Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Ace Hardcover (2007), Hardcover, 288 pages
Description
Joe Haldeman is the esteemed Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The Forever War. Things are going nowhere for lowly MIT research assistant Matt Fuller-especially not after his girlfriend drops him for another man. But then while working late one night, he inadvertently stumbles upon what may be the greatest scientific breakthrough ever. His luck, however, runs out when he finds himself wanted for murder-in the future.
User reviews
LibraryThing member MacDad
This is an elegant little novel that adopts an idea that Poul Anderson also developed in "Flight to Forever". Matt Fuller, a research assistant in 21st century MIT, finds a machine that can jump ahead to the future. Using it begins an adventure in which he witnesses the continual development of
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humanity while questing for a process that would allow him to travel back to the past. It's an adventure that left me eagerly pushing forward to the end of the book, then starting it over again. Fans of science fiction will find much to like, as will anyone who enjoys an entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member pmfloyd1
Actually a very interesting and quick read. The story line is about a MIT student who travels in time going forward - at longer and longer intervals. Although I am a Christian, I was not offended by the author's use of Jesus' Second Coming. It was not offensive and at times I found it humorous, as
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I assume Mr. Haldeman meant it to be. As always, Mr. Haldeman focused on the characters and their behavior more than on hard science fiction. Although given the speculative nature of some much that is marketed as Sci Fi these days, this novel is a harkening back to the old days of Heinland, Asimov and Simek - where psychology and behavior and an interesting story line was emphasized. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. A perfect book to read on a plane or a bus. Paul Floyd, Mpls, MN Show Less
LibraryThing member shieldwolf
"Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is foiling 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 disappears - and reappears, one second later. In fact, every time Matt hits the reset button,
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the machine goes missing twelve times longer." "After tinkering with the calibrator, Matt is convinced that what he has in his possession is a time machine. And by simply attaching a metal box to it, he learns to send things through time - including a pet-store turtle, which comes back no worse for wear." "With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who has left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose by taking a time machine trip himself. So he borrows an old car, stocks it with food and water, and ends up in the near future - under arrest for the murder of the car's original owner, who dropped dead after seeing Matt disappear before his eyes. The only way to beat the rap is to keep time-traveling until he finds a place in time safe enough to stop for good. But such a place may not exist."--BOOK JACKET. Show Less
LibraryThing member danichols
An agreeable bildungsroman about Matt Fuller, a down-at-the-heels MIT grad student who accidentally invents a machine capable of propelling the user progressively further into the future with each use. The novel features many narrow escapes - from Boston police, 23rd-century religious zealots,
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genetically resurrected dinosaurs, and AIs with dubious motives - and ends with the sort of deus ex machina that is becoming increasingly common in Haldeman's novels. The final chapter, though, is a pleasant surprise, as is the author's Afterward on the science of time travel. Show Less
LibraryThing member takieya
An enjoyable story about stumbling into the world of time travel, much in the same way Marty McFly did in Back to the Future. Matt Fuller is armed with more knowledge, and realizes that taking his step into the future may mean that he can never get home. This leads Matt on a journey that will take
A fun story - definitely worth the read, especially if you enjoy novels about time travel.
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him millions of years in the future.A fun story - definitely worth the read, especially if you enjoy novels about time travel.
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LibraryThing member ErasmusRob
As we progress through this book, it becomes clear that only some kind of deus ex machina is going to get our characters out of this mess. Unfortunately, when the deus ex machina actually shows up, it behaves a little too similarly to Classical dei ex machina. Novels nowadays try to conceal the
I'm normally a fan of Haldeman's work, and certainly the notion that set this story in motion is a clever and intriguing one, but somehow I'm disappointed. I won't say don't read it, but I'm not going to buy it.
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deus ex machina's contrived nature by providing some kind of explanation that makes everything make sense. Haldeman seems to have forgotten this contemporary convention, which left me feeling somewhat let down at the end of the story.I'm normally a fan of Haldeman's work, and certainly the notion that set this story in motion is a clever and intriguing one, but somehow I'm disappointed. I won't say don't read it, but I'm not going to buy it.
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LibraryThing member TunstallSummerReads
Joe Haldeman ... 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
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.
