Time Traveler

A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality

By: Dr. Ronald L. Mallett, Bruce Henderson - contributor

Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smith

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist Dr. Ronald Mallett, who recently discovered the basic equations for a working time machine that he believes can be used as a transport vehicle to the past. Combining elements of Rocket Boys and Elegant Universe, Time Traveler follows Mallett's discovery of Einstein's work on space-time, his study of Godel's work on a solution of Einstein's equation that might allow for time travel, and his own research in theoretical physics spanning thirty years that culminated in his recent discovery of the effects of circulating laser light and its application to time travel.

The foundation for Mallett's historic time-travel work is Einstein's theory of general relativity, a sound platform for any physicist. Through his years of reading and studying Einstein, Mallett became a buff well before he had any notion of the importance of the grand old relativist's theories to his own career. One interesting subtext to the story is Mallett's identification with, and keen interest in, Einstein. Mallett provides easy-to-understand explanations of the famous physicist's seminal work.

©2007 Dr. Ronald L. Mallett and Bruce Henderson (P)2022 Tantor

a beautiful story, beautifully shared

The story of a young man's dream following the loss of his father inspires a scientific pursuit over a meaningful lifetime.

Enjoyable and interesting

This wasn't what I expected but I really enjoyed it anyway. I thought it was going to be mainly about the science of time travel and Mallet's time machine. All of that is here, but it's intertwined with Mallet's life story. When I realized that the whole thing was basically a form of autobiography I almost gave up but I quickly got over that and glad that I did because it was really engrossing. It is not just the story of somebody's life, but the story of an idea. It tells how Mallet first got the idea for a time machine as a child, the obstacles he faced as a black physicist, and how he had to "come out" as a proponent of an idea that wasn't taken very seriously by the scientific community when he first started to publish papers about time travel. Way more interesting than I had bargained for. The narrator is great, too. His voice is perfect.

Great story and narrator

As others have mentioned, this is an autobiography, not a research paper, but the last third of the book delves into Dr. Mallett’s research and time travel theories. An engaging and informative read!

disappointed but likely my fault

im a physics enthusiast, I love all things physical and while his journey and his will to keep on at finding a way to speak to his father one more time were interesting and indeed dramatic, I thought it would minimally go into greater detail about the possibilities of time travel OR more realistically, the academic journey he took to become a physicist with a goal to build a machine!

waste of time for me but thanks for a good story!