Book 2), From Time to Time (Time Series

Others here have carefully pointed out what a waste of trees this was. I agree with them all.

One additional point I wanted to make was that once his original intervention from the first book was itself intervened, no way should his history continued like it had before, with him having that son and all else the same.

The high point, such as it was, on the ship with that guy, was a complete dud. The recognition of the Jata lady as a fellow time traveler could have been better written by my six year old.

I agree with some reviewers that this book is not as good as its predecessor. Overall I did like it, although there was an over-reliance on photos. What I mainly liked was similar to "Time and again", the way Finney managed to give the reader the sense of everyday life for a time traveler. I especially got that feeling in the scene with Morley sitting on a stoop with a group of vaudevillians. Finney has written a plausible time travel scenario, appreciated when compared with something as bad as the appalling piece of garbage TV series "Timeless".

The founding premise of this novel, that the past can be changed to such a profound degree that the Great War can be prevented, quickly disappears under the burden of so much crushing historical detail. It begins brightly, with people's divergent memories of the past suggesting clashing divergent histories existing in the past. But it becomes a diminished version of Finney's earlier novel as Si meanders around in the past on what other reviewers say, and I agree, are interminable and not particularly interesting adventures. The dancing has to be the nadir. Some of the scenes have merit, the flying for instance, but for much of the novel we are stuck in the past not doing much. There's a neat Twilight Zone-ish twist towards the end, but ultimately this novel is a bland reworking of its justifiably famous predecessor.

From Time to Time is an uneven and disappointing sequel to the tremendous novel Time and Again. As a book, it isn't awful, but in comparison it is an outright flop because it never really delivers on its promises.

Simon Morley is a time traveler. He worked on a secret government project in modern times (which in the first novel was the 1970s) which experimented with time travel, and Simon was successful in traveling to the late 1800s. He met a woman and decided to stay there, so we find Simon with his wife and new son living in a by-gone era. He has acted in a way to prevent the birth of one of the project's founders, and in doing so breaking the gateway to return "home."

This is when things start to get confusing. Simon has a feeling he's being called back to modern times and decides to go back one last time. Once there, he meets an old friend and finds out that he has NOT prevented the founder's birth as he thought, and that unexplained time lapses exist in the memories of many people all over the world. (One remembers Kennedy's second term, another recalls seeing the Titanic dock in New York, etc.) Simon is instructed to go back in time and see that a man, known only as Z, successfully travels from America to Europe and then back again with documents that will prevent WWI from ever happening.

Sounds great, right? But wait! We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you the first days of flight and jewels of vaudeville. Here, the author tours us around New York of the 1910s, but unlike the bus tour in the first novel which was charming and entertaining, this overview seems random and disjointed from the action of the book.

What is worse, the conclusion of the book, which boasts of scenes on the Titanic, is miniscule and disappointing, with an outcome as satisfying as saying, "And then he woke up and realized it was all a dream."

If you read this for the descriptions and not the story, you might have a lot of fun, but this book pales in comparison to the first.

In From Time to Time, we revisit Si Morley, picking up several years after we left off at the end of Time and Again. It's a promising start, back in the head of our familiar protagonist, though we quickly take a detour into the machinations of the plot. In order to make the story here work -- Si has to leave his comfortable 19th century home, come back to modern times, then travel back to 1912 -- Finney has to engage in some contrivances that undo things that were done at the end of the previous book. But, seeing as this is a time travel novel, I plugged on, willing to suspend disbelief.

The problem with this book has its roots in the words I used in the first paragraph. Machinations. Contrivances. Plot. In my review of Time and Again, I expressed pleasure at the combination of leisurely, descriptive immersion in a time and place, and an engaging storyline. Here, though, we have a lot of description and detail, but without the compelling story to carry it along. Morley isn't at home in 1912, he isn't in love with 1912, and the character's (and author's?) love of the setting is what lent such care and beauty to the descriptions in the first book. Here, instead, we get thrown lots of detail, and schooled in histories of various kinds, but through much of it we're left wondering just what Si is doing!

