Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Our read for September 15 - October 15 is TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow.

About the Author (from Amazon.com)
Alex Scarrow used to be a rock guitarist, then he became a graphic artist, then he decided to be a computer games designer. Finally, he grew up and became an author. He has written a number of successful thrillers and several screenplays, but it's YA fiction that has allowed him to really have fun with the ideas and concepts he was playing around with when designing games. He lives in Norwich with his son, Jacob, his wife, Frances, and two very fat rats.

Book Discussion Rules: Spoilers
There's really only one thing that we ask. If you're going to discuss a spoiler, please create a new topic in the "TIMERIDERS" folder and label the topic in some way as a "spoiler." If you decide to name it something other than simply "spoiler," be sure that the name doesn't give anything away. Thank you.

Looking forward to reading and participating in this session. I have been kind of absent from the last couple.

I picked up this book on the weekend in anticipation of it being our book of the month. Looking forward to cracking it later this week.

Hope you all enjoy the book as much as I did!

I also picked up the book early and am already through the first quarter. So far so good. While this is obviously a young adult book, it is still a very entertaining read. I love the fact that we are reading it so close to the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. You will understand why when you read the book.

A fan of mine flagged this group up, so I've just joined to have a look. I hope you ladies and gents don't mind me 'riding shotgun' on this thread; it'll be an interesting exercise for me to observe the comments. Please don't let the thought that you're being stalked by the author put you off speaking freely!

I'm also happy to answer any non-spoiler related questions you might have as you read. Hope you all enjoy it!

regard

Alex Scarrow (author TimeRiders)

I have read this book about six times since I picked it up in March. It's very good.

Alex, we are glad to have you. I actually looked for a way to contact you through Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ or at your official website so that I could invite you to the discussion, but I was unsuccessful. So I'm glad you found us. I'm really enjoying the book so far. The one unanswered question I have right now is the back-story for Sal. There was no chapter detailing her rescue/recruitment, so I'm hoping that it comes later in the book.

Question: Am I allowed to answer non-spoiler questions as well?

Of course :)

Alexscarrow wrote: "A fan of mine flagged this group up, so I've just joined to have a look. I hope you ladies and gents don't mind me 'riding shotgun' on this thread; it'll be an interesting exercise for me to observ..."

Hello! *waves* This is the first of your novels I've had the chance to read, but from a brief perusal it looks very good!

Hi everyone else. I'm new here as well and my copy arrived today. I'm planning on settling in with it tonight before heading to bed. =) I'm not sure how the discussions here work so will watch for a bit before joining in.

Here's a question for you all as you read; given that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is fresh on our minds, what do you feel about it being present/used in a work of fiction?

Alexscarrow wrote: "Here's a question for you all as you read; given that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is fresh on our minds, what do you feel about it being present/used in a work of fiction?"

Your books are about time travel and features momentous occassions through history and 9/11 is one such event. But as 9/11 is very prominent in our minds and for many people a relatively recent tragic scar, authors need to be careful how they approach writing this event into fictional stories. Written badly, it can easily be looked upon as a "cash in" but I will hastily add...not in your case.

I feel you have included this event in your books with sensitivity and takes care not to dwell on the details of it. 9/11 is simply a backdrop plot point. But what you emphasis more prominently is 9/10, the day before. A time of more relative innocence and New York in its prime. i like that.

Foster explains why our protaganists are based there very early in the first book and its a great explanation. Its a very clever plot device.

So personally, I enjoy the 9/11 integration in the books. But I do wonder if those who were directly affected by the event feel the same.

Having said all that, I would like to reciprocate your question back at you. What were you thinking when you integrated that plot point? For some, 10 years may still as they say be too soon, so did you also wonder if perhaps this may touch a nerve for many who were directly affected?

Hi Tej. It's funny, I don't recall a single reason or a single moment when I determined that 9/11 would form part of the background. However, I do have a personal dislike for fiction aimed at younger readers that presents a censored, lavender-tinted depiction of the world.

You'll have noted I hint at a future that looks bleak primarily because I think younger readers need to be made aware very early on that their generation has got a world of hurt heading their way. Big problems to fix that my generation and baby boomers before, chose to ignore. I believe I'm getting a reputation for being a bit of a miserable bugger with my books, covering subjects like Peak Oil and so on. But I'd rather that, than peddle fluffy nonsense.

