The 55 Greatest Works of Time Travel
▽ Introduction
△ Introduction
Time travel is often considered a narrow subgenre of science fiction, starting with The Time Machine in 1895. But a surprising number of literary works of all types—both before and after Wells' popular novel—have featured travel through time. The time travel genre overlaps not only science fiction, but adventure, fantasy, romance, horror, crime, thrillers, historical fiction, and almost any other kind of writing you can think of.
This list covers the greatest time travel literature of all times, places and cultures. It focuses on major fictional works, including novels, novellas and collections.
The selection is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time and further research into time travel literature acclaimed by the world's readers, writers, critics and scholars.
You may also be interested in The Greatest Science Fiction or The Greatest Fantasy.
Latest update: September 8, 2026
1771
Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred
by Louis-Sébastien Mercier, France
Novel, also known as The Year 2440: A Dream If Ever There Was One or Astraea's Return, or The Halcyon Days of France in the Year 2440: A Dream, originally L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fut jamais
1888
Looking Backward: 2000–1888
by Edward Bellamy, United States
Novel
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Mark Twain, United States
1895
The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells, England
Novella
1905
Sultana's Dream
by Begum Rokeya, Bangladesh
Novel
1909
Beatrice the Sixteenth
by Irene Clyde, England
Novel, subtitled Being the Personal Narrative of Mary Hatherley, M.B., Explorer and Geographer
1929
The Bedbug
by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russia
Play
1939
Lest Darkness Fall
by L. Sprague De Camp, United States
Novel
1941
By His Bootstraps
by Robert A. Heinlein, United States
Novella
1953
Bring the Jubilee
by Ward Moore, United States
1955
The End of Eternity
by Isaac Asimov, United States
Novel
The Door Into Summer
by Robert A. Heinlein, United States
Novel
1958
The Big Time
by Fritz Leiber, United States
Novel
1962
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle, United States
Novel, first in Time Quintet series
1964
Farnham's Freehold
by Robert A. Heinlein, United States
Novel
1969
Behold the Man
by Michael Moorcock, England
Novel
Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Novel
1970
Tau Zero
by Poul Anderson, United States
Novel
Time and Again
by Jack Finney, United States
Novel
1973
The Dark Is Rising
by Susan Cooper, England
Novel, second in The Dark Is Rising series
1974
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman, United States
Novel, first in The Forever War series
1976
Woman on the Edge of Time
by Marge Piercy, United States
Novel
1979
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler, United States
Novel
1980
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
by Douglas Adams, England
Novel, second in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
Timescape
by Gregory Benford, United States
Novel
1983
The Anubis Gates
by Tim Powers, United States
Novel
1985
The Proteus Operation
by James P. Hogan, England
Novel
1986
Replay
by Ken Grimwood, United States
Novel
1988
Lighting
by Dean Koontz, United States
Novel
1989
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons, United States
Novel, first in The Hyperion Cantos series
1991–2021
Outlander series
by Diana Gabaldon, United States
Novel series includes Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and others.
1992
Doomsday Book
by Connie Willis, United States
Novel, first in the Oxford Time Travel series
1995
The Time Ships
by Stephen Baxter, England
Novel
1996
Making History
by Stephen Fry, England
Novel
1997
In the Garden of Iden
by Kage Baker, United States
Novel
1998
To Say Nothing of the Dog
by Connie Willis, United States
Novel, second in the Oxford Time Travel series
1999
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J.K. Rowling, England
Novel, third in the Harry Potter series
Timeline
by Michael Crichton, United States
Novel
2001
The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde, England
Novel
2002
Night Watch
by Terry Pratchett, England
Novel in the Discworld series
2003
For Us, the Living
by Robert A. Heinlein, United States
Novel, subtitled A Comedy of Customs, written in 1938
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger, United States
Novel
2005
Spin
by Robert Charles Wilson, Canada
Novel
2006
Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony
by Eoin Colfer, Ireland
Novel, also known as Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony, fifth in the Artemis Fowl Adventures series
2007
The Accidental Time Machine
by Joe Haldeman, United States
Novel
Rant
by Chuck Palahniuk, United States
Novel, subtitled An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
2010
Blackout and All Clear
by Connie Willis, United States
Novel in two volumes, third in the Oxford Time Travel series
2011
11/22/63
by Stephen King, United States
Novel
2013
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson, England
Novel
2016
Dark Matter
by Blake Crouch, United States
Novel
2019
This Is How You Lose the Time War
by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, Canada and United States
Novella
What the Wind Knows
by Amy Harmon, Ireland
Novel
Recursion
by Blake Crouch, United States
Novel
