"A new time-travel adventure"
In the far future, humankind faces a cataclysmic disaster.
In response, the people of the future create Lighthouse,
Inc., a corporation designed to avert this disaster by
making sure it can never come to pass. Lighthouse Droppers
have traveled back and forth through time for nearly two
thousand years, going as far back as the Crusades, in order
to create the preferred time line—one where humankind avoids
the disaster that faces it. While the majority of Lighthouse accepts this as reality,
there are those who disagree with the idea of tampering with
history. These people will do everything possible to stop
Lighthouse and make sure it fails in its mission. Lighthouse sends Dropper Darius, along with present-day
Tracker Nicki Stone, to find and stop the rogue Dropper
William and ensure that Lighthouse continues. However, they
must do this before William causes time to loop, thus
destroying the fabric of time. I thought this book was very intriguing. I think time
travel, by its very nature, can be tricky to execute well in
a novel, but the author does a good job and avoids many of
the issues inherent with the time travel idea. I was very
pleased to be able to jump into the story without having to
sort through paradoxes and wading through explanations of
paradoxes, paradox avoidance, and the time travel method
itself. My biggest issue with the novel was the pace. Yes, it takes
time to set up a world, particularly in a genre like science
fiction, but this book felt like it should have been a
suspense or action adventure novel. The pacing, however,
fell a little short for me. There was a lot of dialogue,
particularly in the first half of the book, and I had a hard
time believing that the fate of humankind was at stake. The
last half picked up a little, but it really started to move
forward when the story reached its climax. As a result, the
ending felt very rushed and incomplete. I was also hoping
for a little more action—and, yes, a fight scene or two or
three—but found instead that the story wrapped up a little
too neatly. That being said, I thought the book was very well done, with
an intriguing premise and a good plot. The story is told in
revolving first person POV, alternating between Darius,
Nicki, and William, which is a neat device. In this case, it
works, and I was able to see more into the characters' heads. I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading
the second book in the series.
Reviewed by Charlotte Cowie
Posted April 25, 2010
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Lighthouse Inc. has traveled through time for thousands of years, hand picking employees to create a preferred timeline, known as the LPT. Lighthouse believes this careful planning will avert a cataclysmic disaster for humankind. But there are those who think otherwise and will stop at nothing to thwart its mission. Darius the Assassin, a time trekking Dropper from the Crusades, teams up with feisty Tracker, Nicki Stone, from the present day. Together, they attempt to neutralize the rogue Dropper before the fabric of time is ultimately destroyed. The battle for an alternate destiny rages as Darius, Nicki, and their nemesis William square off not only against each other and the very institution that keeps time intact... but most of all, themselves.
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