Do I wonder whether I'm touching a raw nerve for some people vis a vis 9/11? Yes. I imagine anything - an advert, a book, film, a TV show - that reminds a person of someone they lost on that day, triggers a passing, private moment of sombreness. But equally, I think it would hurt a bereaved person more if they sensed that that moment in history was being wall-papered over somehow, ignored, painted-out because it's awkward, uncomfortable. And as you say, what really matters is how the subject is treated.

I think that 9/11 is a good setting for TimeRiders. The crashes aren't being used as an actual scene in the book. It's just the background for the books, and like Tej said, there's a reason that our team is located there. I don't find it offensive, and I think it's portrayed very well, expecially with the connection that some characters have.

Alex, definitely glad to have you along for the ride. I am only 50 pages in am enjoying it immensely so far.

I love to write time travel related stories and review them as well on my website Andy's Anachronisms. I am currently in the process of re-developing my site and will have a section aimed at kids of all ages. Will definitely review this and the rest of your series there.

Thank you, Andy. If it'll help your visit-numbers I can do a Q&A, if you like.

Andy, I didnt realise you had a time travel books page too, I visited your time travel Movies page for several weeks since you mentioned it on the Time travel movies thread. I didnt realise it was a sub page! The rest of the website is even more awesome reference site now. I give the link for other's interest as you didnt include it your post above:

Tej wrote: "Andy, I didnt realise you had a time travel books page too, I visited your time travel Movies page for several weeks since you mentioned it on the Time travel movies thread. I didnt realise it was..."

Yeah, I am in the process of redesigning the site so it the navigation will be a bit more seemless in the future.

Glad you enjoyed the site. I wish I had more time to review books and movies. I love Time Travel!

Alex wrote: "Thank you, Andy. If it'll help your visit-numbers I can do a Q&A, if you like."

Alex - thanks for the generous offer. I would love to take the time to do that once I have finished the book.

Well, I finished this book last night and I'm already looking forward to reading more in the series. I really enjoyed this book. As the author indicated earlier in this discussion, he certainly doesn't pull any punches. Even though this is considered young-adult fiction, he doesn't write down to his audience or sugar coat his story. Our main characters overcome some pretty big obstacles in this story, and I'm eager to see how this experience will affect them in the next book of the series. My only disappointment is that I still don't know Sal's backstory. Perhaps it was there, and I just missed it. I did have a couple of late-night reads and tried to back track whenever I fell asleep in the middle of a chapter.

First, a general comment about how time travel shows up in unexpected places. I went to the University of Michigan vs Minnesota football game last Saturday. In one of their few serious efforts, Minnesota connected on a pass attempt, but there was a flag on the field. According to the new score board that allows text, the play was invalidated due to "past interference." Now when was the last time you saw someone going into the past to influence the outcome of a football game?
Second, on to more serious topics. I just finished "TimeRiders" and enjoyed it very much. I view this as a rather classic type of time travel story, and I mean that in a positive way. I very much wanted to keep reading this book (unlike the last two, which were not as compelling), and I look forward to additional stories involving these characters. I thought the expiry time aspect for Bob was a neat idea. If I had to name something I did not care for as much, it was the seekers, but perhaps we will learn more about them in future books.

John wrote: "Well, I finished this book last night and I'm already looking forward to reading more in the series. I really enjoyed this book. As the author indicated earlier in this discussion, he certainly d..."

Dont worry you'll get Sal's background. I think its just Alex's narrative choice to spread origins of characters out a bit. The main thing is the story stands well on its own which I think it does (as well as the next 3 books). Do you guys think so too? i hope the other books come out very soon for you guys in the US because they are as enjoyable (personally, I think even more so) as the first one.

Aside from the crackin time travel story and action set pieces, what i really love about the book and its sequels is how the 3 teenagers' try and adapt their drastic plunge into a new environment baring extremely heavy responsabilities, in this case the small matter of saving the world. But despite these 3 fleshed out characters, disturbingly, my favourite character is Bob!

Dan wrote: "If I had to name something I did not care for as much, it was the seekers..."

I kept hoping the seekers would take down Kramer.

Dan wrote: "First, a general comment about how time travel shows up in unexpected places. I went to the University of Michigan vs Minnesota football game last Saturday. In one of their few serious efforts, Min..."

lol, a glitch on our matrix! Did you take the red or blue pill ;)

John wrote: "Dan wrote: "If I had to name something I did not care for as much, it was the seekers..."

I kept hoping the seekers would take down Kramer."

I just finished reading this book and I swear I don't remember anyone or anything being referred to as a seeker! Can you help?

