Farway's mother was jumping through time when he was born, so he literally has no birthday. In this future, you can train to be a recorder of history by visiting the actual time period. Farway wants nothing more than to follow in his mother's footsteps and become a historian. He would also like to find his mother, who disappeared somewhere in the past when Far was a young boy.
Farway bombs his final exam and instead of recording history he ends up traveling in time for the black market that deals with bringing valuable items from the past to the present before they are lost. For example, you could go to the Titanic and steal all the valuable jewels right before it sinks. And this is the type of stuff that Far does with his crew that is made up of his cousin, his girlfriend, and a very good friend. When their mission is thwarted by Eliot, a time-traveler of a different sort, everything changes and becomes very deadly for the crew of the Invictus.
Graudin's rules for time travel make Invictus pretty easy to follow (unlike some time travel books I've read where things just don't make sense.) Some of Eliot's tricks (like her magical bag) do stretch the imagination a bit, though. We get a glimpse into several different historical time periods which is enjoyable.
The action is fast-paced and riveting. When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about Invictus (which is always a good sign.) The ending is a bit complicated, but Graudin manages to pull it off. If there's one small complaint it would be the romance. There wasn't much build up. All of a sudden you realize, "Oh, they are a couple!" Not a big deal, but I thought there could have been a bit more earlier in the book.
Invictus seems like it could be a stand-alone, but I would love for the story to continue. This one is going to get pushed to my teen readers. I think they will love it.
Published by Little, Brown, BFYR, September 26, 2017
eARC obtained from NetGalley
464 pages
Rating: 4.5/5
I loved THE WALLED CITY but didn't care for WOLF BY WOLF. I haven't read Graudin since although this one definitely makes me want to give her another go.
ReplyDelete4.5 hats is high praise! I like that the time traveling has different versions depending on the person's talents/school accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read anything by this author but I'm looking forward to picking this one up.
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