This book was suggested to
me by the school librarian and after reading the blurb, I was unsure whether to
read it. I decided to give it a go as I like the idea of time travel, and after
the first two chapters, I couldn't put it down.
The characters were engaging and interesting and were totally believable; Liam
in particular has an emotional moment towards the end with support unit (super
strong meat robot) Bob. They all slowly adjust to their two-day time bubble in
New York, the days before and of 9/11 being the two days; Maddy in particular
as she has a relative who died in 9/11, knowing that every two days he'd die.
They each have a role in the team. Liam is the field agent who travels through
time with Bob, stopping other time travellers from ruining history. Maddy is
the team leader, who has to organise the missions. Sal is the watcher, who has
to study every detail of New York so that she can notice if any changes,
indicating the past being changed. Of course they couldn't just be dropped in
the deep end so they have Foster to help them out. Foster recruited the three
of them, saving them moments before each of them should have died (Liam on
Titanic, Maddy in a plane crash in 2010, Sal in a fire in 2026) and he plays a
vital role giving the team help and information on their first mission. Bob is
a great character as well often providing comic relief, not that he knows it.
He creates mission plans, which often have one option as 'kill everybody'. He
also provides support for Liam, which Liam really needs where he is.
The plot is exciting and moves forward really quickly. Maddy and Sal remain in
2001 with Foster but Liam and Bob spend most of their time in Nazi Germany
where time traveller Kramer has convinced Hitler not to invade Poland. This
leads to Germany winning the war and Kramer becoming Fuhrer of Germany. Liam
and Bob struggle to survive in Nazi Germany while Maddy, Sal and Foster also
find themselves in a predicament. They're dealing with the aftermath of
Kramer's meddling. Originally they are stuck in Nazi America but Kramer changes
something
else and the trio end up fighting for survival against cannibalistic monsters. Plenty
of action in the past and the present helps to keep the plot moving forward and
Kramer makes a very believable bad guy.
Another thing I love about this book is the short chapters. Each chapter is eight
pages maximum, and I really enjoyed this. It meant I could continuously pick
the book up and read a few chapters. This was the fastest I've read a full-size
book and the only downside was that it was longer until I could read the next
one.
All in all, this is one of the best books I've ever read and I'd recommend it
to anyone. All ages can read this book and you don't have to know anything
about time travel. Alex Scarrow does a brilliant job with TimeRiders and I hope
the other eight in the series will be as good as this one.
