So, if you are wondering why the title of this post isn’t “First Contact Friday” it is because I am changing it to allow myself more flexibility in scheduling these posts. So, buckle in and get ready for the next edition of BTOR Recommends!
This time we are looking at Time and Again by Jack Finney, a time travel novel that too many sci-fi fans have never even heard of.
That is a shame, because this 1970 book is quietly one of the most beloved time travel stories ever written. Stephen King once called it the great time-travel story, full stop. So let’s talk about why this gentle, strange, and surprisingly emotional novel still works more than fifty years later.
What Is Time and Again About?
At its core, Time and Again follows Simon “Si” Morley, a bored advertising artist living in New York City in 1970. One day a U.S. Army major shows up and recruits him for a secret government project. Si is taken to a warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he finds what look like elaborate movie sets with people living inside them.
The pitch is simple and a little absurd. The project believes a person can travel to the past through self-hypnosis. The idea is that if you surround yourself with the right period details, cut off every reminder of the present, and fully convince yourself that you live in another time, you can actually slip backward into it. No machine. No flashing lights. Just belief.
Si agrees, and he asks to go back to New York in 1882 to solve a mystery tied to a half-burned letter. From there the book becomes a blend of science fiction, mystery, romance, and a loving recreation of Old New York. Finney layers all of these together so smoothly that you barely notice when one becomes the other.
A Time Travel Method Unlike Any Other
Most time travel stories lean on some sort of hardware. You get a machine, a portal, or some cosmic accident that rips a hole in the space time continuum. Finney throws all of that out. Instead, his characters travel back in time by way of the mind.
To pull this off, the project rents an apartment in the famous Dakota building, which faces a stretch of Central Park that looks nearly identical to how it appeared in 1882. Si stares out that window, soaks in the period, and lets the modern world fall away. It is a wonderfully simple image, and it sells the whole concept.
The Real Star Is New York City Itself
While the plot keeps you turning pages, the heart of Time and Again is its loving portrait of 1882 Manhattan. Finney clearly adored this city, and that affection bleeds into every chapter. You walk the snowy streets, ride the horse-drawn buses, and watch ordinary people go about their day in a version of New York that no longer exists.
What really sets the book apart, though, is how Finney presents it. Time and Again is an illustrated novel, packed with real period photographs and sketches presented as Si’s own drawings. One of the most striking moments comes when Si and a companion shelter inside the arm of the Statue of Liberty while it stood in Madison Square, years before the full statue was assembled. That actually happened, and Finney uses these true historical details to blur the line between fact and fiction.
The result feels less like reading a novel and more like flipping through a stranger’s photo album from a century ago. It is immersive in a way few books manage.
Does Time and Again Still Hold Up in 2026?
Mostly, yes, though it helps to know what you are getting into.
On the positive side, the atmosphere, the mystery, and the central romance still land. The pacing is slower than a modern thriller, but that slowness is the point. Finney wants you to linger, to notice the cold air and the gaslight and the small human details. Carl Sagan praised the book for exactly this kind of rich, convincing world-building, and that craft has not aged a day.
That said, the novel is very much a product of 1970 socially. The science, such as it is, also asks for a lot of goodwill. If you need airtight rules for your time travel, this is not your book. But if you can accept the premise and settle in, the payoff is enormous.
Why I’m Recommending It This Week
I keep coming back to Time and Again because it does something rare. It treats the past not as a playground for clever plotting but as a real place worth exploring. By the end, you understand exactly why Si feels so torn between two centuries, and you might feel a little torn yourself.
So, give Jack Finney’s Time and Again a try. Find an older illustrated edition if you can, since the photographs are half the experience. Settle in, let the modern world fade, and let one of science fiction’s quietest classics carry you back.
Enjoyed this pick? Subscribe so you never miss the next recommendation, and let me know in the comments which time travel story you would send someone back to read first.