time travel Archives - Page 2 of 3

Yzabel / November 30, 2015

Review: Deep Time

Doctor Who: Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale
My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

‘I do hope you’re all ready to be terrified!’
The Phaeron disappeared from the universe over a million years ago. They travelled among the stars using roads made from time and space, but left only relics behind. But what actually happened to the Phaeron? Some believe they were they eradicated by a superior force… Others claim they destroyed themselves.
Or were they in fact the victims of an even more hideous fate?
In the far future, humans discover the location of the last Phaeron road – and the Doctor and Clara join the mission to see where the road leads. Each member of the research team knows exactly what they’re looking for – but only the Doctor knows exactly what they’ll find.
Because only the Doctor knows the true secret of the Phaeron: a monstrous secret so terrible and powerful that it must be buried in the deepest grave imaginable…

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

3 to 3.5 stars

This is the last book in the “Glamour Chronicles” series. I’m glad I seemingly read them in the “right” order, because while they were supposed to be readable in just any order, I don’t think they really are. At least, “Deep Time” should come last, as it brings a conclusion to this whole Glamour thing. A good or a bad thing, depending on how you see it: I felt that this story may have fared better on its own, because the way it tied in with the elusive Glamour was a bit vague. It still worked in the end, though, so that wasn’t too much of an issue, at least.

In any case, it was way, way better than “Big Bang Generation”. Not over the place, and one of those darker Doctor Who stories, where danger feels more real, where people die in gruesome ways.

This time, Twelve and Clara embark on board the Alexandria, a brand new spaceship, in an expedition financed by a rich guy. Pretty much every member of the expedition has their reasons to try and find the mysterious Phaeron Roads, an ancient network of now-collapsed wormholes. At the end of the journey, they hope to find what their heart most desires: a long-lost parent, the money to at last find a place where they can live in peace, the kind of adventure money can’t buy… And within the Glamour Chronicles, doesn’t that ring a bell? After all, from the beginning of this trilogy, it’s been about “wanting”…

The plot was classical, should I say: not very original (expedition gets stranded, time and space go wonky, some people die, the answer comes through what remains of a mysterious ancient race…), but it was enjoyable, with well-timed dark moments. It would’ve deserved more development, more fleshing out. Like the other novels in the trilogy, it was short, and didn’t leave much room for additional details.

I found the Doctor more active than in previous books, more “Doctor-like”, with more important screen time, too, and as a result, “Deep Time” felt like an actual TV episode, in spite of the large cast of characters (the large cast had kind of killed Twelve’s presence in “Big Bang Generation”, in my opinion). And speaking of these secondary characters, they were interesting enough; their backgrounds were kept to minimum information, yet it still allowed me to draw a fairly good picture of them (well, alright, Flexx and Cranmer less than the others). I wasn’t too convinced about Clara, though, as she was a bit too… passive to my liking. There were several instances of characters fainting after a time shift, for instance, and she was just a little too often part of the “weak” ones who didn’t wake up fast. I’m not really fond of such devices.

Conclusion: Not an exceptional novel, but one that does well enough as an enjoyable Doctor Who story.

Yzabel / November 9, 2015

Review: Big Bang Generation

Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell

My rating: [rating=1]

Blurb:

“I’m an archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting.”

Christmas 2015, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Imagine everyone’s surprise when a time portal opens up in Sydney Cove. Imagine their shock as a massive pyramid now sits beside the Harbour Bridge, inconveniently blocking Port Jackson and glowing with energy. Imagine their fear as Cyrrus “the mobster” Globb, Professor Horace Jaanson and an alien assassin called Kik arrive to claim the glowing pyramid. Finally imagine everyone’s dismay when they are followed by a bunch of con artists out to spring their greatest grift yet.

This gang consists of Legs (the sexy comedian), Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower), Shortie (handling logistics), Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) and their leader, Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib).

