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justplainbecca's review against another edition
2.0
Between this and Claudia Gray’s Firebird series, I think I’ve read enough about dimension hopping this year. It’s starting to scramble my brain.
smateer73's review against another edition
4.0
This book was so good! It combines time travel and multiverse travel effortlessly. The characters are beautiful and the plot will enthrall you. This was excellent
trin's review against another edition
1.0
The [b:Wolf by Wolf|24807186|Wolf by Wolf (Wolf by Wolf, #1)|Ryan Graudin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424193184s/24807186.jpg|44446095] duology, though it had its flaws, was consistently exciting and creative. This book was...neither of those things.
Anyone who knows me at all will tell you: I LOVE time travel. Yet I was utterly bored by this book. The actual stakes -- the plot -- is not introduced for 300 pages. This wouldn't matter so much if the characters -- the crew of the rogue time travel vessel Invictus -- were engaging, but even though Graudin visits every one of their POVs (and several other characters' besides) I felt like I could barely distinguish one from another aside from their most superficial traits.
Imogen: Dyes her hair a lot. Crushing on Gram.
Gram: Likes order and TETRIS.
Priya: Doctor. Supposedly in love with Farway.
Farway: Supposedly in love with Priya. The MAIN CHARACTER.
Yeah so...Far's our main dude, but he has no discernible personality? Imogen calls him arrogant a few times, but this characteristic never makes it to the page; it's not a conclusion I would have drawn from his dialogue or actions. The dialogue itself is flat flat flat -- the crew supposedly engages in witty banter, but there's no spark to it. Along with time travel, one of my great loves is TEAMFIC: I love a group of disparate characters bonded together by circumstance and a shared mission. The back cover copy compares this to Guardians of the Galaxy, but not only is each member of the Guardians distinct, they each have diverse and memorable relationships between each other. A conversation between Peter and Drax will be very different from a conversation between Peter and Rocket, or Rocket and Groot, or Groot and Gamora, or ANY COMBINATION YOU COULD THINK OF. And this variety of dynamics has very little to do with who's crushing on whom. In comparison, Graudin falls back on her two tensionless romances again and again, but there's nothing there. To me there was nothing much between any of these characters worth exploring. And the time travel was almost an afterthought.
Aside from some of Graudin's more flowery excesses of prose, I'm not sure I would have guessed that this book was written by the same author as Wolf by Wolf. Those books were pulpy and fun and did feature characters I cared about, so I was really excited when I heard the same writer was doing a time travel book. But Invictus left me incredibly disappointed.
Anyone who knows me at all will tell you: I LOVE time travel. Yet I was utterly bored by this book. The actual stakes -- the plot -- is not introduced for 300 pages. This wouldn't matter so much if the characters -- the crew of the rogue time travel vessel Invictus -- were engaging, but even though Graudin visits every one of their POVs (and several other characters' besides) I felt like I could barely distinguish one from another aside from their most superficial traits.
Imogen: Dyes her hair a lot. Crushing on Gram.
Gram: Likes order and TETRIS.
Priya: Doctor. Supposedly in love with Farway.
Farway: Supposedly in love with Priya. The MAIN CHARACTER.
Yeah so...Far's our main dude, but he has no discernible personality? Imogen calls him arrogant a few times, but this characteristic never makes it to the page; it's not a conclusion I would have drawn from his dialogue or actions. The dialogue itself is flat flat flat -- the crew supposedly engages in witty banter, but there's no spark to it. Along with time travel, one of my great loves is TEAMFIC: I love a group of disparate characters bonded together by circumstance and a shared mission. The back cover copy compares this to Guardians of the Galaxy, but not only is each member of the Guardians distinct, they each have diverse and memorable relationships between each other. A conversation between Peter and Drax will be very different from a conversation between Peter and Rocket, or Rocket and Groot, or Groot and Gamora, or ANY COMBINATION YOU COULD THINK OF. And this variety of dynamics has very little to do with who's crushing on whom. In comparison, Graudin falls back on her two tensionless romances again and again, but there's nothing there. To me there was nothing much between any of these characters worth exploring. And the time travel was almost an afterthought.
