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The Accidental Time Machine
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 changes in gravity and electromagnetic force, his calibrator turns into a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who has left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose taking a time machine trip himself-or so he thinks.
Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when, while measuring subtle quantum forces that relate to time changes in gravity and electromagnetic force, his calibrator turns into a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who has left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose taking a time machine trip himself-or so he thinks.
8 pages, Audible Audio
First published August 7, 2007
349 people are currently reading
7167 people want to read
About the author
Joe Haldeman
438 books2,193 followersBrother 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 president Russell Davis called Haldeman "an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend."
Haldeman officially received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May, 2010 in Hollywood, Fla.
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 president Russell Davis called Haldeman "an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend."
Haldeman officially received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May, 2010 in Hollywood, Fla.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,030 reviews
September 16, 2013
**Review may contain some minor spoilers**
The Accidental Time Machine came at a right time in my life. No, I am not having any “pre” mid-life crisis (not yet, at least); it’s just that that for the past dozen or so days, I was experiencing some serious reading withdrawal. I would pick up a book thinking that finally I have found the right one, read a couple of chapters, and then with a big sigh, put it back on the shelf. I couldn’t continue even if I found a book interesting. This happened at least 10 times until I picked up “The Accidental Time Machine”.
And let me tell you, the only thing that is “accidental” here is that that the book’s hero, Matthew, "invents" the time machine accidentally (How else?). Apart from that, nothing that he does from then on could be considered inadvertent. He knew exactly where he was going and when. The machine only travelled into the future. But the time frame increased exponentially with each use, hence providing an intriguing set-up for the novel.
One thing that annoys me whenever I read a time-travel story (no, the paradoxes don't deter me, or I shouldn't be reading this sort of book in the first place) is that that the characters generally behave rashly without contemplating whether they would survive time travelling. Just jump in and press the button! It’s surprising that none of them ever end up with their heads in the present and torso in the past or future. The author’s “science” exempts them from this very probable fate. And that bugs me. Every time.
Thankfully, here Matthew does a lot of experiments and calculations (which are very interesting to read) before concluding that he could use the machine to transport himself to the future. In his journey, he comes across a religious dystopia from where a girl named Martha accompanies him on his further journeys. They travel much farther into the future to a utopia maintained by an AI. Understandably, the AI is bored of the utopia (utopias are always boring) and wants to accompany them on their future exploits, but not without its own ulterior motives.
Matthew and Martha want to go back to their own respective times, but in order to do that, they have to travel to a future earth which might have made enough technological advances which might help them to travel to their original pasts (as I said earlier, his machine only travelled into the future).
I won’t tell what exactly happens and ruin it for you, but I could at least say that this book is well-written, extremely funny at times, and raises a lot of questions about humanity living in various (advanced or backward) stages of civilization.
The reviews for this book here are all over the place and the average rating is a bit lower than other well loved time-travel books, but in my opinion, that does not reflect the true difference of quality between “The Accidental Time Machine” and other more popular books like To Say Nothing of the Dog, Time and Again and The Anubis Gates. This book deserves as much appreciation as the other well-known books of the genre are getting. Even more, in some cases.
The Accidental Time Machine came at a right time in my life. No, I am not having any “pre” mid-life crisis (not yet, at least); it’s just that that for the past dozen or so days, I was experiencing some serious reading withdrawal. I would pick up a book thinking that finally I have found the right one, read a couple of chapters, and then with a big sigh, put it back on the shelf. I couldn’t continue even if I found a book interesting. This happened at least 10 times until I picked up “The Accidental Time Machine”.
And let me tell you, the only thing that is “accidental” here is that that the book’s hero, Matthew, "invents" the time machine accidentally (How else?). Apart from that, nothing that he does from then on could be considered inadvertent. He knew exactly where he was going and when. The machine only travelled into the future. But the time frame increased exponentially with each use, hence providing an intriguing set-up for the novel.
One thing that annoys me whenever I read a time-travel story (no, the paradoxes don't deter me, or I shouldn't be reading this sort of book in the first place) is that that the characters generally behave rashly without contemplating whether they would survive time travelling. Just jump in and press the button! It’s surprising that none of them ever end up with their heads in the present and torso in the past or future. The author’s “science” exempts them from this very probable fate. And that bugs me. Every time.
Thankfully, here Matthew does a lot of experiments and calculations (which are very interesting to read) before concluding that he could use the machine to transport himself to the future. In his journey, he comes across a religious dystopia from where a girl named Martha accompanies him on his further journeys. They travel much farther into the future to a utopia maintained by an AI. Understandably, the AI is bored of the utopia (utopias are always boring) and wants to accompany them on their future exploits, but not without its own ulterior motives.
Matthew and Martha want to go back to their own respective times, but in order to do that, they have to travel to a future earth which might have made enough technological advances which might help them to travel to their original pasts (as I said earlier, his machine only travelled into the future).
I won’t tell what exactly happens and ruin it for you, but I could at least say that this book is well-written, extremely funny at times, and raises a lot of questions about humanity living in various (advanced or backward) stages of civilization.
The reviews for this book here are all over the place and the average rating is a bit lower than other well loved time-travel books, but in my opinion, that does not reflect the true difference of quality between “The Accidental Time Machine” and other more popular books like To Say Nothing of the Dog, Time and Again and The Anubis Gates. This book deserves as much appreciation as the other well-known books of the genre are getting. Even more, in some cases.
