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(More customer reviews)Is it possible to go back in time and make changes to history? Time Travel and Harry Potter - Time-Turning in the Prisoner of Azkaban and its Place in Time-Travel Fiction says it is. Richard H. Jones presents a defense of changing history in time travel, as he puts forward a theory of why and how history was changeable in The Prisoner of Azkaban. How else was Harry able to save himself? How else were Harry and Hermione going to be able to save Buckbeak?
First it must be realized that J.K. Rowling's book is both magic and fiction, and as such her words must be accepted as true in the world of the book. Theorists for hundreds of years have spouted many theories about time and the possibilities that could or could not occur in time travel. Working on this level, the laws of physics are necessarily employed. What does that mean when one thinks of time? Is time from the present going back to the past a straight line? Perhaps, but in this book, the author explores what the possibilities would be if we take Ms. Rowling's words as true in the world she has created.
I found this book quite interesting considering the theories that are argued. I am not a physicist, I am a reader, and therefore while reading I live in the created world of the author. Richard Jones has taken a complicated subject and made it readable. Time travel in this world of wizardry and magic, according to Jones, presents us not just with the possibility that we can change the past, but he also brings forward the equally questioned theory of new time lines created while the old time line remains. Hence, while time traveling to and from the past three times, if I understand this theory correctly, Harry and Hermione would create three time lines, each line leaving them ignorant of their other selves living their lives on their current time lines..
In this book, the author covers a lot of ground, cites many references, and ties the loose ends together cohesively in regard to Ms. Rowling's books. Since time travel is in The Prisoner of Azkaban, that is the book that Jones bases most of this theory on, but he also references later books in the series to help his hypothesis. All in all, I do feel he got his many points across and I'm sure Harry Potter fans will enjoy the way J.K. Rowling inserted time travel into the books and made them believable. I am a great fan of the Harry Potter books and J.K. Rowling, and Richard Jones' book has given a good frame of reference that could be considered an aid to the Potter books, presenting what wording was used and where it fits into his theory.
Disclaimer: I was given this book to review. My review is my own, I was not influenced in any way.
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All the twists and turns of time travel in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban are fun, but understanding them is also hard.For example, how does Harry get past the Dementor attack so that he can time travel latter and save himself from the Dementor attack?Isn't that impossible?Richard Jones explains how this might in fact be possible and examines more generally how time travel works in the book, along with its problems.For example, did Harry and Hermione change history?Did Harry and Hermione have free will for what they did or were their actions fixed in advance?If we can time-travel to save Sirius and Buckbeak, why can't we time-travel to save others?What did Professor Dumbledore know and when did he know it?Did Hermione get younger by all her time-traveling during the school year?Jones answers these and many other questions.He also extensively discusses fans' competing theories of how time travel works in the Prisoner of Azakaban.Also included is a brief introduction to the theories of time and time travel in physics and philosophy that are utilized in science fiction and other time travel stories, along with a bibliography of relevant works.Do physicists and philosophers think time is real?Is time-travel possible at all?Can we in fact change the past?After finishing this book, you will have a much greater understanding of both J. K. Rowling's work and a better appreciation of the problems of time and time-travel in general.
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