I like time travel stories, but when the character or description doesn't take it into account the changes that occur with traveling in time, the story is ruined for me and I stop reading.
For example a several years back I came across this fan fic where Ranma and his extended "family" were tossed by a spell 300 plus years into the past and nothing CHANGED in the story.
The first 5 chapters were set in modern 1990's Japan and then in chapter 5 the "family", while on a picnic were tossed back 300 some years and once chapter 6 was finished and the "family" had acquired a period home. Nothing actually changed in the story description for example Kasumi "TURNED ON THE STOVE" and "TURNED ON THE LIGHTS" when she was at a door entering a room. This type of thing wasn't just happening with one character or parts of a chapter it was threaded through every part of the chapter.
From Chapter 7 on the story was supposed to be set in the late 16th and early 17th century Japan and none of the characters modern or period were given descriptions that would let you think they were living in the past with all the profound changes in skills, knowledge, technology and politics that have occurred in 300 years..
There was a little window dressing such as mentioning dirt roads, horses, candles or lanterns, but the implementations and descriptions just made for a jarring 4th wall breaking train wreck.
The writer mentioned large numbers of Chickens, pigs, horses and other farm animals in the roads with no mention or reaction from the modern peoples to the manure or smell. The roads described in martial arts fight segments were describe as having sidewalks and being hard surfaced. From chapter 7 on the story was technically well written, but so badly broken with such things as running with a stick candle in one hand and a sword in the other, Ice cream and other modern frozen foods were eaten during the summer with no mention of being extraordinary to the people of the period. Dirt roads were mentioned, but dust, manure or mud wasn't mentioned and these roads "shattered" after a rain when a martial artist was slammed into them. Wagons were "driven" down the roads and left "parked" for days in front of the homes. I had been emailing the writer rather consistently since the second or third chapter had been posted to her web page and sending the praise for the rather good writing and standard error checking, but when I mentioned the time travel problems and gave her reference pages with actual descriptions of 16th century cities and the limitations of the periods technology or descriptions of how bad dirt roads and streets filled with animal dropping really were I was told rather impolitely that she was a history major and how dare me try and correct her.
She never replied to me again, which was rather sad, she had given me a idea for time travel story method that imparted a magic to the traveler that gave the time traveler an ability to magically mimic modern technology, with period tools and settings.. A crude candle when turned and pointed like a flashlight suddenly puts out a focused beam of light like a flashlight and a simple brushing of the hands on the wall as they enter a room lights or puts out the candles on the tables or oil antern hanging on the wall. Picking up a short stick and "striking" it against a hard surface is enough to put a flame on the tip and other countless habitual actions produce "modern" results. Guiding horses hooked to a wagon by making the motions used for driving a modern car.
I never managed to fully read a chapter past chapter 8 and the writer stopped writing on it after 10 or 12 chapters, leaving Ranma and friends in a very strange 17th century.
hmelton
For example a several years back I came across this fan fic where Ranma and his extended "family" were tossed by a spell 300 plus years into the past and nothing CHANGED in the story.
The first 5 chapters were set in modern 1990's Japan and then in chapter 5 the "family", while on a picnic were tossed back 300 some years and once chapter 6 was finished and the "family" had acquired a period home. Nothing actually changed in the story description for example Kasumi "TURNED ON THE STOVE" and "TURNED ON THE LIGHTS" when she was at a door entering a room. This type of thing wasn't just happening with one character or parts of a chapter it was threaded through every part of the chapter.
From Chapter 7 on the story was supposed to be set in the late 16th and early 17th century Japan and none of the characters modern or period were given descriptions that would let you think they were living in the past with all the profound changes in skills, knowledge, technology and politics that have occurred in 300 years..
There was a little window dressing such as mentioning dirt roads, horses, candles or lanterns, but the implementations and descriptions just made for a jarring 4th wall breaking train wreck.
The writer mentioned large numbers of Chickens, pigs, horses and other farm animals in the roads with no mention or reaction from the modern peoples to the manure or smell. The roads described in martial arts fight segments were describe as having sidewalks and being hard surfaced. From chapter 7 on the story was technically well written, but so badly broken with such things as running with a stick candle in one hand and a sword in the other, Ice cream and other modern frozen foods were eaten during the summer with no mention of being extraordinary to the people of the period. Dirt roads were mentioned, but dust, manure or mud wasn't mentioned and these roads "shattered" after a rain when a martial artist was slammed into them. Wagons were "driven" down the roads and left "parked" for days in front of the homes. I had been emailing the writer rather consistently since the second or third chapter had been posted to her web page and sending the praise for the rather good writing and standard error checking, but when I mentioned the time travel problems and gave her reference pages with actual descriptions of 16th century cities and the limitations of the periods technology or descriptions of how bad dirt roads and streets filled with animal dropping really were I was told rather impolitely that she was a history major and how dare me try and correct her.
She never replied to me again, which was rather sad, she had given me a idea for time travel story method that imparted a magic to the traveler that gave the time traveler an ability to magically mimic modern technology, with period tools and settings.. A crude candle when turned and pointed like a flashlight suddenly puts out a focused beam of light like a flashlight and a simple brushing of the hands on the wall as they enter a room lights or puts out the candles on the tables or oil antern hanging on the wall. Picking up a short stick and "striking" it against a hard surface is enough to put a flame on the tip and other countless habitual actions produce "modern" results. Guiding horses hooked to a wagon by making the motions used for driving a modern car.
I never managed to fully read a chapter past chapter 8 and the writer stopped writing on it after 10 or 12 chapters, leaving Ranma and friends in a very strange 17th century.
hmelton