I’ve been devouring each Time Riders book shortly after its publication, and I read the 437 pages of book five in a few days, which for me shows I was enjoying the book. Even though I’m not a teenager, for whom these books are aimed at, as an adult I’ve found the series to be a great read.
The Time Riders series centres around three teenagers called Liam, Maddy and Sal, plus their supporting A.I. Units and a mentor of sorts. The trio were been plucked out of time shortly before their tragic demises, to have a second change at life protecting the time stream as part of an agency.
In the latest offering, the main stage was ancient Rome, with people from 2070 venturing back and altering history. It is up to the Time Riders who are based in New York in 2001 to work out when, who and how to set things right, but as you might expect, it really isn’t as simple as that.
The Time Riders have been struggling to find their own places within their new roles over the last five books, plus throw in some interesting twists and turns and you end up finishing one book, ready for the next! Well I do anyhow, but that doesn’t mean you can’t read these books as standard alone books, which you can (just), but you really should delve into the whole series to enjoy a richer reading experience.
It was good to see some issues that have been bubbling in the series for a while, come to the surface, some resolved and some not, plus naturally new questions have been presented, which help tie this book to the next in the series.
There was an unexpected twist in this book, with the Time Riders themselves becoming a target from another time!! I’m not going to say anything more, but it opens up possibilities and I hope in future books this is explored, which I’m sure it will be.
As always I enjoyed reading the authors take on the period of history, this time ancient Rome and the stark realities of yesterday, are not covered up, even though this is a teenage aimed book.
It would have been all too easy for the author to have gone for some clichés in this book. i.e. Have Bob (a strong A.I. support unit) become a gladiator or turn Liam into a Roman squad leader or something similar, but Alex Scarrow resisted and the book was richer for how he used his characters in this time period.
With each book there are new characters and from the good, the bad and the ones somewhere in-between, I enjoyed the new characters for this book, both the ones in Ancient Rome and the ones from 2070.
So what didn’t I like? After all this is a review, I can’t just say ‘great read’, and move on. I missed the Becks character not having a major role, as she has in previous books, but I presume that could change in book six or seven? I was eager to see a Liam and Foster meet up, but I hope that occurs soon. I was also surprised by Liam’s character not being more commanding after all this time, especially after Nottingham (part of a previous Time Rider storyline). Though these are not faults with the writing, and book five is part of a series, so character development, plotlines etc can be expanded over the series and not neatly tied up by the end of the book.
So there you have it, I hope I’ve given a fair review, talking about positives and negatives from my viewpoint. I will admit I am a huge Time Riders fan! I find it relaxing to read these books, the writing is top-notch, the storyline interesting and although it wasn’t the stand-out book of the series so far, it was a great read.
I’m already looking forward to the sixth Time Riders book.
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