Copyright � 2026 by Shane
Tourtellotte
Greetings, and congratulations. If you are reading this, you’re in on the secret of the greatest adventure in human history.
(If you’re not reading this … okay, maybe you aren’t reading this. The joke I was about to make about logical paradoxes made much more sense before audiobooks. I’ll wait a while before trying to be funny again.)
The human race, with its tremendous creativity, made traveling through time a dream for centuries, through books, film, television, and more. That same human race, with its incalculable inventiveness, has now made that dream come true. The secret to time travel has been cracked, and a few early waves of daring explorers have, very quietly, been making trips into the past and the future.
You may be part of this leading edge, already having taken your time machine for a spin across the fourth dimension. You may instead be scrambling to catch this wave, building your own time machine. Others, probably the great majority, have just been let in on the big secret, and managed not to reject it as a fabrication. They are struggling to absorb this dizzying shift in the world they’ve known, and to come to terms with how the rules of existence have changed, suddenly and immensely.
If you’re part of that last group, this book is written for you. I’ll have worthwhile things to say to the experienced time-traveling hands and those close to joining their ranks, but it’s the new and slightly bewildered who will have far the most to gain from The Time-Traveler’s Handbook.
My first nugget of advice to the new and bewildered is, don’t feel self-conscious about being bewildered. It’s only natural. Time travel, in theory and in practice, is bewildering. It stretches the human intellect, and human adaptability, to its limits.
Don’t put up a front to ignore this. Acknowledge it, then work on surmounting it. That work begins here, with this book, and it begins with me, as your guide. With the information I’ll provide, you can catch up, get ahead, and stay ahead.
I’ll give you an overview of the science of time travel, from early speculative theories to technical aspects of the machines that convert theory into practice. I’ll give you an understanding of the varieties of time-travel paradox, what dangers they pose, and how to avoid them.
Then comes the actual time travel. You’ll gain vital skills, from not sticking out the wrong way to getting around in a pre-industrial (or post-industrial) society to just plain not getting yourself killed -- or anyone else, ideally. You’ll learn how to adjust to different cultures and mores, including how to get along in a place and time where they don’t like your kind very much.
I’ll tell you what treasures of knowledge you can bring back from other times, and how this can build to still greater rewards. I’ll even tell you how to get rich from time travel, without going broke before you get rich.
And just in case you draw blanks on where and when to go with your time machine, I’ll provide you what every modern globetrotter seems to need: a bucket list of places and times to see. Just as vitally, I’ll add a list of events you should not visit, tempting as they may be.
If that last item sounded a little ominous, that’s in the nature of the endeavor. I did mention not getting killed as a primary goal, and that’s more than hyperbole to entice thrill-seekers. There are dangers involved in time travel, dangers nearly as big as the rewards in reach.
I’m not going to provide a perfect formula for ensuring your safety. There isn’t one. You cannot eliminate risks, not even by eliminating the pursuit of gains. You can reduce the risks, and raise the gains achievable from your visits to other times. This book will help you do both.
If all this talk has gotten your pulse racing, this is the book for you. If instead it’s left you uncertain, like you’re standing on the edge of a cliff with the wind swirling around you, that’s all right. You’re not taking any chances yet beyond paying the price of a book. You can sit tight in your reading chair, taking in the grand horizons I’m going to spread before you. You’ll make your decision in the end, a better informed decision for having read The Time-Traveler’s Handbook.
If I do my job right, though, I think you’ll join in the adventure.
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