Review: TimeRiders: City of Shadows by Alex Scarrow

Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.

Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.

Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.

But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history . . .

Hunted by cyborg assassins from the future, the TimeRiders must abandon New York and go on the run. They escape to Victorian London and the streets where Jack the Ripper roams. But, before they can establish their new base, they make their most shattering discovery yet - and it will change everything . . .

Are you a fan of Alex Scarrow's TimeRiders series? If the answer is yes and you have not yet got your hands on a copy of the sixth book in the series, City of Shadows, then you must do so immediately. And if you have not yet read any of the books in this series then go out and get the first TimeRiders books as you have one hell of an exciting ride ahead of you.

Over the course of the first five books in this series Alex Scarrow has gradually woven an incredibly intricate plot, creating a multitude of seemingly unrelated threads. This does at times make reading each new book something of a challenge when six months have passed since the publication of the previous book, as the plots are so complex that remembering everything that has gone before is not always easy. For those five books we have been very much like Scarrow's trio of teen protagonists, very much in the dark as to the real nature of their task and finding things out as the story progresses. For those of you desperate to find answers to some of the questions that have been bugging you for so long then prepare to stunned. And shocked. And amazed. City of Shadows is the game changer for the whole series.

The significance of Sal's teddy bear?

The man who gets merged with a horse in The Eternal War?

Who sent the team of assassins after the TimerRider team in Gates of Rome?

Foster's story?

By alternating the story between a variety of different periods in time, and especially the future where we meet Waldstein properly, in this book Alex Scarrow provides answers to all of these questions, although staying true to form, he then goes on and creates even more questions for his readers. In fact, just like the characters we continue to be led to believe one thing, and then suddenly discover that we may have been wrong all along. Yep, this book will seriously mess with your head.

I feel it is only fair to add a small extra comment on this book for those fans who, like me, were looking forward to a story set predominantly in Victorian London, featuring Jack the Ripper. In actual fact, less than a third of the story is set in this era, with most of the narrative being devoted to 2001, and the actions the team have to take immediately following on from the end of Gates of Rome. This books is less about rectifying contamination events in time, and much more about how the characters survive as they have to cut themselves loose from their Brooklyn base. However, I don't think you will be disappointed with the story - I certainly wasn't.

I remember when the first TimeRiders book was published, another author told me that she had wanted to call one of the books in her series Time Riders, but her publisher had asked her to choose an alternative title as they felt that books with the word 'time' or 'time travel' in the title didn't sell. I don't know why they believed this - perhaps they had market research findings that suggested, despite the popularity of Doctor Who on TV, that children and young adults did not find time travel stories particularly cool or exciting? If that was the case then Alex Scarrow has single-handedly injected both of these elements into the genre and made it a very hot property indeed.

The seventh TimeRiders book is scheduled to be published in February 2012, so not too long to wait. Alex recently revealed the title and cover on the official TimeRiders blog and I'm already looking forward to reading it.

Relocated to Victorian London, the TimeRiders joy-ride back to 1666 to witness the Great Fire of London. In the ensuing chaos, Liam and their newest recruit, Rashim, find themselves trapped between the fire and the Thames. They escape onboard a river boat, only to be confronted by an unscrupulous captain with his heart set on treasures of the high seas . . .

Back in 1888, Maddy and the rest of the team are frantically trying to track them down. But with limited resources at their new base, can Liam and Rashim survive the bloodthirsty and barbaric age of piracy long enough to be rescued?

My thanks go to the lovely people at Puffin for sending me a copy of City of Shadows.

Review: TimeRiders: Gates of Rome by Alex Scarrow (TimeRiders Book 5)

Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire - has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula.

Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past.

Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right?

We are half way into Alex Scarrow's brilliant TimeRiders series and I am finding it increasingly difficult to review these books for fear of giving away massive spoilers. I tried to write a review for TimeRiders: The Eternal War when I had read it but found it so difficult I eventually gave in, and simply writing "It's brilliant, read it immediately" was, I felt, a little too brief for a blog post. Now that I have finished this fifth book, Gates of Rome, I am still a little hesitant (it could be a very short review), but feel that I owe it to Alex Scarrow and the good people at Puffin who very kindly sent me a copy to review.