And when someone accidentally reawakens The Ancients of the Universe – which, Doc reckons, wasn’t the wisest or best-judged of actions – things get a whole lot more complicated…

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

1.5 stars

I don’t know where to start, because this one was all over the place. Ambitious, with a plotline that could be awesome and tie a lot of things together, yet… didn’t in the end, not really. I mean, the plot got its ending, but I still have no idea where it all fits within the Glamour series, except for the name being thrown in, and the Ancients bit just made me wonder what/who exactly they were, and what was their purpose? (Not much, considering how they were presented.)

I liked the sense of a con, or several cons going on, at the same time, or at different times. I liked the postcards bit, because in general I’m fond of such devices (cliché as they are) to “gather the posse together and prepare for the big heist”. Only it stayed at that level, and I didn’t get later the feeling I got from the book’s blurb, which hinted at something more exciting.

A lot of things made no sense, to be honest, in how the characters behaved, in their plans, in how they interacted with each other. There was banter (good Capaldi-like lines, for sure) but they felt disjointed from the plot. The characters weren’t as far as witty as they were meant to be. Incoherences thrown in now and then didn’t help (I think they have some time of veiling/cloaking technology, yet Peter has to hide his face under a hoodie?).

The random interest Kik showed for Peter was a big WTF series of moments for me. It just came out of nowhere, and made as little sense as the rest. Their interactions were somewhat fun at first (dog fart in her face to make her throw him away—it’s 100% dumb, but hey, whatever works, also I’m positive it’s the kind of stunt I’d pull in a pen & paper RPG session)… but they didn’t tie at all into “prospective love interest territory”. The badass assassin never projected that aura of badassery I expected from her, Jaansen was just a bumbling idiot, Globb never lived up to his reputation as a conman, Ruth… I don’t even know what she was supposed to do here, apart from being that other guy’s fiancée. I probably missed a few things here. I’m fine with lots of characters… only please develop them more, make them look and smell and feel “real”, otherwise I won’t care much.

And that’s another of the issues I have with this novel. I didn’t get a lot of the references (although I enjoyed the ones I got), my knowledge of the series being mostly the 2005+ seasons and a handful of novels. However, I kept wondering if there wasn’t too much information about Bernice and what she shared with the Doctor, in that now I feel I know a lot without never reading anything about her (or listening to anything—if I’m not mistaken, that was all about audio episodes?). It’s as if the novel hints at too many things for someone who doesn’t know much to the Whoverse, while at the same time recapping too many things as well for those who know a lot and don’t care about, well, many recaps. As a result, there was paradoxically a lot of padding in a novel still too short for its (potentially) complex plot.

Definitely a weird and soon-to-be-forgotten read, unfortunately.

Yzabel / July 30, 2015

Review: Time Salvager

Time Salvager by Wesley Chu

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

In a future when Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humanity has spread into the outer solar system to survive, the tightly controlled use of time travel holds the key maintaining a fragile existence among the other planets and their moons. James Griffin-Mars is a chronman–a convicted criminal recruited for his unique psychological makeup to undertake the most dangerous job there is: missions into Earth’s past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. Most chronmen never reach old age, and James is reaching his breaking point.

On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets an intriguing woman from a previous century, scientist Elise Kim, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, James brings her back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, and discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity’s home world.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

There were quite a few good concepts in there. The psychological and physical side-effects of time travel, that basically placed a lot of people in ChronoCom not exactly on the right side of sanity. The use ChronoCom was put to, with the “salvages” quickly starting to look more like pillaging than anything else. The different phases humanity went through, from the exuberant utopian mindset of Nutris to the Technological Isolationists to the Big Brother-ish Publicae Age.
The novel also had room for character development: James and his growing sense of guilt, Elise’s adaptation to her new world, Smitt’s and Levin’s choices… And bonus points for Grace Priestly, the snarky old lady, badass in her own ways, who made me smile from the start.

Unfortunately, although interesting at first — it definitely grabbed me during the first 10-15% or so — the story quickly lost its momentum, and ended up feeling more like a series of events, sometimes even fillers, than like an actual plot. A lot of what looked like good ideas veered a little too much towards clichés (the villainish Corporations, the “nice savages”…), and I was baffled, too, that ChronoCom in general didn’t manage to track James more quickly: granted, he had tools and a stealthy ship, but I would’ve expected their means were more efficient than his, considering the help they had.

