Timebomb by Scott K. Andrews **Review**

Timebomb by Scott K. Andrews

Series: Timebomb #1
Pages: 340
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release date: 18/06/2015
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones

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Thanks to the publisher for my review copy of this book

Goodreads synopsis:

Perfect for fans of Alex Scarrow and Michael Grant, this is the first in an incredible new time travel trilogy by the author of The Afterblight Chronicles.

New York City, 2141: Yojana Patel throws herself off a skyscraper, but never hits the ground.

Cornwall, 1640: gentle young Dora Predennick, newly come to Sweetclover Hall to work, discovers a badly-burnt woman at the bottom of a flight of stairs. When she reaches out to comfort the dying woman, she's flung through time.

On a rainy night in present-day Cornwall: seventeen-year-old Kaz Cecka sneaks into the long-abandoned Sweetclover Hall, in search of a dry place to sleep. Instead he finds a frightened housemaid who believes Charles I is king and an angry girl who claims to come from the future.

Thrust into the centre of a war that spans millennia, Dora, Kaz and Jana must learn to harness powers they barely understand to escape not only villainous Lord Sweetclover but the forces of a fanatical army . . . all the while staying one step ahead of a mysterious woman known only as Quil.

I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher, but before it tumbled through my front door, I hadn't heard of it. As soon as I read the synopsis, however, I knew I had to read it, and soon. So I picked it up and started to read nearly as soon as I had it in my hands. And wow ... I'm so glad I did.

I have posted on Twitter about this book so many times in the week and a bit I have been reading it (writing takes up a lot of my time nowadays ... otherwise I would definitely have finished it sooner) – I just haven't been able to not talk about it. And the very first thing I said? Reading this book feels a lot like running. So much happens in the first 30 pages that I felt almost as though I'd run a marathon. But unlike if I had actually run a marathon, it felt incredibly exhilarating.
The word 'bomb' has a definite right to be in the title of this book. Every chapter, every scene, feels as though a bomb has exploded. I don't think I have ever read something that moves so quickly, feels so dangerous, and has a plot quite as twisty as this. For every question I had answered, about two more replaced it in an instant. But rather than this irritating me, I simply wanted to know more. The ending of the book amplifies this ... so many questions! It has left me addicted and craving the next instalment more than I imagined I would.

So let's talk paradoxes. I am not going to pretend for a second that I have a good enough understanding of science to talk about this in any kind of depth. I can only talk about it on a surface level, and from what I see in the story. But even from my small understanding of the subject, time-travellers should not be able to cross their own timelines. Things would clearly get very messy if they did. And things are messy in this book, and yet somehow they seem to work themselves out ... in a very tangled sort of way.
(I'm hoping you're still with me ...)
Scott either has a very organised brain, or he made some seriously complicated diagrams to work out the plot ... if I had tried to write this, I genuinely think I would have tied my brain into all kinds of knots. But instead of totally confusing the reader, it's written in a way that only mildly confuses – and this is in a good way. Like I said, it left me craving more. I want my questions answered, and I can only hope that some of them will be answered in the next book.

One thing that is bothering me slightly, now that I have finished the book, is that I don't quite know how old all of the characters are. They get separated, of course, and because of the bouncing around in time, they appear as older versions of themselves. By the end of the book, the characters as we currently see them are quite different to how they were at the beginning. I want to know how old they are and what happened to them. Yet another reason to read the next book in this trilogy (it's my understanding that this will be a trilogy, anyway).

The characters are complex and not always what they seem, and the three main characters have proven to me over and over that they are capable of surprising me at any time. Especially, it has to be said, Dora, the feisty, headstrong girl from the past. How she took on all the changes, I will never quite comprehend.
My favourite character of all, though, has proven to be the antagonist, Quil. She is set up to be the typical comic-book bad guy, but when we finally get to meet her, she is anything but, and proves to be just as complicated, if not more, as our three protagonists. I can't wait to see what she'll do next (or what she did before ... honestly this jumping around in time is enough to confuse anyone!).

I absolutely can't recommend this novel enough. It's fast-paced, intelligent, fantastical, compelling ... like I said, running ... actually, no ... sprinting a marathon. So much happens, but it feels like it happens in the blink of an eye! I seriously can't wait for the next instalment, and I hope you'll take my advice and pick up a copy as soon as you physically can. Incredible.