Debbie wrote: "I just finished reading this book and I swear I don't remember anyone or anything being referred to as a seeker! Can you help?



It was in the first couple of chapters when Foster brings the kids to their new dwellings, they are in the dark, and have to keep quiet, so as not to allow the seeker which is described as a ghostly entity in the time stream, from trying to come into the real world. Foster suggested that was what killed the previous timerider team.

Chapter 7

Thanks, I remember now.

I did think of one more criticism about this book. The kindle version has no table of contents, so I was not able to jump to a specific chapter if I wanted to. Since I read on three different devices, my older kindle doesn't sync unless I turn on the G3 connection, which takes a lot of time. A table of contents allows me to jump ahead a little quicker.

John wrote: "I did think of one more criticism about this book. The kindle version has no table of contents, so I was not able to jump to a specific chapter if I wanted to. Since I read on three different dev..."

Starange, my Kindle version has a table of contents. Do you mean lack of chapter names because yeah I think it would help to have the chapter headings, even if the chapter headings are just year and location, as appears at the beginning of each chapter.

I forgot how bloody short the chapters are, I was way off with my estimation about the seekers, sorry about that Debbie!

I checked again, and my kindle edition has no table of contents. When I use the "goto" function, my only choices are "beginning," "cover" or "location." The "table of contents" option appears but is greyed-out because it doesn't exist.

Again, it is a minor issue, but it became a problem when I tried to pick up my kindle which was several chapters behind because I last read on my phone or tablet computer. The only way to sync it was to turn on the wireless 3G and sync to the farthest place read, which took several minutes. Regardless, I really did enjoy this book.

Alex wrote: "Here's a question for you all as you read; given that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is fresh on our minds, what do you feel about it being present/used in a work of fiction?"

I think in your work because it is handled as a setting backdrop and doesn't really go into the tragedy of the day itself it is fine. I can see others using it in a less thought out sense and it creating a problem.

I did enjoy the different characters who were aware of 9/11 and their perspective regarding the normalness of that hours preceding it. It isn't over done and it is part and parcel of the narrative. The fact that they don't address the evens themselves or go into it is also reaffirming that is is a setting - not a focal point of your story.

I enjoyed that my suspicions about Foster were correct. =) [not telling -- spoilers!]

I have added a poll so you can rate our group read for this month. Also be sure to vote for next month's book.

John, I already mentioned in the other thread that the polls are hard to find (imo).

Scroll right down to the bottom of the home group page and click "More Polls".

Thanks for pointing that out. In order to help people find a poll, I will include a link within the related discussion thread. Here is the poll to rate our last book club selection:

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/55...

In order to promote more interaction within the group. I would like to pose a couple of questions about our recent group read: TimeRiders.

In the book, the mission of the TimeRiders is to assure that history is not changed. Could there ever be a good reason for allowing history to be altered?

Question two is simply which of the three TimeRiders (Liam, Maddy, Sal or Bob) is your favorite and why?

And finally, do you plan on reading the rest of the books in the TimeRiders series?

That's 3 questions ;)

1. The reasons against changing history timeline are far more overwhelming than reasons for. The only reason someone would want to change history for good intentions is to prevent bad stuff or mistakes happening but Timeriders and other TT novels suggest that those good intentions will have worse repurcussions and that we will never learn from the mistakes and introduce new saftey measure from certain disasters occuring again etc.

However, the one damn good reason I can think of is if the world is going to end prematurely and there is no scope for lessons learnt from this little mistake then someone needs to go back in time to stop the idiotic presidents from pushing the red buttons. Hold on...if the world has ended, who the hell is around to go back in time to prevent it? Bummer.

Well I suppose what we need is a Minority Report style policing. Monitor the immediate future to prevent bad stuff from happening. That could be a justifiable system that will have no affect on the historical timeline.

2. Bob is my favourite! I feel guilty choosing a machine over the teenagers (whom I do also feel very attached to, having read all 4 books in the series now) but Bob is just so badass and I like the way book describes him making decisions and his organic feelings infiltrating his programmed logic. He reminded me of the T800 android in Terminator 2. In fact I wouldnt be surprised if Scarrow was influenced by that film and even the relationship between Bob and Liam mirrors that of John Connors and the T800.

3. I've read all 4 books realeased so far. I will say if you enjoyed the 1st novel, you wont be dissapointed in the next 3.

