The Time Traveler's Almanac

Starred review from May 19, 2014
Time travel stories move sharply in and out of vogue, but they have an enduring history in speculative fiction. The VanderMeers' latest giant anthology (after The Weird) does the genre a great service, reaching back through that history for classics as well as newer pieces readers might have missed. Standouts include Charles Stross's epic "Palimpsest", Connie Willis's stark portrayal of WWII England in "Fire Watch," and the delicious ambiguity of "Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters" by Alice Sola Kim. There is room for the wistful, courtesy of Michael Swanwick's "Triceratops Summer," and Genevieve Valentine's intermission feature "Trousseau" is half-practical and half-poetic. Every aspect of time is explored and shared, from whole multiverses being created and eliminated with hardly a thought, to the realization that the here and now can be the best thing there is. Agent: Sally Harding, The Cooke Agency.

April 1, 2014
The VanderMeers, claiming with a wink to have written their preface in 2150 under the watchful eye of the Preservationist Guild, offer these more than 70 stories as proof that fiction is one of the most effective time travel machines in the universe. Organized into four categoriesExperiments, Reactionaries & Revolutionaries, Mazes & Traps, and Communiqu'sthis extensive survey traces literary time travel from its earliest published example, in 1881, to 2012. A collection of this size has something for every speculative-fiction reader, but this one is also carefully curated to show the depth and breadth of the field with stories that are humorous (Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, by Douglas Adams); chilling (Is There Anybody There?, by Kim Newman); or intriguingly odd (Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters, by Alice Sola Kim). Characters move through time with the help of science, sure, but also magic, plants, and random mutation. Entertaining nonfiction essays bookend the sections. Authors include Connie Willis, Kage Baker, Elizabeth Bear, Charles Stross, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, George R. R. Martin, C. J. Cherryh, Charles Yu, and John Chu.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)