Product Description

Si Morley is bored with his job as a commercial illustrator and his social life doesn't seem to be going anywhere. So, when he is approached by an affable ex-football star and told that he is just what the government is looking for to take part in a top-secret programme, he doesn't hesitate for too long. And so one day Si steps out of his twentieth-century, New York apartment and finds himself back in January 1882. There are no cars, no planes, no computers, no television and the word 'nuclear' appears in no dictionaries. For Si, it's very like Eden, somewhere he could find happiness. But has he really been back in time? The portfolio of tintype photographs and sketches that he brings back convince the government. But all Si wants is to return...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #539747 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
SALES POINTS * Part of the Fantasy Masterworks series * this charming, illustrated novel is a classic tale of time travel * 'Go back to a wonderful world and have a wonderful time doing it' New York Times * Jack Finney is best known as the author of The Body Snatchers, which became the hugely popular and influential film, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers * the delightful illustrations add to the richness and charm.

Customer Reviews

It is schmultzy but so what
This is a great read, the pace and style are excellent, as is the characterisation of each individual featured throughout, even the bit part or minor characters.

The story is about an ex-service man who is making a living as an artist, he's contacted by a government agency because of his unique attributes and enlisted in their time travelling experiments. Its not science fiction really, its much more fantasy like The Compleat Enchanter or The Anubis Gates (which if you liked you will also like this book, the styles are similar), the time travelling isnt so important as the character and dialogue driven plot which takes the idea of an ordinary person in an extraordinary predicament or adventure seriously.

There is a piece of dialogue early in the book in which a character asks another have they ever recommended a book to someone and then felt jealous as that person will have the experience of reading the book for the first time, I think it sums up how I feel about this book.

Time And Again, and again,and again!
I just finished what has been one of the best novels I have read in a long time (no pun intended)since reading HG Wells' 'The Time Machine'. This has to be Jack Finney's best though I've started the sequel novel 'From Time To Time' which also looks very awesome which carries on the time travel adventures of Si Morley. I have to admit, I took ages to finish 'Time And Again' maybe because I just didn't want it to end, a quality you do not often find in a book. Every page of every chapter is gripping stuff which really does take the reader on a journey with the characters and invokes a very vivid picture in the reader's mind's eye, what also helps is that this novel is illustrated with black and white sketches and photos which help create this atmosphere. Jack Finney has been extremely descriptive in some of the long chapters but this has been invaluable to the reader's imagination. Overall, the book has a great plot, my only slight problem was with the time travel science; there is no real explaination on HOW Si Morley time traveled apart from the odd mention of hypnotism - based time travel theory a bit similair to the film 'Somewhere In Time' starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve based on the book 'Bid Time Return' by Richard Matheson. I have to say, I think this novel along with its sequel probably surpasses Wells' 'The Time Machine'. 'Time and Again' would make a wonderful film! So, if you are into time travel or even just a good read then treat yourself to this book, it is truely brilliant.

Disappointing old schmaltzy sci-fi from 1970
This is a sleight-of-hand, wishy-washy "psi" novel, one which never convincingly explains, in my view, how the protagonist "slips" in & out of the 1880's without any mechanism.
Disappointing for anyone who likes hard-science SF. This is a faction-history yarn.