The Recommended Reading Path for The Time Bubble
Jason Ayres’ The Time Bubble series is a sprawling, multi-timeline science fiction saga that spans fifteen books, tracing the lives of a group of characters from youth in small-town England to old age and alternate realities. Because the plotlines, characters, and temporal anomalies build upon one another, the author recommends reading the series in publication order. This sequence allows you to experience the evolution of the time portal's consequences naturally.
The Time Bubble Book-by-Book Guide
- The Time Bubble (2014): The series opener. Teenagers Charlie and Josh stumble upon a mysterious portal beneath a railway underpass in Southern England, finding that each leap forward into the future doubles in length, triggering deep personal stakes.
- Global Cooling (2014): Set a decade later, the adult characters must survive a sudden climate catastrophe triggered by an asteroid strike, blending post-apocalyptic survival with time travel.
- Man Out of Time (2015): Focuses on Daniel Fisher, who is thrown 22 years into the future. Declared dead in his own time, he must rebuild his life in an unfamiliar and high-tech landscape.
- Splinters in Time (2015): Josh Gardner embarks on a mind-bending journey through parallel universes, exploring the haunting realities of the multiverse.
- Class of '92 (2018): Josh is stranded in 1992 Oxford without modern technology. The mystery deepens when people from the past reappear in the present without having aged.
- Vanishing Point (2019): Josh and Alice travel to Canberra to test mind-transference technology aimed at consciousness projection. The experiment goes wrong, causing people to disappear from history.
- Midlife Crisis (2016): This introduces the "Second Chances" story arc, focusing on Richard Kent, who is sent back to 1984 in his younger body to relive six days of his life.
- Rock Bottom (2017): The second entry in the Second Chances subseries. A struggling divorced woman named Kay travels back to the 1980s to rewrite her past, but a murder mystery threatens her timeline.
- My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (2018): A unique concept focusing on Thomas Scott, who, upon dying, begins living his life backward, day by day, from his deathbed to his birth.
- Happy New Year (2018): Part of the Second Chances spin-off. Amy is trapped in a time loop, living every New Year of her life in reverse, starting from age 39.
- Return to Tomorrow (2021): Clashing time travelers Thomas Scott and Ben Lewis face off in 1988 Oxford. One tries to preserve the timeline, while the other seeks selfish gain.
- Cause of Death (2022): Henry and Alice find themselves caught in a deadly time loop during a holiday in Fuerteventura, reliving their deaths in younger bodies.
- Lauren's Odyssey (2022): Lauren is forced out of her quiet life in the present to resolve a multi-universe crisis, traveling through five wildly different alternate histories.
- Gone to the Rapture (2023): A global crisis hits as people start vanishing without a trace. Josh suspects the phenomena are tied to time travel.
- Closing Time (2024): The series finale. Set in 2070, the aging members of the original team try to use mind-transference technology to save themselves as a massive spatial anomaly begins erasing the planet.
Chronological vs. Publication Order
For the most part, publication order is chronological order for the core characters. However, because the series deals with time loops, parallel universes, and reverse-aging characters, linear chronology is impossible to maintain perfectly. For example, Class of '92 takes the characters back to 1992, while the Second Chances books (like Midlife Crisis and Rock Bottom) rewind to the 1980s. Following the publication order listed above remains the safest and most cohesive way to understand the overarching narrative without spoiling the twists.
Subseries and Companion Sagas
As the series grew, Jason Ayres developed distinct subseries that enrich the main universe:
The Second Chances Subseries
Comprising Midlife Crisis, Rock Bottom, and Happy New Year, this subseries shifts the focus to domestic drama. Instead of large-scale sci-fi crises, these stories follow ordinary people who are given a magical six-day window to go back and fix their past mistakes. These books are highly recommended for readers who prefer personal character journeys over hard science fiction.
A Year in the Life (Spin-Off Anthology)
Launched in 2024, this ten-book anthology series focuses on 1980s nostalgia. Each book covers a different year of the decade with entirely unique characters. These are written as standalone stories and do not require any reading order or prior knowledge of the main Time Bubble series.
The Ronnie and Bernard Adventures
Co-authored with actors Michael Livesley and Paul Carmichael, this comedic spin-off features Ronnie and Bernard, two characters who travel through time and encounter supernatural mysteries. It has a much lighter, more humorous British comedy tone compared to the main series.
Practical Reader Advice
Where to Start: You should always start with the very first book, The Time Bubble. It lays the groundwork for the portal mechanics and the relationships that drive the rest of the 15-book sequence.
Are they standalones?: The main storyline books (1-6 and 11-15) are deeply interconnected and cannot be read as standalones. The Second Chances entries (7, 8, 9, 10) are more self-contained, but reading them in sequence helps clarify references to the central time-travel mechanics of the wider universe.
What to Know Before You Start
The Time Bubble series is praised for its accessible, character-driven approach to science fiction. Ayres uses the Southern England setting—primarily Oxfordshire—to ground the extraordinary events in relatable, everyday British life. The tone balances lighthearted youthful adventure with mature, thought-provoking explorations of aging, regrets, and environmental collapse. It is a perfect fit for fans of nostalgic time travel like Back to the Future mixed with the domestic sci-fi styling of John Wyndham.