Traveling Back in Time

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By Melissa Luttmann

When I looked on Amazon.com to see what new historical fiction books are being published this month, I discovered quite a few time travel stories. You can’t deny that time travel is a fun way for kids to learn about history – just look at the enduring popularity of the Magic Tree House books, the best-known example of this type of story. Still, my first instinct was to wonder why Amazon had chosen to classify those titles as historical fiction. To me, they seem more like science fiction or fantasy.

The more I think about it, though, the more I realize that this classification isn’t so wrong. It’s true that it isn’t possible to go back in time (at least, not that I’m aware). That particular aspect of time travel novels is decidedly fantasy. On the other hand, though, I’ve read several time travel books recently, and I have to say that their authors did an outstanding job handling the historical aspects. They had clearly done their research, and exploring a given time period through the eyes of a modern child allowed them to seamlessly incorporate the details that modern kids want to know. One particular title painted a more vivid, more accurate picture of 15th century England than many historical novels I’ve seen.

I still don’t think that time travel novels belong in quite the same category as novels set completely in the past. They’re almost their own genre, a hybrid of fantasy and historical fiction. But if the titles being released now handle history as well as the books I’ve read, I don’t have a problem with Amazon including “historical” as one of the tags. After all, kids will definitely learn some history by reading them – and ultimately, that’s the point.

Do you think time travel books should be classified as historical fiction? Are there any that you particularly enjoy?

Melissa Luttmann is Associate Editor for Young Adult History/Historical Fiction at Wonders & Marvels.

http://historywithatwist.blogspot.com Vicky Alvear Shecter

I had never thought about this before, but I think I agree with you–if the history part of the fiction/fantasy is well researched and solid, then it probably would be fine in historical fiction. Actually, why couldn’t they put it in several categories, really? Anything to help sales, right?
http://theviewfromsarisworld.blogspot.com/ sari

Time Line by Micheal Crichton is a little silly but has some good historical information about French Medieval life. It is light but informative.
http://www.punctualityrules.com –Deb

I suppose I think it depends on how MUCH time is spent in the historical time, and how accurate it is. Not to mention the point of the story–if the point is to highlight the fun/dangers of time travel, then it’s more sci-fi. But if the time travel is basically just there to GET the character to another time and then explore it, then … sure, I’ll buy it as historical fiction. Because … why not? (grin) Hey, if Diana Gabaldon’s time-travel romances count as historical fiction …
David Camacho

I can certainly see time travel as a way for the author to explain the cultural differences inherent to a novel set in a very different time period, and it could be done in a way that feels natural to the reader, particularly if it is geared to a younger reader. Having a time travelling character violate one of the unspoken rules of the time period could reveal things about the setting that would be difficult to do organically using characters who grew up within that culture.
Doctor Who was originally conceived as an education program. The idea being that time travel to the past would teach history, and trips to the future could be used to teach science.
Amanda

I read a lot of HF, and for years I would constantly overlook Diana Gabaldon’s books, thinking that being time travel, they were really historical fiction. Then one day I decided to try Cross Stitch (or Outlander as you might know it), and I really loved the way she handled the historical aspects. As with a lot of books, I try to read some reviews, particularly from the forum historicalfictionline, and get a bit of an idea about what historical fiction-minded people think of a book that is a historical romance or involves time-travel.
http://www.locationvillaespagne.com maison espagne

Theoretically time travel is possible..not by exceeding speed of light(prohibited by EINSTEIN general relativity) but other ways are there…for eg

Gravity warps both space n time…if one stays in a huge gravitational field for some considerable time n then return to places of low gravity such as earth he might be in future…for eg if 1 spends some time just above the event horizon of black holes n then return to earth he will finds years have passed on earth..thus apparently he would reach future

“So one can travel in time not necessarily by exceeding c”
http://ecmyers.net Eugene

The best time travel book I’ve read is Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. I’m about to dive into her new two-volume time travel novel, Blackout & All Clear.

Depending on how the period details have been conveyed and the focus of the novel, I don’t see why some time travel books couldn’t better be categorized as historical fiction. Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred and Jack Finney’s Time and Again (another of my favorites) could certainly fall under that criteria. Something like Audrey Nifenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, not so much.