June 18, 2009
It's 2057 and Matt Fuller is a postgrad student in chronophysics at MIT. He's essentially given up on his thesis and works as an assistant to Professor Marsh, and his girlfriend Kara has just dumped him. Having constructed a calibrating machine for the professor's work, Matt hits the "reset" button and watches it blink out of existence, only to return before anyone but him notices. The second time he presses it, it disappears for ten seconds. Kidnapping the machine, he takes it home and pursues some experiments, figuring out that the machine time travels - first it was one second, then 10, then 170 and then 2073 seconds.
By the time he gets up to three days, he's attached a turtle and a camera to it and tries again. This time the metal machine has shifted off its wooden base, as well. The camera shows nothing but some grey static for a short time, and the turtle hasn't been gone long enough, in its own time reference, to need water, food or sleep. The clock he had attached shows it was gone for only a minute.
Matt calculates that the next time jump will be for 39 days and a bigger distance, and decides to go with it. He needs a metal cage, and borrows an old Ford from his drug-dealer friend Denny. Reappearing a minute later, in his own time, to create a traffic accident, Matt's arrested for the murder of Denny, who died when he saw the car vanish in front of his drug-addled eyes.
When his million-dollar bail is paid by someone who looks like him and who sends him a message, Get in the car and go!, Matt jumps forward in time over 170 years, only to find that the world is a very different place and he's no closer to finding a civilisation that can help him go back in time to bail himself out of jail. The only thing he can do is keep moving forward in time.
This book has plenty of promise, but is disappointingly flat. Matt is a non-entity - in fact, none of the characters are fleshed out much and simply function as plot devices, vehicles through which to move the story forward. Which is ironic, since the story is the characters and can't exist without them.
I couldn't even tell you what they looked like. Not a big deal, but a good writer will create a fully realised and very real character through their personality, their dialogue, their choices, and so you get a very real sense of them without details like what colour hair they have etc. Sadly, Matt doesn't have much of a personality, or charisma, or attributes that make you care one way or the other.
The other disappointing aspect of the novel is the time travelling itself. While there is a bit of a creepy, almost scary atmosphere - jumping forward so far that humans don't even exist anymore tends to make me feel pretty melancholy and blah - it's wasn't terribly imaginative, and lacks realism because it presupposes certain things, such as a very stable environment, for which there is every indication we have royally screwed up.
While there is one neat little twist at the very end, to do with genealogy, the big glaring "who paid Matt's bail and how?" question was never fully resolved. Oh, there's a trite explanation, but I was left feeling way more confused than before.
By the end of the novel, I was feeling quite apathetic towards the whole story. What was the point? What message did it convey? I'd say there are a few "messages" concerning the human condition and the fundamental laws of physics etc., but I really didn't care enough to bother thinking about them. I could tell that they were there, but unlike some other books with similar themes, or potent "messages", I couldn't help but think that I could spend oh so many minutes thinking about it, and deduce nothing original from it.
I didn't mind the book while I was reading it, though it took longer than it should have, being short and simply enough written. Now that I'm writing this review and all the negatives are coming out, I'm going to have to revise my rating of 3 and give it a 2: it was okay, just okay.
By the time he gets up to three days, he's attached a turtle and a camera to it and tries again. This time the metal machine has shifted off its wooden base, as well. The camera shows nothing but some grey static for a short time, and the turtle hasn't been gone long enough, in its own time reference, to need water, food or sleep. The clock he had attached shows it was gone for only a minute.
Matt calculates that the next time jump will be for 39 days and a bigger distance, and decides to go with it. He needs a metal cage, and borrows an old Ford from his drug-dealer friend Denny. Reappearing a minute later, in his own time, to create a traffic accident, Matt's arrested for the murder of Denny, who died when he saw the car vanish in front of his drug-addled eyes.
When his million-dollar bail is paid by someone who looks like him and who sends him a message, Get in the car and go!, Matt jumps forward in time over 170 years, only to find that the world is a very different place and he's no closer to finding a civilisation that can help him go back in time to bail himself out of jail. The only thing he can do is keep moving forward in time.
This book has plenty of promise, but is disappointingly flat. Matt is a non-entity - in fact, none of the characters are fleshed out much and simply function as plot devices, vehicles through which to move the story forward. Which is ironic, since the story is the characters and can't exist without them.
I couldn't even tell you what they looked like. Not a big deal, but a good writer will create a fully realised and very real character through their personality, their dialogue, their choices, and so you get a very real sense of them without details like what colour hair they have etc. Sadly, Matt doesn't have much of a personality, or charisma, or attributes that make you care one way or the other.
The other disappointing aspect of the novel is the time travelling itself. While there is a bit of a creepy, almost scary atmosphere - jumping forward so far that humans don't even exist anymore tends to make me feel pretty melancholy and blah - it's wasn't terribly imaginative, and lacks realism because it presupposes certain things, such as a very stable environment, for which there is every indication we have royally screwed up.
While there is one neat little twist at the very end, to do with genealogy, the big glaring "who paid Matt's bail and how?" question was never fully resolved. Oh, there's a trite explanation, but I was left feeling way more confused than before.
By the end of the novel, I was feeling quite apathetic towards the whole story. What was the point? What message did it convey? I'd say there are a few "messages" concerning the human condition and the fundamental laws of physics etc., but I really didn't care enough to bother thinking about them. I could tell that they were there, but unlike some other books with similar themes, or potent "messages", I couldn't help but think that I could spend oh so many minutes thinking about it, and deduce nothing original from it.
I didn't mind the book while I was reading it, though it took longer than it should have, being short and simply enough written. Now that I'm writing this review and all the negatives are coming out, I'm going to have to revise my rating of 3 and give it a 2: it was okay, just okay.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2009
The Accidental Time Machine is the kind of old-fashioned science fiction I loved growing up. It's got a brevity and tone that's very much like Bradbury or Asimov. I've always been a sucker for time travel stories and this one didn't disappoint. There was a lot of detail left out that other author probably would have included, but that was fine with me. In current books, authors have a tendency to spell everything out for the reader. Haldeman doesn't do that. As a result, the reader has to use his or her imagination to fill in the blanks. While this isn't a great book, it was a lot of FUN to read. I had a hard time putting it down, and was sorry when it was over.