The characters in general didn’t exactly develop much past a certain point, or made strange choices. (Levin, I’m looking at you — OK, maybe not so strange, but terribly counter-productive, unless there’s a plan in the making for book 2 here?) The dialogues were sometimes repetitive and annoying, and the writing style tended to tell a lot more than it showed. This made a lot of scenes and character interactions rather dry, action scenes included.

One thing that I didn’t like and that deserves being mentioned: including small cliffhangers at the end of a chapter—and then starting the next chapter *after* the cliffhanger was resolved. Those events managed to look like small fillers *and* cop-outs at the same time, because the reader doesn’t get to see how exactly the characters managed to solve the crisis. That was… definitely annoying.

Conclusion: a fairly interesting initial idea, but in the end, I found the execution unfortunately lacking. 1.5 to 2 stars.

Yzabel / June 14, 2015

Review: The Mirror

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

The night before her wedding, Shay Garrett has no idea that a glimpse into her grandmother’s antique Chinese mirror will completely transform her seemingly ordinary life. But after a bizarre blackout, she wakes up to find herself in the same house—in the year 1900. Even stranger, she realizes she is now living in the body of her grandmother, Brandy McCabe, as a young woman. Meanwhile, Brandy, having looked into the same mirror, awakens in Shay’s body in the present day to discover herself pregnant. Did Shay die and get reincarnated as young Brandy, who is about to get married herself? The answer is far more complex and bizarre than either woman can imagine.

Shay’s mother, Rachael, weaves back and forth between the two time periods in this riveting story of three headstrong women grappling with identity, love, and family drama. From courageous, compassionate Shay, who suddenly finds herself fighting against the confines of a society decades away from women’s liberation, to Brandy, struggling to adapt to a more modern world, Millhiser’s strong characters are up to the task presented by this imaginative yet humorous adventure.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This reprint (manner of speaking) of a 1978 novel was definitely interesting to read, although I confess not having paid enough attention at first when it came to the original publishing date… and was confused in the beginning. But that’s not fault of the book’s, only mine.

The story weaves the lives of Shay and Brandy, the first being the latter’s granddaughter. A mysterious mirrors switches their minds in time, forcing Shay to live as Brandy in 1900, and Brandy as Shay in 1978. Of course, each of them has to face a world they don’t understand: Shay as a “proper” bride-to-be whose mind and manners are way too open for the people around her, and Brandy as a young woman in a society way too liberated, compared to what she used to know. As daily challenges pile one after the other, managing their families not being the least of them, both react and adapt differently.

I admit I was more interested in Shay’s role, narrated in parts 1 and 2. Brandy seemed more passive—in keeping with her education, probably, but it made her walk in Shay’s shadow almost all the time, so to speak. Compared to her granddaughter, she had more trouble adjusting. On the other hand, Shay had history to rely on, to help prove the people around her that she wasn’t just crazy and indeed knew of some future events. I wasn’t convinced the first time she admitted being another person in Brandy’s body, thinking “is she stupid? She’s going to get committed in no time!” However, it also made me wonder how would anyone react in such a situation. Trying to act the part can only take you so far, after all.

Other ideas are explored as well, especially the chicken-and-egg matter of not knowing if you have to simply reenact a past already “written” in order to end up existing, or if your very presence if this past is now threatening everything, and you don’t know what actions are going to make it work, or on the other hand destroy everything. Shay had to use the little knowledge she had of her family (her parents had her a little late in life, and she hadn’t known some of the characters she then encounters as Brandy) in order to piece everything together—and it wasn’t always easy, for instance when she realised the guy she had to marry wasn’t her grandfather, thus wondering what it’d lead to, and how/if history would right itself.

Another point raised here: Shay’s control over her family’s life. It made her appear as overbearing, always knowing what would happen, who the children would marry, etc., prompting them in turn to do things differently just to prove her wrong… yet history still righted itself at some point. It was hard to tell whether Shay was trying to control everything, or saying what she knew because, well, she knew it, and it escaped her lips from time to time. Keeping such a secret for so long sure must be hard.

