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42nd out of 631 books
—
2,152 voters
The Accidental Time Machine
by
Joe Haldeman
Joe Haldeman "has quietly become one of the most important science fiction writers of our time" (Rocky Mountain News). Now he delivers a provocative novel of a man who stumbles upon the discovery of a lifetime-or many lifetimes.
Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when, while measuring subtle quantum forces that relate to time c...more
Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when, while measuring subtle quantum forces that relate to time c...more
Hardcover, 278 pages
Published
August 7th 2007
by Ace
(first published 2007)
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Apr 04, 2013
Jon
added it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Jon by:
SciFi & Fantasy Book Club June 2009
3.5 stars
Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book has been relocated to my blog and can be found in its entirety by following this link: http://bit.ly/13VKfis
Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book has been relocated to my blog and can be found in its entirety by following this link: http://bit.ly/13VKfis
Oh the fun you can have with time travel. I would say this was a slightly above average sci-fi exploration of the space-time continuum, although I thought it borrowed a little too heavily from H.G. Wells' classic. The periodic regression of civilization and the eventual extinction of life on Earth just didn't strike me as that creative. I would have also like to see more on the inherent paradoxes of time travel instead of the clumsy interpersonal relationships he spends so much time on. I don't...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This was light reading; I have finished it in one day. I'm still not all clear on the detail how the protagonist bails himself out of prison, and it's bothering me. So I guess the conclusion isn't all that neat as in The Door Into Summer where the story goes full circle. Still there was a happy ending for the protagonist apparently. I kind of wish I'd finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid since this book mentions Godel and strange loops, which I only have a basic understa...more
May 29, 2009
Beth A.
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Beth A. by:
SciFi Fantasy Book Club
Shelves:
sci-fi
I got caught in this story immediately, it had an interesting premise, and it flowed quickly. It was entertaining enough to keep me up late even though I was very tired and had a long drive the next day. The characters were believable even if some of their circumstances required a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. I liked the ending, too.
Note: This book contains some themes that reflect negatively on religion, also occasional foul language, drug use, and not-too-explicit mention of por...more
Note: This book contains some themes that reflect negatively on religion, also occasional foul language, drug use, and not-too-explicit mention of por...more
This was pretty good - Haldeman is a great storyteller, and his characters are always likeable.
Maybe it's because I recently watched the time travel movie Primer, but the invention/discovery of the time machine seemed a little trite (this box was designed to do x, but it's actually a time machine!) The time travel itself was very interesting, and different from anything I've read.
The book might be considered post-apocalyptic, as the time traveler discovers a future world in which he is terribly...more
Maybe it's because I recently watched the time travel movie Primer, but the invention/discovery of the time machine seemed a little trite (this box was designed to do x, but it's actually a time machine!) The time travel itself was very interesting, and different from anything I've read.
The book might be considered post-apocalyptic, as the time traveler discovers a future world in which he is terribly...more
Aug 05, 2009
Richard
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Richard by:
SciFi & Fantasy Group 2009-06 SciFi Selection
This was the SciFi selection for the Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club for the month of June 2009. Visit this link to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.
This is old school science fiction. Very clever, nicely thought-out hard-scifi plausibility, and very light on character development.
The plot is a classic voyage-and-return in which our likable but flawed protagonist is more-or-less forced far from home, undergoes struggles, and — perhaps — finds his way home. Along the wa...more
This is old school science fiction. Very clever, nicely thought-out hard-scifi plausibility, and very light on character development.
The plot is a classic voyage-and-return in which our likable but flawed protagonist is more-or-less forced far from home, undergoes struggles, and — perhaps — finds his way home. Along the wa...more
I am have fairly specific requirements for time travel stories. However they treat time travel, it has to make sense to me. This book did, which is the main reason it got 5 stars. The plot is actually fairly simplistic, and there are really only 2-3 characters none of whom are very deep or rich. But it was quite entertaining. The story follows Matt into the distance future, one leap at a time in a way that reminded me quite a bit of Marooned in Realtime (another favorite).
