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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
A must read for sci-fi fans. Looking forward to Time Siege.
This is great space opera.
It would have been 4 stars if the main female character hadn't been a total Mary Sue. Here's hoping Chu sharpens her up before book 2—then we'll really have something to reckon with!
It would have been 4 stars if the main female character hadn't been a total Mary Sue. Here's hoping Chu sharpens her up before book 2—then we'll really have something to reckon with!
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fast paced and fun this is a very fast read. But then I'm a sucker for time travel stories of all kinds.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
You might like this if: you're looking for an easy to read 'beach book' set in a grimey future world.
Pros:
- I thought the general premise of the story was interesting.
- I enjoyed the little bits of world building of the different time periods.
Cons:
- I didn't connect with any of the point of view characters, they all had very generic voices. So much so that I didn't realize we switched points of view when the second POV character was introduced.
- Despite the stakes being high, the narrative really seemed to lose tension in the third act.
- Did not feel the chemistry between the main characters.
- I couldn't get over having a character named Javier who is basically Javier in space.
- I was distracted by several grammatical mistakes and really awkwardly phrases sentences, it really felt like the book could have used another editing pass.
Your Milage May Vary:
- Despite feeling somewhat amature at times, the prose was digestible and easy to read.
- I didn't entirely buy the worldbuilding and how the society works. I feel like it's a little pedantic to wonder why they didn't just say... steal solar panels, or like, invest in some mental health programs from their chronmen, but I caught myself wondering about it.
- Main character is a generic action hero type character, which is really something that I struggled to connect with.
Pros:
- I thought the general premise of the story was interesting.
- I enjoyed the little bits of world building of the different time periods.
Cons:
- I didn't connect with any of the point of view characters, they all had very generic voices. So much so that I didn't realize we switched points of view when the second POV character was introduced.
- Despite the stakes being high, the narrative really seemed to lose tension in the third act.
- Did not feel the chemistry between the main characters.
- I couldn't get over having a character named Javier who is basically Javier in space.
- I was distracted by several grammatical mistakes and really awkwardly phrases sentences, it really felt like the book could have used another editing pass.
Your Milage May Vary:
- Despite feeling somewhat amature at times, the prose was digestible and easy to read.
- I didn't entirely buy the worldbuilding and how the society works. I feel like it's a little pedantic to wonder why they didn't just say... steal solar panels, or like, invest in some mental health programs from their chronmen, but I caught myself wondering about it.
- Main character is a generic action hero type character, which is really something that I struggled to connect with.
Time travel stories can be tricky, but Time Salvager is an accessible, character-driven thriller. In Earth's distant future, James works as a chronman, a time-traveller who jumps into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure. But when he breaks a fundamental time-travelling rule and saves a woman's life, he finds himself on the run. The worldbuilding is great, with just enough detail to immerse the reader in the story without confusing with the time-travelling aspects. James is more of an antihero than a hero, but he still becomes a sympathetic character. The settings are well-drawn, especially the grim and haunting future most of the book takes place in. This is a fast-paced thriller with a time-travel twist which explores some fascinating issues. A must-read for sci-fi fans.
Nice. Good balance of introducing the world and environment without slowing the pace down. I had a couple minor complaints about the storyline and characters, but found the overall book a nice action scifi read.
Excellent actions sequences, great world building, but no very much time travel. This is a SF thriller, not a novel about time travel.
A degenerate future mines the past for resources and treasures. An off-the-rails salvager breaks the Time Law possibly changing history to save a woman’s life, but unveils a high-level conspiracy that history had already been horrendously manipulated.
Did-Not-Finish (DNF).
My dead tree copy was a hefty 380 pages with a 2015 US copyright.
Wesley Chu is an author of American science fiction series novels and screenplays.
I got to Chapter 14 and stopped reading. This isn’t a bad book. It’s just that it was too obvious to be interesting to me. With less than 300 pages to go, I cut my losses. I also didn't feel like getting involved in yet-another-mediocre-science-fiction-series.
Writing generally reminded me of a screen play. Dialog and action sequences were OK, but descriptive narrative as sparse.
Three (3) POV’s was too much for this story. I thought the Elise Kim character was good. The main James Griffin character was OK, but overplayed with regard to his demons. The Levin Javier-Oberon character was OK too, but we’ve seen this character's relationship to Griffin before.
Plot-wise, the story was very much by the numbers. By Chapter 10 I had an inkling of the conspiracy, by Chapter 15 it was confirmed and I already knew how this or the next novel ended.
