TimeRiders – Alex Scarrow Free Audiobook

Written by Alex Scarrow
Format: MP3

Liam should have perished on the Titanic, Maddy was fated to die in an airplane crash, and Sal was doomed by a house fire. Instead, they all now work as TimeRiders. Choosing a life of isolation and danger over certain death, guided by the mysterious Foster, and aided by a hulking AI homunculus, these teenagers fix the timeline when rogue time travelers threaten to break it. Their first job is daunting as a scientist, disgruntled by the slow pollution of Earth and collapse of human civilization, takes a squad back to WWII and discourages Hitler from invading Russia, producing a future radically different from our own. In this first of the series, Scarrow efficiently gathers and introduces his likable protagonists, only to split them up for much of the book as half the team journeys back to post-WWII looking for clues. This is not the volume for readers hoping to learn Sal’s backstory, or to see each character long for what they have lost. These are traded for forward momentum as each team must deal with larger and larger barriers thrown in their paths—from internment camps to zombies—and must learn their new jobs on the run. Time travel produces plenty of fodder for reader education and introspection, especially as the team base is located in New York in a time bubble on the eve of 9/11. The villain even has his own internal demons; nothing is too black or white and victory is hard-won in Scarrow’s world. Despite some unevenness, this series is off to a promising start with plenty of potential and gusto.