Another compulsively readable title from Joe Haldeman. Think
The Forever War
in terms of scope & central character focus. The hero is pretty much instantly likable and it has a nice denouement at the end.
It'll be a quick read for you--finished it in one day, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that it moves swiftly, through time no less! Pa-ching!
I agree that the introduction of a deus ex machina towards the end leaves more questions than answers, but overall it was a great read for a...more
It'll be a quick read for you--finished it in one day, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that it moves swiftly, through time no less! Pa-ching!
I agree that the introduction of a deus ex machina towards the end leaves more questions than answers, but overall it was a great read for a...more
The Accidental Time Machine, by Joe Haldeman.
Coincidentally, I was recently talking about a Poul Anderson short story, "Flight to Forever", which has some resemblance to this novel.
The basic premise is similar with some twists. Matt, a grad student at MIT, accidental invents the eponymous time machine. Its only a one way device, and the "jumps" are logarithmically longer and longer, and so his journey quickly becomes a one way trip to the future, looking for a way to reverse the process and ret...more
Coincidentally, I was recently talking about a Poul Anderson short story, "Flight to Forever", which has some resemblance to this novel.
The basic premise is similar with some twists. Matt, a grad student at MIT, accidental invents the eponymous time machine. Its only a one way device, and the "jumps" are logarithmically longer and longer, and so his journey quickly becomes a one way trip to the future, looking for a way to reverse the process and ret...more
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An MIT grad student discovers that a calibrator he built for an experiment is actually a time machine, but only into the future. Dreaming of fame and fortune (not to mention a Ph.D), Matt hops farther and farther into the future, dodging in and out of dicey situations and, incidentally, meeting a nice girl. The pleasant, easy-going style kept me reading, but the further I read, the more questions I had - and most were never answered. Frustrating...although the ending was a neat little twist.
Come annoiare viaggiando nel tempo
Molto deludente questo libro di Haldeman: non che l’autore sia mai stato fra i miei preferiti ma questo romanzetto vale davvero poco ed il fatto che sia stato nominato al Nebula e Locus 2008 la dice lunga sullo stato ancora semicomatoso della fantascienza mondiale; a meno che certi autori non siano premiati per la loro fama più che per il valore intrinseco delle loro opere.
Fatto sta che questa storia di viaggi nel tempo è di una piattezza indescrivibile e all...more
Molto deludente questo libro di Haldeman: non che l’autore sia mai stato fra i miei preferiti ma questo romanzetto vale davvero poco ed il fatto che sia stato nominato al Nebula e Locus 2008 la dice lunga sullo stato ancora semicomatoso della fantascienza mondiale; a meno che certi autori non siano premiati per la loro fama più che per il valore intrinseco delle loro opere.
Fatto sta che questa storia di viaggi nel tempo è di una piattezza indescrivibile e all...more
Joe Haldeman, one of my favorite authors, covering time travel, one of my favorite fictional concepts. It doesn’t get better than this! While working as a research assistant at MIT Matt Fuller, an A.B.D. physics graduate student, pushed the reset button on a calibrator, a piece of equipment that he had built that was supposed to produce one photon per chronon (the unit of time it takes light to travel the radius of an electron). Much to his surprise the calibrator disappeared. As he tried to inf...more
This recent novel by longtime science fiction veteran Joe Haldeman is a bit of a departure for him, at lease for those of us who know him from The Forever War. In The Accidental Time Machine, Haldeman proposes a rather simple plot device to explore various future Earths.