It’s a bit too bad that Brandy’s part felt definitely weaker. From the way young Brandy was presented at first, in the accounts of the McCabes, she seemed more resourceful and rebellious (for a 1900 girl, that is); but the Brandy shown in the third part of the novel was too often silent, retreating into herself, and I couldn’t find here the person who was supposed to be curious. Although that was the culture shock speaking, I thought she could’ve made more of an effort, instead of waiting on Shay to solve the problem on her end. Her story was also more removed from that of her family’s, so while Shay’s part appeared as more involved, Brandy’s left less room to focus on the dynamics among the Garretts. Too bad, as the novel explores parents/children relationships as well as time travel.

Another thing I regretted not reading more about: the mirror itself. Part 3 of the novel introduces a theft, yet nothing was really resolved there. For the whole book, it’s presented as some kind of cursed artifact, and it would’ve been nice

I liked the depictions of daily life in 1900, as Shay tries to adapt. However, the writing itself was too often descriptive as well, telling more than showing what happened.

Overall, a good enough time travel story (that didn’t forget to play on the theme of paradox in its own way, a.k.a. the stroke and death), yet one that seemed to lose interest for itself towards the end (Brandy’s part). 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / February 19, 2015

Review: Silverwood

Silverwood by Betsy Streeter

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

The Silverwoods are a clan with a messy history and an uncertain future, responsible to protect humanity from the shape-shifting Tromindox. Helen Silverwood, fourteen, is beginning to realize that she will never lead a normal life. There have been clues: Her mother’s unusual work habits, her father’s absence, her brother’s strange abilities with a pencil and paper, and her own recurring dreams and hacker tendencies. And, the family’s constant moves from place to place.

Things are about to get much more complicated, and it all leads to the remote town of Brokeneck, California. Can the Silverwoods keep from losing each other in space and time, while unraveling a dangerous mystery?

Review:

(I got a copy from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

As of now, I am not sure yet whether I should give this book 1 star or 2. I can’t say that I didn’t like it at all, because several ideas and themes were definitely interesting, and made me want to know more. But… This is one of those “good ideas, but…” novels, too.

Mostly I was constantly annoyed with the feeling that I was reading a first draft, instead of an edited copy. (Of course, as an Advanced Reader Copy, it was still liable to change; however, I still think an ARC is meant to be as close as possible to a ready-to-be-published version, not to a draft.) Sometimes the story dragged in places, sometimes it went much too fast, leaving gaps in the narrative that were difficult to fill. In the end, too many elements still remained shrouded in mystery—and not the kind of mystery that is justified, since it stemmed, in my opinion, from aforementioned gaps. Keeping revelations for a second installment is nice, but not when it makes a jumble of the first.

As a result, I had a hard time caring for the characters and for their predicament, as well as for the antagonists. The former’s decisions often didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, and too many secondary characters didn’t have enough screen time for their role to be understandable (Chris, Rosie, Eleanor…). The latter’s motives were unclear, their moves too sudden to know where they came from (puzzling the heroes is good; puzzling the reader, not so much). Adding time travel, portals, a jail, a Council, alien-like creatures, and a strange little town whose importance wasn’t properly stressed… Well, let’s just say the mix was too confusing.

The third person present tense style was the second thing that alienated me, so to speak. It is a tricky style to deal with, and while it works in some stories, here it didn’t do anything for me, and made me cringe more than once.

This is really too bad, because I did want to like this story, and it did seem like the kind of time travel-filled plot I would normally enjoy…

Yzabel / February 11, 2015

Review: Unhappenings

Unhappenings by Edward Aubry

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

When Nigel Walden is fourteen, the UNHAPPENINGS begin. His first girlfriend disappears the day after their first kiss with no indication she ever existed. This retroactive change is the first of many only he seems to notice.

Several years later, when Nigel is visited by two people from his future, he hopes they can explain why the past keeps rewriting itself around him. But the enigmatic young guide shares very little, and the haggard, incoherent, elderly version of himself is even less reliable. His search for answers takes him fifty-two years forward in time, where he finds himself stranded and alone.

And then he meets Helen.