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
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force, his calibrator turns into a time machine. With a dead-end joband a girlfriend who has left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose taking a time
machine trip himself-or so he thinks.
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LibraryThing member emitnick
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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member greytfriend
An average time travel book. Reminded me of Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice for some reason. OK character development. Too many coincidences to make things work out properly.
LibraryThing member blueslibrarian
When Matt Fuller, a perpetual grad student at MIT constructs a time traveling machine by accident, his life and those around him are forever altered. One the run from the cops for a crime he didn't commit, Matt jumps further and further into the future, landing in a far future United States that
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has regressed into religious fanaticism. Traveling even farther into the future, Matt must confront a virtually omnipotent artificial intelligence to try to get back to his own time and save the woman he is falling in love with. This is a well written and pithy story of "hard" science fiction, that is, science fiction that adheres as best it can to true scientific principles. But this commitment never overwhelms the narrative as Haldeman's characters are complex and believable. A fine and mind expanding tale. Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
Matt Fuller is an MIT grad-school dropout who accidentally discovers a time machine. He meets Martha, a nubile but naive girl of the future, and starts taking her along on his time travels.
The story and tone are reminiscent of much preceding social satire sci fi - e.g., that of Chris Morrow, Kurt
The story and tone are reminiscent of much preceding social satire sci fi - e.g., that of Chris Morrow, Kurt
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Vonnegut, and the French Barbarella comic series. Haldeman's effort is disappointing, however: more puerile than sharp-witted, and lacking social analysis. In fact, it seems as if the plot came from the fifties. Maybe Haldeman was lost in time while he was writing it. Show Less
LibraryThing member clark.hallman
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
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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 inform his boss, the machine reappeared, and his boss thought he was hallucinating. Of course, he pushed the button again with the same result, except the machine took longer to reappear. He decided to “borrow” the machine to experiment with it at home and discovered that he could make other things disappear with the machine by placing them in any metal container that was attached to the machine via a wire and an alligator clip. He discovered that each time the machine disappeared, the length of time before it returned increased by a factor of twelve and the machine reappeared in a slightly different position and the distance from the starting position increased with each occurrence. After a turtle traveled and returned safely with the machine he decided to travel with it himself. He took his first time-trip in a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, attached to the machine and began an incredible journey of three million years into the future without knowing how to return. He encounters many interesting societies including one that is dominated by religion and has no technology after the second coming of Christ and another that is based on a barter system and controlled by an A.I. Luckily he acquires a beautiful woman as a companion for his journeys. This was a fascinating and enjoyable read and I found the ending to be very satisfying. Show Less
LibraryThing member ImBookingIt
I liked this book from the beginning, when Matt accidentally discovered his time machine, and tested it to see how it behaved, and learned to predict its behavior. He has no control over it, other than pressing a button and seeing when (and where) it goes. However, The Accidental Time Machine
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doesn't really come together until Matt starts to travel forward in time.The strength of this book is in the future worlds in creates. They aren't like anything I imagined, but I found them entirely plausible, and very interesting to consider.The characters were interesting enough. Personal growth wasn't the emphasis of the novel, and they filled their roles adequately. Neither was this a book about detailed plot or spectacular writing. I have no complaints in any of these areas. All in all, I found this an interesting, well-executed book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Scaryguy
Haldeman is one of my favourite writers and, as usual, delivers a good read. The book is concise -- not some tome that goes on and on for days explaining everything and the toothbrush with it like some authors write -- and enjoyable. Time travel is a well-worn subject but Haldeman is able to
This book stays in my library for a rainy day read.
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deliver a new twist with just enough information to let the reader produce their own 'what-ifs' and finish the book with a positive outlook.This book stays in my library for a rainy day read.
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LibraryThing member robsack
Fun story, though the end felt a bit thrown-together. Deus-ex and all that. I guess if you go far enough into the future that's bound to happen.
LibraryThing member hobreads
A light but fun read.
LibraryThing member hadden
Good story about a MIT graduate assistant who invents a time machine by accident, but can only go into the future. A bit longish. I listened to this book on a Playaway in my car.
