My pick would have to be the A Whole Nother Story trilogy, in which (spoiler warning) you can only travel back in time. But because time is in a loop of sorts, if you go before the beginning of time, you will be at the end of time. From there you can go back to any time you want to. And time paradoxes cannot be produced. Plus, your memories from the previous timeline exist as well as the memories from the new one.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Not exactly “time travel,” at least not in the traditional sense.
The protagonist is a human soldier fighting a war in space. Because of the time dilation from traveling to/from the battles, he experiences massive jumps in time and human culture/evolution, all while he is serving in the military during a war in space that lasts a thousand years.
Which for him lasts like 10 years. That book was amazing.
This was my answer as well. How out of place the MC feels each time he returns ‘home’ (and how his views no longer fit with societal norms), how he gets jerked around by the military he’s fighting for, how he just never can fit in and returns to service…
I’ve seen that happen to a lot of people. I think the story does an excellent job of conveying those emotions to someone who would otherwise be unfamiliar with them.
This sounds rad!
How the entire human race clones itself into one homogenous being called “man”
One of my favorite books. A wonderful allegory on veterans coming back from the Vietnam war.
Haldeman was also directly flipping off Heinlein for some of his loftier thoughts in Starship.
The Forever War is one of the best Vietnam War novels ever…that just happens to be a science fiction novel that takes place in outer space.
Fun fact, this book is included with membership if youbhave Audible Plus
It is also on Mofibo/Storytel as ebook (Just found it now ;) )
Such a great book!
I was trying to explain the concept of the book to my wife, her response was “oh it’s like the Lightyear film”.
Came here for this, if you guys have not I encourage you to read the sequels Forever Peace and Forever Free—also very good!
Came here to say this… glad it is near the top!