Brilliant, hilarious and beautiful, she captivates him. But Nigel’s relationships always unhappen, and if they get close it could be fatal for her. Worse, according to the young guide, just by entering Helen’s life, Nigel has already set into motion events that will have catastrophic consequences. In his efforts to reverse this, and to find a way to remain with Helen, he discovers the disturbing truth about the unhappenings, and the role he and his future self have played all along.

Equal parts time-travel adventure and tragic love story, Unhappenings is a tale of gravely bad choices, and Nigel’s struggle not to become what he sees in the preview of his worst self.

Review:

(I got a copy from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5 stars, rounded to 4. I quite enjoyed it overall.

This novel is a tale of choices gone wrong, of moments that could’ve been but had to be sacrificed, of events that still left a sad taste even though they weren’t that bad at first sight. It’s a tale of time travellers that are doomed to meet each other coming from different directions, one gradually gaining insight he wouldn’t have had if the other hadn’t allowed him to grasp them first, and conversely. It’s also a tale of love both doomed and stronger than everything. A rather odd mix, but one that I found intriguing and entertaining.

Time travel here isn’t exactly the main focus, although it’s the main means. Some of the motivators could be easily seen as self-centered and selfish—and it isn’t lost on the characters, who admit it themselves at one point or another. One of the interesting sides of the novel, apart from the science fiction aspect, is that it challenges human nature in several occasions, and you easily find yourself wondering: “What decision would -I- have made, in such circumstances? Can I really blame this character for wanting that?” The scientific concepts behind time travel are never really explored in depth, but somehow, it doesn’t really matter. At least, it didn’t matter that much to me, because more important than that were the people, the decisions they would make, and how they would manage to cheat the space-time continuum in order to get what they wanted—or had to do to prevent something really bad from happening.

(Granted, when I say that scientifically, time travel wasn’t explored a lot, it’s not exactly true. We don’t get explanations about how the modules work, but the reasoning behind the travels, behind echoes of people being left in the timeline, seemed believable and interesting.)

Another nice part of the book is how it appears as a puzzle, and as a reader, you have to piece things together. Something mentioned in the very first chapters will make full sense only 150 pages later, yet when it finally does, you realise you were right in paying attention.

On the downside, the explanation behind the unhappenings was perhaps a little too simple to my taste, in that I actually wanted to see more of, let’s say, what was causing them. Due to the first person point of view, that “adversary” was painted in more dark shades than light ones, and I’m left wondering if things were supposed to unfold the way they did, or if there wouldn’t have been yet another way, less dark. I also thought that a few things went too fast towards the end (a certain person breaking down, for instance, as this felt just… bizarre), and that the whole Project might have deserved being mentioned more than just in passing.

Nigel at times seemed somewhat callous—not an unexpected nor unforgiveable trait considering all the unhappenings; only a few events were brushed over (e.g. his feelings regarding his parents), and it was sometimes hard to decide whether he did things out of love and forced himself not to think of the impact on himself, or had just lost the ability to “feel”. I guess it’s not exactly a defect, as the context justifies it, but at some moments I appreciated it, and at others I didn’t. Same at the very end with Helen, whose decision was… I don’t know, both understandable and “why on Earth did we do all that for if it was for things to come to -this-?”

However, as said at the beginning of my review, I enjoyed the story nonetheless. It probably also deserves to be revisited to see if I haven’t missed anything between the lines.

Yzabel / February 5, 2015

Review: The Mindtraveler

The Mindtraveler by Bonnie Rozanski

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

What woman of a certain age doesn’t sometimes look upon her life and wish she could go back and do it all over again?

With more of her life behind her than ahead, Margaret Braverman, a physicist teaching at a small college, cannot help but regret the things she never quite got right. Most important among them was the tragic ending of her romance with her brilliant colleague Frank, something she has never gotten over. Then there is the prospect of restoring the respect of her colleagues after that unfortunate incident where she set her hair on fire. And, of course, it would be glorious to get even with that mean-spirited, conceited, womanizing Caleb Winter.

Fortunately, after years of experimentation in the back room of her lab, Margaret has finally built a time machine. The key, she discovered, is in teleporting not the body but the mind. And so, at 5:03 p.m. on May 3, 2012, Margaret teleports her mind to her 1987 self.