Every time I finish a TimeRiders book I sit back and marvel at the quality of Alex Scarrow's storytelling. He is slowly weaving an incredibly complex nine volume story, and I feel I should be prostrating myself before him, doubting my worthiness. Steven Moffat really should get in touch with him as I would love to see a Doctor Who episode written by Alex Scarrow.

At the end of The Eternal War we were left with more questions that an episode of Mastermind. The first three books in the series introduced us to the characters, and the emphasis was on how they would react to the various eras in which they found themselves, whilst also giving us morsels of the growing mystery surrounding the purpose of their agency. And then BAM!, the end of book three and then the fourth book added layer upon layer to the overall story arc. I think The Eternal War is still my favourite book in the series so far - much as I love the fast-paced action of the first three, this one slowed things down a little and really made my brain fizz with excitement as it tried to process the mystery aspects of the story arc.

The opening chapters of Gates of Rome alternate between Cheyenne Mountain, 2070 and the now familiar setting of New York, 2001. In 2001 Sal and Maddy are continuing to try to fathom out some of the questions that began to form in their minds in previous books, and Maddy finally shares with Sal some of the secrets that are burning a huge hole in her brain. Sixty-nine years into the future and we watch as the Exodus Project begins to reach zero hour. In 2070 the environment has been pretty much killed off, with billions living in squalor, and a team of scientists, soldiers and politicians are readying themselves to travel back to AD54 to take over the Roman Empire and establish a new society based on American values. Unfortunately, a catastrophic event means the project is accelerated, calculations are rushed and the group end up being sent back at AD 37, the survivors finding that they have arrived during the reign of Caligula, an emperor who was renowned for being more than a little mad. Unfortunately for our band of TimeRiding heroes the ensuing time waves hit 2001 NYC at the same time as a group of lab-grown assassins arrive, their mission to destroy Maddy and her friends. In the process of trying to evade their pursuers, Maddy and Sal find themselves escaping back to AD54, joining Bob and Liam and leaving no-one behind to get them back to the 21st Century. Not good!

Thanks to the arrival of the Exodus team Caligula has become even more insane, thinks he is a god, and has managed to avoid being assassinated as he would have been if the time stream had not been contaminated. Somehow the team must survive the dangers of a brutal Ancient Rome, discover what event changed to accepted version of history, find a way back to 2001, survive the assassins that may still be waiting there for them, and finally mend history (again). If that seems like an impossible task for three teenagers and a support unit then you may be right this time.

This book comes with everything the previous books had - great action scenes, brilliant characters, answered questions and then more questions created, and a vivid depiction of the historical era that the tram find themselves in. I must confess I have never been a fan of books set in Ancient Rome (in fact, I rarely read any historical  fiction set before Tudor times), but I found that Alex Scarrow's descriptions of the horrors of Rome under Caligula completely absorbing, and written so well that I found it very easy to picture the sights, smells and sounds in my mind. In this book Caligula is even nastier than history portrayed him, and so we are treated to descriptions of torture and violence that will have teen boys gagging for more.

My only problem with the TimeRiders books is that there are so many layers and mysteries to the stories that by the time I read each new book I have forgotten some of what went before. There are four more books scheduled in the series, with the next one, City of Shadows, scheduled for an August 2012 release (less than six months away - whoop! whoop!). I have a feeling that come the publication of the ninth book I may have to take myself away to a cabin on a remote island somewhere with nothing to do but read the entire series back-to-back, if I am to get my head completely around all of the many plot strands that Alex Scarrow is so carefully weaving together.

News: Book Cover - TimeRiders: The Gates of Rome (TimeRiders Book 5)

These TimeRiders covers just keep on getting better and better. I loved the American Civil War cover for TimeRiders: The Eternal War, but this cover for the fifth book in the series, The Gates of Rome, is even better. 

I think the way the futuristic looking soldier is facing off against the Roman soldier looks great, and suggest another cracking adventure for Liam, Maddy and Sal. A quick search on Amazon and I managed to find a few more details about the story, due out on 2nd February 2012:


Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire - has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula.

Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past.

Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right?

