Gr 7 Up—Liam, introduced in TimeRiders (Walker, 2010) as a teenage boy rescued from imminent death on the Titanic to become a time traveler, is accidentally sent back to the Cretaceous period with a group of high school students and his artificial-intelligence support unit, Becks. Their rescue takes up most of the book, with the action alternating between their adventures in dinosaur land and repeated attempts to bring them back by Sal and Maddy, two TimeRiders from the first book who live in a time bubble surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Within this framework there is an interesting, in-depth exploration of the implications of time travel and its effect on reality. Contamination of the past can have drastic effects on the future, a problem highlighted when Liam and his companions accidentally cause the evolution of a race of hominid reptiles. The author also explores the question of whether the artificial-intelligence units, developed simply as computers inside a cloned human body, actually possess some level of humanity. The juxtaposition of time travel and dinosaurs will appeal to many readers, but be forewarned, the body count is high and the deaths are often gruesome.—Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA
This book returns Sal, Liam, and Maddy to their 2001 NYC hideout. Exploring Foster's files, the trio creates a new support unit, Becks. Liam and Becks travel forward to save the originator of time travel, but a scientific snafu sends them to the Cretaceous period. Scarrow puts together unlikely people and situations and somehow makes them seem plausible.
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