Book overview: TIME RIDERS by Alex Scarrow

As I decided to catalogue the books I'm reading, I am starting with the last one I've finished.

Can't say it's a book review. I am not even trying to be an objective  reviewer. I'm making it easy for myself - so here are just my thoughts, valuable or not. 


For some reason, I had very high expectations for this book. Maybe it was the premise of time travels (which I love for their bizarre effects on storyline), maybe it was an outtake on the back of the book. Time police, the group that corrects time-traveling accidents. People in a group are taken from different points in time, seconds before they are about to die and given a chance to live for all the humanity. Four main characters are enigmatic and likable enough judging by the first pages.
 I guess, high expectations were what ruined this book for me, because the story just didn't live up to them.

The writing is good, the scenes are the right length and there is enough suspense to keep going.  However, with so much premise, with all the possibilities the setup offers, the book comes out rather bland. The interludes showing "the bad guys" (I don't want to spoil anyone by telling too much about them) could have been shorter and more to the point. If the author wanted to mess with history and include real historical figures, I think, he could have done more. Somewhere in the middle of the book I found myself skipping through long "world domination" talks of one of the "bad guys" - even his  split personality did not bring much to the table. His history of madness could - for my taste - been more brief and exciting.

There are undoubtedly many good points to the book. As it is a series, developing good characters is very important and I think overall the author was successful (with "good guys" I mean. He still has a long way to go with his evil dudes :P)  Liam, while not always original, had many redeeming qualities, despite his suspicious ability to accept  modern technology way to easily. Maddy was geeky enough to believe author is well acquainted with game programmers and Sal mostly behaved her age.
Probably the most exciting  and interesting part of the book (again, I hope not to spoil too much) is in the last chapters, when survival of the base camp is in jeopardy and there is a race against time (or with it?). It gives the story a satisfying conclusion and pays off for the pages wasted in pointless meandering across the time and land.

So, to summ things up.

Pros:
Time traveling! History! Butterfly effect (sort of).
Good protagonists
Interesting time setup (time in world history chosen)
Writing style
Satisfying conclusion

Contras:
Evil guys are dull and are given too much attention in the story. It's a waste since there is no real direct confrontation. At least no confrontation that will justify us getting to know them.

History is not exploited to the extent. I know, it's hard in YA books, but I wish the author tried a bit harder.

Pacing is too slow at times, especially when it comes to villains discussing their evil plans.

It's a decent book, though disappointing if you are looking for a complicated plot that usually comes with time traveling. My 15-years-old son found it boring and too predictable.