Though her body is that of a 35-year-old, the narration and point of view is that of her older self. “60″, as she calls herself, feels everything but can’t move a muscle. All she can do is to passively witness what she lived once before, and, until she figures out how to influence things, nothing is going to change.

Review:

(I got a copy from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars. Mixed feelings here.

On the one hand, it was permeated with a mellow, nostalgic atmosphere that I found pleasant. Not because of the events that unfolded in the past—some of those raised serious matters, like destroying a family, the glass ceiling, what it meant to be a woman in a place dominated by a patriarchal hierarchy. Because of how Margaret saw the past through the eyes of her younger self, with the hindsight of 60 years of life. As she was basically a silent passenger in the back of 35!Margaret’s head, she could easily reflect and contemplate on that world she didn’t remember accurately, and relive these memories in a way that would allow her to treasure them (seeing her parents again, for instance).

The ending was in part predictable, in part surprising (the twist with the student, all making sudden sense when you think about it), in part unavoidable, and I liked the latter aspect: I don’t think I would’ve wanted a too well-wrapped ending, with nice ribbons around. The one the author chose to go with seemed to fit Margaret’s character better than a “quieter” one.

A huge downside for me was the “silent passenger” side of the plot. For about 70-75% of the story, 60!Margaret can’t do much more than lift a few fingers, which forces her in an extremely passive role (somewhat reminiscent, though, of what 35 had to go through: “be a nice girl and shut up when it comes to the important stuff”—the echo wasn’t lost on me). It made up for a very awkward transition when she suddenly finds herself doing so much more, and as a result, the last chapters felt disconnected and in a hurry. It would’ve been more seamless if she had gradually started to do more, perhaps while her younger self was asleep/unaware of her “passenger”.

The romance aspect I could’ve done without. It wasn’t a breaker because it was romance, but it tended to obfuscate Margaret as a person who could make a life for herself—as in,” who cares about academic recognition and a whole career, as long as I can have The Man?” (This clashed with Margaret’s views on life, with her way of always deciding for herself, even if that mean making a bad decision, with her aims of becoming a researcher and getting tenure, etc.) This is why, I think, I’m glad the ending was what it was, and I can’t help but wonder what she would do afterwards: enjoy the good or moan about the bad?

As for the characters themselves, mostly they weren’t that enjoyable, unfortunately, either because they were greedy, sleazy or cowards, or just not impressive. This is humanity in a basket, I suppose, but a few more positive people to balance it out would’ve been nice. The mellow/nostalgic side of the novel would’ve made a stronger impression on me, too, if I had had a better feeling for them.

Not a bad novel, all in all, and the concepts and ideas it raised were definitely interesting. Unfortunately, in the end, it remained in the “just OK” category for me.

Yzabel / November 21, 2014

Review: The Blood Cell

Doctor Who: The Blood Cell by James Goss

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

“Release the Doctor – or the killing will start.”

An asteroid in the furthest reaches of space – the most secure prison for the most dangerous of criminals. The Governor is responsible for the worst fraudsters and the cruellest murderers. So he’s certainly not impressed by the arrival of the man they’re calling the most dangerous criminal in the quadrant. Or, as he prefers to be known, the Doctor.

What does impress the Governor is the way the new prisoner immediately sets about trying to escape. And keeps trying. Finally, he sends for the Doctor and asks him why? But the answer surprises even the Governor. And then there’s the threat – unless the Governor listens to the Doctor, a lot of people will die.

Who is the Doctor and what’s he really doing here? Why does he want to help the Governor? And who is the young woman who comes every day to visit him, only to be turned away by the guards?

When the killing finally starts, the Governor begins to get his answers…

Review:

(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Third 12th Doctor novel I read, and this one was quite surprising, in a way I hadn’t expected.

