Time Riders 8 Title and Cover Art

Alex Scarrow's Time Riders series is nearing the end. The latest instalment, The Pirate King's came out this week, and already things are gearing up for the release of the eighth, and penultimate, instalment in the nine book saga. It's called The Mayan Prophecy, and is due in bookshops at the start of August. And below, you can feast your eyes on the cover which looks stunning. I for one need to catch up. Haven't read Book Five and Six and now Seven. Yikes!

The Legend of Ellie Quin by Alex Scarrow [Review]

Written by: Alex Scarrow.

Published by: Grrr Books.

Format: eBook.

Released: 23rd December 2012.

Rating: 4/5.

Official synopsis: "A brand new series from the Author of TIMERIDERS! Welcome to a universe as you've never seen it before;- genetically engineered pocket pets, plant life with a crabby attitude, soda pops that fight back...and revoltingly slimy junk food. Ellie Quin's just a normal young woman. Bored with her life on a remote farm, staring up at the stars at night and wishing she was far away on another more exciting world.  She thought she was normal. Turns out she was wrong. It turns out she's the most valuable, the most dangerous, the most hunted-for human in the universe... and there are people already closing in on her. The Legend of Ellie Quin: a breathless pursuit across a colourful, madcap universe of shopping malls and space ships. Lip-gloss and lazer guns."

I am a big fan of Alex Scarrow, and I am damn proud of it. I love love LOVE his TimeRiders series - the tale of three teens on the cusp of death, pulled out of real life to police time and stop those that can also travel through the decades, centuries, millennia and further from causing world wide devastation - so when I heard that he was publishing a new book, exclusively electronic and that it was part of a trilogy I was quite excited. And I was right to be.

The Legend of Ellie Quin kicks off the Ellie Quin trilogy (the second and third books are also available already!) which follows, as you've probably guess by now, one Ellie Quin. Nineteen years old, she's desperate to stretch her wings and leave behind the dusty domes where her father harvests oxygen for the inhabitants of their newly colonised planet. She wants to go to the city, and then, if she can, off world to see what the other planets in the black expanse of space have to offer her. But things never seem to go Ellie's way. Her plans are scuppered, and not one to sit back and do nothing she takes matters into her own hands...

We don't see that much of the city, New Haven, in book one, but I feel like we've already got a good glimpse, and it's safe to say that it doesn't live up to poor Ellie's expectations. I can't wait to see more of it in the second book, The World According to Ellie Quin.

I loved this book so much. It took me a little while to read it due to it being over the Christmas period and family stuff taking up a lot of my time, but I liked that it was a slow read. It has this feel to it, a real Sci-Fi feeling, and just in general that you want to savour every last word. It's fun, exciting and very engaging. I didn't want to put my Kindle down for anything.

With the TimeRiders books, they're more focused on the past, stuff that has already happened and asking questions about what difference even a minute change would have on the present day. Whilst we do get little glimpses of futuristic elements, it's nothing on the scale of which we see in Ellie Quin. The fun Alex must have had inventing and thinking up some of the things we find in the book is evident! I mean, they're harvesting oxygen! Cool. I think that's what made this book so much fun to read, made it so enjoyable - you can tell that Alex has loved writing this, it shows.

This book however is a big tease! There are a lot of questions left open to take us in to book two, and I for one cannot wait to get stuck in!

(In case you were wondering, Book Two is called The World According to Ellie Quin, and then Book Three is Ellie Quin: Beneath the Neon Sky, and they're both available to download right now for your Kindle, along with book one! Just follow the link HERE!)

News: Title and cover art for TimeRiders Book 6

Book Five in Alex Scarrow's awesome TimeRiders series was only published last week, and no sooner do we get to the Gates of Rome are we about to enter the shadowy world of Victorian London where one Jack The Ripper roams the blood stained streets! Book Six is, appropriately, called City of Shadows and is out 2nd August!

Hunted by cyborg assassins from the future, the TimeRiders must abandon New York and go on the run. They escape to Victorian London and the streets where Jack the Ripper roams. But, before they can establish their new base, they make their most shattering discovery yet - and it will change everything . . .

Cannot wait! 

Waiting On Wednesday: TimeRiders: Gates of Rome

Published by: Puffin UK.