The plot such as it is comes to not much. Si is seeking a couple named Ted and Tessie, and I paged back through the book, trying to figure out why, assuming I must have missed something -- but no, his motivation isn't revealed until later. Confusingly, a different character named Ted appears at the beginning of the book, and then disappears, completely immaterial to the story. Confusing and unnecessary. Si also sets out to change the course of major world events, but that is mostly crammed into the tail end of the book, and is dealt with in a frustratingly anticlimactic way.

Although From Time to Time suffers in comparison to its predecessor, it's still a passable read for those who read and loved Time After Time. It has its moments -- it just doesn't come together as a well-constructed whole.

There are some sequels that you ask yourself, why were they made? This book fall into that category. Granted the original classic left a few loose ends, such as how did Simon and Julia escape the clutches of Julia's estranged fiancée? And if Simon and Julia ended up getting married? The first question is still not answered though we see the second is. Getting beyond that the book is boring and lacks the interesting characters and intriguing plot that the first book so rightly produced.
Ruben Prien is able to reverse the interference that Si produced at the end of the first book to restore the present to what it was. The Project however, ran out of funding and was shut down. Si takes a trip back to the present out of curiosity and meets up with Rube again. Rube presents him with a lame argument as to why World War I needs to be prevented. Si accepts the assignment and goes back to 1912.
While in 1912 there are several chapters where Si goes around taking photos (which the author includes in the book). This style worked brilliantly in the first book, while here it seems like it was forced. The photos add nothing to the story or in enabling the reader to get a better flavor of 1912 New York.
Si then goes about trying to locate a man that Rube only knew as "Z." Z was working on some sort of European pact but disappeared shortly thereafter. Rube felt that had Z not disappeared, the pact would have been in place thus preventing the War. Si's 1912 associates turn out to be dull (the main one is a woman that Si calls the Jotta Girl). When Si finally figures out who Z is, it turns out that Z is just as dull as the other lifeless characters in this book.
I found myself skimming over several chapters of the book. One of these chapters explains an entire play that Si attends. What bearing it had on the story, I had no clue.
Towards the end of the book Rube sends Si back on another try to stop World War I by letting Si know that his own son will be killed in the war. I would have felt it a lot easier for Si to just try to save his son directly and not try to change the course of world events. Someone as intelligent as Si, should have come up with the same conclusion.

Time and Again was good because if you accepted the single premise, that one could be self-hypnotized into going into the past, the rest followed logically.
Here, the reader is called upon to suspend his disbelief almost continuously. That the seemingly airtight way Time and Again was ended could be reversed, for example. That Morley, given being sent to 1912 to prevent World War I and save his son, would not instead look up his 1912 self (surely still alive and not yet sixty) or at least Julia, and have them find a way to save his (their?) son. That would be an insurance policy in case Si failed in his mission, and Si is bright and curious enough to come up with this or a similar scheme--after all, it is not unlike the plot resolution to Time and Again.
Even though Finney was dying as this was published, I still have the feeling that the book is a setup for a never-written third book of a trilogy. The final chapter seems unresolved. Possibly, it was due to Finney's illness. But he was a great, if underrated writer--but this could have been better. Maybe he was writing to augment his estate.
I also feel that there is an excess of detail, that Finney is sort of showing off with the level of his knowledge (or research) about the past. Take the play to which a chapter is devoted, or the dances, etc.
Just an offhand thought--isn't Si sort of wasting himself in the 1880s by working as an illustrator? Why isn't he trying to invent the zipper or writing Gone With The Wind or doing something else that will assure his and his family's financial security?

Jack Finney is a superb writer. Many people seem to agree that he excels in descriptive details, bringing the past to life. But his narrative frames are wonderful too -- this novel's prologue is intriguing, and a number of interesting characters are introduced. It's a shame this is a throwaway chapter, intended to introduce the consequences of time travel and the ways that observers (in The Project) might discover and analyse them. I would have enjoyed updates with this group to see the effects of various actions on the part of protagonist Si Morley. But this was Finney's book to write, and it's a fine novel. The old photographs are fun to look at and are incorporated smoothly into the story.
I suggest that you do not buy this book if you want to read a technical and plausible method for travelling to the past. This is a fantastical opera, in the fine tradition of soap opera and space opera. It is more concerned with painting vivid experience of a past time, as if the novel itself were a time machine. If you are a tech-head, press the "Back" button and search elsewhere. If you are an impressionistic history buff, you will have a grand old time in old New York.

