A Sound of Thunder. <-- there's your link right there, a classic SF time travel short story by Ray Bradbury. Click the link, read it Right Now.
It was made into a movie a few years ago, but I haven't seen it and I don't think it did so well, apparently most people haven't even heard of it.
Does anyone else have a problem with suspending their disbelief in TT stories?
I keep seeing paradoxes and it does my head in.
Yeah and no - many stories handle that, or are even built around the paradoes and things, coming up with novel explanations for them and such.
But as a counterexample, there's Heinlein's "Time Enough For Love," though it uses time travel (backwards, and only toward the end of the book) in an "ordinary" way as just another tool to move characters around, not something that got scientifically explained or anything. I think of it more as an "interstellar adventure" novel. I enjoyed it greatly, despite the very "real" problem that the character became very close to "annihilating" his younger self. <giggles thinking of the situation>
You basically have to accept the paradoxes, and go for the ride. H.G. Wells knew this, and made no attempt whatever to "explain" how his machine worked. It just did, and what mattered for the story is what happened during the time-trip, not any pseudoscience about it.
It's no different from accepting the existence of magic, which permeates most Fantasy fiction. Or dragons, or elves, or talking animals, or faster-than-light travel.
Well, again, yes and no - as I say, some stories do recognize the paradoxes.
There might be dissent on this one, but All You Zombies by Heinlein is hilarious.
I must have read it as I've read all of Heinlein's stuff, but I don't recall it. I should find it and (re)read it.
It's weird - I don't have a problem with time travel - but it bothers me that someone leaps 6 months into the future and they are somehow at the same place relative to the landmarks ... despite the landmarks (and the planet) is on the other side of the star by now.
If we ever get time travel working I suspect it will be used for launching satellites etc - just jump a few months into the future and you've launched your vehicle into space and a long way from the planet.
No paradoxes - just convenience.
Mac
I know of at least two novels that take into account this very thing (the Earth, Solar System, galaxy etc., all moving in relation to the Universe over time) into account - these aren't really time TRAVEL stories, but rather involve the transmission of information over time: Macroscope by Piers Anthony (basically his only Real SF story), and Timescape by Gregory Benford. I recommend both.