Format: Paperback.

Released: 5th Feb 2012.

Official synopsis: "Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire - has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula.

Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past.

Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right?"

The fifth book in Alex Scarrow's incredible TimeRiders series, Gates of Rome looks set to take the series to all new, and outstanding heights as we travel back to Ancient Rome. 

The cover work you see before you is perhaps one of the best covers I've seen in a long time. Such strong imagery and colours. I love it! I've read the first three books in the series, with the fourth The Eternal War, currently high up in my "to read" pile. The series look stunning together and with this one added it's only going to look even more impressive.

Each book just gets better and better and I really cannot wait to see what Alex has in store for us... well, after I've read Book 4 that is!!

Pre-order from Amazon UK

News: Title and Cover Art for Time Riders Number 5!

Now I read the first three books of this series earlier this year and have book four sitting on my reading pile, a review of the first book, Time Riders can be found here... and the reviews for Book Two and Three are on their way along with those of about 15 books. I'm not even going to get into why they're all waiting, that's not the point of this post... This however is... the cover art of Book Five of the Time Riders series! It's called GATES OF ROME and looks like this...

Amazing. Enough said. And it sounds like this:

Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire - has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula. Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past. Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right? 

Excellent. Can't wait. It's out February 2012!

Time Riders by Alex Scarrow [Review]

Written by: Alex Scarrow.

Published by: Puffin.

Format: Paperback.

Released: 4th February 2010.

Rating: 4.5/5.

Official synopsis: "Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912... Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.

Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029... Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world . . .

The first book in a series that revolves around time travel and an alternate history... what's not to love?!

I'd been meaning to read this book since it was released last February and only actually got to buying the book back in January. I started reading it pretty much straight away as the reading pile was quite small after a few days off work thanks to Christmas. And instantly I was transported away from the cold, snow of January and thrust deep into the heart of the story of the Time Riders. I actually kicked myself for not getting it any sooner.

Action packed, addictive, and with the perfect amount of humour, I just couldn't put it down. Alex has obviously put so much thought and effort into this book, and it really pays off!

The entire concept of this series, the premise, is pretty epic. People on the verge of death, recruited to try and save those that have a life to look forward to from whatever horrors a change in the course of history can cause. Some would wonder: could be be done with the justice and conviction it deserves? Well believe me when I say that it is done brilliant. Alex knows exactly what he is doing. 

Now, time travel is not a new thing to the world, be it fiction, television, whatever... it's a pretty popular subject. Who doesn't wish they could go back in time to re-live a certain moment? Or to change something - probably do something in a different way or not at all if it turned out not to be a good idea? But what I think the book really gets across is that time is a dangerous thing to mess around with. One little change can spell disaster hundreds of years in the future. The way the time travel is used in Time Riders is actually one of the best uses I've encountered. The way the villain travels back in time, because they're unhappy with their time, to try and make changes. I also have to say that I love the way the history changes. How there need to be 2 different teams - each in one timezone - because the changes made in the past cause an instant change in the future and that needs to be dealt with too.

It's quite thought provoking too. One question that struck me again and again whilst reading was, quite a simple one but obvious one, what would you do if you were about to die and someone came to you, the way they come to people in the book? And you know what, I still don't know the answer. The first response would be: ARRRRGGGGGGHHH I'M GUNNA DIE! MUMMY! But then there's this niggling, what would you do to survive? If you know it'd save you, would you go, regardless of what you faced? Alex has used this brilliantly  because although it's probably not meant to be that hard hitting, it gets me, and no doubt many others to read this book!

The characters are a nicely mixed bunch too! They all come from completely different times so all have different little quirks.

I'm finding it quite hard to summarise my feelings toward this book so I'll just finish by saying this: Alex has most definitely created a beauty right here and I am looking forward to getting around to number 2, Time Riders: Day of the Predator which is currently waiting to be dispatched from Amazon. Damn the Bank Holiday! This series looks set to be brilliant, up there with the likes of Anthony Horowitz' Alex Rider series. It certainly deserves to be as big, if not bigger. Young boys (I'd say 10-15 would eat this alive, and then the bigger boys (16+) will enjoy it just as much too. Bravo Alex! Bravo!

Buy from Amazon UK