Matt Fuller is this novel's Gulliver or Rip Van Winkle or other fish-out-of-water character. Unlike some stock narrators, Fuller is a fairly well-established character, charming without being dashing, and the reader does come to...more
Matt Fuller is this novel's Gulliver or Rip Van Winkle or other fish-out-of-water character. Unlike some stock narrators, Fuller is a fairly well-established character, charming without being dashing, and the reader does come to...more
I loved the first 80% of this book. So what an amazing letdown the end is. A Deus Ex Machina solution that's never explained, mysteries presented in the book that are never addressed, and characters that seem awfully blase about rather significant events. And so many other issues, but I don't want to get into spoiler territory. I have read books with weak endings, but this almost feels like Haldeman got bored with writing the book and just decided to wrap it all up quickly. I can't think of anot...more
The Accidental Time Machine is Joe Haldeman's most recent stand-alone novel written in a quirky style rivaling Terry Pratchett's fun novels and even Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
Matt is a research assistant at MIT when the calibrator he's working on becomes a time machine by complete accident - hence the book's title. Upon discovering he's lost his job and his girlfriend to the man replacing him at work, Matt decides to take a trip with his time machine. We soon discove...more
Matt is a research assistant at MIT when the calibrator he's working on becomes a time machine by complete accident - hence the book's title. Upon discovering he's lost his job and his girlfriend to the man replacing him at work, Matt decides to take a trip with his time machine. We soon discove...more
Joe Haldeman has nothing to prove as a science fiction writer. His bibliography includes enduring classics and multiple award winners, and his following and appeal is such that he could probably just phone in a book or two every year and make a decent living for himself. That’s one of the reasons his newest book, THE ACCIDENTAL TIME MACHINE is so great, because it didn’t have to be.
THE ACCIDENTAL TIME MACHINE follows MIT graduate student Matt Fuller. He’s got a semidetached geek’s-eye view of th...more
THE ACCIDENTAL TIME MACHINE follows MIT graduate student Matt Fuller. He’s got a semidetached geek’s-eye view of th...more
Well, I can say I've finally met Jesus - sort of, anyway. I was not the only reader who cringed as the protagonist advanced into the future, worried that the plot appeared for an uncomfortable while to parallel the novel of (nearly) the same name by HG Wells. There was a Jurassic Park moment, which made me wonder if Haldeman's novel preceded Crighton or the other way around. As far as the actual physics of the time machine - one man's dilithium crystal is another man's graviton/string theory. It...more
I read The Forever War a while ago, and enjoyed it immensely. One way to articulate that book’s project, though, is as follows:
A man joins the army and, because of successively longer relativistic jumps, experiences the slow evolution of the human race and society over hundreds or thousands of years. Interesting developments of character and thought experiments about humankind follow.
Here’s a brief summary of The Accidental Time Machine:
A man accidentally invents a time machine and, because it o...more
A man joins the army and, because of successively longer relativistic jumps, experiences the slow evolution of the human race and society over hundreds or thousands of years. Interesting developments of character and thought experiments about humankind follow.
Here’s a brief summary of The Accidental Time Machine:
A man accidentally invents a time machine and, because it o...more
This book had some very interesting ideas in it, but it was boring. Maybe it's just that I'm not as into hard science fiction like this if it is indeed hard SF. There was a lot of scientific jargon in this book that some readers may find delightful, just not me. I think the main reason I almost didn't finish it is that I could care less what happened to the main character. Nothing about him made me interested in him, or made me like him. He's just kind of a loser who accidentally discovered a ti...more
This is a short easy read which zips along nicely and has a nice finish. Matt Fuller, our main protagonist, is an under achieving student working as a research assistant, seemingly to avoid completing his education. His girlfriend has just left him and when he loses his job to the same man; seemingly a younger, handsomer and more dynamic version of himself that his girlfriend has taken up with the future seems bleak. Or is it? When he discovers that a machine he has constructed has the ability t...more
This book often threatened to tip into the territory of David Gerrold's wondrous The Man Who Folded Himself but never quite made that trip. It would have been fine with me if it had, but one of those is probably enough.
