Time Machine was a series of children's novels published by
Bantam Books from 1984 to 1989, similar to their more successful
Choose Your Own Adventure line of "
interactive" novels. Each book was written in the
second person, with the reader choosing how the story should progress. They were designed by
Byron Preiss Visual Publications.
The main difference between the
Choose Your Own Adventure series and the
Time Machine series was that
Time Machine books featured only one ending, forcing the reader to try many different choices until they discovered it. Also, the series taught children basic history about many diverse subjects, from
dinosaurs to
World War II. Only the sixth book in the series,
The Rings of Saturn, departed from actual history; it is set in the future, and features educational content about the solar system. Some books gave the reader their choice from a small list of equipment at the beginning, and this choice would affect events later in the book (e.g. "If you brought the pen knife, turn to page 52, if not turn to page 45.Mueller, Richard;
World War I Flying Ace (
Time Machine, No. 24); page 32"). Another main difference between the
Time Machine novels and the
Choose Your Own Adventure counterparts was hints offered at certain junctures, where the reader was advised to look at hints at the back of the book. An example was in
Mission to World War II about the
Warsaw Ghetto uprising, where the reader was given the...
Read More