Guest Post by Alex Scarrow (Author of TimeRiders)

A while ago I approached Puffin and asked whether Alex Scarrow, the author of the brilliant TimeRiders series, would be interested in writing a guest post for The Book Zone. With Alex really busy visiting schools to promote the release of the third book in his series, I left the decision regarding the subject of the post entirely up to him. What I have since received is a great piece about what a modern-day kids' author has to go through once their book is published: 

~~~

These days your average writer can no longer afford to be the shy and retiring mole-man (or woman) who hides away in some darkened room to emerge blinking into the sunlight once a year with another finished book. Oh no...those halcyon days are long gone. An author in this new multimedia world has also to be a one-man (ahem...or woman) marketing and PR machine. More than that, somebody willing to stand on stage and present - or in some cases even, perform - to an audience of hundreds.

The book industry in some ways mirrors the record industry. Before there were MP3s, a rock band could record an album and spend the rest of the year living off the money of CD sales while they casually dabbled with ideas for their next album. But since the advent of MP3s, bit torrent, ipods and rampant piracy bands can no longer afford that kind of luxury and has to now generate their income from a steady stream of paying gigs. So with the book industry going the way of the record industry and novels now being digital (ebooks) or being discounted and sold at virtually the cost it takes to print them (thanks Big Supermarket and Online retailer who's name reminds me of a South American river) authors are having to do the same to stay afloat. Very, very few of us writer-types earn enough from the sale of books for writing to be our only job. In most cases, we all have a second job. In my case that's visiting schools, promoting reading and talking about TimeRiders as well as the idea of books being, quite honestly, the best entertainment hardware in the history of mankind. (But then I'm biased).

I do know a lot of writers who find this part of the job very hard; they're uncomfortable with the idea of standing on stage and pontificating about their craft, being the centre of attention, an' all that. But me? Good grief, I actually love it! I guess it's a result of all those gigs I used to do in various rock bands. There's nothing quite like the buzz of being on stage. But you know it's something I think we all enjoyed once, back when we were little kids. Didn't we all love showing off? Didn't we get a thrill out of everyone's 'coos' and 'ahhhs' at our funny pudgy faces or our first faltering baby-steps? The sad truth is though that either we grow out of it or maybe in this country we're educated from a young age not to express ourselves so wantonly. So we all learn to be shy, quiet, reserved....to not make fools of ourselves. To fear more than ANYTHING that fate worse than death....being embarrassed. It's a quite paralysing fear that most of us Brits seem to suffer from. It stops us daring to sing on a karaoke night, it stops us from saying the things we most yearn to say to our nearest and dearest. It stops us following our dreams.

Totally daft, that. Ah well, who cares really, right? I mean I embarrass myself all the time. I love it. It's liberating. So it really hasn't been a problem doing school visits. Hasn't been an issue for me when technical problems have resulted in me having to keep 200 primary school bottoms from fidgeting while the tech-guys fix the problem. Yes, I've resorted to doing my Orangutan and appalling Marge Simpson impersonations, all in the name of promoting books. 

Sigh. And there was me thinking that being an author was just about the writing. Actually, I'm glad it's more than that. Glad I get a chance to meet and talk to readers.

~~~

Huge thanks to Alex for taking time out to write this. Many people incorrectly think that authors are huge earners - they read about the likes of JK Rowling and believe that this is the norm. We recently had William Hussey visit school, and when asked how much he earned he informed a shocked audience that the average annual earnings of a children's author in the UK is approximately £7000. School visits are incredibly important: for an author it can help supplement their income so that they can afford to continue devoting time to writing the books we love, and for the pupils it helps create an excitement for books and reading. I have seen this time and time again, and if I had my way we would have authors in every week. 

News: Book Cover - TimeRiders: The Eternal War by Alex Scarrow (TimeRiders Book 4)

It is half term and so I have a little more time to scour the internet for book news. Just a few minutes ago I stumbled across the cover for the next TimeRiders book, due out in August. Until this moment I hadn't even realised that its title had been released, although I did know that it was to be set during the American Civil War. 

The title of TimeRiders Book Four is The Eternal War and the blurb on the Puffin website reads as follows:

A time wave has struck that alters the entire history of the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln has followed Liam into the present from 1831 - and now the world is in a dangerous state of limbo...

If the TimeRiders can't return Lincoln to the past, the Civil War will never end. Can Maddy persuade two colonels on either side of no man's land to cease fire long enough to save the future?

What a storyline! In my opinion this sounds like the most intriguing and exciting to date. And yet again, designer James Fraser has produced a cover that makes me go WOW! Occasionally publishers have changed the design of the covers of a book mid-series (Percy Jackson and Jimmy Coates are two exmaples that spring to mind) - I really hope this doesn't happen with the TimeRiders books.