Clearly, from reading the other reviews, I must be the only reader who thought this was the better book. As much as I loved TIME AND AGAIN -- and it's a permanent part of my library and a book I've re-read dozens of times -- when I saw this in a bookstore (sorry, the store), I grabbed it. At first I was disappointed, but on a second reading began to pick up the magic that was, if anything, stronger the second time around. The opening chapter, of people unrelated to Si Morley who gather at a curious meeting to pinpoint strange alternative versions of history, is intriguing and exciting. And as Rube Prien struggles with his own disjointed memory and sets in motion the return of the Project, things pick up even more. By the way, check out the true stories on the Titanic -- Archibald Butt, a pivotal character in this book, DID in fact travel on its maiden voyage and failed to return home, despite his importance as an aide to President Taft (who beseiged the White Star Line office with inquiries about him). But we've seen so much Titanic lore recently that it's almost a relief that the climactic scenes are so brief. Read it, read it again, and love it!

I grew up reading, and enjoying, novels written by Jack Finney. He had a knack of writing a story that began quite normally but after a while you began to realize that things weren't quite as "normal" as you had thought. His short stories and novels were always enjoyable and always left the reader pleased.

I purchased "Time and Again" when it was new on the shelves and consider it to be Finney's finest work. "From Time to Time," however, left me dissatisfied.

Frankly, I feel that Finney was probably in a hurry to finish writing this book. His health might have been failing and he died about the time the book was released. Perhaps "From Time to Time" was his desire to increase his surviving wife's late years. I don't blame Jack Finney for the fact that this book seems to be written in a hurry with a lot of loose ends I suspect that he knew very well that his days were numbered.

I reread both this novel, as well as, the original _Time and Again_, in order at the same time. I was amazed at how well the two books flowed into each other almost seamlessly. I noticed no lack on continuity or deterioration of narrative or style. Simply put, I loved the first book, and this sequel is every bit as good.

Of course, I might be biased here. Finney develops a theme that I've toyed with for years, namely, how much better the 20th century would have been for the vast majority of mankind if WWI never would have occurred. Think about it, no WWI means no Soviet Union, no Nazi Germany, no defacto American Empire.... Moreover, there most probably would have been no overriding pressure to develop an atomic bomb. Things would have flowed along much more orderly and civlized lines. For that matter, Palestine would still be under the firm control of the Ottoman Empire.

It is somewhat eerie to read the main characters discussing the first book. Several times I have been tempted to search Manhattan for a Beekey Bros. warehouse....

As for those that hold that it is totally unbelievable that the government could ever establish any thing as preposterous as The Project, well, I guess they never heard of a little military intelligence project called Project Stargate with a directive to develop mental techniques to transcend time and space. Of course back in 1970 when Finney wrote the first book there was no Project Stargate- or at least no public knowlege of it.

I loved Time and Again and would never bespeak any ill of it, but I find it difficult to believe that the same author could have written From Time To Time. The only aspect of this sequel I liked was the way it conveyed life in 1912. There were many inconsistencies in the story, and esp. regarding the main character in the 1st book and this sequel. Did anyone else notice that accd. to Time and Again, Si's father took him to the Big Apple in the 1950's to see the el but in the sequel his father was a vaudivillian who died when Si was an infant? It seems to me that Finney should've reread the original before writing the sequel, and that he was just grasping for any sort of a tale. Maybe the reader should check their intelligence at the door with their coats before reading it as well.

As all the other reviewers have noted, this isn't as good as the earlier book. Why on earth didn't Si look up Julia and their son? Suspension of disbelief is essential in a book like this, but that's too much of a stretch.

