lady_schrapnell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lady_schrapnell) wrote2006-12-10 08:31 pm
lady_schrapnell) wrote2006-12-10 08:31 pm
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Time Runners, by Justin Richards
Just FYI - 'A book in the Time Runners series' - though even this isn't yet published. Does that kind of thing annoy anyone else? End of rhetorical questioning...
Picked up this ARC at the IBBY conference, and have already griped just a wee bit about the promised distribution of wristwatches to boy's magazines as part of the release publicity. But for the record, I'm just rather sour on behalf of some of my favourite authors who don't get this kind of publicity and deserve it if any book does. I was actually impressed with Simon & Schuster, as the only publisher (of fiction) to have a stand at the IBBY, with a few books fitting the theme of the conference for sale or free distribution. And the editor (of at least Gideon the Cutpurse) herself there and personning said stand. Nice!
I just wish the book had lived up to its promise a bit more. Main character initially is Jamie Grant, a normal kid with a normal family and not too many friends in his new school, who discovers he's fallen through a time break and has ceased to exist. I've no idea if it's just me, but the situation this kid faced - his gradual erasure from the memory and recognition of, and eventually even visibility to, his own family, seemed just terrifying. That aspect I found extremely gripping. And the treatment of time in general, and time travel in particular, was complex and intriguing, rather than cursory and let's-get-on-with-the-adventure-ish.
Pity about the characterisation. Or perhaps the fact that there was essentially none. Jamie was mostly irritating - rejecting the explanations and help offered by Anna (a girl who was lost decades before) as just her being a stupid and annoying girl, Anna was mostly a 'sad smile', and even the villain rather boringly villainous. That last was more frustrating than the others in a way, because the Baddies (Undoers, I think) were given interestingly possibilities: some of them were said to be prepared to accept the erasing of individuals in order to prevent some huge tragedy of history, like a war. But the individual Baddie with whom Jamie and Anna struggled, Darkling Midnight, just wants to end human history for the sake of it. Yawn.
I also wondered whether one of the rules of time travel in the book - that nobody could return to the same time in the past more than once - wasn't broken. Anna couldn't go back to a day she'd already visited in order to sort things out, but Jamie visited the same day several times - though maybe there's an escape-clause in its not being the exact same minute he visited each time.
Perhaps it's naive to hope that subsequent books might do more with the characters involved - like give them a touch of personality - but I can easily see myself reading to find out. Especially as the next, Rewind Assassain, (out this summer) takes Jamie and Anna back to 1596. And even more likely if they provide a free copy (with or without wrist-watch) along with my boys' magazine....
Picked up this ARC at the IBBY conference, and have already griped just a wee bit about the promised distribution of wristwatches to boy's magazines as part of the release publicity. But for the record, I'm just rather sour on behalf of some of my favourite authors who don't get this kind of publicity and deserve it if any book does. I was actually impressed with Simon & Schuster, as the only publisher (of fiction) to have a stand at the IBBY, with a few books fitting the theme of the conference for sale or free distribution. And the editor (of at least Gideon the Cutpurse) herself there and personning said stand. Nice!
I just wish the book had lived up to its promise a bit more. Main character initially is Jamie Grant, a normal kid with a normal family and not too many friends in his new school, who discovers he's fallen through a time break and has ceased to exist. I've no idea if it's just me, but the situation this kid faced - his gradual erasure from the memory and recognition of, and eventually even visibility to, his own family, seemed just terrifying. That aspect I found extremely gripping. And the treatment of time in general, and time travel in particular, was complex and intriguing, rather than cursory and let's-get-on-with-the-adventure-ish.
Pity about the characterisation. Or perhaps the fact that there was essentially none. Jamie was mostly irritating - rejecting the explanations and help offered by Anna (a girl who was lost decades before) as just her being a stupid and annoying girl, Anna was mostly a 'sad smile', and even the villain rather boringly villainous. That last was more frustrating than the others in a way, because the Baddies (Undoers, I think) were given interestingly possibilities: some of them were said to be prepared to accept the erasing of individuals in order to prevent some huge tragedy of history, like a war. But the individual Baddie with whom Jamie and Anna struggled, Darkling Midnight, just wants to end human history for the sake of it. Yawn.
I also wondered whether one of the rules of time travel in the book - that nobody could return to the same time in the past more than once - wasn't broken. Anna couldn't go back to a day she'd already visited in order to sort things out, but Jamie visited the same day several times - though maybe there's an escape-clause in its not being the exact same minute he visited each time.
Perhaps it's naive to hope that subsequent books might do more with the characters involved - like give them a touch of personality - but I can easily see myself reading to find out. Especially as the next, Rewind Assassain, (out this summer) takes Jamie and Anna back to 1596. And even more likely if they provide a free copy (with or without wrist-watch) along with my boys' magazine....
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(See us both being restrained. Impressive.)
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So they're going back to 1596 next, eh? (Can encounters with the Bard and Good Queen Bess be far behind?) Presumably at some point they'll travel into Jamie's future, too - I'll be interested to see how he handles that.
I wonder if this person is a DWJ fan? The set-up seemed like a curious mix of The Homeward Bounders (even the hero's name) and A Tale of Time City. But that's probably my own parochialism showing.
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And now I'm all amazement at your cleverness in thinking of Bardly encounters! Apparently the assassin of the title is after our Will, which could be fun.
Re. Jamie
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I think the book's not due out until March, so this can go with other post-Cybils loans if you'd like.
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I'd love to borrow this one, please !
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The time-travel aspects are well done - but then Justin Richards also writes Doctor Who novels, so I'd expect him to be able to handle such things well... (I've only read one of his DW novels so far, The Resurrection Casket, and I enjoyed it a good deal.)
As for him visiting the same day, though not the same minute, I think Anna just said they couldn't affect events in the same day again ? After all, she also visits the same day more than once when she goes to see Jamie on that fateful October day... I'll have to check that before I write my review !