John Titor, A Time Traveler's Tale

by John Titor

Perhaps one of the most amazing tales ever told, there is still debate online over this compilation of Internet posts made by a man claiming to be a real time traveler from our future. Is John Titor science fiction or science fact?

After a world war in our future, John Titor claimed to have used a military time machine to travel from the year 2036. His story spans from 1975 where his mission was to obtain a computer system needed in his future. For mysterious reasons, instead of going home, he came forward to visit with his family and young self in 1998.

From November of 2000 to March 2001, John spoke directly to numerous people on many Internet forums and chat rooms. In the posts, he discusses the future, the technology of time travel and his feelings about our society. Did he accurately predict the development of future physics, the reasons behind the Gulf War and the coming of mad cow disease to the U.S.?

John Titor A Time Traveler's Tale, was compiled by John's mother in our time and bound in a 5.5 x 8.5 paperback protected by a laminated front and back cover. With 164 pages of text, the book also contains 9 pages of black and white photos John posted of his time machine and the operations manual that came with it!

Genres: Fiction, Time Travel, Science Fiction

174 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a book about a supposed time traveller who posted online from the end of 2000 to March 2001.
Repetitive and disturbing.

So obssessed by this some governments continue to track people who read this and post anything up! Or lookup online!!!

There are some crazy people around.

[Tif · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read but highly repetitive and I'm certain briefly perusing the forums on which John Titor posted would have sufficed in satisfying my curiousity.

Some quotes that struck me as thoughtful or amusing:

"It may interest for you to know that most Canadians in 2036 are some of the most efficient, ruthless and dangerous people I know. God help Quebec."

"It's much easier to demand someone else owes you fresh water than it is to leave the lifestyle that made it bad in the first place."

[kerrycat · Rating 4 out of 5]

totally freaked out - reading this because of Steins;Gate, and doubly so for the same reason.

JT strongly hinted at 9/11, Columbia shuttle, and warned over and over again about CJD. The war stuff - well, he was from another world line, according to his explanation, and at that time (2001) he wasn't proven wrong about that. Just bizarre.

[Kartavya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Alejandro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lo he leído como si fuese una ficción. Aún así cuenta cosas interesantes, pero es repetitivo y la verdad que mejor leer cualquier obra de ficción

[Richard Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This certainly was an interesting read for those who love science related books. Furthermore, it gave me a new perspective on the world. I think the most entertaining thought is that we will never know whether or not John Titor existed or if what he said was true or not. I guess it's another one of the mysteries of this world that will never be solved.

[John Beeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the great artifacts of the 1990s' Internet, and a precursor to the viral nature of YouTube and email forwards.

[Mit Shah · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this a 2 star rating because the book is very repetitive, disjointed, and not really anymore than what you can find collected online for free. This is especially true today in 2026 when you can only find used copies for over $200. I thought it was overpriced when I first put it on my Amazon list back in 2005, and back then it was still available new for ~$15.
I guess the repetition is due to the questions asked multiple times on the forums, but when purchasing a book on the subject they could have paid for some editing to clarify and streamline. I also felt at times something was missing and had been edited out, but it could be just the confusion of the forum posts and order. The added sections from John’s “mom” didn’t add a significant context to the posts and were few and far between. Especially later in the book, like they just gave up or ran out of time trying to get it on the market while it was hot.
The future world John describes is definitely different, but also reads like the hero fantasy that some guys have. I do not believe there was any real time traveler. If John really was a time traveler, he is a fake pseudo traveler similar to the Star Trek TNG episode “A Matter of Time.” He just gives off those kind of vibes from his replies.
One thing I haven’t seen discussed, but probably has been before, is the ~2% difference John mentions repeatedly. He throws it out like world lines with only 2% difference would be close. But if there are infinite world lines for every decision, like world lines where the universe has ended already or humans don’t exist, then all those infinities are covered by 100%. Therefore 2% difference is a huge difference. Or did I read that whole bit wrong and the covered 100% is something like only human worlds with a John Titor in them?
Anyway, I didn’t really enjoy this book too much. I don’t think I picked up anything new that I hadn’t already read online in the last 20 plus years.
Read here: https://dn710006.ca.archive.org/0/ite...

[Chris R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating read. It's essentially a creative writing exercise that brings hyper-realism in terms of character acting into the dubious world of time travel, even if that juxtaposition can be difficult to digest at times. The fascinating part is the idea that the character of John Titor was developed almost entirely in an "ask me anything" type platform, where he was just answering questions about the future, the time machine, why he was here, etc, and setting the groundwork for his story perpetually, and on the fly.

There are no particularly interesting or unique aspects of the time travel story told, however. It's got all the basics of your average, every day post apocalyptic setting, the "mission", and all of the plot issues that come with it (paradoxes, meeting your past self, etc).

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting historical document. However, very repetitive and not at all fun to read (even for this huge time travel nerd).

[Musharrat Asgari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

[Patrick St-Amand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise but reads like a scientific paper, very repetitive and frankly boring.

[Aakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isme book

[Gilu Anca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is basically impossible to rate for me. Five stars, whatever.

[Siddheshwar Sutar]

Thanks