November 10, 2014
I flew through this book. It gets going on page one and doesn't stop for a moment. It's non-stop fun, it's unexpected, and it's just fantastic story telling.
The name tells you everything you need to know about the story, but not how enjoyable it is! Life is fleeting. Also it isn't. There are a number of iterations of humanity all of which seem as likely as the last. Makes you wonder where we'll be as a society in however many years time...
Big thumbs up. Lots of enjoyment in this one.
The name tells you everything you need to know about the story, but not how enjoyable it is! Life is fleeting. Also it isn't. There are a number of iterations of humanity all of which seem as likely as the last. Makes you wonder where we'll be as a society in however many years time...
Big thumbs up. Lots of enjoyment in this one.
October 15, 2022
The Accidental Time Machine is a standalone science fiction novel published in 2007. It focuses on a research assistant at MIT named Matt. He doesn’t seem to have great prospects in life, but then he creates a simple machine for his job that has an unexpected “bug” – a time traveling feature. This time travel has limitations, but I’m going to stop there because I think it’s more fun to discover those details for oneself.
I was actually surprised by how funny this book was, at least during the first half. I got through the first half quite fast, then stalled out in the second half. It seemed like the level of humor dropped off and, while the plot could arguably be said to have picked up more in the second half, for some reason it didn’t hold my interest as well. I still liked it ok, but not as much.
I wasn’t an unreserved fan of the main character, Matt, but I did like him pretty well. There aren’t many characters aside from Matt who get much development. The other character who gets a decent amount of page time seemed a little too much like author wish fulfillment to me and I had trouble taking her seriously.
The story had some logic issues by the end, but that’s pretty much inevitable with a time travel story. I might have been more annoyed if I hadn't resigned myself to logic issues the moment I knowingly chose to read a time travel book. Setting aside those logic issues, I liked how things were wrapped up pretty well. I’m rating this at 3.5 stars and rounding down to 3 for Goodreads.
I was actually surprised by how funny this book was, at least during the first half. I got through the first half quite fast, then stalled out in the second half. It seemed like the level of humor dropped off and, while the plot could arguably be said to have picked up more in the second half, for some reason it didn’t hold my interest as well. I still liked it ok, but not as much.
I wasn’t an unreserved fan of the main character, Matt, but I did like him pretty well. There aren’t many characters aside from Matt who get much development. The other character who gets a decent amount of page time seemed a little too much like author wish fulfillment to me and I had trouble taking her seriously.
The story had some logic issues by the end, but that’s pretty much inevitable with a time travel story. I might have been more annoyed if I hadn't resigned myself to logic issues the moment I knowingly chose to read a time travel book. Setting aside those logic issues, I liked how things were wrapped up pretty well. I’m rating this at 3.5 stars and rounding down to 3 for Goodreads.
August 27, 2016
I 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).
January 18, 2015
A couple of years ago, I pounded the Goodreads pavement pretty hard searching for pretty much any time-travel book I could find to add to my ever-growing to-read list (a list which has, to my horror, since surpassed 1,500 books–for every book I periodically cull, ten more pop up in its place). The Accidental Time Machine was one of the books I found. I’d heard of Joe Haldeman because his Forever War series is a classic of the military sci-fi genre, although I have yet to read it. I wish I had started with that series instead, because this book was kind of a dud. Anyway, it certainly hasn’t left me with much faith in Haldeman as a serious author.
The Accidental Time Machine is exactly like what you’d expect it to be based on the title. Ex-graduate student Matt Fuller accidentally creates a time machine while working as a research assistant for an MIT physics professor. Newly dumped, and even more newly fired, Matt decides to pop off into the future instead of sticking around in the present (his time machine only goes one way). Hijinks ensue.
The plot of the book held my attention. Parts of it, particularly the parts at the beginning when Matt is doing his experiments on his time machine and figuring out how it all works, were really interesting to read about. But as soon as Matt starts interacting with other characters, and then jumping further and further into the future, I was less and less impressed with him, and with the book. It’s definitely an intentional, modern homage to The Time Machine, with all the metaphorical social commentary that entails, but the updates Haldeman made to the basic story, and the futures he invented just didn’t hit me very hard or seem all that novel. Plus, Matt is kind of a sexist asshole. I mean, he’s okay. But he has so little personality to begin with that when he makes so many comments about objectifying women, and then the whole thing later with him , it ended up coming off really creepy. It felt like wish-fulfillment writing. Male wish-fulfillment writing.
Matt’s also a loser in general. He only gets his shit together because something he did accidentally blew up physics as he knows it. And even then, he spends the rest of his life . He has no emotional arc.
That was probably my main complaint, actually, is that all the characters in this are extremely shallow and cliched. They’re basically a vehicle for the conceit of the story. I guess there’s nothing really wrong with that approach, but for me, the plot wasn’t interesting enough to make up for the character lack. The whole book ended up feeling like it thought it was smarter and more profound and innovative than it actually was.
I’m not mad I read it, though. It was enjoyable for a quick audiobook read. The narrator Kevin R. Free wasn’t that great, but he wasn’t as abysmal as some of the reviews here had led me to believe. At this point, my review feels kind of futile, because I seem to be wishing Haldeman had written almost a completely different book than he did.
I’m still going to check out The Forever War eventually. I just hope Haldeman is better with military sci-fi than he is with time travel.