What we have here instead is a playful use of a not-quite-MacGuffin (as Haldeman explains in his author's note, a scientific paper was quite recently published in which his graviton/string theory conceit is explored as serious science) to explore a few possible futures for its pro...more
What we have here instead is a playful use of a not-quite-MacGuffin (as Haldeman explains in his author's note, a scientific paper was quite recently published in which his graviton/string theory conceit is explored as serious science) to explore a few possible futures for its pro...more
LIFE IN THE 2050S goes on pretty much as we know it today. No alien invasions, apocalypses or singularities. Oh, sure, there are a few more fancy gadgets, a few cultural differences and a few additional restrictions on carbon production. But life for a struggling, somewhat lazy grad student is highly recognizable. Matt Fuller is in the physics program at MIT, but his dissertation is stalled and he's surviving as a lab assistant. His duties include building a photonic calibrator, a simple device...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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For the first half of the novel, I was quite impressed. It wasn't until somewhere around the halfway mark did things become...strange.
The premise is pretty simple, but never does the story itself get predictable. That's a good thing, like I mentioned, for the first half. And as you might think, the protagonist jumps to some pretty interesting eras of the future, quickly finding himself in one perilous situation after another, and often its quite funny.
But it didn't last, unfortunately. It's wh...more
The premise is pretty simple, but never does the story itself get predictable. That's a good thing, like I mentioned, for the first half. And as you might think, the protagonist jumps to some pretty interesting eras of the future, quickly finding himself in one perilous situation after another, and often its quite funny.
But it didn't last, unfortunately. It's wh...more
Summary:
MIT lab technician Matt Fuller discovers that the calibrator he was working on can disappear. At first it vanishes for only a second, then for several seconds, then minutes. Matt decides it is, in fact, a sort of time machine, able to leap into the future for longer and longer periods of time each instance he activates it. He designs an experiment to send a turtle into the future, then finally himself.
When he reappears about a month later, Matt is accused of murder and arrested. To esca...more
MIT lab technician Matt Fuller discovers that the calibrator he was working on can disappear. At first it vanishes for only a second, then for several seconds, then minutes. Matt decides it is, in fact, a sort of time machine, able to leap into the future for longer and longer periods of time each instance he activates it. He designs an experiment to send a turtle into the future, then finally himself.
When he reappears about a month later, Matt is accused of murder and arrested. To esca...more
The Accidental Time Machine is a straightforward SF adventure with a simple premise. There’s very little toying with paradox and and brain-aching concepts, and it’s straight on with the story, a ripping yarn about a graduate student who builds a bit of lab equipment that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. Instead, it seems to be able to move forward in time. The twist is, it goes further forward by a factor of twelve each time it’s switched on.
Problem is, it has a tendency to move a little bit...more
Problem is, it has a tendency to move a little bit...more
Sep 25, 2012
Philip
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audiobooks,
science-fiction
So I really needed something to listen to in the car, and for some reason this was recommended by someone...but long story short, this is not by any stretch a great book. Nothing here H.G. Wells (or countless others) hasn't done better -- the characters are weak and not particularly interesting; they visit some of the most boring futures I've ever read in science fiction (dwelling in just two that are particularly dull); the invention of the time machine itself was pretty lame; and on top of eve...more
Eh. That was my impression of this book. Just eh. My biggest complaint is the main character (followed by the rather weak science). I think the author may have been going for a kind of nerdy loser who is both very smart when it comes to physics, but lazy and makes bad decisions on impulse when it comes to real life. Which has the potential to work - you want him to be kind of naïve about the real world, but smart about science. Only he’s not. His approach to the science is only good when it serv...more
Phenomenal book. Haldeman has a nice linear style and is easy to read. It comes off like an old crow telling a familiar anecdotal story. This is good because it makes the string-theory and brane universe science involved in the time travel a little easier to digest. The characters are well developed and either believable in their actions or very likable accordingly. Martha is about the best female character I could imagine arising out of the experiences that ensue. I enjoyed this to the point of...more
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Brother of Jack C. Haldeman II
Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA pres...more
More about Joe Haldeman...
Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA pres...more
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Jun 05, 2009 06:10am
Happy Mooching!
Jul 13, 2009 12:41pm