Review: TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code by Alex Scarrow

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026. But all three have been given a second chance – to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history... 

In 1993 British computer hacker Adam Lewis finds his name in a coded manuscript that is almost one thousand years old. How did Adam's name get in there... and why? Confronted by Adam in 2001, the TimeRiders travel back to Sherwood Forest in 1193 to discover the origins of the ancient message. But when a strange hooded man appears interested in the same thing, they begin to wonder what terrible threat this cryptic link from the past holds for the future...

It is no secret that I loved the first two book in Alex Scarrow's TimeRiders series. As a long time fan of alternate history stories, and What If....? speculative writing, I thought that he did a great job of delivering these concepts to an 11+ audience. As I picked up the third book in the series though I felt a small degree of nervousness - would it be as good as the previous two? Would I feel obliged to like it and write a good review for it? If I didn't like it, would I be able to get away with not writing a review at all? I often feel this way when picking up a 'third book in series' or trilogy that I have so far loved, but this sense of mild trepidation was heightened a little more than usual as in my review of TimeRiders: Day of the Predator, I stated "I can honestly say that I have not been this excited about a series for a long time." It was with no small amount of relief then that having started reading it before going to bed I looked at the clock to discover it was suddenly very late and I was 150 pages into the book. I had been pulled head first into the story and I am happy to say that it is easily as good as the previous two books, and probably the best in the series so far.

The Doomsday Code starts with a very minor time shift back in 2001, just a film that shouldn't exist being advertised outside a New York cinema. A quick spot of research leads to Maddy and Becks making a quick journey back to 1994 Norwich, but this journey sets in motion a chain of events that sees Liam and the genetically engineered Bob and Becks travelling back in time to 1194, but unlike previous books they are not entirely sure what their ultimate objective is this time. 

You will have to bear with me as I try to explain, as this is the most complicated plot to date in this series, and I need to be careful not to give away any spoilers. In their journey to Norwich, Maddy meets computer hacker Adam Lewis, a techie who found, somewhat impossibly, his name hidden in a code manuscript dating back to the 12th Century, a manuscript that no-one else has ever managed to decode. Maddy inadvertently leaves behind a clue to her 2001 origins, and Adam spends the next seven years of his life ensuring that he is in the right place, at the right time to meet Maddy again. However, because of the secrets that Maddy discovered in the previous books the team instead feel that the document may actually contain a message from another TimeRiders team and feel that there is no other option but to send someone back to 1194 to investigate. What then follows is an adventure that involves the legend of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, his younger brother Prince John and the quest for The Holy Grail. As in the previous books, even the slightest deviation from the true historical timeline has significant consequences for the future, although this time around the lives of Maddy and Sal are not put in quite so much jeopardy.

See.... I told you it was complicated, and yet Alex Scarrow seemingly carries it off with  ease. I can't imagine the hours/days/months that must have gone in to plotting a story like this, let alone one that is planned to span across nine books, and Alex Scarrow's editor must spend even more hours checking for inconsistencies, plot holes and other continuity errors. And it is a job they have both done exceedingly well, as I no point did I find myself questioning an action or spot of dialogue that did not add up. However, this is not a book to pick up and read without first having read the first two in the series, or you will find yourself becoming confused very quickly.

The characters that the author has created are once again a delight to read. Liam, being the field agent, is already fully developed following his adventures in the previous two books, although this time we begin to see another side of him as he finds himself in an era that he actually likes, and would possibly even consider staying in if given the chance. Maddy is also slowly becoming more fleshed out; as the appointed leader of the group she is privy to a number of secrets that she has kept from the other two, and as such she feels under pressure and often wonders whether she is good enough for the role. Sal is still something of an enigma, and in The Doomsday Code we probably see even less of her than previously, although we do see her starting to resent the fact that Maddy is not telling her the full story. In the interview that Alex Scarrow did for The Book Zone last year he promised that Sal "has a VERY important part to play in the story" so I am really looking forward to that in future books.

If you like time travel stories, and demand a high action content in the books you read then this is the series for you. I would like to add though that I am rapidly starting to develop a strong dislike for Alex Scarrow. How dare he end this book on yet another massive cliffhanger! Not the kind of cliffhanger that has the reader fearing for the life of a character, but one that has you questioning a lot that has gone before, and everything that is still to come. And we have to wait until August to find out what happens next, and I am really looking forward to this as it is going to be set during the American Civil War. TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code was released on 3rd February and my thanks go to Puffin for sending me a copy.