Aside from some of Graudin's more flowery excesses of prose, I'm not sure I would have guessed that this book was written by the same author as Wolf by Wolf. Those books were pulpy and fun and did feature characters I cared about, so I was really excited when I heard the same writer was doing a time travel book. But Invictus left me incredibly disappointed.
alexan13's review against another edition
5.0
Honestly, this isn't a perfect book. There are problems with pacing and the world-building often takes the form of an info-dump (in my opinion, a problem endemic to time travel works: how are you going to adequately address all the paradoxes so the reader will believe your time traveling world without explaining it to them? But I digress). BUT this book is perfect in my heart and made me cry a million times and highlight a million quotes and fall in love with a found family friend group and I adore it to pieces. It's a book that feels like it was written just for me, and I can't believe I let it sit on my shelf for so long.
bookish_emily's review against another edition
5.0
Invictus follows the life of Farway Gaius McCarthy, a boy without a birth date whose only goal in life is to become a Recorder like his famous mother and spend his days traveling through time. After failing his final exam, he is adrift until receiving an offer from a black market overlord to captain a time machine in order to retrieve valuables from the past. Farway and his team are enjoying their secret adventures until one day a strange girl appears during one of their heists and throws everything into turmoil. Where did she come from? What does she want? As the team works to uncover answers to these questions, they may discover more than they bargained for...
With its cast of quirky, lovable characters and fast-paced action, Invictus draws the reader in almost immediately. Focus on the female and male leads is nearly equal, which will appeal to all readers. The story tackles a question most people probably wonder about time travel - what would happen if someone from the future had a child with someone from the past? What about if a child were born during time travel? This exciting novel pulses with camaraderie, loyalty, adventure, and love until the very end.
With its cast of quirky, lovable characters and fast-paced action, Invictus draws the reader in almost immediately. Focus on the female and male leads is nearly equal, which will appeal to all readers. The story tackles a question most people probably wonder about time travel - what would happen if someone from the future had a child with someone from the past? What about if a child were born during time travel? This exciting novel pulses with camaraderie, loyalty, adventure, and love until the very end.
ec_newman's review against another edition
This should be a book I devour and I can't tell if it's because it's an ebook (unlikely), or what, but I struggled to get into it. The premise is great. I found it too detailed, especially the space/time-travel explanation. I wanted more about the characters (who seem a little like cliches at 35% through), the story, etc.
I feel bad, but I just couldn't get swept up. It's also really, really long, and when that length is because of sentences and info I don't feel add anything, I tend to drift off.
I feel bad, but I just couldn't get swept up. It's also really, really long, and when that length is because of sentences and info I don't feel add anything, I tend to drift off.
theavidreaderandbibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
Invictus by Ryan Graudin is science fiction novel that starts in the year 2371. Farway Gaius McCarthy is taking his final exam to receive his license to time travel. However, someone gets into the SIM and sabotages it for him. With no other alternative, Far accepts an offer to pilot his own machine and deal in black market goods. He assembles his team and begins his new career on the Invictus. On a mission to the Titanic, they encounter the mysterious Eliot. Eliot resembles the lady who sabotaged Far’s final SIM. Eliot is on a mission and needs assistance. They will race through time to right a wrong before it is too late.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Invictus. It was a delightful tale (who doesn’t love a good time travel tale). It contains great characters and is packed full of action. I found it be well-written and entertaining. Invictus had a fast pace with many twists and turns along the way. I liked how the characters developed over the course of the book. I started reading Invictus and stayed up very late to finish it (I wanted to know how it ended, but I also did not want it to end). I am giving Invictus 5 out of 5 stars (I loved it). There is time-travel, spaceship, a red panda (a cute little fellow), romance, humor, intrigue, and so much more.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Invictus. It was a delightful tale (who doesn’t love a good time travel tale). It contains great characters and is packed full of action. I found it be well-written and entertaining. Invictus had a fast pace with many twists and turns along the way. I liked how the characters developed over the course of the book. I started reading Invictus and stayed up very late to finish it (I wanted to know how it ended, but I also did not want it to end). I am giving Invictus 5 out of 5 stars (I loved it). There is time-travel, spaceship, a red panda (a cute little fellow), romance, humor, intrigue, and so much more.
bluejaybooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great light read to pick-up between the dense epic fantasy novels I’ve been reading and the additional ones I’m planning to read in the future.
