Time Riders: Day of the Predator
by Alex Scarrow
Maddy is the teenage leader of a small cell of a secret time travelling agency. Together with Liam and Sal she lives in a Time Bubble in New York which repeats two days over and over again. Their job is to travel in time and fix any damage caused by anyone who might be foolish enough to somehow change history or even the future. This is to be the team's second adventure in a series of nine books and readers should prepare themselves for a hair raising and bloody trip into the age of the dinosaurs.
Someone has killed the man responsible for time travel, Edward Chan, and the only people capable of resetting the time line to its proper place are the three New Yorkers. Liam has to travel a few years into the future along with Becky, their computer downloaded into a human clone, and stop the murder. The problems really start when Maddy messes up her first big decision as leader and sends the pair as well as a bus load of teenage bystanders millions of years back in time. Somehow Liam and Becky have to keep both themselves and Edward alive and then get back to their right time. Easier said than done though when a super-intelligent species of dinosaur starts killing off the kids one by one to keep it's place as supreme predator of the jungle. It’s a race in and against time as things start to heat up, both in the jungle and back home with enemies on all sides closing in fast.
Time travel isn’t new by any means but Alex Rider’s take on it is original, with his teenage trio of time police guarding the world against anyone meddling with history. There is plenty you haven’t seen before and the book can be quite edgy at times, such as the heroes reliving the days of 9/11 over and over again as well as the theme of foetuses that they grow to supply their computer with a body. You might think that time-travelling back to Jurassic times is a topic aimed at young readers but this is definitely for the more mature with some very violent content. Be prepared for plenty of deaths and a few limbs strewn around the place before it’s over.
Don’t expect anything much in the way of romance because this is definitely an all action book. There is a hint of a budding relationship between Liam and Becky but so far it’s just a hint. Hopefully it will develop further as the series progresses to balance the book's action packed plot. We loved this book because it’s clever, fast paced and crammed full with tension and suspense and the violence is exciting too. For those fans of the series, the last line of the book ends with a mind blowing revelation, the consequences of which I’m still realising days after reading it. We recommend trying this series!
Someone has killed the man responsible for time travel, Edward Chan, and the only people capable of resetting the time line to its proper place are the three New Yorkers. Liam has to travel a few years into the future along with Becky, their computer downloaded into a human clone, and stop the murder. The problems really start when Maddy messes up her first big decision as leader and sends the pair as well as a bus load of teenage bystanders millions of years back in time. Somehow Liam and Becky have to keep both themselves and Edward alive and then get back to their right time. Easier said than done though when a super-intelligent species of dinosaur starts killing off the kids one by one to keep it's place as supreme predator of the jungle. It’s a race in and against time as things start to heat up, both in the jungle and back home with enemies on all sides closing in fast.
Time travel isn’t new by any means but Alex Rider’s take on it is original, with his teenage trio of time police guarding the world against anyone meddling with history. There is plenty you haven’t seen before and the book can be quite edgy at times, such as the heroes reliving the days of 9/11 over and over again as well as the theme of foetuses that they grow to supply their computer with a body. You might think that time-travelling back to Jurassic times is a topic aimed at young readers but this is definitely for the more mature with some very violent content. Be prepared for plenty of deaths and a few limbs strewn around the place before it’s over.
Don’t expect anything much in the way of romance because this is definitely an all action book. There is a hint of a budding relationship between Liam and Becky but so far it’s just a hint. Hopefully it will develop further as the series progresses to balance the book's action packed plot. We loved this book because it’s clever, fast paced and crammed full with tension and suspense and the violence is exciting too. For those fans of the series, the last line of the book ends with a mind blowing revelation, the consequences of which I’m still realising days after reading it. We recommend trying this series!
