3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years

The Time Traveler's Passport

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

A time travel technician must step away from the controls and take action in a twisty short story where timing is everything, by New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi.

Time travel is real—and used for high-end tourism. Every moment of the past is open to visitors, and no matter what they do then, everything now waits for them, thanks to the sure hand of an experienced time travel technician. Come spend a day behind the controls of the time machine, and discover why, this day of all days, it’s time for this technician to make a change. Because sometimes, time travel is more than just an adventure. Sometimes, it’s a moral imperative.

John Scalzi’s 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years is part of The Time Traveler’s Passport, an unforgettable collection of stories about memory, identity, and choice curated by New York Times bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Watch time fly as you read or listen to each short story in a single sitting.

©2025 by John Scalzi. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

wish it was a full sized novel!

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years
by John Scalzi
This was a short little thing about time travel and how it works in this one office where this person worked. The length of time to be on this adventure was 3 days, 9 months, or 27 years. So, if they missed the 3-day mark to come back, they had to wait 9 months. If they missed this time, they had to make the 27-year or they were forever in the past. It was very interesting as he gave so many examples of the customers and how long they traveled. Especially how they appeared when they returned. Fascinating short read! I wish it were a full-sized novel!

Time Travel Science

This story was written for a collection on time travel. It is a short exploration of the science of time travel within an infinitely dimensional universe. It is more of a treatise on the science set with characters, than anactual adventure. There are sevarel events within the story that could be the seeds for an entire novel. I wonder if we'll get that?

4.5 stars

Fantastic premise. The way he deep-plumbs 1 idea is so very Scalzi at his best. The weak ending detracted somewhat. Still, the majority was a thoroughly engaging thought experiment.

Unique Time Travel

Perfect narration and a brilliant setup for whatever comes next. If you at all enjoy Scalzi, this is an easy 5 stars for this far too short story. I’m very much looking forward to what comes next.

Fun but lacks depth

Time travel has been discovered, and once they verified that every "trip" breaks off a new timeline and nothing done in that timeline can change or affect our reality, they capitalized it so the rich could go back in time and do whatever they want. The caveat: they could only return after 3 days, 9 months, or 27 years.

It's an interesting concept with a nice little twist at the end, but most of it is told by an observer and thus it lacks any real action or any connection to a character.

Fun to read once, but lacked any emotional depth.