From Time to Time (Time Series, Book 2)

A true classic, Time and Again is not “a time travel book.” In fact, all others pale in comparison. In fact some are imitations that wouldn’t have been written if they hadn’t read this classic. The late Jack Finney included so much history about New York, its origins, culture, architecture, etc., along with extraordinary photographs while combining it with a genuine romance (i.e. no Fabio involved). I had to give away over 500 books about ten years ago but just bought Time and Again and some others because I missed them. I bought this as a used copy here on Amazon and it’s like new! I haven’t had one bad experience doing that. I envy anyone who is getting the chance to read it for the first time. Enjoy!😊

From Time to Time is a simply incredible trip back in time, a rewarding read, and a perfect sequel to Time and Again. If you get the opportunity, read my review of that classic novel. If you are what I can only call a "modern reader" (someone who only likes lasers and explosions and sex and something either emotional or flashy or tense happening every second), then just do not bother to read this book. If you are a person who gets bored when reading history or studying the nature and character of things, then you are just not going to appreciate this novel. The whole point of the book, just as in the first novel, and I'm not giving anything away by saying this, is to TRAVEL BACK IN TIME WITH THE AUTHOR. It is not about the mystery or the excitement of the actual mission Si is on in either book. The point of the book is to use words and images and startlingly accurate descriptions to actually take you, the reader, to a very specific place in time. Just as Si must put away the flashy and shallow "newness" of the present in order to be able to go back to another place and time, the reader must do this also. If you are not willing to do that with the author, then you will not make the trip. You will be on Amazon after you read it complaining about long, drawn-out descriptions of details of architecture and shows and plays and seeing Al Jolson, and bitching about how boring it all is. Sorry... you failed. You didn't get it. You are not able to travel back in time. Sorry. Everyone can't do it.When Si goes back to the future for a time and talks with Rube Prien, there is a very telling discussion. Rube is questioning Si about all the minute details of the trip. "What did Broadway look like?", etc. Si is surprised that Rube isn't more interested in the mission. All Rube can ask is "What was it like?!" THAT IS THE POINT! It isn't about the mission. The mission and the mystery and the spy stuff is just a framework for the story. You are supposed to be Rube. You are supposed to think that that stuff is ancillary, and that the REAL interest is... just what was life like back then? What did it look like? What did it taste like? What did it feel like? Si's journey is supposed to be about the very fact of seeing something from another time in very specific detail. To feel as if you are there. Almost 100% of time-travel works fail in this regard. But Jack Finney is remarkably adept at the detail that allows us to take the trip with him.Every book is not for everyone, and I understand that. What I can't understand is anyone not even getting the point of what is a great and intricate work of fiction. This is a sequel for God's sake, and the sequel of another book that should have taught you the point of it all.From Time to Time is a charming sequel to an American classic work of art. From a Moxie billboard, to the details of the Flatiron building, to lectures on dance in the early 20th Century, to a child spinning a top on the deck of the Titanic, this is a book about the details... and FOR those who appreciate them. It is not about bullets flying and laser beams and space creatures and zombies. It is about TIME. There is mystery, and excitement, and suspense, and even some forbidden love, but in the end those are a brilliant mechanism used by the author to tell a story about time.Leave all the modern stuff and the garbage and the superficiality behind for a short while and take a trip back in time again with Si. If your mind is right, you can make the trip and enjoy it immensely. I did.

This indeed is a sequel to Jack Finney’s amazing novel, “Time and Again” and while I can’t say I cherish it as much as that first book, it had enough cool moments, for me - a huge time-travel fiction aficionado – to award it five stars. I’d probably say 4.5 if I had the choice.Without giving spoilers, I’ll say that this is a continuation of the adventures begun in the first book, but with some new intrigue and twists.One can tell it was written more than a decade after the first book, which has its pros and cons (in my opinion).Some of the new twists are really quite intriguing, however, my only real “complaint“ was that the author expounded on scene, when he could have been more succinct and maybe given us more juicy core content, etc.That’s pretty close to the end of my review of this book. The following is something I’d like to have seen done in this story:I’m not sure if I’ve seen in other time travel novels or films (I’m not saying they don’t exist but I can’t recall anything like it) without again getting to “spoily,” - but it is a little bit of a spoiler – here’s what I’d like to see:Instead of trying to alter something in the past and then it turning out reflecting what we know of history in today’s world, I would like to see a situation where the author speaks (as the character or whatever) as though we all seem to know a certain past historical event to be a certain way (in the character’s universe in the book)– let’s say more horrific than (In our universe) it actually was – and then because of something in the novel/movie or whatever, past was changed by a character or characters in the book, etc. to end up the way we know them today.I know this is making this review quite long, LOL, but here’s an example:Let’s say an author writes a book about time travel speaking as though there was a third nuclear bomb dropped on Japan at the end of World War II – let’s say a major city instead of the two that we know of – Nagasaki and Hiroshima – and let’s say in that novel or film, a character does something to prevent the larger population town from meeting the fate we “all know“ (according to the universe of the author’s character) – altering it to then end up as we know it now.I wish I would have seen something like that in this book. Again, that’s all I’ll say :-)To conclude this laboriously long review, LOL, I like these two books as a “team,“ and would recommend reading the first one before this one and hopefully enjoying them both :-)

Great new ideas of time travel, great but long descriptions of vintage New York for fans of the city and fantastic use of historical characters and events.

Fascinating novel based on a paradixical notion of time: spledid cinuation of "Time and again" by the same author

I actually enjoyed book one a little more but this was excellent too. Jack Finney had a way of making it all feel believable. Makes you want to sit somewhere and see if you can get back into the past. I want more.

It's a time-machine like fantastic story, it is well written, it is so captivating you can hardly drop the book.

I am a sci-fi (and related genres) fan. Over half my reading is in this genre. Of all the books I have read (a lot) there are only two I rated so bad as not to finish (even if a little dodgy). Sadly this is one, I persevered to 71% then sanity prevailed. The concept was clever, I am glad Stephen King grasped the idea and ran with it in his great, although mis-titled / numbered tome (international non-US readers will grasp this), and did a great job. If you have not yet paid for this book, don't bother, really, you will be disappointed time after time.