The Accidental Time Machine is exactly like what you’d expect it to be based on the title. Ex-graduate student Matt Fuller accidentally creates a time machine while working as a research assistant for an MIT physics professor. Newly dumped, and even more newly fired, Matt decides to pop off into the future instead of sticking around in the present (his time machine only goes one way). Hijinks ensue.
The plot of the book held my attention. Parts of it, particularly the parts at the beginning when Matt is doing his experiments on his time machine and figuring out how it all works, were really interesting to read about. But as soon as Matt starts interacting with other characters, and then jumping further and further into the future, I was less and less impressed with him, and with the book. It’s definitely an intentional, modern homage to The Time Machine, with all the metaphorical social commentary that entails, but the updates Haldeman made to the basic story, and the futures he invented just didn’t hit me very hard or seem all that novel. Plus, Matt is kind of a sexist asshole. I mean, he’s okay. But he has so little personality to begin with that when he makes so many comments about objectifying women, and then the whole thing later with him , it ended up coming off really creepy. It felt like wish-fulfillment writing. Male wish-fulfillment writing.
Matt’s also a loser in general. He only gets his shit together because something he did accidentally blew up physics as he knows it. And even then, he spends the rest of his life . He has no emotional arc.
That was probably my main complaint, actually, is that all the characters in this are extremely shallow and cliched. They’re basically a vehicle for the conceit of the story. I guess there’s nothing really wrong with that approach, but for me, the plot wasn’t interesting enough to make up for the character lack. The whole book ended up feeling like it thought it was smarter and more profound and innovative than it actually was.
I’m not mad I read it, though. It was enjoyable for a quick audiobook read. The narrator Kevin R. Free wasn’t that great, but he wasn’t as abysmal as some of the reviews here had led me to believe. At this point, my review feels kind of futile, because I seem to be wishing Haldeman had written almost a completely different book than he did.
I’m still going to check out The Forever War eventually. I just hope Haldeman is better with military sci-fi than he is with time travel.
June 18, 2009
Well, I didn't particularly like the book but I didn't not like it either. Another reader noted that they felt ambivalent about the book and I'd say that's accurate for me as well. It was a somewhat interesting, light read - perfect for a long flight or the beach.
***SPOILER***
The most interesting part of the novel is when they settle in the past but that was only covered for a few pages as if it was almost shoved in as a wrap up. The book almost seemed incomplete - missing lots of detail and more like a movie script. That being said, I don't know if I enjoyed the general plot enough to want the book to be expanded.
***END SPOILER***
My recommendation: If you need to kill a few hours on a plane, pick this up. Otherwise, you are not missing out too much.
***SPOILER***
The most interesting part of the novel is when they settle in the past but that was only covered for a few pages as if it was almost shoved in as a wrap up. The book almost seemed incomplete - missing lots of detail and more like a movie script. That being said, I don't know if I enjoyed the general plot enough to want the book to be expanded.
***END SPOILER***
My recommendation: If you need to kill a few hours on a plane, pick this up. Otherwise, you are not missing out too much.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2020
This is a short SF novel about, as name suggests, time travel. I read is as a part of monthly reading for July 2020 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group.
The story starts with a research assistant after a day work having a hallucination: an equipment item in the lab disappears to appear once again. Other would assume that their tiring mind plays with them, but not Matt Fuller. He experiments and soon finds out that the item – a calibrator (All the calibrator was supposed to do was supply one reference photon per unit of time, the unit of time being the tiny supposed “chronon”: the length of time it takes light to travel the radius of an electron. Nothing to do with disappearing.) travels to the future with ever increasing time gaps. It is not that different from us, traveling to the future a day per day, only it travels days and years… Of course, the protagonist uses the time machine to jump ahead, but soon enough it goes out of his hands and has to run from ever more strange futures.
The story is quite light, with a lot of humor and I guess intentional allusions to the golden age SF authors, first of all to Robert A. Heinlein, with his inclusion of religion debates. A nice quick read.
The story starts with a research assistant after a day work having a hallucination: an equipment item in the lab disappears to appear once again. Other would assume that their tiring mind plays with them, but not Matt Fuller. He experiments and soon finds out that the item – a calibrator (All the calibrator was supposed to do was supply one reference photon per unit of time, the unit of time being the tiny supposed “chronon”: the length of time it takes light to travel the radius of an electron. Nothing to do with disappearing.) travels to the future with ever increasing time gaps. It is not that different from us, traveling to the future a day per day, only it travels days and years… Of course, the protagonist uses the time machine to jump ahead, but soon enough it goes out of his hands and has to run from ever more strange futures.
The story is quite light, with a lot of humor and I guess intentional allusions to the golden age SF authors, first of all to Robert A. Heinlein, with his inclusion of religion debates. A nice quick read.
September 30, 2021
3.5 Stars
This was a quick, fun time travel novel. The story started off strong, but lost momentum part way through with some strange religious elements.
This was a quick, fun time travel novel. The story started off strong, but lost momentum part way through with some strange religious elements.
February 7, 2013
The first Sci-Fi story I've enjoyed in years. It was a tad too long on the spiritual in my opinion, nevertheless 9 of 10 stars.
October 13, 2021
I can't belive this has been written in 2007, it reads so much older and I mean it in a good way. This is just like a classic time travel story from maybe the 60s (but still very fun and accessible if that scares you off).
It's a very fast read, gives you exactly what you expect from a fun time travel romp, there are interesting futures and some whacky situations. There is also that weirdly sexual component that is sometimes in the old stuff and the whole book isn't too deep, but I was enjoying myself a lot, especially since time travel always stays part of the plot and discussion.
