Rating: 
Summary: Love New York/Loved the book
Review: I rarely read time travel books, but I heard this book being recommended on NPR a year ago as a good summer read. I realized I had it on my bookshelf, so I picked it up and was hooked right away. I think the time travel element of the book is well-done. I mean, the protagonist goes back to the previous century and I kept reading. I do love New York, and this book also had a mystery, a romance and some good historical fiction. So what's not too like? I passed this one on to my husband and one of my sons and they loved it, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a master work, but an enjoyable read
Review: I first came across the name of this book and the author in the book collecting work by Ellis "Book Finds". I enjoy science fiction and time travel stories so I assumed that if a book is worth collecting, it must be worth reading. I wasn't disappointed.I thoroughly enjoyed the accounts of the time period, as seen by the hero of the book, and the intrigue he gets caught up in (and how it ties to his modern day girlfriend) and they pushed me through the book as a good story should, yet I was getting a bit of a history lesson at the same time. I will say that as far as science fiction stories go, this isn't the greatest as the science part of the story is a bit weak and if taken away we'd still be left with a period mystery. But knowing the story is being told by the modern onlooker makes it a better story and the situations that he finds himself in because of the time shifts increase the tension. Anyone enjoying this book because of the time period and setting (end of the nineteenth century New York) might also find the mystery/detective period novels by Caleb Carr to be good reads as well. I also found those, by coincidence, from the same source. I give a good recommendation for "Time and Again' to any enjoying a good period mystery with the added benefit of time travel thrown in the mix.
Rating:
Summary: Masterfully Done
Review: I felt that the book was wonderful. Finney did an excellent job about telling the reader how life was in the 19th century. The book also had a lot of interesting facts about New York in the 19th century and I could almost picture everything as it was. I do strongly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in time travel stories.
Rating:
Summary: You just KNOW that he got it right....
Review: This one of those remarkable books that I stumbled upon by accident that turned out to be among the best that I have ever read. Finney has created a remarkable sort of book that recreates the atmosphere of another time more completely than any other book that I know of. Most writers when telling of other times simply use a variation of their own modern experience and add a few period details. Finney actually puts you in the mind-set of the 1880's. Somehow, you just KNOW that he got it right. I'm rereading this book after many years as a treat. I remember when I first read it I was disturbed that the time travel was accomplished without a machine. Now that I've read more extensively on the topics of physics and mysticism (most notably Ouspensky's _Tertium Organum_) I realise that the past, and future, are really there. It is just current limitations of the human mind that keep us from seeing them....
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book
Review: I love this book. I've read it 4 or 5 times. Mystery, action, romance, questions about what would happen if one little thing changed in the past. I recommend it to all my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Unique time traveling
Review: This is an exceptionally fine novel. It is a "time travel" novel (nothing like any you have read before); it is an historical novel in many ways (in its portrayal of late 19th century New York); it is a mystery; and it is a love story. But what makes this book so engaging are the characters that inhabit both present and past. They are vivid and authentic and easily related to, even those from a completely different era (actually, particularly those from the different era). The plotting is very well paced, and although in another author's hands it could have been complicated, Finney does a superb job of laying the foundation for each succeeding chapter. A highly recommended read.
Rating:
Summary: Tempted by the Past
Review: Graphic artist Si Morely of NY City is recruited by a group of visionaries who run the Project--a highly-classified scientific experiment involving traveling back into the past. Once he can accept this temporal impossibility (Einstein would argue), Si enthusiastically throws himself into the project, which involves study, practice and total immersion into the NY of 1882. The vehicle is not a machine--rather a building which still exists from the target date in the past. But can Si merely Observe and enjoy the flavor of bygone days in his favorite city?
How can he obtain the real feeling of this same place in a parallel time, without actually becoming involved with the actual people who are living then? Who knows the risk of slightly altering even trivial things--the "twig in the stream" effect which concerns the conscientious directors? Too much meddling, however well-intentioned, could wreak havoc with the future, which must be protected at all costs. How far does the Board have the right to play god, to alter events in the inviolate past, in order to suit themselves or their American ideas? Does any man or group have the right to rewrite/revise history, as in Orwell's 1984? Si also has a personal mission: to discover the details of a mysterious death in his girlfriend's step-father's family. An odd burial out west, an almost burned letter of confession, plus a note to arrange a clandestine meeting provide sufficient lure for adventurous Si, but what will happen if the hero himself becomes involved with a lady in the past? Jack Finney's plotting is highly innovative, offering surprises and twists up to the very end. His meticulous research recreates the milieu to perfection, though he spends countless paragraphs to describe buildings and locations which are meaningless to readers unfamiliar with New York City. My main concern is the uneven pacing; he stalls us for pages, then suddenly overwhelms us with non-stop action--until we are panting along with the protagonists. All
things considered, this is one dilly of a Time Travel novel. Complete with woodcuts, photographs and quotes from actual newspapers, this book takes readers back to the great fire of 1882. But wo which world will Si give his loyalty? For sci fi addicts from 16 up--You Are There!
Rating:
Summary: Author's best--great novel of time travel
Review: Simon Morley, an illustrator, is enlisted by a secret govenment project to hypnotize himself into 1880s New York. He is successful, and goes back to investigate a mystery. As we are overwhelmed with details of 1880s New York, we can almost believe that this time travel is possible. Morely finds himself in love with his landlady's daughter in the past, and must deal with threats both in the past and in the present. This is Finney's finest, a gentle novel which nevertheless prompts us to give serious thought to the morality of the decisions we make. Morley's decision to treat the people in the past as more than images long dead in the present leads inevitably to his decision to question the rightness of the project he is engaged in, and to act on that decision. .... A fine, fine book that I wish Finney hadn't spoiled with a sequel. When will they make that movie out of it that they keep talking about?
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, even the Third Time Around
Review: I read this wonderful book when it first came out in the 70s. Then again in late 80s. Now, in the summer of 2002, it's still a joy to read. You are irresistibly drawn into this book, especially if you are a fan of mysteries, New York history, time travel, crime fiction or all of the above. Jack Finney was one of the few writers to tackle late 19th century New York culture and crime with convincing authority. I have a problem with his fundamental belief that life in New York City was more vital and enjoyable in the 19th Century than in the 20th (he seems to ignore the rampant disease, poverty, corruption and crime of that alleged Gilded Era), but if you just read it as fiction, it's unsurpassed fun. And, heaven forbid!, you might even learn a little history while you're at it.
Rating: 
Summary: If you had a chance to change history, would you?
Review: It was easy to become mesmerized with Simon (Si) Morley and the government "secret project," which after passing a series of well-explained, sometimes funny as well as imaginative tests, he discovers is time travel. Si wants to make his own assignment and travel back in time to New York: January 23, 1882, so that he can help solve a mystery presented by his girlfriend, Kate. Surprisingly, his request is granted (by the people who are in charge of the project) and he begins working on the project. He has been taught to be an observer only, to never interfere because of the danger of changing the course of history. But will he follow the rules or make up some of his own? The characters come alive to the reader, and the surprises awaiting Si in NY 1882 are exactly that - surprising. Maybe there are points where the reader can predict what will happen next, but there are many, many points where the reader will have no clue as to what is about to happen (or maybe I'd just make a VERY bad detective!). The very detailed account of what Si sees, says, does, and feels, makes the reader feel right there with Si. Some of the specific and intricate detailing caused me to become distracted and lose focus, but it's not a flaw of the book - just something that took away from my personal reading experience. The ending is satisfying while raising further questions at the same time.
| 
