I find time travel fascinating. It can be just a gimmick to add suspense or intrigue to a story, but some authors use it as a technique to explore the world we live in or the way we think about things, including ourselves.
Here are 13 novels that use time travel to explore larger themes.
- Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King
- The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
- Time And Again by Jack Finney
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
- The Book of Rachel by Joel Gross
- Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
- Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson
- In the Courts of the Sun and sequels by Brian D’Amato
- The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser
And there’s also a hefty (800 pages!) anthology of time-travel stories: The Time Traveler’s Almanac, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.