It's a very fast read, gives you exactly what you expect from a fun time travel romp, there are interesting futures and some whacky situations. There is also that weirdly sexual component that is sometimes in the old stuff and the whole book isn't too deep, but I was enjoying myself a lot, especially since time travel always stays part of the plot and discussion.
July 1, 2020
An old-timey, sci-fi story with an interesting plot and lots of philosophical musings on the nature of time travel/humanity.
An old but oft-quoted line from Clarke is the best way to summarise the philosophical bits here: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
My Rating - 4.5/5
An old but oft-quoted line from Clarke is the best way to summarise the philosophical bits here: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
My Rating - 4.5/5
May 23, 2016
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 everything else a large portion of the story involves a smug very anti-Christian tone (which granted won't offend everybody).
The one concept of some minor interest was the time progression as it moved into the future, with each jump being 12 times the last -- an interesting concept, and good mechanism for moving far into the future with just a few hits of the button. But otherwise there is frankly little here I can recommend, other than that it will probably be sitting on your library's shelves when you really need something to listen to in the car. Plus, if you're really curious about what would be the result of masturbating in zero gravity -- look no further!
The one concept of some minor interest was the time progression as it moved into the future, with each jump being 12 times the last -- an interesting concept, and good mechanism for moving far into the future with just a few hits of the button. But otherwise there is frankly little here I can recommend, other than that it will probably be sitting on your library's shelves when you really need something to listen to in the car. Plus, if you're really curious about what would be the result of masturbating in zero gravity -- look no further!
March 29, 2018
I haven't read much of Haldeman's work. I have read "The Forever War" and I don't recall much of it. Just remember that I liked it enough, but did not love it. This one was very unexpected. It was a whole lot of fun. Good time travel story written with a golden age approach. A little is Heinlein, Silverberg and definitely a Well influence here - protagonist even has a Wena like character tagging along with him. There some sloppy bits and a little questionable motivation issues, but over all it was good fun right to the end.
July 22, 2016
Forgot I read this when I was sick last week.
Very reminiscent of Heinlein's predictions of humanity in the future, with a few darker twists. During creation of a calibration instrument for his laboratory, grad-school protagonist Matt Fuller accidentally creates a machine that jumps into the future in ever-increasing steps, and must continue forward in the effort to discover a way back. A fun romp through many sci-fi tropes.
Very reminiscent of Heinlein's predictions of humanity in the future, with a few darker twists. During creation of a calibration instrument for his laboratory, grad-school protagonist Matt Fuller accidentally creates a machine that jumps into the future in ever-increasing steps, and must continue forward in the effort to discover a way back. A fun romp through many sci-fi tropes.
June 5, 2009
**A spoiler or two follow, but nothing that will wreck The Accidental Time Machine. At least I don't think they will.**
The Accidental Time Machine is a pretty disappointing piece of Sci-Fi, but then my expectations were probably too high.
I've heard great things about Joe Haldeman over the years, particularly about his Hugo Award Winning book The Forever War, so I was expecting The Accidental Time Machine to be entertaining and hoping it would be compelling.
It was neither.
Before I go on, though, I should mention that The Accidental Time Machine is only the third book I have ever listened to on tape. So I didn't "read" this book, I listened to it; a mode of delivery that I fear may have fatally altered my perception of Haldeman's story because I couldn't stand the narrator.
Kevin R. Free's vocal performance was terrible. Often, he failed to match the emotion that Haldeman's words intended; the voices he provided for different characters occasionally bled into one another, detracting from the flow of the story, forcing me to struggle to figure out who was speaking; and his accents -- Boston, Australian, Imaginary -- were universally unconvincing. I found myself wishing over and over that someone else was reading this book.
(I also took out Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea that day, and if my experience with that isn't better I may be finished with audio books for good).
I am not convinced, however, that Kevin R. Free is completely to blame for my disappointment in The Accidental Time Machine. I never seemed to connect to the story itself, and a big part of that had to do with my feelings for the painfully flat protagonist, Matt.
I never cared about Matt, and I had a hard time buying his slacker calm. Whether he was walking into the Massachusetts Institute of Theosophy, being interrogated for the murder of his former drug dealer, turning over his bottle of wine to an insane auction in a distant, future, uber-L.A., or placing his trust in the strange, time machine sextet, Matt was totally unflappable.
But get him around a naked woman, a futuristic porn computer, a cuddly ex-girlfriend, or his Nobel Prize winning grandson nee mentor, and he is suddenly Mister Flappable.
And that's his entire personality in two mini-paragraphs. Maybe I can make it even simpler still: slacker unflappability or squirmy, petty flappability. He never grows, he never changes, and he ultimately makes a happy life out of mediocrity. What a hero.
And I won't even get into Martha and her boring sexual naïveté, athiest/agnostic awakening, or modest/immodesty.
Sure, there were some clever and likable bits. I enjoyed "La" for a while, the artificial intelligence who embodied Los Angeles; I thought the memory helmet was a nice touch; and something about the family Matt caught fish with in the time of the Christers was satisfying. But there was way too much crap. Haldeman referenced countless sci-fi classics without subtlety or inspiration, his ending was too pat, too deus ex machina, and the constantly forward moving action -- jumping, jumping, jumping -- never really made sense to me in connection with Matt's character. I just didn't believe he was a curious enough person to drive the plot forward in that manner.
And then there was Haldeman's constant use of "not un-." George Orwell's disdain for the "not un-" configuration is one that I share not undeeply. Haldeman did it and did it and did it again, and I wanted to not unstrangle him..
He's not the only author who uses "not un-." Many do. But I usually notice its use and move on, letting it fade into the background when the story has anything to offer me. The fact that my aggravation grew every time Haldeman used it is a sign of how disappointed in The Accidental Time Machine I am.
