This week for Book Series Wednesday I’m covering a book that I read prior to traveling across the United States starting from New York City to Portland, Oregon. It’s Time and Again by Jack Finney!

Plot Synopsis: November 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seem to be movie sets, with people acting on them. It seems this is a project to learn whether it is feasible to send people back into the past by what amounts to self-hypnosis—whether, by convincing oneself that one is in the past, not the present, one can make it so.

Plot: The plot is pretty good, from what I remember. I didn’t remember that the novel was illustrated, but that might be because I listened to it. I don’t remember honestly other than that this book was one of my all time favorite books in historical fiction. The plot was excellent for a 14 year old boy who read graduate student level books for fun [Side note: I’m really not joking when I say I was reading books at the graduate student level, by this point I had read already War and Peace because it was the biggest book of fiction I could find in my local library].

Characters: Simon, or Si was a great main character and the rest of the cast was excellent. I won’t spoil anything by talking about the rest of them, but it was quite good.

Overall: If you want an excellent time travel novel, or a great historical fiction book, this is a must read.

For those who like: Amazing Plots, Great Time Travel Stories, Fantastic Historical Fiction.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.