Time Riders Book 6: City of Shadows by Alex Scarrow
Published October 2012 Penguin (Puffin)
From the publisher:
Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.
But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history . . .
Hunted by cyborg assassins from the future, the Time Riders must abandon New York and go on the run.
They escape to Victorian London and the streets where Jack the Ripper roams. But, before they can establish their new base, they make their most shattering discovery yet - and it will change everything . . .
This is probably the best Time Riders book I have read, it is also the one that I can't say too much about. So many things come to light in this book, none of which I can share with you, as I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.
Published October 2012 Penguin (Puffin)
From the publisher:
Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.
But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history . . .
Hunted by cyborg assassins from the future, the Time Riders must abandon New York and go on the run.
They escape to Victorian London and the streets where Jack the Ripper roams. But, before they can establish their new base, they make their most shattering discovery yet - and it will change everything . . .
This is probably the best Time Riders book I have read, it is also the one that I can't say too much about. So many things come to light in this book, none of which I can share with you, as I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.
At
the end of Gates of Rome, the truth about the Time Riders and the agency was
revealed. In this book we see how the
team deal with this new knowledge, and how it may change their objectives.
It
has always been the mission to keep ‘time’ on track, making sure any
contamination in the past is dealt with and the world as we know it continues
on the correct path. What they have
found out is that the world is destined to destroy itself in the future, and
their objective from Roald Walderstein has been to make sure this happens. When cyborg assassins are sent from the future
to kill the team (because they know too much) they decide to branch out on
their own, and move from Brooklyn to set up a
base elsewhere.
Their
new objective is to save the world from destruction, and to only fix
contamination's if they feel it supports their new goals. Hiding in 2001 in the USA is not
going to work for them, as they will be too easy to find, so the plan is to
find a new home in the past. The time
and place they decide upon in London
1888 when electricity was first being
introduced commercially in the city, they needed to be as far back in time as possible, but they still needed electricity to power their machines. That just so happens to be right around the
time that Jack the Ripper was in full force.
There
are a few different story lines in this book.
The main storyline is that of the Time Riders, starting in 2001, and then
travelling back to 1888. There’s also
the storyline of Agent Cooper who works for The Department (a super secret government department), whose job is to investigate anything ‘out
of the ordinary’, very much like Scully in the X-Files. Agent Cooper is called in when two policemen are killed by extremely large
superhumans’ and this leads to him finding out about the Time Riders and
subsequently that Time Travel is actually a reality.
The
other storyline is from the future 2055, which shows Roald Walderstein creating
the first Time riders and what led to the situation the Time Riders now find
themselves in.
This
book has a lot to say about human civilisation as we know it, and it looks at
what has led us on this path to destroy our planet. The book is obviously fiction, but so many of
the things that happen in the future of this book, could so easily take place.
The
other thing I found interesting about this book is the look at the days after
the attack on 9/11. In the previous
books, this day kept re-setting itself, so we only saw the day of the
attack. Now that the Time Riders leave
then tunnel, we get a glimpse as to how America reacted in the days after.
I
seem to have said a lot, considering I couldn’t say too much, but there are so
many more things to discover in this book.
To some extent this book would work as a stand alone title, but I would
recommend that you read the books in order of publication, I think it adds more
substance to the story if you know what has come before.
It’s
probably also worth noting that I think this book is slightly more graphic than
the earlier books, not surprising when one of the story lines involves Jack the
Ripper.
See below for Alex Scarrow introducing his new book:
And here's Alex Scarrow reading an extract:
See below for Alex Scarrow introducing his new book:
And here's Alex Scarrow reading an extract:
Who will like this
book: Girls and boys age 12+
Read it if you like: The Time Riders Series
Read it if you like: The Time Riders Series
Thanks for such a lovely review, more to the point, thanks for not dropping THAT HUGE SPOILER (you know the one I'm talking about). Great review.
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Alex Scarrow (Author - TimeRiders)