It’s narrated from the point of view of a secondary character, and not in the usual third person POV I’ve seen used in the other DW novels I read (granted, they don’t amount to a lot, as previously mentioned). It was a bit disconcerting, and for some time I questioned that choice; however, after a while, I decided it wasn’t so bad. On the one hand, the Doctor and Clara aren’t so much the focus which can be seen as a problem. On the other hand, it allowed for a Doctor as seen by other people around him: how they perceived him, how he might come off to those who had no idea who he was, what kind of lasting impression he may leave on them. Because no matter what, the Doctor comes and go, and once he’s gone, well, what’s left behind? How is he going to be remembered?

Somehow, this novel provided the beginning of an insight into that, in a different way from what the new series has made me used to. It’s not distinctly Whovian, which isn’t exactly great, but somehow, it still kept me interested. I also liked Clara better here than I usually do, with her happy petitioning and picketing and her own antics (the cake, her pupils…).

The plot itself was OK: not the best I’ve seen, but not the worst either. It had more of a political bend, something I don’t see that often in DW, so here, too, the change can be seen as refreshing, or as annoying. It’ll all depend on the reader.

Conclusion: a novel I quite liked, though I could reproach it not to be “Whovian” enough.

Yzabel / June 9, 2014

Review: Glitch

Glitch by Brenda Pandos

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

When a mysterious guy from the zombie zone sneaks an illegal slip of paper to a beautiful young girl from Brighton, she must decide if she should turn him in or follow what the note says in the first book of the Brighton Zombies Series, Glitch.

Eighteen-year-old Abigail has no trouble following Brighton’s rules. For one, she’s OCD about checking her Date of Death clock latched to her wrist, making sure her decisions never shorten her timeline, and two, she enjoys the peace Brighton has to offer. In no way would she bring on another attack that destroyed earth’s inhabitants like her predecessors did from their selfishness and greed. But when her best friend returns from her Advice Meeting–a glimpse into the future–shell shocked and won’t tell Abby what’s happened, she’s worried what awaits her. The stranger with blue-eyes knows something, but does Abby dare enter the zombie zone to get answers? Or is she doomed to live the life set for her?

Review:

(I received this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

It took me some time to get and remain in the story, and I have to admit that in the end, well, I didn’t like it. There were good ideas, and it started off as promising; however, after a while, everything became so disjointed that I wasn’t sure anymore what I was reading, and the abrupt ending/cliffhanger just left me “wait, whut?”.

The first thing I couldn’t wrap my mind around was the world itself. It contains lots of elements, and seems quite rich in terms of background to exploit, but the way it was introduced didn’t make much sense to me. We have zombies who may or may not exist; Sasquatches (half-human, half-animal?) whose origin is definitely unclear; and what I’m going to call a “pocket universe”, a.k.a. Brighton, without any information about the rest of the world. I admit I wouldn’t have been bothered so much if I had read this book some 3 years ago, but after so many dystopian stories revolving about the same theme, I can’t help now but always wonder: “Is this community the only one? What about others? Don’t they communicate? Do people really believe all that, and never question anything, even privately, in their own thoughts?” The Oracle part was also problematic: she’s introduced around the 25% mark, as something everybody seems to know (at least, the way Abby mentions her), but I can’t remember her existence being mentioned sooner, and this felt weird. Also, this:

“The EA wanted to purge blue eyes from future generations, saying they had a proclivity to disease and illness.”

Why? This begged for an explanation, and we never got it. This looks like a really important element, so important that the EA goes to such lengths as to, well, spay people who might give birth to children with blue eyes. Why? Are blue eyes linked to some special power? Is some blue-eyed person born in the future, so they’re trying to prevent his/her birth by removing blue eyes from the gene pool altogether? As it is, it just didn’t make sense.

Some pacing problems, too. The beginning was interesting. The middle lacked in excitement (discover people outside, travel to camp, life at camp). The third part contained many time-jumps, and those were terribly confusing. I’d like to chalk said confusion to my being tired, but I’m really not sure about that. I get there are different timelines, and that there’s a key moment in the past from which various futures are determined… or was the key moment sometime in the future, with a cure being found for something that happened in the present, yet it had to be brought to the past for the present to be “normal” again? The way things happened in that regard were, again, very confusing, and that part of the plot kept contradicting itself. I still have no idea how the person able to jump in time did it (claiming “I have no control”, yet always conveniently arriving at the exact moment they aimed for?), nor how her powers suddenly came out, nor how she managed to sort through all those timelines. She seemed to learn that in a snap of fingers, when it’s probably something anyone would need at least days of training to master—if only in their mind.

