To The Last Page

Scott K. Andrews' ambitious and hugely enjoyable jaunt through the paradoxes of time travel continue impressively in the second book of his YA TimeBomb trilogy , Second Lives . Having established the main characters and shown something of the nature of their ability to move through time in the first book TimeBomb - if not exactly giving away all the answers just yet - the matter of timelines becomes, as you might expect, a little more complicated. The author's winning idea in the first book was to bring together three young people from very different backgrounds and periods of history. 17 year-old Jana is plucked form New York in the year 2141 along with 18 year-old Polish-born Kaz from the present in 2014 and Dora, a 14 year old maid from Cornwall in the year 1640. Without quite knowing how or why they have been brought together, it's clear they have a destiny to play some part in attempting to prevent an apocalyptic event that is going to take place/has already taken pla...

Mind-bomb The first of a trilogy, Scott Andrews' Timebomb has some good ideas, some strong characters and - operating as it does with time travel - it has lots of interesting places to go to in the subsequent books. The first book takes place mostly in the 17th century in the middle of the English Civil War, but the far future, the present and even some hints of events in the even more distant past, make this a highly potent mix. The strength of the concept is bound up in its central team of three characters who come from the past, the present and the future. 17 year-old Jana is from New York in the year 2141, 18 year-old Polish-born Kaz is from the present-day and 14 year-old Dora is a maid in Sweetclover Hall in Cornwall in the year 1640.  Having been brought together by some sudden and not yet entirely explained phenomenon, they are able to draw on their individual talents, local knowledge and futuristic body-implant enhancements to deal with... well, that remains to be seen......