1) I think it is okay to alter history, but not majorly. For example, just by our TimeRiders being in existance, instead of being dead, they are changing history. Granted, history can fix itself.
I do believe that time shouldn't be changed, because, as someone in the book said, "Time is meant to go a certain way." Then again, can we really trust that fact?
2) Maddy is my favorite character, mostly because I can identify with her the most. Even though I'm only learning the beginning's of geek stuff, I still hang out with the tech kids at school, so I can fit in with being one of a few girls in a guy filled world.
3) Yes, I do plan on reading the rest of the books in the series. I have read them already, and I plan on reading the remaining five.

Tej, I was just going to do two questions, but then I added the third because I was just curious whether people liked this first book well enough to read the rest of the series. I also like Bob a lot. I love the fact that he is experiencing feelings even though his program shouldn't allow it.

Auroua, I agree with the notion that history can fix itself. While I didn't like the ending of The Man Who Folded Himself (which we read a few months ago), I did like the way David Gerrold dealt with this subject. When the main character attempted to make a slight change to the future by convincing his past self to bet differently at the horse track, the end result is the same and he ends up walking away with the same amount of money as he did the first time.

Right now I would have to say Liam is my favorite. After all, he is the one (human) who has to travel in time and do the dirty work, not to mention the fact that he is paying the price in terms of the way the time travel will ultimately end his life. Maddy and Sal have it easy by comparison. I see that the next book in the series involves a prehistoric (dinosaur) encounter, so I have no choice but to read it.

Some student asked me recently, at a school visit, where I draw inspiration for my characters. In other words, were they based on people I know? (I think he was fishing for clues..eg: is Liam based on my son?, Maddy based on someone else etc etc)

I was honestly stumped, because it wasn't a question I've spent much time thinking about. Which is dumb, because that's an often-asked question at these sort of events.

I answered rather glibly that I rather thought Liam, Maddy and Sal were aspects of myself. Which, with a little more thought I think is probably right. Liam is the immature part of me (the boy who never grew up, still imagines gunfights in the checkout queue, still flops on the floor and pretends to be dead when wife comes home from work). Maddy is the grown-up me (stressy!) and Sal...the introspective part of me.

And Foster? Perhaps he's my father. Or how I see myself in thirty years time. Or rather, how I'd LIKE to see myself in thirty years.

As for Bob and Becks. Well, those two are a homage to the Terminator franchise, and other excellent depictions of androids in fiction (Roy Batty - BladeRunner, Ash - Aliens, Data - Star Trek etc etc)

It was Bishop in Aliens, Ash was in Alien ;) Cant believe all 4 films you listed are in my top 10 favourite films. I always suspected a Terminator influence in the first book. But now that you mention those other films, I can see the adrenaline pacing of Aliens and Roy's inner conflict in there too.

One main feature of the story I like is how the teenagers find themselves adapting to their new environment and extremely heavy burdens. Is there something in that you can relate to? oh that's probably getting too personal, lol.

Duh, yes of course.

Just wondered if anyone has continued to read the rest of the series as the 5th book (9 planned) is being released beginning of next month. Anyone?

I would like to read the rest of the series, but I have about a dozen other books that I have to read first. Too many books, not enough time. The story of my life.

I'm still reading them. I'm counting down the days until the next book comes out. (16...)

I bought the collectors edition and apparantly the author says we will receive them today or tomorrow, 2 weeks in advance...so I am frantically racing to finish a book I am currently reading, lol

Well I finished reading the 5th book. Another highly entertaining instalment. Probably my favourite so far though knowing me, my favourites of anything can chop and change all the time depending on my mood :)

This one is set in both far future, 2001 and Rome 37/54AD. Time of Caligula (in a YA book!?!), albeit an extended reign due to time alteration. My review is up for it.

Timeriders: Gates Of Rome

The time travel story arc is very cleverly structured and creates a lot of room for discussion. I hope many of you can get round to reading these in the near future (if you liked the first one that is).

Tej wrote: "Well I finished reading the 5th book. Another highly entertaining instalment. Probably my favourite so far though knowing me, my favourites of anything can chop and change all the time depending..."

I wish I ordered the collectors edition...I can't wait! One week (plus amazon)!

Aurora, the collectors edition came with a cd of music that complements the books very nicely . But there are 2 tracks on line, one of them is actually the best song on the CD and is about Maddy. Its lovely. Have a listen.



The other song is very much sounds like a Vangelis' Blade Runner track but very fitting to the mood of the books.