LibraryThing member stubbyfingers
This book somehow just didn't do it for me. The story started out with a lot of potential. A graduate assistant at MIT builds a machine that's supposed to do something fairly mundane, but he discovers that because of some error he made the machine actually travels through time. He sets off trying
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to figure out how and why this is happening. Except the story kind of falls apart halfway through. It gets out of hand and ridiculous and boring. This book really isn't worth your time to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Punchout
Just finished today 12 June 2012. I picked this book up looking for a fix that had been created by the great READY PLAYER ONE book I had recently finished. Wow, this book really surprised me, it is a great story. Of course I listened to the audio version and the narration was excellent. The only
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problem with the book is that some of the persons Matt meats as he jumps time are to easy to believe him when he says he is a time traveler. Otherwise, I have to say, this is one of my favorites. If you like sci-fi, time travel, look into the future and maybe even the past, then get it. If you don't like those things you likely will after you read this. Show Less
LibraryThing member jimmaclachlan
It was an interesting time travel book, as engaging as any of his books are; well written & quite readable. The main character was likable & often fun. The end was unexpected, but not as filling as I hoped it would be. Haldeman lays out some interesting scenarios about our possible future(s) along
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the way. I found them all very well done. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dermatio
Pretty bad book.
LibraryThing member figre
Right up front – this is a fun read. It won’t test you unnecessarily, there’s not a deeper message to ponder. But neither is it a piece of fluff. It is good writing telling a good story. Now to back up a little bit. When the Nebula awards were held in Phoenix, during the author readings, I
(As an aside, he was reading from his hand-written originals – the way he always writes, in note books with ink pens – that was all part of another panel discussion that was one of the weirder moments in the convention.) He read from the part where Matt appears in the middle of traffic in his time traveling T-Bird wearing a wet suit and snorkel and (if I remember correctly) accompanied by his turtle. Don’t ask. Just that snippet showed off Haldeman’s unarguable talent as a writer. Throw in the obvious absurdity of that scene, and the fact that I will devour almost any time travel book (unless you make me read The Time Traveler’s Wife again), and I was salivating for the book’s publication. The resulting novel comes through on the promises. Again, it isn’t overly deep. And, there is a little bit of “all wrapped up with a bow” at the end that detracts. But this is quibbling with an enjoyable story, a good read, and seemingly effortless writing.
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got the chance to hear Joe Haldeman read a part of this novel. (As an aside, he was reading from his hand-written originals – the way he always writes, in note books with ink pens – that was all part of another panel discussion that was one of the weirder moments in the convention.) He read from the part where Matt appears in the middle of traffic in his time traveling T-Bird wearing a wet suit and snorkel and (if I remember correctly) accompanied by his turtle. Don’t ask. Just that snippet showed off Haldeman’s unarguable talent as a writer. Throw in the obvious absurdity of that scene, and the fact that I will devour almost any time travel book (unless you make me read The Time Traveler’s Wife again), and I was salivating for the book’s publication. The resulting novel comes through on the promises. Again, it isn’t overly deep. And, there is a little bit of “all wrapped up with a bow” at the end that detracts. But this is quibbling with an enjoyable story, a good read, and seemingly effortless writing.
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LibraryThing member ScoLgo
A short and entertaining time-travel epic. In these days of 900-page doorstops, it's nice to read a succinct novel that nevertheless explores several interesting 'what if' avenues. The situations that Matt Fuller gets into during his seemingly one-way trip into the far, far future are sometimes
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humorous, sometimes dangerous, and always entertaining. I fully enjoyed every aspect of this story. A story that packs a lot of ideas into the relatively small space of only 278 pages. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
Meh. Its an okay book, written well, but between obnoxious characters, fairly trite plots, and general White Guy saves the smart girl, following old plots of religion = bad, and the future is full of bored people.
How time travel is handled is interesting, but not enough to save the book.
How time travel is handled is interesting, but not enough to save the book.
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Interesting, engaging, but not terribly substantial. Neither the plot nor the characters were well-developed - this is a classic 'what if' story. 3.5 stars, rounded up because I actually prefer my SF to be 'idea driven' and I also very much appreciate that there were no bad guys.
This would make athe second coming, and the bishop's role in it.
This would make a
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decent book for a BotM discussion. I still wonder about Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 2007)
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2008)
Original publication date
2007-08
Physical description
288 p.; 8.9 inches
ISBN
0441014992 / 9780441014996