Review: Time Riders

I found the book Time Riders by Alex Scarrow on the new book shelf at our town library.  I was immediately drawn to the book because I love time travel.  My favorite Star Trek episodes (either movie or series) are the ones that involve time travel and Back to the Future is one of our favorite movies.  Even with all those silly paradoxes that my mind keeps getting all twisted up in.  This book looked very promising.

This book centers around three teenagers who were destined to die in terrible tragedies but were spared that fate by taking the hand of a stranger from the future.  When Foster shows up seconds prior to their demise they are given two choices, join him and the agency called Time Riders or die the death they are about to die.  Liam, Maddy and Sal choose to follow him and find themselves in a different time preparing to enter training to become protectors of time.  They discover they are chosen for certain skills they have. They are joined by one more unique member of their team and begin their training.  Before long they notice a shift in time and, even though they don't feel ready, need to discover when the time line changed so they can change it back. 

I have to tell you, I had a hard time putting this book down.  It was very action packed and suspensful.  What is going to happen to the team members left in the field office where the earth they are now on is no where like the one they had gotten used to, the real timeline, while their team memebers are back in time trying find out what went wrong?  However, I did feel there were parts of this book that didn't mesh quite right.  In their training they go to a certain event in history and prevent it from happening, which changes the future where the other team members are sitting looking for any slight changes.  Supposedly the agency uses this time period because the events are "self correcting." The problem I have with this is, if the events are going to correct themselves in the real timeline, why would the prevention of the first act make any changes in the future. 

I loved the different scenes/time periods we find the characters in.  The reader gets to see quick glances of several important dates in history.  Yet I feel the characters could have been better developed.  I didn't get that emotional attachment I like to get when I am crazy about a book.  Another illogical piece of the plot involves the angency.  If there are other teams out and about, why don't they work together to rectify problems, wouldn't they have noticed the change too.  Some of the other things I found confusing are just related to the fact that any time travel story is going to end up with paradoxes, so I won't worry about them. 

Warning to parents, there is battle fighting in the story with descriptions of some bloody acts.  And there is some minor language, nothing too intense though. 

I will have to give this book 4 stars, it is a great story but needs some tweaking.  I believe there are going to be more books in this series, which I will be greatly anticipating.  Hopefully we will get to know the characters better and have some things explained.

I did like the fact that 9/11 plays a role in this book.