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I was thinking that it would be interesting to do a book club one month with a movie tie in. But are there many time travel books that have been made into movies? I know I read the Back To The Future series before I watched the movies (sheltered childhood. ...Actually, the 3rd movie in that series was the only movie I ever saw in a theatre before I moved out on my own). The Time Machine has a movie version that I liked better than the book. And then there's the ever famous The Time Traveler's Wife. What else?

'Timeline' by Michael Creighton (sp?)

Now that I think about it, I think it's Crichton.

John mentions: 'I think it's Crichton'

A highly underrated author, his Great Train Robbery was first rate, besides his SiFi stuff, of course.

I'm surprised they haven't done movies for the "Outlander" series.

I think they're doing an Outlander TV series next year. I'm not a fan, but several of my friends are and they have been talking about it.

Love Timeline even the movie... I watched the movie first then I realized that it's a Crichton novel and read the book

Bernadette wrote: "Love Timeline even the movie... I watched the movie first then I realized that it's a Crichton novel and read the book"

I really liked the movie as well and the book is on the top of my to-read list. Picked it up at a used book sale a couple months ago.

Oh wow. I didn't think anyone liked the Timeline movie. It had more plot holes than Swiss cheese underwear. Okay, I haven't had any coffee yet this morning, so that was a horrible analogy. But you know what I mean. Timeline, the book, is still a favorite of mine.

The book is better and one of my favorite books in my list... As usual books are better than the movies. Well, always love time travel theme whether in movies or books haha

One of my favorite books, Winter's Tale, is coming to theaters February 14th. The funny thing is that I don't remember it being a time travel tale and it's not tagged on GoodReadsas being a time travel tale, but this article is calling it a time travel movie. That would be a nice but unnecessary twist:

Amy wrote: "I was thinking that it would be interesting to do a book club one month with a movie tie in. But are there many time travel books that have been made into movies? I know I read the [bookcover:Back..."

I like this idea!

But I'm such a dork. I had no clue Back to the Future was a book.

(Crawling out of the hole now)

E.B. wrote: "But I'm such a dork. I had no clue Back to the Future was a book..."

I think the books are film novelizations. They're fairly true to the movie but are a little more detailed in areas. After all, a book can tell you feelings, thoughts, and background information that a movie cannot. Too, they can include things that got cut from the final script that give more depth and understanding to a story:

Amy wrote: "One of my favorite books, Winter's Tale, is coming to theaters February 14th. The funny thing is that I don't remember it being a time travel tale and i..."

I've seen a number of book reviews that categorize WINTER'S TALE as (basically) art for art's sake. Beautiful writing, but not much of a plot. Usually, these types of stories don't translate well into movies. Hard to say, of course, without having read the book or seen the (soon-to-be-released) movie. But the basic plot line has me intrigued since it shares elements with my own story. A bit off topic, but are these criticisms true?

Robert wrote: "Amy wrote: "One of my favorite books, Winter's Tale, is coming to theaters February 14th. The funny thing is that I don't remember it being a time trave..."

It's been nearly 10 years since I read it, but I remember getting lost in it (in the good way) and finding that there were so many different threads of the story to love. It felt like Gangs of New York meets fantasy. I'm lamenting now that I read it during a phase when I wasn't writing book reviews. It seemed, though, that it would make a better mini-series than movie. There were just too many plot threads that a movie couldn't possibly pull in with proper effect.

Amy wrote: "Robert wrote: "Amy wrote: "One of my favorite books, Winter's Tale, is coming to theaters February 14th. The funny thing is that I don't remember it bei..."

But you'll see the movie, won't you? You have to, all things considered. I probably will, too, now that you brought it to my attention. I don't go to the movies as often as I used to. Everything seems the same (I feel that way about many books, too). This seems different. And I don't mind being challenged (like I was when trying to read or watch THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE [whew!]).

Robert wrote: "But you'll see the movie, won't you? "

Definitely. I'll probably want to re-read the book before then to see how it compares.

Amy wrote: "E.B. wrote: "But I'm such a dork. I had no clue Back to the Future was a book..."

I think the books are film novelizations. They're fairly true to the movie but are a little more detailed in area..."

Oooh, ty :)

the first Planet of the Apes movie was base on a book, not sure if the other movies from the franchise were books first or movies first.

Millennium by John Varley movie with Kris Kristofferson and Cheryl Ladd

Immortality, Inc. became the film Freejack

That's a good theme.