News: Book Cover - TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code

Seems like I am forever doomed to be slightly behind the times when it comes to TimeRiders news as I think this design for the third book in the TimeRiders series may have been unveiled to the world almost a month ago. What the heck - it is new to me so I thought I would post it anyway. In the interview that Alex Scarrow did The Book Zone he mentioned that Robin Hood would make an appearance in The Doomsday Code and I think this cover is a cracking representation of this. If you look carefully you will also spot a code on the cover that requires cracking (if you click on the image you should be able to see a larger version). Head on over to the official TimeRiders blog to find out more about this code. Sadly TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code is not scheduled to be released in the UK until February so in the meantime we will just have to keep on guessing as to what Alex Scarrow has in store for the team next.

*** Interview with Alex Scarrow (author of the TimeRiders series)

For me, TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow is one of the best new series of boy-friendly books out there at the moment. I really enjoyed the first book in the series and the second one blew me away. I was therefore really chuffed when Alex Scarrow said he would take part in an interview for The Book Zone, and even more flattered by the kind comments he made about this blog at the end of our little Q&A session.

How would you describe the TimeRiders series to a potential reader?

Terminator meets Torchwood! It's one big hi-octane time travel thriller that spans nine books.

What inspired you to write the series?

Blimey....that's not an easy one to answer! It's a combination of all the really cool books I've read, films I've seen, games I've played....it's the culmination of too many classroom hours I spent as a kid imagining how excellent it would be if I could really mash-up history.

How much time do you spend carrying out research for your books?

Several months before hand just reading factual and fictional stuff set in the era to get the feel of it. It's too tempting to over research though. You do that and you're in danger of writing a textbook instead of a thriller.

Do you have a favourite period in history? Will the TimeRiders heroes be visiting this period at some point?

I have several favourite eras in history; WWII, the Roman Empire, Victorian times, the American Civil War....and yes, those and many more are going to get a visit from me.

Did you have fun creating the new species of dinosaur in Day of the Predator?
Sheeesh! Did I? Does a bear.....uh, anyway...yes! I loved writing from the point of view of these hominid creatures. I loved creating this frightening thing, then trying to put it's case across to the reader.

There are some fairly violent scenes in Day of the Predator. How do you gauge the right level of violence in your writing?

I don't think I consciously determine what is acceptable to the audience and what is unacceptable. I think it's a gut instinct thing. Certainly, when it comes to the really grisly stuff, I'm a firm believer in keeping it 'just out of shot'....a reader's imagination can produce a far more gory picture than I would ever be allowed to write!

Of your three main characters Sal has played the smallest part so far. Will we see her character develop more in the future?

Yes. Sal has a VERY important part to play in the story. I can't say much more about her for fear of dropping a spoiler in here.

Where did the inspiration for the Bob/Becks character come from?

Well, the obvious first point of reference is the T1000 model Terminator from the movies. But also there's something of Frankenstein's big, dumb, childlike monster in there too. I love the fact that they're both lethal killing machines, yet, also naive children, in a way.

Writing about time travel can be a pretty complicated task. Do you put a lot of thought into how you deal with issues such as the time travel paradox?

Plotting for time travel tales can be a potential nightmare! In actual fact, there really aren't any time travel stories out there that you can't identify a plot hole in. It's just the nature of the paradox thing. And if you try and get too close to the actual 'science' of time travel you'll end up twisting yourself up in knots trying to make it all work. Which is why TimeRiders is perhaps more about the characters than it is the tech.

How will you keep track of all of the little plot threads you are creating in each book to ensure that they are all eventually tied off?

I have a series bible. And it's getting thicker and thicker every day!

Are you a fan of science fiction yourself? Do you have any favourites?

Yes. I loved a series of books called Riverworld, which featured this world on which one day, every human who has ever lived suddenly wakes up after they've died on earth. It's not heaven, that's for sure. And it's a compelling thriller, mystery that features a cast of famous historical characters.

What made you start writing for young adults? How different is it from writing for adults?

Way...way....more fun to write.

Do you read many books for this age group yourself?