My feelings about Kevin R. Free's vocal performance mitigates, ever so slightly, my negative feelings for Haldeman's book, but if Haldeman doesn't impress me when I read The Forever War our relationship as author and reader will be over for good.
The Accidental Time Machine is a pretty disappointing piece of Sci-Fi, but then my expectations were probably too high.
I've heard great things about Joe Haldeman over the years, particularly about his Hugo Award Winning book The Forever War, so I was expecting The Accidental Time Machine to be entertaining and hoping it would be compelling.
It was neither.
Before I go on, though, I should mention that The Accidental Time Machine is only the third book I have ever listened to on tape. So I didn't "read" this book, I listened to it; a mode of delivery that I fear may have fatally altered my perception of Haldeman's story because I couldn't stand the narrator.
Kevin R. Free's vocal performance was terrible. Often, he failed to match the emotion that Haldeman's words intended; the voices he provided for different characters occasionally bled into one another, detracting from the flow of the story, forcing me to struggle to figure out who was speaking; and his accents -- Boston, Australian, Imaginary -- were universally unconvincing. I found myself wishing over and over that someone else was reading this book.
(I also took out Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea that day, and if my experience with that isn't better I may be finished with audio books for good).
I am not convinced, however, that Kevin R. Free is completely to blame for my disappointment in The Accidental Time Machine. I never seemed to connect to the story itself, and a big part of that had to do with my feelings for the painfully flat protagonist, Matt.
I never cared about Matt, and I had a hard time buying his slacker calm. Whether he was walking into the Massachusetts Institute of Theosophy, being interrogated for the murder of his former drug dealer, turning over his bottle of wine to an insane auction in a distant, future, uber-L.A., or placing his trust in the strange, time machine sextet, Matt was totally unflappable.
But get him around a naked woman, a futuristic porn computer, a cuddly ex-girlfriend, or his Nobel Prize winning grandson nee mentor, and he is suddenly Mister Flappable.
And that's his entire personality in two mini-paragraphs. Maybe I can make it even simpler still: slacker unflappability or squirmy, petty flappability. He never grows, he never changes, and he ultimately makes a happy life out of mediocrity. What a hero.
And I won't even get into Martha and her boring sexual naïveté, athiest/agnostic awakening, or modest/immodesty.
Sure, there were some clever and likable bits. I enjoyed "La" for a while, the artificial intelligence who embodied Los Angeles; I thought the memory helmet was a nice touch; and something about the family Matt caught fish with in the time of the Christers was satisfying. But there was way too much crap. Haldeman referenced countless sci-fi classics without subtlety or inspiration, his ending was too pat, too deus ex machina, and the constantly forward moving action -- jumping, jumping, jumping -- never really made sense to me in connection with Matt's character. I just didn't believe he was a curious enough person to drive the plot forward in that manner.
And then there was Haldeman's constant use of "not un-." George Orwell's disdain for the "not un-" configuration is one that I share not undeeply. Haldeman did it and did it and did it again, and I wanted to not unstrangle him..
He's not the only author who uses "not un-." Many do. But I usually notice its use and move on, letting it fade into the background when the story has anything to offer me. The fact that my aggravation grew every time Haldeman used it is a sign of how disappointed in The Accidental Time Machine I am.
My feelings about Kevin R. Free's vocal performance mitigates, ever so slightly, my negative feelings for Haldeman's book, but if Haldeman doesn't impress me when I read The Forever War our relationship as author and reader will be over for good.
May 10, 2008
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 read enough modern sci-fi to know where this one ranks relative to others, but I'll make a wild stab at the future myself and predict that people will be reading Wells' "The Time Machine" long after Haldeman goes out of print. If you liked this one, however, I would recommend Robert Sawyer's "Flashforward" for another cool take on seeing into the future.
September 21, 2021
Abysmal trash.
A pill popping Jew discovers a time-machine by chance and travels to a future where Christianity rules the world. There we are over and over again reminded by this Jewish fellow how Christianity is stupid, violent, barbaric, anti-science, etc. Then he takes a modest Christian girl farther to the future, exposes her to his godless ideas, porn, and his uncircumcised (the author gets very specific about his foreskin) dick and proceeds to explain her the birds and the bees while she gives him a happy-end in zero gravity.
I can't believe this is the same guy who wrote the Forever War.
Like Samuel L. Jackson said to Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown: What the fuck happened to you man? Your ass used to be beautiful.
A pill popping Jew discovers a time-machine by chance and travels to a future where Christianity rules the world. There we are over and over again reminded by this Jewish fellow how Christianity is stupid, violent, barbaric, anti-science, etc. Then he takes a modest Christian girl farther to the future, exposes her to his godless ideas, porn, and his uncircumcised (the author gets very specific about his foreskin) dick and proceeds to explain her the birds and the bees while she gives him a happy-end in zero gravity.
I can't believe this is the same guy who wrote the Forever War.
Like Samuel L. Jackson said to Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown: What the fuck happened to you man? Your ass used to be beautiful.
December 18, 2007
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 understanding of.
March 22, 2023
3.5 stars in the 2016 booklog: B/B+, well-written and clever. Light read. Odd logic lapse re the LA AI — why should she turn nasty?
March 21, 2025
"The Accidental Time Machine" by Joe Haldeman, published in 2008 and brought to life in audiobook form by narrator Kevin Free, is a delightful blend of hard science fiction, quirky humor, and existential musings. This novel, spanning just over 9 hours in audio, follows Matt Fuller, a directionless MIT grad student whose life takes an unexpected turn when a lab calibrator he’s tinkering with reveals itself to be a time machine - albeit one with a mind of its own. Haldeman, a veteran of the genre best known for "The Forever War," crafts a narrative that’s both a playful romp through time and a subtle meditation on fate, free will, and the human condition.