Also, in addition to the long stretches of vaudeville descriptions, the Al Jolson tea dance, and the somewhat distasteful episode of the "Jotta" [Ja-Da] girl, it includes some obvious errors, such as Edith Wharton's "new" book THE HOUSE OF MIRTH--which was published in 1905, six years before the story begins. One of the pictures appears to be a casual shot of Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Thaw; Thaw's 1905 murder of Stanford White and his subsequent trial made both of them celebrities, which surely Si Morley would have noticed.

And yet, the old magic and suspense is back for a moment when the Jotta girl changes the course of the Titanic and of history. You hold your breath for a minute, thinking that she's changed it for the better--unless you remember the old Star Trek prime directive and know that nothing good can come of it.

...but overall it's a disappointment.
I enjoyed Finney's original "Time and Again". This "sequel to a sequel" (I think that's what the author's note called it) was uninspired and made me wonder if the original was as good as I remembered.
I expect that most writers of historical fiction and historical fantasy devise characters and plot first, and then do their research. As I listened to this audiobook I had the distinct impression that Mr. Finney chose a time period (1911-1912), did some research, and then devised a plot to use as much of the research as possible, whether or not it made any narrative sense.
For example, long sections of text described vaudeville in much more detail than made any sense for a subplot.
I also had difficulty in believing the characters' motivations, actions and dialogue. For example, the main character travels back to 1912 and immediately hooks up with a pretty young lady because he is so "completely alone" in the world. Well, if I'd just left a young wife and 4-year old son in 1887 New York City, when I arrived in that same city only 25 years later I think I'd see how they were doing first. (Then maybe I'd buy a drink for the pretty young lady.)
Anyway, Finney's research was interesting and there were some good moments in the book. Enjoy!

Fascinating, immersive experience! Once again, I felt as if Jack Finney actually transported me back in time. I have read the first book twice, and I suspect I will read this one twice, too. A true science fiction genius.

Some 25 years after the publication of his classic "Time and Again," Finney succumbed to that storytellers temptress--sequel. Finney brings back the hero of that book, Si Morely, from his cozy existence in 1880s New York for an entirely unentertaining stroll through 1912 New York in an awfully dull attempt to prevent WWI. It should be noted from the get go that this is no sci-fi, time travel extravaganza, rather it's solidly a piece of historical fiction--and if you're not interested in the minutiae of 1912 New York, don't even pick it up. Somewhere in the 25 years between the two books Finney apparently lost all ability to plot: the first chapter of the book (which is actually rather intriguing) has next to nothing to do with the rest of it, Morely is given no real motivation to come back to the present and then return to the past to carry out this mission, but then at the end, he is given a really excellent motivation! Why not just give him the plausible motivation from the beginning?
In the meantime, the reader must wade through lengthy descriptions of clothing verbatim reportage from period newspapers, and aimless set pieces that have much less to do with the plot than they do in displaying Finney's ample knowledge on the time and place. A tiresome, lengthy interlude involving a dance demonstration is even more infuriating when it becomes apparent that it's been set up to provide a cameo for a young Al Jolson. Similarly, when Si becomes baffled by the description of a building, he decides he must take an aerial tour of the city, piloted by a new friend. This is a convenient way for a lengthy exploration of the progress of aviation at the time. Never mind that the description of the building he's been given to work with is obviously the Flatiron Building--only one of New York's most famous pieces of architecture. Most egregious is the mind-numbing foray into the world of vaudeville, which Si undertakes in order to grab a glimpse of his father as a child. One part of this has a vaudevillian (who is completely unrelated to the plot) spend six pages recounting his less than interesting life story! Oddly despite expending great effort to glimpse his vaudeville antecedents, he never even thinks of looking up his 1880s wife and son, who live in, oh, Manhattan...
Let's not even get started on the "Jatta" girl, who pursues him. She's clearly a time-traveler as well, something he either fails to recognize (is he retarded?), or purposefully ignores (why?). Oh yeah, the climax comes aboard the (sigh) Titanic, on it's rendezvous with an iceberg. I love historical fiction, but in the end, one wishes Finney hadn't been so keen on period detail to the exclusion of any semblance of storytelling. E.L. Doctrow's "Ragtime" covers the same rough time period and place, but manages to tell a good story while doing so.

