Time and Again by Jack Finney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really only wanted to read this because it used to be well-beloved and the author wrote one hell of a great rip-roaring SF/Horror, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

As a romance, it was slow, very mild, somewhat contrived, and beleaguered by a ham-fisted 1880's villain.

As an SF, it spent a lot of time setting up the psychology of time travel in a way that I found quite appealing, almost as if historians and proper mindsets are necessary to inject oneself into a new time. I liked that part. As for the actual science... we can ignore that.

As a historical novel, it spends almost all of its time on average, everyday things.

For the time this came out, I'm sure it was very charming and an extremely mild, armchair romance with a little adventure, a little social commentary, and a little culture shock.

As for a veteran time traveler, I guess I got rather bored.

If you don't like your novels spicy, but firmly middle-class and middle-of-the-road, then you might like this just fine.



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