I didn’t really like any of the characters. Abby: has every male character pining after her, and of course she can’t decide (it’s insta-love but it isn’t, no, wait, it is); whiny, needy, then turning badass out of nowhere. Kaden: stop being the broody loner and TALK, because I tell you, this clears up misunderstandings in record time. Memphis: any person calling another “Sugar” from the beginning (or “babe”, “baby”, or whatever other “cutesy” name) makes me cringe—and the testosterone contest regarding who gets the girl gets tiring, pretty fast: I felt like smacking him every time he made moves such as sliding his arm around Abby’s waist in a possessive gesture. The community: girls are at the camp, doing laundry and cooking and washing the dishes, because everyone knows they can’t have any useful skills like hunting or patrolling, nor can any guy cook a meal. Decisions: everybody seems to act on a whim, sometimes out of character, and a lot of problems could have been avoided if they had just initiated basic communication, instead of puffing chests and trying to prove how manly they were. Reader not impressed here.

On the writing side: a couple of proofing problems (Complement/Compliment), that got corrected after a while, but were still annoying. Maybe they’re not in the printed copy anymore, though.

Although the next book is bound to hold answers, after such a cliffhanger, I’m not interested enough to pick it.

Yzabel / March 17, 2014

Review: TimeRiders

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

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 . . .

Review:

I was reading this one for a group read, but since I had time to finish it today instead of dumbly waiting for tomorrow to roll in, well…

I’m not sure if it should be a 1* or 2* for me. Let’s say 2, for the Terminator shout-outs, which made me smile (I watched T1 and T2 when I was in middle school, and I still have fond memories of those), for the couple of good things I liked, and because I didn’t actually want to throw the book through the window. In fact, I think it could be nice for a younger audience—maybe 7th graders—because if you don’t pay attention to the plot holes, well, the story has the potential to be a fast, entertaining read (though a bit frightening and gruesome in parts for the really young readers out there).

The characters weren’t particularly well-developed, but neither were they insufferable, and I appreciated the plot not being bogged down by the useless romance I see rearing its head in too many YA novels. However, the plot holes are what sunk this book for me. It’s dealing with time travel, a very, very tricky subject, and one that is really not so easy to master. As soon as it enters the game, it brings its lot of questions: what’s the science behind it, what about paradox, what happens if a character meets him/herself from the past, and so on. Unfortunately, TimeRiders didn’t deal well with that in my eyes.

Here’s an example: the characters live in a sort of “bubble”, from which they observe the same two days in time. Within the bubble, they age normally, but every couple of days, the world around them is reset, and reverts back to what it was at the beginning of their observation period. One of the characters’ role is to stay outside, keeping an eye for whatever may be different, a sure sign that a shift has occured somewhere in history, and report it to the others so that the team’s analyst can locate the problem, and the actual timr-travellers can go there to fix it. However, there’s no explanation as to why this character isn’t affected by huge time shifts. At some point, the whole world is destroyed, so her parents can’t have been born to give birth to her later, so why does she still exist? That kind of problem is never really addressed nor explained. I would’ve been content with something as simple as “once you’re plucked out of time, you can’t be affected by shifts anymore for [insert whatever reason]”, but I don’t even remember seeing that.

Another thing I wondered about was the whole time agency business. The teenagers are never introduced to it, except through what Foster tells them about it; no other team is ever seen or even mentioned; and I had the feeling that it didn’t really exist, that those three kids and their old mentor were the only ones in the world. Maybe this will be explained in book 2 or 3, I don’t know; still, considering this is the book in which the characters are trained for their missions in time, it would’ve made sense to give us more information about that, to make us actually hear about other teams. (Again, I could’ve gone with a short explanation, maybe a rule such as “each time is assigned to a given time period and forbidden to talk to the others, for fear of time paradox.” Whatever.)

Not the worst story I’ve read so far, but consider it a 1.5 on my scale, not more.