3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years
- Author: John Scalzi
- Page count: 38
- Started on: 2026/09/26
- Finished on: 2026/09/27
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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Science fiction short stories are one of my favorite “genres”, especially when they explore an alternative reality where only one or a few aspects of our current reality are changed, such as in this short story by John Scalzi.
The premise is that people can travel back in time, but they can only return to their original time after 3 days, 9 months, or 27 years - and they’ll return only a few seconds after they left. The second interesting rule here is that any change they make in the past will spawn a new timeline, and they will always travel back to their original, unmodified timeline.
Most of the story executes this premise well, and the writing works for me. It’s written from the perspective of a time travel machine operator, who describes the customer trips he facilitates over the course of a day. The travelers we encounter all have different goals, allowing the book to explore various scenarios. I found the ending less satisfying than I’d hoped for, though, which is why it gets only 3 stars from me.