I read some. I prefer the 'cross over' YA books out there that tend to appeal to adults as well as teens. And this is what I intended Timeriders to be, a series of thrillers that, say, a forty-five year old bloke wouldn't be embarrassed about pulling out to read on the train.

Which books/authors did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the childrens/YA novels available today?

I used to read adventure books by Willard Price when I was eight. And lots of Asterix and Tintin! I think today's YA fiction is more self conscious of the fact that many, many adults enjoy the genre too, so it has a decidedly more mature and less naive tone to it than the books that were around when I was a kid.

Do you have any ideas as to how we can get boys reading for enjoyment?

I suppose books that feed into, or feed from interest areas for boys, such as computer games and football are a good way to try and coax them into the book habit. For example, TimeRiders has deliberately drawn some imagery from big blockbuster movies in order to tap reluctant readers this way.

I know that Day of the Predator has only just been released but can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from the next book in the series? Robin Hood is mentioned as a teaser at the end of the book....

Yes...I can add a little more to that. Crusades. Holy Grail. Conspiracy theories. There you go! Make some sense of that!

A while ago it was announced that there would be nine books in the TimeRiders series. Have you plotted out the storylines for these already?

Pretty loosely, yes. I know which nine periods of history we will be visiting, and I know the major story arc....and I can tell you this, so long as you keep it to yourself...it's going to involve.....aaaaghh, nearly let slip!

If you could time travel when/where would you go to and why?

65 million years ago. I want to see the KT event that wiped out the dinosaurs. Super volcano or mega asteroid, either way, it must have been horrifyingly spectacular.

If there is one question you would love an interviewer to ask you about your work, what is it? And what would the answer be?

Do you like writing? And my answer would be....sometimes I LOVE it, sometimes I HATE it. I get days when I know I've written a brilliant chapter and I feel on top of the world, and days when I write such awful sludge, I wonder how the he'll I ever managed to get published.

Is there anything else you would like to say to readers of this blog?

