Tagged: time travel
Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of the Reader Store.)
When Artemis Fowl’s mother contracts a life-threatening illness, his world is turned upside down. The only hope for a cure lies in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur. Unfortunately, the animal is extinct, thanks to the money-hungry deeds of a younger Artemis.
Though the odds are stacked against him, Artemis is not willing to give up. With the help of his fairy friends, the young genius travels back in time to save the lemur and bring it to the present. But to do so, Artemis will have to defeat a maniacal poacher, who has set his sights on new prey: Holly Short.
The rules of time travel are far from simple, but to save his mother, Artemis will have to break them all…and outsmart his most cunning adversary yet: Artemis Fowl, age ten.
Ah, time travel. It’s definitely a complicated subject in fiction and very few writers can truly pull it off, but for the most part, Eoin Colfer is one of them. What’s interesting is that when Artemis and Holly travel back in time, they age differently. As a result, Artemis is suddenly older and Holly is suddenly younger, as in the human equivalent of a teenager.
If you haven’t guessed what’s going to happen already, I’m disappointed in you because it’s so typical of YA: romantic tension. When I first read The Time Paradox, I was pretty angry about Eoin Colfer forcing the tension between Holly and Artemis, but now I’m just slightly disappointed. It felt like he caved in to the demand that romance has to be part of every YA book, although thankfully things were sorted out in the end.
We learn a lot more about Artemis’ ‘childhood’ and why he was quite the sociopath when we met him in the first book. With a childhood like he had, assuming the role of man of the house at the age of ten, wouldn’t you be a sociopath too? Having the older, more human Artemis meet his ruthless younger self was one of the highlights of the whole novel. In addition to Artemis’ expanded backstory, we also get to learn more about Holly and how her mother died.
There were a few rough spots (see the aforementioned ‘romance’), but overall I enjoyed The Time Paradox. It had an excellent plot that sets up the next two books, helped expand on the backstories of main characters and showed just how far Artemis has really come since the beginning of the series.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Mine by John Heldt
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can’t use, money he can’t spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.
I know what you’re thinking: “Another time travel romance. Are you kidding me?”
How do I know that? Well, I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the blurb John Heldt gave me when he asked me to review his novel. I was really skeptical when I started reading because the reason Joel time travelled was a planetary alignment. A planetary alignment for crying out loud! With a premise like that, could The Mine possibly be salvaged?
Actually, yes.
Pretty much all of the clichés you’ll find are in the beginning of the novel. What sets The Mine apart from a lot of time travel is that Joel, the protagonist, actually knows something about 1940s America and works hard to hide the fact he’s from the future. This is a huge contrast to the bumbling, secret-spilling protagonists who know nothing about the era that seem to populate every time travel novel.
Joel is a great main character: resourceful and intelligent but wracked by guilt when he has to hide his knowledge of upcoming tragedies. Despite his best efforts, he grows attached to his adopted family and even falls in love. Not Insta-Love, mind you, but real love that takes time to develop.
Despite the admittedly shaky start, John Heldt pulled things together in fine fashion. And the ending plot twist was actually unexpected because of the tone of the writing, but was highly satisfying. The climax was so heartbreaking that I was tearing up, but managed not to dissolve into hysterics like I did at the end of Flowers for Algernon.
So if you like romance, historical fiction and/or amazing characters, I would highly recommend this self-published novel.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Timeless by Alexandra Monir
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s family, she is forced to move from Los Angeles to New York City to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she has never met. In their historic Fifth Avenue mansion, filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers the biggest family secret of all—an ancestor’s diary that, amazingly, has the power to send her back in time to 1910, the year it was written. There, at a glamorous high-society masquerade ball, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life. And she finds herself falling for him and into an otherworldly romance.
Soon Michele is leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves—and to complete a quest that will determine their fate.
Have you ever read a book that you couldn’t put down? One that was absolutely captivating? One that literally made you gasp for breath when you finished it? Well, that’s how Timeless was for me.
I know a time travel romance is very clichéd and time travel itself is wrought with problems, not the least of which is the time paradox (more commonly known as the grandfather paradox). But once my scientific instincts were quieted, I really did enjoy Timeless. I must admit that I know next to nothing of America circa 1910, so I can’t critique its accuracy, unlike books about ancient Egypt or ancient Rome. But I think Alexandra Monir did quite a lot of research and her writing really brought the period to life. Her writing is absolutely captivating because she has found the perfect balance between description and dialogue, something a lot of writers—especially the younger ones—struggle with.
In addition to her amazing writing, Alexandra Monir has great characterization. Michele is a very believable character and I could really feel her grief over her mother’s death. She falls in love very quickly, but when you meet someone who has haunted your dreams all your life, what do you expect? She is very sympathetic because in the end she does what she thinks is the right thing, even though it cuts her to the core. And because of her decision, we get a very nice cliffhanger ending that makes me anxious for the sequel, Timekeeper.
I give this book 5/5 stars.