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Time Machine (novel series)

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Time Machine is a series of children's novels published in the United States 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.[1]"). 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 choice of starting the mission in the Jewish ghetto or the Aryan part of Warsaw, in which the hint read "Ringelblum was Jewish", suggesting the reader should begin in the Jewish section of the city, but not ordering it, or it was possible for the hint to be missed.

The line spawned a brief spin-off series for younger readers, the Time Traveler novels.

Books

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1984

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  • 1. Secret of the Knights by Jim Gasperini, ISBN 0-553-23601-6
  • 2. Search for Dinosaurs by David Bischoff, ISBN 0-553-23602-4
  • 3. Sword of the Samurai by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry, ISBN 0-553-24052-8
  • 4. Sail with Pirates by Jim Gasperini, ISBN 0-553-23808-6
  • 5. Civil War Secret Agent by Steve Perry, ISBN 0-553-24183-4

1985

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1986

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1987

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1988

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1989

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  • 25. Special Edition: World War II Code Breaker by Peter Lerangis, ISBN 0-553-28157-7

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Mueller, Richard; World War I Flying Ace (Time Machine, No. 24); page 32