Since joining this group, I have been logging all the time travel movies I have seen. The tally is 55 movies in two years (I dont think I saw as many as that in my whole life before that, this group made me a bloody addict!).

So I went through them to see which ones were based on a novel. Its a small percentage and some of that were Philip K Dick short stories which I include but separately just for our knowledge. Out of the seven novels, only four qualifies for our monthly book read because the others are either foreign language, a sequel or out of print! So we might have to include novelisations after all but its preferable we dont include novelisations because they are just fleshed out from midway draft scripts of the movies and most popular movies have been novelised. I have read a few of including Quantum Leap and Back to the Future (Sheriff Stricland in number 3 is a shock, can see why they didnt include a certain scene with him in the film). Generally novelisations are a shallow read because of the direct adaptation from film scripts.

Anyway here are my findings so far:


Adapted from Novels

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban (JK Rowling 2nd Harry Potter sequel)
Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut Jr)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Yasutaka Tsutsui)
Portrait of Jennie (Robert Nathan)
Crusade in Jeans (Dutch novel only by Thea Beckman "Kruistocht in spijkerbroek")
The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan (David William's "Second Sight")
Planet of the Apes (Pierre Boulle) (already mentioned by CaptKirk, yes is was a novel first)



Adapted from Short Stories
Minority Report (Philip K Dick)
Next (Philip K Dick's "The Golden Man")
The Adjustment Beraeu (Philip L Dick's "The Adjustment")
Millenium (John Varley's "Air Raid") (already mentioned by CaptKirk but unfortunately this was just a short story)

Blast, I could have save a lot of time if I used my head. I keep forgetting how good IMDB is with fine-tuning searches by nested keywords.

So here is a definitive list of Time travel movies based on a Novel :) There are 70 entries. Now all we need to do is filter out the sequels, short stories and out of print English books.

Right, been through the whole lot and we have an almighty number of...TWENTY-THREE novels would qualify for group read nominations. The list might get even narrower if any of these books are out of print which I'll check soon, I'll


OK, so here's the refined list and also below I list what I didnt include in case you think otherwise.



A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa

Monkey: The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en (a few films based on this story of the Monkey King including Forbidden Kingdom and Once Upon a Time in China: An Oddessey)

Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa (although 4th in a series, this is a standalone novel)

Somewhere In Time by Richard Matheson (The Cristopher Reeve and Jane Seymour weepie)

The Ghosts by Antonia Barber (movie was called The Amazing Mr Blunden)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger


Repeat Performance by William O'Farrell (a 1949 film, and also remade into a TV movie called Turn Back the Clock)


Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

Sphere by Michael Crichton (Had to include this event though the time travel is not so obvious)

Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (Only one film adaptation which was in German)

Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd

The Isotope Man by Charles Eric Maine (

Timeline by Michael Crichton

Frankenstein Unbound by Brian W. Aldiss

Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley (Movie: FreeJack)

The Wizard of Seattle by Kay Hooper (Film adaptation is actually coming out next year and looks to be in the Time travel Erotica genre)


THe IMDB list didnt include made for TV movies which were listed in the Television time travel category mixed in with tv series. But I fltered those out and will include them here since we are a bit desperate for numbers here.

An Angel For May by Melvin Burgess


Second Sight by David Williams (this was made into TV movie: The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan, a film being championed here passionately by Linda!)

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen (TV Movie starring Kirsten Dunst)









Not making the cut (from the IMDB list):

