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by Audrey Niffenegger

I had a slow start on this book because I hate, hate, HATE present tense writing and had trouble getting into it as a result. Then I decided to persevere because everyone says it's so good and by the time I passed the first 50 pages, I started getting caught up in the story enough that I didn't notice as much. I won't say that it didn't throw me out of the story a few times, but the time travel aspects were original and kept my interest enough to decide to finish it.

One thing I found very original was that the time traveller had no control of when or where he travelled. The book explains how and why it starts and how it works so I won't spoil that, but it made for some interesting situations. The rules also didn't allow him to take anything with him, so every time he moved through time he appeared in a new time and place naked and never knew when he was until he found out by asking someone or finding some indication like a newspaper. You can imagine the awkward situations that led to. Like in the Terminator movies, but this time traveller couldn't bully clothes off people and had to beg, steal or scrounge for them.

The convoluted coming and going of the time traveller as he visits his wife in her young days is very well done until halfway through when we get to their wedding. I could see what was meant to have happened, but I didn't feel it was executed as well. The various events and situations kept interest up to that point very well, despite the present tense writing which continued to irk me every time I picked up the book to read some more. Is it possible to love a story and hate the way it's written? This is a first for me.

There is sort of a lull after the wedding where ordinary domestic adjustments are only occasionally interrupted by time travel incidents. I found the story slowed down, but I had too much invested by then and wanted to see how it ended. There was some interestingly plausible biological exposition on the cause of Henry's time travel, but otherwise nothing overly exciting for quite a while.

The action picked up a little but then turned depressing and I found that events were predicted too far ahead of time so that there were no real surprises. There were also a few loose ends, like one of the time traveller's appearances that should have had significance but was never explained. Previous instances always came full circle eventually so that you learn what happened, but not this one. There was also one major inconsistency where one of the instances of time travel included detailed description of clothing but when it came up later, there was no opportunity to obtain clothing before he was gone again.

I really didn't like the last 150 or so pages. The ending was pretty much already told and it was all very depressing. I'm glad I've read the book, but it won't be a re-read for me, ever. There was enough of interest to make it worthwhile and give me some new thoughts on the theory of time travel and how it might work, at least in speculation, but I'm definitely ready to move on from this to something completely different.

Sudden Traveler is a collection of seven short stories by award-winning Sarah Hall, whose short fiction has been justly described as luminous and erotic.  This small sampler demonstrates her flexibility with styles and subjects that vary from the deeply moving and accessible to the more obscure and elusive.  Interwoven in each piece is a recurrent theme of women’s experience in snapshots of important stages of life, both as it is perceived by the women themselves and by men who can only guess about them from a remove.  Some of the stories feature fantastical elements with prose that is heavily metaphoric and lyrical.  Others are more realistically grounded and are thereby starker in their depictions of violence and physical frailty.  As with all collections, some of the stories are stronger than others, and a few cross the border into pretentiousness with Hall’s sometimes excessive use of perplexing symbolism.  Still, Sarah Hall is obviously a wonderful and creative writer with a strong message and the skill with which to convey her point of view.  Sudden Traveler is a nice short introduction to her work and will encourage an open-minded reader to seek out her other offerings.

Thanks to the author, Custom House/William Morrow, and Library Thing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is going to be a tough book to review because although I can recognise that it's well written, it falls straight into one of my least favourite genres, Action. I chose it because I have enjoyed several books by Melissa Delport, especially under her alias of Lisa Del, and I knew she would not disappoint. I have since reread the book's description and I now see that in my enthusiasm, I managed to miss the words tsunami, conquer and pillage, so to be fair, I have upgraded my 3.0 to a 3.5* rating. 

Rachel is a TV news journalist and she is out on a job with her colleagues, when her world is turned upside down by extreme weather and devastation. Amidst mass panic, they head back to the TV studio to post a final bulletin, before heading to the one place on a weather chart that shows calm. Hmm, this is all going through my head now and I don't want to post spoilers, so, fast forward and Rachel has met up with Dex, a past boyfriend who had a devastating effect on her at the time. She is still bewitched, but she hadn't known that he wasn't human, so it is an horrific shock to discover that he is with the powerful invading force. How can their relationship possibly resume?

The characterisations in this novel were strong, even with such a large cast. We meet various people along the way, but they all feel very real and relatable. Leah Sponburgh was a fabulous narrator, how she kept pace with the action, I have no idea. Her job was more like that of a sports commentator then a book narrator and she impressed me no end.

The world is in chaos and this small band survivors needs to find somewhere as far from the action as possible. If Action is your thing, this is a definite next-read.

Finn Firth is on the verge of turning 13, and is convinced his father will forget his birthday. Which is troubling to him, but really, it's the least of his troubles. When they were three, his twin sister drowned (and he's always felt this absence, and is sure everyone around him does, too). He's not that close with his father, and his mother left home a few months ago, with no warning and no one has heard from her since. Also, his best (only?) friend, Gabi, has been spending less time with him and more time with new friends—the kind that would bully him. He's also a huge science nerd, the kind of twelve-year-old who reads (and re-reads) Richard Feynman and Carl Sagan for entertainment. The fact that he's an outsider, that he's not like the other kids at school is what drives him (like so many) to science, to something he can make sense of and put himself/his trouble in perspective.

So imagine his surprise when his grandmother informs him that she's a time traveler, actually, all the women in his family have been and are. It's not just his family, there are people throughout the world capable of this. Some in his family are more powerful than others, most can only travel to the past—one could only travel to the past but during her lifetime—his grandmother and mother are among the few that can travel forward in time. His mother, he's told, didn't leave his father and him. Finn's dad has been reassuring him that "she just needs some time," and well, that seems to be the case after all. She's stuck somewhere, unable to come back—but she's created a way for Finn to come and get her (despite being a boy).

Time travel is impossible, Finn knows—and even if it weren't, the kind of travel his grandmother describes sounds more magical than scientific. He tells his grandmother this, in fact. But—I won't get into how, it should be read in context—he's given some pretty convincing proof.

Now there are those who don't think Finn should be doing anything regarding time travel, and that no one should be tracking down his mother. And they're seemingly willing to take some extreme measures to stop him. He and Gabi set out on an adventure to evade these others and get to his mother's portal. Finn's ill-prepared for what lies ahead, but he doesn't care. Between brains and sheer determination (and largely it's the latter), he's going to find his mom.

What he never stops to ask is: what else will he find?

This is a fun little read—Finn and Gabi are well-developed characters, his various family members are interestingly and distinctively drawn, the writing is crisp and brisk—once things get going, they stay going, and it's easy to get swept up in it The best is the mix of science and . . . however you end up describing the time travel. For a book directed toward the 9-14 set, the science (time travel, chaos theory, multi-world theory, etc.) is presented plainly and without condescension. That last point, in particular, resonated with me.

The heart of this book is found in two concepts—the power of individual choice, and the importance of kindness in spite of everything. Lessons good to be absorbed by the target audience, as well as the rest of us.

I really enjoyed this book and heartily recommend it. One thing, though, kept running through my mind as I read it. As much as I enjoyed A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity, when I was 8-13, I would've loved it (probably when I was 14 and 15, too—I just wouldn't admit to liking a book written for younger people at that time). It's the kind of book that I would've been checking out of the library every two or three months. Get this for yourself and enjoy it, get this for your kid for them to obsess over.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Carolrhoda Books via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this opportunity.