“The Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time” by James Dashner

The Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time is the first installment in what appears to be a long-term project by several different authors to provide the next big middle-grade book series. The basic concept being that the world all of the characters are living in is actually an alternate reality brought about by many, many well-known historical events not happening the way we remember them. It’s certainly and interesting twist on the usual approach of alternate realities in books. Usually characters are traveling to the alternate reality, not arriving from the alternate reality. I have to say, I loved it through and through.

Dak and Sera are serviceable enough characters for what the story is trying to accomplish and I can entirely understand why they don’t have the depth I’m used to with characters I read because this is a middle-grade series and with a target audience like that you have to keep things a little more simple. There are a few clichés tossed around as far as character personalities are concerned, but nothing glaring and nothing that bothered me all that much.

In this first book of the series the two friends discover The Infinity Ring, a device capable of traveling them through time. Through a series of somewhat unfortunate events they are forced to aid a group known as the Hystorians who are trying to fix all of the wayward big moments in history. Each event has to be righted in a specific order so as to keep the events closer to modern day as unaffected as possible. The first of which that Dak and Sera have to correct is the fact that Columbus was not credited with discovering America.

Back in time the two friends go and as they are younger than your standard adventurers they have plenty of blundered moments that almost leave them stranded in the past. They figure things out in the end however and the result is a fun, quick, exciting tale that takes and interesting approach to time travel and its effects on space-time and all that.

The second installment of The Infinity Ring series, Divide and Conquer was released earlier this week and I look forward to reading it soon and letting all of you know what I think.

Grade: B
Length: 192 pages

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