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Jazdci časom: Prvá Misia (2013)

by Alex Scarrow(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Vydavateľstvo SLOVART

series

TimeRiders

review 1: I come across the series because of Kirsti and thank god I did. At this point, I have only read the first book but it's definitely not the last because it's teenagers traveling through time, what's not to like about that?I really did enjoy the characters and there was not a lot of world building which was nice. Plus time ravel is one of the coolest things, imo so immediate win. For this adventure, the three kids plus the support unit have to go back to WW2 Germany to save the future which is a valid choice for a plot if you ask me. My only complaint is, as is with every not German book that uses German, check your grammar and spelling when you want to incorporate sentences in a foreign language because every once in a a while a natural speaker will read your book and it ma... morekes them want to pull their hair out. This was a huge complaint for me with The Book Thief and thankfully this book doesn't use as many German sentences and words but even they should be correct. For example, Hitler's residence Eagle's Nest is Das Kehlsteinhaus in German but the author used the wrong article throughout the book and it drove me nuts because Der Kehlsteinhaus is just wrong. Similarly, we do use capitalisation in our sentences but that doesn't mean every word in a sentence starts with a capital letter. I understand, these are minor things but they are annoying when you read them in an edited, sold book. And they are easy things to spot for any native speaker, if you have trouble, Alex Scarrow, please call me and I'd be happy to revise those scene for you :-)Moving on. I liked the excitement of the book and often couldn't put it down which resulted in me feeling like crap at work because I read for far too long the previous night. Another small complaint was the American centredness of the story. You take three teenagers from various countries and various times but you set them up in the US. Why now anywhere else in the world? And why did the shift in time has to be because the US was conquered? Why couldn't it have been something else? I know, I know, I'm being petty but it would have been nice to see a bit more diversity in geography for this international reader.What I think the book did a good job with was picking not only 2 out of the 3 team members from the female race but also making one of them a girl of colour. It's sad that these things have to be pointed out but they do and it's nice to see them in a story. Overall, I can't wait to get my hands in book 2 and start reading.
review 2: This is a really thought provoking book. Described by the author as 'cocaine for kids' it really is gripping, and a page-turner. The research into the various pieces of history that occur is excellent. I really feel I am witnessing what might just have happened when I read Scarrow's account of an historical event. The whole book series also has very interesting reflections on what it means to be human, and whether artificially created life can have its own feelings and even rights. There are reflections of Bladerunner and Frankenstein here, as well as John Wyndham's writing. Less interestingly, there is a fair bit of moralising on humanity's destructive effect on our planet - a theme that we see too much in children's literature. I was sufficiently drawn in to order the entire series up to Book 8 (book 9 comes out in November 2014). As ever, the theme of time travel is a real challenge, although tackled extremely well by this author, and not all the plot makes complete sense - though my 12 year old son reckons he can work it all out. The increasingly intricate plot twists have reduced my enjoyment of the series, but I will nevertheless order my copy of the last book in November, and am looking forward to the denouement. Thank you, Tracy Nelms for the recommendation! less

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