• Time and Time Again

  • By: Ben Elton
  • Narrated by: Jot Davies
  • Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (342 ratings)

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Time and Time Again  By  cover art

Time and Time Again

By: Ben Elton
Narrated by: Jot Davies
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Publisher's summary

It’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.

Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history.

Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war. A war that will begin with a single bullet. But can a single bullet truly corrupt an entire century?

And, if so, could another single bullet save it?

©2014 Ben Elton (P)2014 Random House Audiobooks

What listeners say about Time and Time Again

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Don't Mess With Yesterday!

What happens when a bunch of academic historians actually get the opportunity to change history? Well, I think you can imagine that the results are not what they expected - and not necessarily of benefit to the present and future.

This is an often fascinating look at alternative histories, of the "be-careful-what-you-wish-for" variety. There's lots of action and some quirky and interesting characters in both the past and present sections of the book. For time travel genre fans, it's a real winner with excellent narration.

If, like me, you tend to find yourself asking too many questions and thinking too many "but"s, just remember to suspend that gut disbelief in the whole concept - you'll have a good time inside "Time and Time Again"!

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Read, Edge of Seat, Smart

Haven't we all fantasized about going back in time and stopping the seaming domino-effect of the shot heard round the world. What if... Ben Elton (who, astonishingly is the same Ben Elton who co-wrote Black Adder(s) amongst other great, comical TV) creates a seemingly plausible time travel drama to end the War to End All Wars and setting up cause and effect that has you leaning in to see what will happen next. Clever, sad, occasionally harrowing, but excellent. This has started me on a time travel book bender. I hope I can find as good. Now to check out other Elton books...

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Similar But Yet So Much Different From 11/22/63

Any additional comments?

Ben Elton's Time and Time Again is very similar, but yet so much different from Stephen King’s 11/22/63. Like King's novel, the protagonist travel's back into the past via a time-portal to stop a political assassination; Archduke Franz Ferdinand replacing President John F. Kennedy. Yet unlike King's novel, Elton's protagonist, being a highly trained ex-SAS officer, has relatively little difficulty in achieving his mission. In what King only briefly explored, Elton instead devotes significant time to showing his readers (listeners) the consequences of his protagonist's success, the Butterfly Effect. Ben Elton's “Time and Time Again” will haunt you long after you read (listen) to its final page. It is perhaps the most intelligently written time travel novel ever created.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Things could always be worse

An exceptional book and one which should be read by any history student and professor alike. Entertaining while being historically accurate mixed with fascinating characters leaves you unable to unplug the audiobook for any long period of time.

The plot centers around a time travelers sent back to 1914 in order to stop the Great War. Naturally attempts to do this by stopping the assignation of arch duke Franz Ferdinand and by assinating Kieser Wilhelm II do not go as smoothly as planned by the Cambridge elite and its knock on affects gives the reader great pause about how some unlikely events lead to the formation of the world we live in today, when compared to other outcomes.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Story ok- but too many political opinions

I love time travel stories - but what I don’t love is when the author pushes his political views - this author is obviously a left wing socialist who buys into the global warming/global cooling, climate change agenda .
Good narrator except for female voices .

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent work, but ...

Any additional comments?

I have read some of Ben Elton's previous books and thought them to be quite well done. I think this book has been the best of the selection I have read. The main criticism would be that it appears Ben became bored and finished the book early.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Fair attempt at a different twist on time travel

This was a mostly enjoyable read but there were a number of problems around the usual paradox considerations and the ending felt more like something from a short story rather than a novel. It feels like there were one too many or one too few rounds in the editing process or that there was a rush to wrap it up.
The narration was mostly good but one character voice was so grating I would have stopped listening had she not eventually left the narrative.
The history was pretty good and where it was not entirely accurate, the plot device provides a good excuse.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Wonderful story, but awful narration.

I almost gave up after the first chapter because of the aggravating stop start narration by the reader. I eventually wound up advancing the reader speed about 30% just to get through all the pauses, but that made his reading difficult to follow. If the story itself hadn't been engaging enough to compensate, I would have dumped it and got a refund. But it was worth the effort.
My advice: Read the book, skip the audiobook. There are so many well-read audiobooks out there like The Girl With All the Gifts that are less aggravating.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Hard to put down.

Really good- typical Ben Elton, not exactly great literature but the pacing is incredible and the story compelling. Absolutely loved it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great of course, it's Ben.

What did you love best about Time and Time Again?

I love everything Ben writes* and have every book he's written.
This is totally in keeping with his theme of - choose a topical subject, then write the most well researched, original, witty, intelligent, insightful, razor-sharp, entertaining and detailed book about it. With the most memorable and real characters in it.
With this one, he's also following his recent theme of exploring WWI and II and everything that went on around them, which is obviously a personal interest for him.
His take on time travel and it's repercussions is typically Ben - original, but about as realistic and down to earth as it's possible to get given the subject matter.


*(one exception - Past Mortem, where he decided to leap over the boundaries of gruesomeness, way past what the average person - or at least me - could stomach. Don't get that one).

Have you listened to any of Jot Davies’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Great. He does other Ben Elton books and is always good.

Any additional comments?

If you like Ben, it goes without saying - get this book!
But - don't expect the laughs of his older books, he's gone a bit more serious lately.
If I had to give one negative point - I'd like it to have been a bit longer.

If you don't know Ben but like great writing of the easy to read/listen and always absorbing and entertaining type - get this book.

You don't have to be in to sci-fi or time travel at all - that's quite incidental to the story.

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