Readers....I think this is quite possibly the best blog for young male readers out there! Seriously. It's laid out nicely and the reviews are original (as opposed to copy and paste jobs). And here's something else...if you've got a mate who's a reluctant reader, suggest TimeRiders to him! Those are the fellas I really want to reach out to! I want them to put down the playstation controller, stop messing around with Facebook, turn the TV off...and just give TimeRiders a chapter of their time. I guarantee they'll be hooked...and maybe one day thank you for getting them into the book habit!

~~~

Huge thanks to Alex for answering my questions, and for his kind words at the end there. If you are looking for some summer reading which is non-stop action in two very different eras then you really should give the two TimeRiders books a try.

Review: TimeRiders - Day of the Predator by Alex Scarrow

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. But all three have been given a second chance – to work for an agency that no-one knows exists. Its purpose - to prevent time travel destroying history . . . When Maddy mistakenly opens a time window where and when she shouldn’t have, Liam is marooned sixty-five million years ago in the hunting ground of a deadly - and until now - undiscovered species of predator. Can Liam make contact with Maddy and Sal before he's torn to pieces by dinosaurs – and without endangering history so much that the world is overtaken by a terrifying new reality?

I read a great quote from Alex Scarrow the other day in which he stated that "I've worked really hard to make [TimeRiders] absolute cocaine for my son – something he couldn't put down." Now whilst the boring, moralistic teacher in me has to disapprove a little at the author comparing his book to a Class A drug, the story-loving boy inside of me agrees completely and as this is the school summer holidays and I have a lot more time to read then this is the part of my personality that is in the ascendancy at the moment. With this in mind I would happily stand up at a meeting of Readers Anonymous and announce that "I am addicited to TimeRiders".

I reviewed the first book in the series back in February and I loved it. However, now that I have read Day of the Predator, the second book in the series, I can honestly say that I have not been this excited about a series for a long time. As fas as anticipation for 'the next book' goes, I can compare it to how I feel about MG Harris' Joshua Files series and how I felt about the Percy Jackson books. And with Alex Scarrow having signed a nine book deal with Puffin I am looking forward to reliving this feeling a good number of times over the next few years. If he can maintain the quality over the whole series then Alex Scarrow will become as widely read as Riordan, Horowitz and Higson. 

In the first book in the series we saw the recruitment of the TimeRiders team, three young people plucked from the jaws of death by the mysterious Foster. The story then saw our young heroes battling to reset time after a group of men travel back in time in order to change it, as they feel their 2066 world has become ruined by over-population, pollution and religious conflict. Their solution? Help Adolf Hitler to win the Second World War. This book encouraged the reader to question the morality of the actions of these men - if making a change in history will make the future world a better place then should this be seen as ethically acceptable? For me this was a stand out element of the first book, although in some ways it did overshadow some of the character development.

Day of the Predators is a very different set up. This time our heroes are tasked with going forward in time to prevent the assassination of a boy who will eventually develop the mathematical theories that will become the cornerstone of time travel development. However, as the result of an accident Liam O'Connor, the team's field agent, his genetically engineered 'bodyguard', and a school party of teenagers find themselves stranded sixty-five million years in the past, at a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and Liam has to be constantly reminded that every single action, however small, could have a disastrous effect on the future time line.

This is not a new concept in literature; I first read something similar in a comic strip many years ago (I think it was an epidode of Tharg's Future Shocks in 2000AD), and then later in Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder", but Alex Scarrow is delivering it to a totally new audience and in such a way that he will have these young adults hanging on his every word. In Day of the Predator Liam has to make some very difficult choices - if they stay and try to survive the consequences could damage the future, but then again so could their attempts to in some way send a message that the rest of the team will be able to retrieve in 2001, 65 million years later! All these questions and more will have readers constantly asking themselves "What if...?" and "but if they do that...?".

The nature of Liam's role in the team as field agent means that yet again his character is developed more than those of others. After all, it is Liam who is facing deadly predators in a world that is totally alien to that which he is used to. However, in the absence of Foster the role of team leader and chief strategist now falls on the relatively young shoulders of Maddy Carter. This is not a role that she takes on willingly, especially as she blames herself for the accident that has sent Liam hurtling back in time, and she is plagued with self-doubt. However, as the plot develops we also see Maddy gradually settling into this key role, making decisions that could impact not only on Liam's life but also on the lives of generations to come. We also see her agonising over the secrets she holds from the others, information that was imparted to her by Foster before he walked out of their lives at the end of the first book. Sal Vikram, the third member of the team, is still relegated to third place, with her role being largely a supporting one, with occasional flashes of briliance. Hopefully we will see more from Sal in the future.

The fourth character in the book is Bob, or Becks as he/she/it becomes in Day of the Predator. Bob's AI chip, rescued from its organic 'meat robot' form, is now inserted into the brain of a freshly 'grown' body, in order that Liam has a companion in his travels through time. The relationship between Liam and the newly formed Becks is a confusing one for the young Irish lad, and this confusion in his mind grows as together they face the dangers of Cretaceous USA. Becks also has to deal with the competing issues of her programmed Mission Priorities and her realisation that she is slowly developing traits that could almost be described as human. Should she proceed with the mission recommendations that her central processor is computing, or should she make allowances for the fact that she has cpmputed that she 'likes' Liam?

In reviews for books like this there are many cliched phrases uses, phrases such as "high octane", "nail-biting" and "a real page-turner". Howeer, I guarantee that every single one of these phrases, cliched though they may be, is entirely justified in any review about this book. If you have boys who are 12+ and are reluctant readers then buy them these two books before you go on holiday this summer, 'accidentally' leave the charger for their PSP/Nintendo DS/etc at home and maybe, just maybe, these could be the books to convert them to reading for enjoyment. If these books don't manage to get boys reading then there is little else that will.