World building was just OK. The author did a much better job with the historical past than the future. I thought the time heist of the Amber Room was well done. The Nazis were not. The important future scenes only received a cursory job. For example, Griffin’s escape to the ruined Earth's future Chicago with Kim showed how unimaginative he was about all the futures. A part of that narrative reminded me of a recent Orange Line ride, I'd taken. In addition, I felt that despite lip-service to maintaining the time line, very little actual planning went into the Time Jumps. The jumps seemed more like smash ‘n grabs to me. The author did have one or two good ideas about future tech though.
That the mystery was so obvious, the main character likewise too familiar, and the future so sketchily described in this series's first novel caused me to lose interest early. I guess I’m really picky about my time travel stories? However, the story should be easy to convert into a screenplay.
Readers interested in a much better time travel story should read, The Time Traveler's Wife .
Did-Not-Finish (DNF).
My dead tree copy was a hefty 380 pages with a 2015 US copyright.
Wesley Chu is an author of American science fiction series novels and screenplays.
I got to Chapter 14 and stopped reading. This isn’t a bad book. It’s just that it was too obvious to be interesting to me. With less than 300 pages to go, I cut my losses. I also didn't feel like getting involved in yet-another-mediocre-science-fiction-series.
Writing generally reminded me of a screen play. Dialog and action sequences were OK, but descriptive narrative as sparse.
Three (3) POV’s was too much for this story. I thought the Elise Kim character was good. The main James Griffin character was OK, but overplayed with regard to his demons. The Levin Javier-Oberon character was OK too, but we’ve seen this character's relationship to Griffin before.
Plot-wise, the story was very much by the numbers. By Chapter 10 I had an inkling of the conspiracy, by Chapter 15 it was confirmed and I already knew how this or the next novel ended.
World building was just OK. The author did a much better job with the historical past than the future. I thought the time heist of the Amber Room was well done. The Nazis were not. The important future scenes only received a cursory job. For example, Griffin’s escape to the ruined Earth's future Chicago with Kim showed how unimaginative he was about all the futures. A part of that narrative reminded me of a recent Orange Line ride, I'd taken. In addition, I felt that despite lip-service to maintaining the time line, very little actual planning went into the Time Jumps. The jumps seemed more like smash ‘n grabs to me. The author did have one or two good ideas about future tech though.
That the mystery was so obvious, the main character likewise too familiar, and the future so sketchily described in this series's first novel caused me to lose interest early. I guess I’m really picky about my time travel stories? However, the story should be easy to convert into a screenplay.
Readers interested in a much better time travel story should read, The Time Traveler's Wife .
I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this book, but it certainly wasn't the rollercoaster that you got thrown on that was for sure.
I had brought his book a year or two ago, it had been sat on my shelf for ages, I brought both book 1 and 2 together so that I wouldn't have to wait if I enjoyed this book for the second book.
Really enjoyable read, there were times when I couldn't put this book down. It was action packed from the get go and it didn't slow down nor let up, but it didn't take away from the story that was being told. Most of the action packed, page turner books can lack a little in substance, in depth, but this didn't. It wanted you to learn more by reading the next chapter, it wanted you to want to know more.
This book delivered on most things, it had great action, the characters were well thought out, well they were good enough for a book one. You could tell there was a depth to them at times, that made you want to like/hate them at times. Even times when I found myself rolling my eyes cause seriously sometimes that main character jsut did not listen and really he should have listened.
Really great read I thoroughly enjoyed it, the only reason it didn't give the full 5 stars from me was because there were a couple of chapters at the end with some spelling mistakes that pulled me right out of the story. It was fine up until that point.
On to book 2 now, lets hope its as exciting as book one.
I had brought his book a year or two ago, it had been sat on my shelf for ages, I brought both book 1 and 2 together so that I wouldn't have to wait if I enjoyed this book for the second book.
Really enjoyable read, there were times when I couldn't put this book down. It was action packed from the get go and it didn't slow down nor let up, but it didn't take away from the story that was being told. Most of the action packed, page turner books can lack a little in substance, in depth, but this didn't. It wanted you to learn more by reading the next chapter, it wanted you to want to know more.
This book delivered on most things, it had great action, the characters were well thought out, well they were good enough for a book one. You could tell there was a depth to them at times, that made you want to like/hate them at times. Even times when I found myself rolling my eyes cause seriously sometimes that main character jsut did not listen and really he should have listened.
Really great read I thoroughly enjoyed it, the only reason it didn't give the full 5 stars from me was because there were a couple of chapters at the end with some spelling mistakes that pulled me right out of the story. It was fine up until that point.
On to book 2 now, lets hope its as exciting as book one.