Review: An interesting take on time travel
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2014
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a non-reciprocal review.(This review will contain spoilers).Time Shifters is a fairly short story. It does a pretty good job of pulling the reader into its world, where, for Akalya, shifting around through time and space is completely normal.She and others like her blend into the background as they go through life, but someone is starting to kidnap them, and she decides she should do something to save them.Akalya is a pretty strong character. I like that she's a fairly old character, and I also like that she definitely had strong opinions about what she liked. I didn't feel like she was a blank slate.She's pretty realistic in her motivations. On one hand, she doesn't really know the other Harekaiian all that well. But she feels compelled to save them - not because she has some superb sense of justice, but there's a layer of problems facing her. One of the captives is someone she's familiar with and wants to help. She's also worried about the fact that her people are being kidnapped, and she could be next. There's also a smaller sense of not wanting to turn her back on them. All of her feelings about it are very understandable.The way she uses her powers to solve problems is interesting. She has a great advantage over others, but she's not invincible, and she doesn't know what tricks the enemy is using.It was a fun read. It did drag at parts where things got over-described. For example, using her powers makes her hungry and she often stops to eat in the book, but I didn't need to know exactly what she was eating every time. Sometimes she made mental commentary - like comparing shakes in the late 60's to modern shakes. Other times it was just a list of food.I think the other weak spot was when she was with Marcus. We get told more about the time they spent together and don't get shown too much of it, so the connection we're supposed to believe they formed during their talk wasn't as strong as it could have been. I also got a little lost in how he got to where he was. She teleported him back in time, and had him bring her food in another place, but after he brought her food what happened to him?In the spot where it's initially described, he kisses her, brings her food, and then is sort of forgotten in the narrative. It doesn't say he leaves or vanishes or anything. It's like the book just forgot he was there, and the Akalya travels through time on her own. So wouldn't he have still been left in that time? I got a bit lost at that part.It was a nice start for a series though, with a strong lead and an interesting plot.