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.
Lots of good ones mentioned here. I’ll add Replay by Ken Grimwood.
Came to suggest this. I know it has some serious flaws, but it’s my absolute favourite book and I must have read it a dozen times. It got into my soul and it’s never left me. I love it so.
I read this as a teen - my dad gave it to me. I think it was my first time travel book? It is permanently stuck in my head and I think about it all the time. I finally re read it last year or so, and it was as fun as I remembered!
And every time I have to think about what I would do differently. Such a great book!
What flaws, if you don’t mind explaining?
This is the first that came to my mind. Scares the hell out of me too.
Whoops I called it Reboot in my comment, thanks for the reminder
Brilliant book!
Yes! I like the entire JFK section where he takes Oswald out of the picture, but the assassination still happens. And we’re left wondering if it happened because the conspiracy was so deep that they had killer waiting in the wings. Or if there was a more supernatural factor where something so huge was meant to happen. Those are the kinds of time travel brain twisters I love.
Yup. Found the book from a George RR Martin interview. I really liked it, though it felt like the author wanted to make certain parts political but wouldn’t go all in on it, made for kind of shoehorned side plots. Good book overall.
Absolutely loved this one. Someone else mentioned The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August… definitely add that one to your list of must reads. Same time travel setup as Replay.
Agree and I thought Replay was more nuanced and treated the implications of time travel more adeptly than others, especially about having children…
I’m sad the author died because I would love to read a sequel.
Talking to book dealer a while back, who said he’d spoken with Kens wife and that there was, in rough form, a sequel but he passed before he could finish it.