The story kicks off with Matt’s humdrum existence: a stalled academic career, a crumbling relationship, and a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When his accidental invention starts jumping forward in time - first by seconds, then minutes, then exponentially longer leaps - he’s thrust into a series of increasingly bizarre futures. Each leap lands him in a world shaped by technological leaps, societal shifts, and religious fervor, offering a kaleidoscope of speculative settings that Haldeman renders with vivid, economical prose. Kevin Free’s narration enhances this journey, his dry wit and understated delivery perfectly matching Matt’s everyman befuddlement. Free’s pacing keeps the story’s momentum brisk, while his subtle shifts in tone distinguish the parade of characters Matt encounters - some helpful, some menacing, all memorable.
One highlight is Haldeman’s knack for world-building on the fly. Each temporal jump introduces a new era, from a near-future Boston overrun by religious zealots to a distant epoch where humanity has splintered into strange, post-human factions. These snapshots are rich with detail yet never over-explained, trusting the listener to piece together the bigger picture. Another standout is Matt’s companion, Martha, a young woman from one of these futures who joins him on his odyssey. Her blend of innocence and resilience adds emotional depth, grounding the story amid its wilder flights of fancy. Their evolving bond - tentative, awkward, yet genuine - offers a human heartbeat to the otherwise cerebral plot.
Haldeman’s humor shines throughout, often in Matt’s deadpan observations about the absurdity of his predicament. The science, while central, never overwhelms; Haldeman balances quantum mechanics and causal loops with a light touch, making it accessible without dumbing it down. Free’s narration amplifies this tone, his slight drawl lending a wry edge to Matt’s internal monologue. The audiobook’s sound quality is crisp, with no distracting effects - just Free’s voice carrying the listener effortlessly through time.
Thematically, the novel probes deeper questions - about purpose, the consequences of progress, and whether we’re masters of our own timelines - without losing its sense of fun. It’s not a perfect ride; some jumps feel more like pit stops than destinations, and Matt’s passivity can occasionally frustrate. Yet these quirks fade against the story’s ingenuity and heart.
The story kicks off with Matt’s humdrum existence: a stalled academic career, a crumbling relationship, and a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When his accidental invention starts jumping forward in time - first by seconds, then minutes, then exponentially longer leaps - he’s thrust into a series of increasingly bizarre futures. Each leap lands him in a world shaped by technological leaps, societal shifts, and religious fervor, offering a kaleidoscope of speculative settings that Haldeman renders with vivid, economical prose. Kevin Free’s narration enhances this journey, his dry wit and understated delivery perfectly matching Matt’s everyman befuddlement. Free’s pacing keeps the story’s momentum brisk, while his subtle shifts in tone distinguish the parade of characters Matt encounters - some helpful, some menacing, all memorable.
One highlight is Haldeman’s knack for world-building on the fly. Each temporal jump introduces a new era, from a near-future Boston overrun by religious zealots to a distant epoch where humanity has splintered into strange, post-human factions. These snapshots are rich with detail yet never over-explained, trusting the listener to piece together the bigger picture. Another standout is Matt’s companion, Martha, a young woman from one of these futures who joins him on his odyssey. Her blend of innocence and resilience adds emotional depth, grounding the story amid its wilder flights of fancy. Their evolving bond - tentative, awkward, yet genuine - offers a human heartbeat to the otherwise cerebral plot.
Haldeman’s humor shines throughout, often in Matt’s deadpan observations about the absurdity of his predicament. The science, while central, never overwhelms; Haldeman balances quantum mechanics and causal loops with a light touch, making it accessible without dumbing it down. Free’s narration amplifies this tone, his slight drawl lending a wry edge to Matt’s internal monologue. The audiobook’s sound quality is crisp, with no distracting effects - just Free’s voice carrying the listener effortlessly through time.
Thematically, the novel probes deeper questions - about purpose, the consequences of progress, and whether we’re masters of our own timelines - without losing its sense of fun. It’s not a perfect ride; some jumps feel more like pit stops than destinations, and Matt’s passivity can occasionally frustrate. Yet these quirks fade against the story’s ingenuity and heart.
August 6, 2009
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 way he meets allies and opponents, and a little romance (okay, so that isn't classic scifi). There is no grand villain here, which isn't a surprise since scifi isn't as taken with the myth of pure evil as fantasy is.
The book is a moderately short and easy read; I think it took me six or so hours in total. It isn't a riveting page-turner, but shouldn't have any problems holding the attention of a scifi fan for its duration.
The lack of any deep characters will be dismaying to many, and it is that aspect that earned this only three stars. We spend the entire book inside the head of the protagonist (third-person narrative, but I don't think it ever strayed far from the first person), but we never get to know him as any more than your classic scifi character, the grad-school mild-misfit.
He never got around to finishing his PhD -- why? He just broke up with his girlfriend (who remains a minor but critical character) -- why? His father is never really mentioned. He was never circumcised, despite being Jewish, but this curious detail isn't revealing of any interesting history, just a trivial plot device. He has a mildly strained relationship with his mother, who might drink too much and might call too often. But when his escapades means that he has to abandon her in her senior years, he actually doesn't even factor this into his decision.
Still, we like him. And Haldeman triggers the appropriate superficial reactions to the other characters as well, although Haldeman isn't doing any extra work here, since all the female characters described in any detail are very attractive or better, and the male lead is no worse than mildly disheveled.
A nice evening's read.