A Christmas Carol and its several variations (reason for exclusion: a novella)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (reason: novela)
Flight of the Dragon (reason: a childrens picture book and nothing to do with time travel)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban (reason: a sequel)
The Time Machine (reason: past winner of monthly group read)
Les maîtres du temps (Time Masters) (Reason: no English Edition)
Contact (reason: not a time travel movie but only an insignificant slight hint of it)
Time After Time (reason: not strictly based on a novel)
Gandahar (reason: French edition only)
Orlando (reason: not really time travel)
The Thirteenth Floor (reason: not time travel, parallel simulation)
Zabil jsem Einsteina, panove (reason: Czech edition only...hilarious synopsis though)
Meet the Robinsons (reason: short childrens story)
Sengoku jieitai (both film versions) (reason: no english edition)
Jumanji (reason: short children's story)
One touch of venus (reason: not time travel)
Timescape (aka Disaster in Time) (reason: novella by C.L. Moore...not to be confused with Greg Benford's book)
Konets vechnosti (reason: past winner of our group read, this was Isaac Asimov's End of Eterenity)
Dnevnoy dozor (aka Day Watch) (Reason: Not time travel)
From Time to Time (reason: bookwise this is a sequel called Chimneys of Green Knowe of which the first book was Children of Green Knowe)
Nochnoy dozor (aka Night Watch) (Reason: not time travel and sequel to Day Watch)
Metro ni notte (reason: no English edition)
Szíriusz (reason: no English edition)
Kruistocht in spijkerbroek (aka Crusade in Jeans) (reason: Dutch edition only)
Next (reason: short story by Philip K dick)
Buhera mátrix (reason: cant find book its based on)
Jumper (not time travel)
The Indian in the Cupboard (not time travel)
Memoirs of a Survivor (reason: not time travel)
Phantom of the Opera (reason: not time travel)
The Dark is Rising (reason: book 2 of a series)
Der Trip - Die nackte Gitarre 0,5 (reason: cant find the book, would be German anyway)
Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (Reason: the film might have time travel but none of the novels do)
The 25th Reich (reason: Novella)

As I remember it, I don't think Sophie's World qualifies as time travel. It's really just a philosophy piece, and heavy at that.

And why not Back to the Future even though it was adapted into a book after the fact of the movie?

Amy wrote: "As I remember it, I don't think Sophie's World qualifies as time travel. It's really just a philosophy piece, and heavy at that."

Ah, I thought it was a time travel story as the film was listed as time travel and the story of Sophie communicating with an ancient Greek philosipher via a tape recorder, I thought it might be justified. So that will be taken off, down to 22 books then



Amy wrote: "And why not Back to the Future even though it was adapted into a bo..."

Oh well I explained why in my previous post above as most blockbuster movies are novelised from Terminator to Back to the Future and that they are shallower read because they derive directly from midway draft scripts (I read a lot of novelisations myself, I do enjoy them despite what I just said!) but I was suggestion to exclude them for that reason. Having said that, perhaps not many time travel films themselves have been novelised...maybe Back to the Future and Terminator books are the only ones...I'll check on that.

I have to agree with Tej that novelizations of movies are different than films made from books. The way I've heard it said is that novellas (shorter by designs) make better films than novels. There just isn't enough time in a two hour movie to cover a 100k word book. So a lot gets cut, and readers argue about those decisions. When you go in the reverse, you end up with the writer interpreting interior monologue and other things that don't exist in the film to get a book length read. That being said, if you like sci-fi, you're going to read novelizations.

Either way I love Back to the Future.

I realise I have sort of bullyishly hijacked this thread from Amy, which is daring considering she's my boss but she's kindly letting me host the group read for this theme (which wont be the next one). So folks, a poll will be up shortly to vote for one of the list of books we derived on this thread.

If you think there are any more to add then let me know.

Tej wrote: "I realise I have sort of bullyishly hijacked this thread from Amy, which is daring considering she's my boss but she's kindly letting me host the group read for this theme (which wont be the next o..."

Ha. Your boss? I think that phrase would apply better if we were getting paid for this job. Hijack away.

What?! I thought we get a pay cheque every two years which was due about now...oh man, all that work...

Ross wrote: "The way I've heard it said is that novellas (shorter by designs) make better films than novels. ."

That's interesting, when you say short stories, you mean Philip K Dick, right? as he bloody dominates the short story adaptations ;)

Kidding aside, that's interesting, you're probably right they could indeed make better films, serving as a framework that gives the screenplay writer more freedom to explore and expand the main story focus points and characters etc for an average two hour movie.

I propose another vote, that you each receive double what Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is paying you now.

Forget the vote, just tell them I said so.

I predict, however, it will make no difference in your Future.

Happy New Timeframe.

Robert wrote: "To all of my Time Travel friends. I have written an ebook on time travel and it is free on Amazon. Although this may seem self-serving, let me tell you that a few teacher friends of mine read it in..."

Robert, I'm going to have to delete this. You'll need to place it in the proper section of our group where authors are allowed to promote their works.

Sorry about that. How do I find the correct place to put it?

Robert wrote: "Sorry about that. How do I find the correct place to put it?"

Go to group discussions and look for a topic related to authors promoting themselves. Write your promotion.

Right, the list has dwindled down to just 15 books now as seven of them are not currently in print (although can be got secondhand or library but to quality, they need to be more easily available).

The poll is up with its relevant Book Club thread.

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