Timeriders Series by Alex Scarrow
Rating: 5/5 Recommendation: READ ALL NINE BOOKS
Intro
Wow. Just wow. I finished reading this book half an hour ago and I have been day dreaming since. It is that weird feeling you get after finishing a fiction book series. I have not felt this ever since I read the Harry Potter series back in 2017.
I just felt lost. The realization hits about half an hour after finishing the book. I have a life to live. I have to catch up on overdue school work. It feels like I was completely removed from this world of Covid-19 news and people living their best lives on the internet. It feels weird. Now on to my non-spoiler review then a review filled with spoilers about me writing my thoughts about this series.
I first discovered the series when I was probably 11. My math teacher used to give away books that her son had read. Sometimes she would give to everyone in class while other times she used to only reward those who had done well in math tests. I used to routinely be rewarded with a few books. Once in her stack of books, I noticed that they all followed the same color scheme and had numbers on the side. It was a series. I took two books since each person was allowed to take a maximum of two. I took book 2 and 5. Yeah I know frustrating. I remember my fellow classmates who took the other books and we all traded the books after we had read ours. Yes back then when life was simple in the early single digits, people were all kind and friendly. So that is how I read Books 1,2,4 and 5.
While cleaning my bookshelf I stumbled upon this ancient relic of my past. The fifth book in the series. I recalled that I had not completely read all the books so I searched for the series on the internet. There it was. The complete list of all the books in the series. I decided to start somewhat chronologically with the third book. Then move on with the 6,7,8 and finally 9th book.
Hype
The series starts with the humble beginnings of the main characters. Liam O’Conner, Saleena Vikram and Maddy Carter. Liam should have died onboard the Titanic in 1911. Maddy should have died in a plane crash in 2010. Sal should have died in a fire in 2026. But they were saved a moment before death by a Time Traveler. The three of them were going to be apart of an agency to prevent greedy humans of the future from changing time because clearly things were always meant to happen in the same way right? Well then there’s a big plot twist.
SPOILER
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Ok now for the spoiler review/thoughts. Holy smokes I cannot believe the story that Roald Waldstein told at the end. The agency was set-up because humans are living in a timeline that is repeating itself. Something like a simulation that people such as Elon Musk have pointed out based on the Fermi Paradox. It’s like a kid (humans) keeps on failing his final exams. So he has to retake his entire schooling so that he has a better chance of passing but he still fails due to being distracted with time travel. So the parents (the caretakers) keep on reseting the kid’s life so that he will eventually pass. It is like humans are the toddler intelligent species of the universe and we still haven’t learnt proper manners.
Continuing on, I did not really like the 8th book which was the Mayan Prophecy as Sal THE MAIN CHARACTER gets lost in the chaos space which was heartbreaking and I almost shed a tear when reading that. Another reason was because of Adam Lewis. The relationship between him and Maddy was just developing when Alex Scarrow decided to sacrifice him to save Maddy as some sort of heroic gesture. Not cool. You could have sacrificed literally any one of the hundred people who were there. Adam was my second favorite supporting character. After Rashim of course. The Mayan Prophecy was just pages filled with anxiety and despair with the occasion thrilling vibe when they were exploring the jungles.
That’s it. My ‘review’ of the entire TimeRiders series. This is my second favorite fiction series of all time, with Harry Potter still holding the throne as its rightful owner. Be sure to tell me once you have read the book @sharvenium on twitter and sharvenium@gmail.com