P.S. Anyone know why the time traveler looks like Jesus? I guess there's an obvious answer, but it seems like such an arbitrary plot device that I hope I'm wrong.
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 way he meets allies and opponents, and a little romance (okay, so that isn't classic scifi). There is no grand villain here, which isn't a surprise since scifi isn't as taken with the myth of pure evil as fantasy is.
The book is a moderately short and easy read; I think it took me six or so hours in total. It isn't a riveting page-turner, but shouldn't have any problems holding the attention of a scifi fan for its duration.
The lack of any deep characters will be dismaying to many, and it is that aspect that earned this only three stars. We spend the entire book inside the head of the protagonist (third-person narrative, but I don't think it ever strayed far from the first person), but we never get to know him as any more than your classic scifi character, the grad-school mild-misfit.
He never got around to finishing his PhD -- why? He just broke up with his girlfriend (who remains a minor but critical character) -- why? His father is never really mentioned. He was never circumcised, despite being Jewish, but this curious detail isn't revealing of any interesting history, just a trivial plot device. He has a mildly strained relationship with his mother, who might drink too much and might call too often. But when his escapades means that he has to abandon her in her senior years, he actually doesn't even factor this into his decision.
Still, we like him. And Haldeman triggers the appropriate superficial reactions to the other characters as well, although Haldeman isn't doing any extra work here, since all the female characters described in any detail are very attractive or better, and the male lead is no worse than mildly disheveled.
A nice evening's read.
P.S. Anyone know why the time traveler looks like Jesus? I guess there's an obvious answer, but it seems like such an arbitrary plot device that I hope I'm wrong.
November 27, 2018
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 another time I've ever actually been angry upon reaching the end of a novel. It's not a case of plot elements left to the reader to imagine, it's a case of sigificant characters and events that are given no explanation at all.
January 1, 2018
In diesem Zeitreiseroman von Joe Haldeman macht ein Lehramtstudent am MIT die Entdeckung seines Lebens. Durch einen einfachen Zufall gelang er in den Besitz einer Zeitmaschine, die jedoch nur vorwärts in die Zeit reisen kann. Bei einem Selbstversuch reist er immer weiter in die Zukunft, dort trifft er das Mädchen Martha, die ihn dann durch die Zeit begleitet. Sie reisen weiter in die Zukunft, bis er in eine Zeit gerät, bei der die Technik der Zeitreise, auch rückwärts in der Zeit, beherrscht wird. In Millionen Jahre in der Zukunft scheint ihm diese Technologie offen zu stehen, aber das hat einen Haken...
Irgendwie erinnert mich das Werk als ein Frühwerk Haldemans, obwohl es erst 2007 veröffentlicht wurde. Zu ininspirierend sind seine Zukunftsentwürfe, zu öde und wenig interessant beschreibt er die Zukünfte, obwohl die Personenbeschreibung ihm gelungen ist. Die beiden Hauptpersonen machen Spaß und manchmal ist die Story locker und entspannt, insbesondere dann wenn diese Personen im Vordergrund stehen. Enttäuscht hat mich die unspektukuläre Zukunft, in der unsere Helden reisen. Hier hätte ich von Haldeman mehr Pep erwartet...
Irgendwie erinnert mich das Werk als ein Frühwerk Haldemans, obwohl es erst 2007 veröffentlicht wurde. Zu ininspirierend sind seine Zukunftsentwürfe, zu öde und wenig interessant beschreibt er die Zukünfte, obwohl die Personenbeschreibung ihm gelungen ist. Die beiden Hauptpersonen machen Spaß und manchmal ist die Story locker und entspannt, insbesondere dann wenn diese Personen im Vordergrund stehen. Enttäuscht hat mich die unspektukuläre Zukunft, in der unsere Helden reisen. Hier hätte ich von Haldeman mehr Pep erwartet...
May 26, 2009
I love Joe Haldeman. His books are very readable, interesting, and move forward at a reasonable speed. The ideas are interesting and thought-provoking, his characters realistic, fallible, but likable anyway. This book is no exception. I liked the main character, understood his motivations, and the plot moved along at a good clip. I read the book at one sitting. The plot was interesting: would you use a time machine if you could only go forward, even to save your hide? The future was not what I expected, either, and completely believable. My only problem was with the ending. I felt it weak and a little contrived. I also thought not everything was explained well enough. But overall it was a very entertaining read, thoroughly enjoyable.
November 25, 2009
This is the first book I've read by this author and I found it an easy, interesting read.
I've got the dreaded bronchitis yet again, so I was grateful to have a book I didn't have to think too hard about. What I liked best about this is that while the scientific theory could be a possibility to time travel, the author didn't go all physics teacher on me. Wrote what it was but I didn't have to get mind-bendy to comprehend it. The story was more about the person(s) involved and the journey, not so much the science involved. A good balance for my liking.
I've got the dreaded bronchitis yet again, so I was grateful to have a book I didn't have to think too hard about. What I liked best about this is that while the scientific theory could be a possibility to time travel, the author didn't go all physics teacher on me. Wrote what it was but I didn't have to get mind-bendy to comprehend it. The story was more about the person(s) involved and the journey, not so much the science involved. A good balance for my liking.
May 29, 2009
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 porn/masturbation.
Note: This book contains some themes that reflect negatively on religion, also occasional foul language, drug use, and not-too-explicit mention of porn/masturbation.
January 21, 2022
A great premise, but on occasion, this book seems to go sideways. There are certain parts where I have to wonder if someone knocked on his door and said Albatross to throw him off his process. There are also things that are included or explained that I wonder if the author was trying to be clever or offensive. All in all the book is a fair read but kept thinking that it could have turned out better than it did.
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