I just finished the unabridged audio recording and I ended up liking this book better than when I read it (the narrator made the boring parts entertaining), thus a bump up from three stars.

In my opinion, the opening chapters were simply brilliant - trying to piece together fragmented clues as to the two different sets of memories - knowing that they directly resulted from Si's actions in the ending of Time and Again. And, how they were able to solve it and get the divergence back to the first order, I could read those chapters endlessly. I should've just stopped reading at that point.

But alas, Si goes back (which I never fully understood why since Rube seems to be short-sighted and ignorant) to a time period that was not that interesting. Never was a fan of vaudeville and theatre and that's the dominant theme, and the attempts with the Titanic seemed forced.

However, I do recommend the unabridged audio book, so that's worth something.

Jack Finney's imagination, detail, and research were magnificent. He pulled them all together, in company with a wonderfully original plot, in "Tiime And Again." In this, an uneven sequil in many ways disappointing, the imagination and detail are once again stellar, riveting, delightful. But the plot is a true disappointment. When real characters are blended into a clever historical fiction, the effect can be intriguing. But not here. The plot turns on the identity of a mystery character, "Z." Unfortunately, he is a historical personage well known to Titanic buffs, and, when he appears, those who know the name know just where the plot will be going. Si Morely, our hero, will continue to puzzle over "Z's" identity long after we've got it all figured out. After things wind up as expected, Finney tacks on, almost as an afterthought, another thirty pages stretching out the narrative by employing a device Rod Serling had introduced and popularized decades earlier in a "Twilight Zone" episode. It's almost as though he knows his story hasn't worked and wants to offer an after-ending ending hoping to redeem it. But tacking an unoriginal twist onto a failed plot is no answer, and the story never comes close to recapturing the cleverness and delights of its predicessor.

That said, most of the book's text is incidental to the plot(s). Finney swirls us along into vignette after vignette, each of which is beautifully written, full of period detail, and in itself a "portal" to the past--in this case, for the most part, 1912 New York. You come away from all of this feeling as though you yourself have managed to go back to a terrifically interesting and uncommonly happy time in our history. Finney was wonderfully good at drawing a reader in and accomplishing with words what his hero, Morley, was accomplishing with understanding, training, and self hypnosos. I've never read a more accomplished, more able, writer of time-travel fiction. Many, like Serling, had rich imaginations but less than stellar writing talents. No one surpasses Jack Finney in taking a time-travel reader along for the ride. That ability, it would seem to me, is very much more rare than the ability to plot an interesting story. Had the story equalled, or even approached, the perfection of the period representation, this would have been a true masterpiece.

If you love and demand a compelling story line, you may find "From Time To Time" something of a snoozer. But if you're in the mood to be carried back to a time you can sense, feel and enjoy, there is indeed much here that you won't be find elsewhere. I myself wish Jack Finney, his mind, and his abilitiesas a writer were still around and shepherding us along to fascinating scenes and places. I really enjoyed the book, despite its very substantial deficiencies as a novel. Some will feel as I do, and others, doubtless, will not.

I just sat through the excruciating audio version of from Time to Time. For much of the time, I was screaming at the tape machine that it does not matter what color the man's pajamas are and please do not read the ENTIRE classified ads out loud from the 1912 newspaper. I cannot believe that 6 of the 8 casettes were devoted to minutia about Tessie and Ted, longwinded stories by vaudevillians and detailed descriptions of the Mauritania and only 2 casettes dealt with a plot of any sort.
I love time travel books. I have not read Finney's first book, although it must have been excellent. This book is awful. The intriguing events in the beginning - possible changes to historic events and alternate streams of history -were never explained or folded back into the plot in any way. Simon Morley, who apparently has the miraculous gift to be able to go back to nearly any time period at will, spent most of his time in the past at plays, restaurants and strolling around.
It felt like the last part of the book, which dealt with changing actual historic events, was slapped onto this historic fiction novel about life in 1912. It was well researched but painfully dull as the reader waited and waited for the protagonist to remember what he went to 1912 for in the first place.
This does not qualify as a time travel novel and the man who wrote this has some serious problems tying together his plot strands.

