David Butler

Long before there was R2D2, there were RT-42, J-21, and other humans zipping around in their 1980s-era flying cars, racing off to Mars in their personal rockets, and waking a man named Peterson (or, as they say, “Single O”) who was struck down by lightning fifty years earlier. Alas, this is just a long-sleep story, but still worth listing for its historical value. —Michael Main

This version of Twain’s story borrows some sf tropes from Shelley’s Frankenstein (a mad scientist) and Kipling’s “Wireless” (recovering sound from the past), although all that is small potatoes next to Will Rogers’ folksy wit. His character—Hank “Martin—is tossed back to Camelot when a bolt of lightning and a suit of armor knock him over at the mad scientist’s lab, and at the end, he returns via a similar timeslip. In between, we get one-liners, tommy guns, tanks, cars, characters that are eerily familiar from Martin’s present-day life—and a lot of time to debate whether this version has a real timeslip or is just a dream. —Michael Main