My huge thanks go to Puffin for sending me a copy of TimeRiders: Day of the Predator to review. The book is officially published on 5th August.

News: TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Back in February I reviewed TimeRiders, the first book in the new series from author Alex Scarrow. Ever since I have been patiently waiting for the next book in the series, now only a month away from publication. This book is entitled TimeRiders: Day of the Predator and you can find out more about it and read an extract at the official TimeRiders website. 

Over the last few months my anticipation for this book has been heightened by the occasional TimeRiders e-newsletters I have received. Today's email brought great news for me and every other fan of the first book - Puffin have now signed up Alex Scarrow to write a grand total of NINE books in the TimeRiders series. Brilliant! A quick visit to the website shows that this news was released a couple of weeks ago but I thought I would share it with you all anyway, just in case you hadn't heard yet. Whatsmore, Alex Scarrow has also just finished writing book three in the series, currently titled The Doomsday Code. Good times!   

And if that wasn't enough - there is also this great new trailer for the new book:

Review: TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world....

It is only 8th February and already I know that come the end of the year choosing a favourite book of 2010 is going to be an impossible task. One month into the year and I have already read so many outstanding new books, and TimeRiders is no exception.

The 'About the author' blurb on Amazon says the following about Alex Scarrow: '....has written a number of successful thrillers and several screenplays, but it's YA fiction that has allowed him to really have fun with the ideas and concepts he was playing around with when designing games.' and the fun he had writing the book is definitely reflected in the story. As a teacher I know when a student really enjoys my subject as it is reflected in the quality of their work, and on the evidence of TimeRiders I would suggest that Alex Scarrow most definitely enjoys writing for young people. This is a superb action/adventure story, with great characters, a fast-moving and tense plot, snappy dialogue and plenty of humour. 

I think I may have mentioned in a previous post that I hated History at school as a result of a poor teacher, but these days I love it. In my book collection I have several of the 'What If...' books, where historians write short speculative articles about what would have happened if certain events in history had not happened, or had happened differently (e.g. What if... the Spanish Armada had been victorious?), and this is exactly what Alex Scarrow does with TimeRiders - in this case focusing on how different our world might be if Hitler had not tried to invade Russia, and had instead focused his forces on the invasion of the Western Front, leading ultimately to victory in Europe and eventually the United States. This makes for a fascinating storyline, as members of the team who remain in 2001 are placed in an incredibly dangerous situation due to a timeline that changes as a result of the intervention of the team members who initially go back to 1956. Confused? Believe me, you won't be.... Alex Scarrow handles it far better than I am in this review.

Time travel has obviously been seen many times in books, TV and movies, but the concept of 'rescuing' young people who are about to die in their own time, and then teaming them up to deal with others who would change time for their own nefarious reasons, is a new one to me. This premise relies on the notion that significant changes made in the past create potentially unstoppable, world-destroying tidal waves that race into the future causing massive changes and devastation. The fact that these young people were about to die anyway causes a tiny ripple, with little effect at all, making their recruitment have little impact on the future timeline. The other element of this story's take on time travel that I found refreshingly original was the splitting of the team so that some are fighting battles in the past, whilst the others battle away in their present, so we have action going on in two different periods of time.  

The three heroes in question are recruited at the very beginnning of the books. Liam is an Irish steward on the 'mighty' Titanic, Maddy a computer geek travelling on a plane in 2010 that is about to be blown up by a bomb, and Sal a 13 year old from an unrecognisable Mumbai of 2026. They have been selected due to their various individual talents; they are not super-heroes, they do not have any form of martial arts training, they are just normal teenagers. Their rescuer/recruiter, himself a TimeRider of many years, teams them up with a genetically engineered super-human called Bob, who is very reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator (in fact, he is almost christened Arnie by the team). This, book, the first in a series, very much focuses on Liam and Bob as they travel back to 1956 USA, and as such Liam's character is developed more fully than those of the others. Sal, in particular, is a character we really do not get to 'know' fully but hopefully this will come in later books.

At times this book is also quite thought-provoking. The villains of this story travel back in time to change it as they feel their 2066 world has become ruined by over-population, pollution and religious conflict; they go back to 1941 not for material gain but in the hope that they can make changes to improve the world of the future. However, no plan is ever perfect and power can corrupt, and the desired effect is far from preferable. As a reader is got me thinking if I had the power to go back through time, where would I go and would I want to make any changes? For example, would preventing the events of 9/11 lead to a better world or a far worse world than the one we live in today? Is it a chance worth taking? These, and many other similar questions will run through your mind as you read this book.

As I have already said, this is the first in a new series from Alex Scarrow, with the second promised for August 2010, and we are teasingly informed that 'Next Stop.... Dinosaurs!'. Roll on August - I can't wait to see where the author will take these characters next. Until then, TimeRiders is published by Puffin and is in stores already.

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Exciting news: watch this space for a great TimeRiders competition coming tomorrow, where you could win a signed copy of the book. 

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Just had a Tweet about a new book series coming in the new year - TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow. I have read a number of Scarrow's adult novels and , just as with James Rollins, his YA books should be fantastic. The concept for TimeRiders is great:

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world . . .

Sure to be a massive hit with the boys at school, but we'll just have to wait until February to get our hands on it.

edit: Just watched the youtube trailer with some of the boys at school - now even more excited!