All in all, a pleasing sci-fi romp. I had a few quibbles with some elements of the story (mainly hints that seem like they might lead somewhere, but don’t – but then I learned that this is planned as a series, so I am hoping they get worked into later installments) but it was a good vacation read, with lots of action and adventure. The basic premise: When they are children, Hannah and Amanda Given are rescued from certain death when a trio of odd beings freezes time to pull them and their parents from a car accident. Many years later, these same beings return to save Hannah and Amanda again when the world (our world, anyway) ends. Hannah and Amanda, along with an assortment of others (dubbed the Silvers, because of the silver bracelets their saviors marked them with), are brought to an alternate timeline where earth wasn’t destroyed – one whose history diverged from ours in…I forget what year exactly and I turned the book back in already, so I can’t check. 1912? 1913? Somewhere in there. Anyway, in their new timeline, things are different – America suffered a cataclysmic event sometime in the early 1900s, and became more isolationist and insular. This affected the country in subtle ways, as did several scientific discoveries about the nature of time that resulted from the event. The Silvers have to learn about these differences in a hurry so that they can cope with their new environment.
Can their saviors be trusted? It doesn’t look like it – but can the man they have chosen to trust instead be trusted? Who are the mysterious physicists who are studying them? Are there others like them in different cities? Why have they all developed such incredible powers? Can they trust the messages they receive periodically from their future selves? Can they trust each other? And why do random people keep trying to kill them? Read on, dear reader, and…well, some of your questions will be answered. I’m counting on the sequels to answer the rest.
Read-alikes: Hmmm, what reads like this? It’s kind of like an X-Men movie more than anything else. Throw in some Smallville meteor freaks, maybe, and add a dash of any Star Trek episode involving alternate timelines and that “OH MY GOD WHAT IF WE PICK THE WRONG ONE OR CHANGE SOMETHING?!?” vibe. I guess it reads most like a Robert Heinlein novel, where the people are recognizable as pretty much like us but the world they live in has altered. If you like books where random people are thrown together and forge bonds as they struggle against a common foe, you’ll probably enjoy it.
Speed Read Creed 