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A review by ahinds
TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow
4.0
Walking by the shelves in the bookstore I was instantly drawn to this title. I have always loved reading sci fi books. This, combined with having time travel had me hooked.
Liam is 16 and works as a steward on the Titanic in 1912. Eighteen-year-old Maddy is on a plane in 2010. And Sal is 13 and lives in a house in India in 2026. Each of them is about to die until a mysterious old man appears and says that he can save them from death, and all they have to do is take his hand. When they do, there is a blinding flash of white light and they find themselves in a rundown building in New York in 2001. The man introduces himself as Foster and tells them they have two choices, they can either return to their deaths or they can become Time Riders. Time Riders are people who stop time travel from destroying the world. Now Liam, Maddy, Sal and their support unit Bob must stop Paul Kramer, a world renown scientist from the future, from changing history.
The first chapter of the book can be confusing because the book switches back and forth between explaining about the Time Riders and Paul Kramer’s plan to go back in time. I found myself having to go back and reread some of the first chapters with Kramer in it because I missed some key details about him. It was a lot of hassle trying to keep straight all the information that had been presented to me. In my opinion I felt it would be better if the author first concentrated on explaining The Time Riders and the history of time travel before introducing Kramer. This is my only complaint about the book for I think the rest of the book is excellent.
Time Riders is primarily a Science Fiction book, but the author also expertly blends in elements of dystopia and mystery into the book. Mr. Scarrow manages to create three in depth main characters. Even Sal, who at the beginning I thought was the weakest character, transforms into an interesting and relatable character in a few chapters. Kramer is the villain of the novel but you can’t help but understand why he sees himself as the good guy. The imagery is so vibrant in this novel that if you have a hyper active imagination you might want to skip over the description about the mutants. If you like Science Fiction books with a lot of mystery in them then this book is for you.
Liam is 16 and works as a steward on the Titanic in 1912. Eighteen-year-old Maddy is on a plane in 2010. And Sal is 13 and lives in a house in India in 2026. Each of them is about to die until a mysterious old man appears and says that he can save them from death, and all they have to do is take his hand. When they do, there is a blinding flash of white light and they find themselves in a rundown building in New York in 2001. The man introduces himself as Foster and tells them they have two choices, they can either return to their deaths or they can become Time Riders. Time Riders are people who stop time travel from destroying the world. Now Liam, Maddy, Sal and their support unit Bob must stop Paul Kramer, a world renown scientist from the future, from changing history.
The first chapter of the book can be confusing because the book switches back and forth between explaining about the Time Riders and Paul Kramer’s plan to go back in time. I found myself having to go back and reread some of the first chapters with Kramer in it because I missed some key details about him. It was a lot of hassle trying to keep straight all the information that had been presented to me. In my opinion I felt it would be better if the author first concentrated on explaining The Time Riders and the history of time travel before introducing Kramer. This is my only complaint about the book for I think the rest of the book is excellent.
Time Riders is primarily a Science Fiction book, but the author also expertly blends in elements of dystopia and mystery into the book. Mr. Scarrow manages to create three in depth main characters. Even Sal, who at the beginning I thought was the weakest character, transforms into an interesting and relatable character in a few chapters. Kramer is the villain of the novel but you can’t help but understand why he sees himself as the good guy. The imagery is so vibrant in this novel that if you have a hyper active imagination you might want to skip over the description about the mutants. If you like Science Fiction books with a lot of mystery in them then this book is for you.