Timeriders – Alex Scarrow
The first novel in the TimeRiders series is fantastic. Liam O’Conner is saved moments before his death aboard the Titanic in 1912 by a mysterious old man that is not even wet (stop sniggering). In 2026 an old man holds his hand out to Sal Vikram who is in the middle of a burning room in a building on fire in Mumbai, India. The old man promises life, an invisible life, but a life nonetheless. 2010, amateur hacker and game debugger Maddy Carter learns that the plane she is on is going to blow in about 60 seconds. An old man holds his hand out saying that he can get her out of the plane, but no one else.
They have been “recruited” by a secret agency that helps prevent history from being changed by other time-travellers. With all of mankind on the brink of destruction, devolution, or complete non-existence, these three teenagers and Foster might be the only people that can stop any changing history.
They all live in a disused archway under the rails in New York. The only days they experience are Monday the 10th and Tuesday the 11th of September 2001. (9/11) :P
They find out someone has changed the outcome of the Second World War. The Nazis have won and the swastika has been replaced by an oroboris. Liam must go back to 1942 with a “support unit” called Bob and find what and who happened. Missing the appointed return “window” to 2001, Liam and Bob must find a way to communicate with Maddy, Sal and Foster, while looking for the cause of the victory of the Nazis. Liam is a bit more confident with a seven foot tall wall of muscle and flesh by his side (Bob) who has a computer in his head, whatever a computer is.
Meanwhile in 2001, the bland grey world of Nazi rule is then transformed into a desolate, post-apocalyptic world with a red sky and the half-collapsed buildings of New York. Foster, Sal and Maddy find out that it is not abandoned, as they had thought, but is inhabited by a population of ghostly pale creatures, that seem to be descendants of humans after a nuclear war.
With no electricity and power running out from the old generator, they have to find Liam’s message (if he’s managed to leave one) and get him back. They also need enough power to time-travel again and remove the “contaminators”.
The story is a good one and the Second World War seems like an appropriate start for the series. If you didn’t know what the next books had in store, what would you guess as the next altered timelines? One of them results in Liam being sent into Medieval England, in the time of Robin Hood. The series has a unique idea that will, hopefully, contain a lot of mystery and will probably confuse many readers. In a good way. 9/10 from me.
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