That said, the novel itself contains several common time travel tropes. Having consumed my share of time travel related media, the world-building and plot twists, for the most part, weren’t all that surprising.
The heart of this novel was instead the characters and its addictive nature. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump as of late, but I found this to be a hard to put down read.
While I do stand by what I said about most of the plot’s elements being ones I’ve seen before, there was one plot-twist that surprised me. This has more to do with this twist introducing tropes from a sub-genre that I didn’t expect to be incorporated into this novel than anything else.
Still, mixing sub-genres is a legitimate strategy, and the details of this twist fell into place once the author explained it.
Returning my attention to the characters, they have a great dynamic that only tends to come about in third-person-multiple point-of-view novels (which this is). Funnily enough, this is a characteristic I’ve noticed also reoccurs in novels centering around a heist. This novels characters also happens to be thieves. I don’t know what it says about fictional criminals that they have such great group dynamics.
This novel is one of those hard to pull off cases where the many points of view remained distinct and never got confusing despite the several main characters and the frequent shift in perspective.
This leads me to another great aspect of this novel: it is easy to follow. So many time travel novels have timelines that are difficult to keep track of. I didn’t have that problem at all with the main story here. I remained clear on what was happening in the story itself even throughout times when the characters weren’t sure themselves.
The other greatest aspect of this book was that the main characters have a domesticated red panda. Too bad domesticated red pandas don’t exist. The rest of us will have to keep observing from afar.
That said, the novel itself contains several common time travel tropes. Having consumed my share of time travel related media, the world-building and plot twists, for the most part, weren’t all that surprising.
The heart of this novel was instead the characters and its addictive nature. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump as of late, but I found this to be a hard to put down read.
While I do stand by what I said about most of the plot’s elements being ones I’ve seen before, there was one plot-twist that surprised me. This has more to do with this twist introducing tropes from a sub-genre that I didn’t expect to be incorporated into this novel than anything else.
Still, mixing sub-genres is a legitimate strategy, and the details of this twist fell into place once the author explained it.
Returning my attention to the characters, they have a great dynamic that only tends to come about in third-person-multiple point-of-view novels (which this is). Funnily enough, this is a characteristic I’ve noticed also reoccurs in novels centering around a heist. This novels characters also happens to be thieves. I don’t know what it says about fictional criminals that they have such great group dynamics.
This novel is one of those hard to pull off cases where the many points of view remained distinct and never got confusing despite the several main characters and the frequent shift in perspective.
This leads me to another great aspect of this novel: it is easy to follow. So many time travel novels have timelines that are difficult to keep track of. I didn’t have that problem at all with the main story here. I remained clear on what was happening in the story itself even throughout times when the characters weren’t sure themselves.
The other greatest aspect of this book was that the main characters have a domesticated red panda. Too bad domesticated red pandas don’t exist. The rest of us will have to keep observing from afar.
mllejoyeuxnoel's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting time travel romp. Three stars because I wasn't crazy about the writing. Too many sentences were stilted and awkward, making the descriptions and metaphors difficult to digest. The characters were also only so-so for me. But I do love both a) women with no hair, and b) women with rainbow hair, and this book had both. So... yay!
Also, I freaking HATED the faux curse words created here. They all felt so contrived. Some books pull off the endeavor of inventing futuristic curse words well... in my humble opinion, this one simply missed the mark entirely.
Also, I freaking HATED the faux curse words created here. They all felt so contrived. Some books pull off the endeavor of inventing futuristic curse words well... in my humble opinion, this one simply missed the mark entirely.