Author | Karl Alexander |
---|---|
Cover artist | Rick Lovell |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction, time travel |
Publisher | Delacorte Press |
Publication date | April 1979 |
Publication place | United States |
ISBN | 978-0-385-29054-8 |
Followed by | Jaclyn the Ripper |
Time After Time is a 1979 science fiction novel by American writer Karl Alexander. Its plot speculates what might have happened if H. G. Wells had built a real time machine to travel to the 1970s in search of Jack the Ripper.
The novel was adapted to film the same year, under the same title, by Alexander's friend Nicholas Meyer who had optioned the story after reading the early pages. Meyer wrote his screenplay as Alexander finished the novel and the two freely shared ideas for their respective iterations. A short-lived television series adaptation aired in 2017.
The novel alternates perspectives between H.G. Wells and a character initially identified only as "Stevenson." In the first chapter, Stevenson has sex with a prostitute in a 19th-century London alley and then murders her. In the next chapter, Wells is introduced showing off his brand new time machine to a group of men, including Stevenson. When police arrive to announce that they have identified Jack the Ripper as Stevenson, Stevenson uses the time machine to escape, and Wells follows him. Wells finds himself in the future and befriends a young bank teller named Amy Robbins. Robbins is unaware of Wells' identity and 19th century provenance and believes him to be just a quirky old-fashioned gentleman. As Stevenson murders several women, Wells pursues him while hampered by a love affair with Robbins, to whom he does not dare tell the truth. When Wells is finally forced to confess to Robbins who he is and what he is really doing, she terminates their relationship. But Stevenson targets her next, and Wells rescues her and incapacitates Stevenson in a dramatic climax.
Kirkus Reviews called Time After Time a "rather heavy-breathing, often precious or pretentious fantasy". [1] On the other hand, Associated Press book reviewer Phil Thomas thought the book was a "well-written, most absorbing piece of escape reading" that "gives the genre a lively and much-needed shot of vitamins". [2] A reviewer for the Madison Courier called Alexander "outrageously imaginative" and the book "marvelous entertainment". [3]
After the release of Felix J. Palma's 2008 Spanish-language novel The Map of Time , which also has a time-travel plot involving Wells and Jack the Ripper, critics commented on the similarities (and differences) between the two books. [4] [5]
In November 2009, Alexander released a sequel to the story. Jaclyn the Ripper sees Amy travel to 2010 to discover that Jack the Ripper has been freed from prison and transformed into a girl named Jaclyn. H.G. and Amy must navigate the new millennium with the killer on their trail. [6]
A theatrical film based on the novel, also called Time After Time , premiered nationwide in the United States on September 28, 1979. [7] It starred Malcolm McDowell, David Warner and Mary Steenburgen. [8]
A musical version of the novel, with book and lyrics by Stephen Cole and music by Jeffrey Saver, had its first reading in November 2007 as part of the American Musical Theatre Project at Northwestern University in Illinois [9] and in 2010 had its world premiere at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. [10]
On May 12, 2016, the American Broadcasting Company announced a Time After Time television series from executive producer and writer Kevin Williamson. [11] [12] On March 29, 2017, after five of twelve episodes, it was canceled due to low Nielsen ratings, only finishing its run elsewhere.
Herbert George Wells was an English writer. Prolific in many genres, he wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, history, popular science, satire, biography, and autobiography. Wells' science fiction novels are so well regarded that he has been called the "father of science fiction".
The Time Machine is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels approximately 800,806 years into the future. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle or device.
Time After Time is a 1979 American science fiction film written and directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen. Filmed in Panavision, it was the directing debut of Meyer, whose screenplay is based on the premise from Karl Alexander's novel Time After Time and a story by Alexander and Steve Hayes. The film presents a story in which British author H. G. Wells uses his time machine to pursue Jack the Ripper into the 20th century.
Long John Silver is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the novel Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. The most colourful and complex character in the book, he continues to appear in popular culture. His missing leg and parrot, in particular, have greatly contributed to the image of the pirate in popular culture.
Kjartan Poskitt is a British writer and TV presenter who is best known for writing the Murderous Maths children's series of books.
Jack the Ripper, a notorious serial killer who terrorized Whitechapel in 1888, has been featured in works of fiction ranging from gothic novels published at the time of the murders to modern motion pictures, televised dramas and video games.
Maxim Jakubowski is an English writer of crime fiction, erotica, and science fiction, and also a rock music critic.
Alan Marshall Clark is an American author and artist who is best known as the illustrator and book cover painter of many pieces of horror fiction. He was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for his 2005 book Siren Promised.
Roland Smith is an American author of young adult fiction as well as nonfiction books for children.
Timothy Michael Federle is an American author, theater librettist, director and screenwriter whose best-known works include the novel Better Nate Than Ever, the cocktail recipe book Tequila Mockingbird, the Golden Globe Award and Academy Awards nominee Ferdinand, and Disney's High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
When You Reach Me is a Newbery Medal-winning science fiction and mystery novel by Rebecca Stead, published in 2009. It takes place on the Upper West Side of New York during 1978 and 1979 and follows a sixth-grade girl named Miranda Sinclair. After Miranda finds a strange note, which is unsigned and addressed only to "M," in her school library book, a mystery is set into motion—one which Miranda ultimately must face alone. At the same time, Miranda juggles school, relationships with her peers, and helping her mom prepare for an upcoming appearance on The $20,000 Pyramid, a popular game show hosted by Dick Clark. Important characters in the story include Miranda's mother; Richard, her mom's good-natured boyfriend; Sal, Miranda's childhood best friend; and a homeless man who lives on Miranda's block and is referred to only as "the laughing man." Central themes in the novel include independence, redemption, and friendship.
Karl Alexander was an American fiction writer.
Amy Powers is a lyricist, songwriter and producer who writes songs for film, television, and theater.
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother who escapes to Tillingham in Essex as London and southern England is invaded by Martians. It is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.
The Map of Time is a science fiction novel by Spanish writer Félix J. Palma. The novel follows three interwoven story lines. The book has been called "part mystery, part fantasy, and part historical fiction".
The Whitechapel Horrors is a 1992 mystery pastiche novel written by Edward B. Hanna, featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson investigating the Jack the Ripper murders.
Time After Time is an American period drama/science fiction television series that aired on ABC from March 5 to March 26, 2017. The series, developed by Kevin Williamson, is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Karl Alexander and was commissioned on May 12, 2016. ABC removed the series from its schedule after broadcasting five episodes. All twelve episodes were broadcast in Spain, Portugal, South Africa and Australia, and all streamed on CW Seed.
The Dog of the South is a 1979 novel by Charles Portis.
The Cutthroat is an Isaac Bell adventure tale, the tenth in that series. The hardcover edition was released March 14, 2017. Other editions were released on different dates.
A Gentleman in Moscow is a 2016 novel by Amor Towles. It is his second novel, published five years after Rules of Civility (2011).
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)