This book was downright boring compared to the first book in the series "Time and Again". I almost abandoned reading it but kept on going hoping it would improve; unfortunately it did not. I was very disappointed with this one.

From Time To Time by Jack Finney

These comments are for the abridged audio book version of this story.

Several years ago I listened to the Jack Finney audio book version of his novel "Time and Again" read by Campbell Scott. It was an enjoyable listening experience. Just for the record this is a science-fiction tale concerning time-travel. The story kept my interest and the author had a very creative method of bringing to life what it must have been like living in New York City around the year 1900.

When I found the sequel titled "From Time to Time" in an audio book section of a used bookstore I purchased it with anticipation of another enjoyable listening experience. I must report that the actual results were very disappointing. Perhaps it was a very poor job of abridgement but the story made no narrative sense whatsoever. Characters appear and disappear, events start and end with no coherent plot structure. I would suppose the actual book may be better but the audiocassette version was a disaster.

While not as strong as the original, From Time to Time paints an accurate picture of 19th and early 20th century NYC in an enjoyable and pleasant style.

Time and Again is superb, and it appears that [email protected] missed the point. Time and Again is the grandfather of the current crops of NYC historical novels, and while Finney'style may not be as good as Doctorow's, he is miles ahead of Caleb Carr.

Very disappointing. Perhaps I expected too much as a result of the Prequel to this book. The book contained, as part of the story, a great deal of research on New York City in 1911 which many readers will enjoy, especially if they know and/or love NYC. But, the plot was weak.

No, From Time to Time cannot compare to its prequel, but that doesn't make it a bad book, just an average one. To readers of Time and Again, the concept of time travel as Finney depicts it has lost some of its novelty, some of its edge. Nevertheless, this chance to experience, through Si (a likeable, intelligent, character), famous icons like the Titanic before it sank and the Great White Way when it was actually blazing white, makes this book interesting and fun. It's an easy, quick read, definitely worth a look.

"Time and Again" was probably Finney's masterpiece, and the idea of a sequel is interesting. However, this sequel is based upon a rather weak premise to begin, and it never really gets off the ground. The problem with any sequel is that it is automatically subject to comparison with the original, and "Time After Time" just does not live up to its predecessor.

Can you imagine being able to travel in time, merely by thinking yourself there. You could do it; what you would do is set up a space that's decked out to resemble the time you want to go to. Or, simply find a spot to sit where nothing has changed. A park bench that looks out onto a copse of trees with nothing of your present time in sight.
What for?
To go back in time and find the person you need to make a World War something that just didn't happen ... to save the Titanic from sinking by walking up to the captain and telling him he must change speed and course.
Jack Finney almost convinces that this can be done as he takes the reader through his charming tale of From Time to Time.

...it still is an entertaining story. I had read the previous reviews and thought against purchasing this book. I'm glad I changed my mind. Despite the prescence of a compelling mystery/plot as its predecessor (those went undeveloped or unexplored in this book), the story is nonetheless another wonderful journey into the past, with detailed and vivid descriptions of the way things were. I found it to be easy reading, another late night page turner, just as the previous story. If you enjoy Jack Finney's descriptions of a man journeying back to explore another world, another time, and can make it through until he springs the surprises on the reader, you should enjoy this book.

Not much here to impressed me. Plenty of information on New York during the early 1900's. Information on the clothing, dancing, entertainment, information that seems useless unless you are interested in art history of the early 20th century. Gone is the excitement from Finney's first novel (Time and Again), which so captivated and influenced me to write.

This starts out slow, but then you can really enjoy the mystery. I found the pictures a bit off-
putting at first, but then you don't notice.

This is the first of two books on Si Morley, (Time and Again), but I feel you really need this one first.

Very interesting concept about changing time.

this book is fantastic,the author makes you feel as if you were really there,and you identify with the main character,fact and fiction are intermingled,until you dont know what is fact and what is fiction.