very complete covering everything from relativity and FTL to causal loops and time paradoxes. Possible and probable time shifting machines are discussed and related to the effect they might have on the real world as well as discussing how to properly treat them in a fictional world.

The overlap between fictional world and reality is the key in this book. Nahin has taken great care to write a book that isn't a physics text and isn't a writing text but instead fills the exact niche that exists where a person is trying to express the former study in the context of the second.