On
a perfectly ordinary evening, twins Sheridan and Taylor get sucked
through some sort of time portal and end up 400 years in the future with
no way home. They find themselves in a domed city with no animals, a
strange dialect of English, and psychedelic fashions that look kind of
ridiculous to their 21st century eyes. Their only friends, or at least
the only people they can converse with, are two linguists who have
studied the 21st century dialect, a father and son duo who explain that
the girls were brought into the future by accident when a group of
scientists tried to bring a famed 21st century physicist instead. The
girls are warned about the totalitarian government and a mafia-esque
Dakine group who will surely be after them as soon as they find out
about the girls from the past. Taylor and Sheridan know that they need
to get out of the city as soon as they can, and must put their faith and
trust in the mysterious Echo, the linguist's son who has his own
reasons for trying to escape.
The time travel concept behind this
book was a lot more unique than I expected, probably because there was
almost no hope that the girls would go home. It was fascinating to have
twins be the main characters, instead of what would have usually been a
pair of best friends or a girl and a boy who would end up together at
the end of the novel. Furthermore, having two points of views-one from
the present past and one from the future present truly showed all sides
of this new era that that book takes place in. From Sheridan's POV we
saw the world as we would see it, and from Echo we saw it as those who
were born in it do.
Before I get to the things that I love I'm
going to get the things that I didn't love out of the way as fast as I
can. The romance was a bit too fast for my taste. Sheridan and Echo were
making out after knowing each other for how long? My other
disappointment was not in the author, but in me as I couldn't really
remember the names of half the characters (mostly villains). I was able
to follow the story and I knew who most of the important people were but
at some point I started putting all the government villains into a
folder in my head labeled "all seem like the same person so don't waste
brain cells on them".
Now for some particular things I loved
about this novel. The jawdropping moments were just that-jawdropping. I
actually got out of bed to go discuss it with my sister because of how
shocked I was. I can usually predict these things in books so it was
nice to be completely surprised and then look back to realize all the
hints. The sisterly love between Sheridan and Taylor was also very
sweet. They understood that they were all each other had left and stuck
together through everything. Needless to say it was very heartwarming.
4.8 stars
When twins Sheridan and
Taylor wake up 400 years in the future, they find a changed world: domed
cities, no animals, and a language that's so different, it barely
sounds like English. And the worst news: They can't go back home.
The
twenty-fifth-century government transported the girls to their city
hoping to find a famous scientist to help perfect a devastating new
weapon. The same government has implanted tracking devices in the
citizens, limiting and examining everything they do. Taylor and Sheridan
have to find a way out of the city before the government discovers
their secrets. To complicate matters, the moblike Dakine has interest in
getting hold of them too. The only way for the girls to elude their
pursuers is to put their trust in Echo, a guy with secrets of his own.
The trio must put their faith in the unknown to make a harrowing escape
into the wilds beyond the city.
Full of adrenaline-injected chases and heartbreaking confessions, Erasing Time
explores the strength of the bonds between twins, the risks and rewards
of trust, and the hard road to finding the courage to fight for what
you believe in.
Leo
gets the shock of his life when a miniature version of himself arrives
in his room on a time machine with a gorgeous girl. Future Leo instructs
present Leo to read H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. After reading the
book, Leo searches for how and why future him appeared, and he finds his
answer at the New York Circulatory Materials Repository (or something
like that). There are a few special collections in the Repository, The
Grimm Collection (or something like that), which was the subject of The Grimm Legacy, as well as several others including The Wells Bequest. The
Wells Bequest contains objects from science fiction tales of the past
(not new cyborgy type stuff-that's a different collection), including
the time machine from The Time Machine. In the Repository, Leo meets
Jaya (Anjali's little sister from The Grimm Legacy), and when an angry
boy with a crush on Jaya threatens to use a nuclear weapon and destroy
New York, the pair must set out on a trip through time to stop him.
This
was a fantastic book, and in my opinion was even better than The Grimm
Legacy, which is quite impressive coming for me because I'm a sucker for
fairy tales and would usually choose them over science fiction. This
was what I consider a semi-sequel because it takes place in the same
universe after the events of the previous book and has several
overlapping characters but is still able to stand on it's own. Of course
it's better appreciated if you remember Jaya and all her adorableness
from The Grimm Legacy, but even if you don't you can still enjoy this
book and not feel too confused.
As soon as I found out about
the other two special collections, I started salivating for semi-sequels
involving them as well. I don't know if it's a bit too much to ask for,
but I think that if Polly Shulman does write them, the four books
together would make an awesome series collectively. I do feel like
there's hope for it because I think that she mentioned them to hint at
the possibility.
This book, compared to the Grimm Legacy, had a
lot more action and a lot less sitting around and talking, which
definitely added to the excitement. However, this difference can be
explained by considering the personalities of the different narrators.
Elizabeth was a lot more wary and was seen as the voice of reason by her
friends, while Leo is a bit more impulsive and relies on his gut a lot
more than Elizabeth did.
Every novel involving time travel has to
deal with all the paradoxical elements involved with it, and this one
did so with aplomb by not doing it. Shulman explained that each time
machine had rules applying to the novel it came from and since H. G.
Wells did not give any rules to his time machine, the characters could
do anything with no explanation necessary. Usually I spend ages trying
to determine what the rules of a book's universe are but the explanation
here managed to explain it by not explaining it and strangely enough it
was satisfying.
5 stars
Leo never imagined that
time travel might really be possible, or that the objects in H. G.
Wells’ science fiction novels might actually exist. And when a miniature
time machine appears in Leo’s bedroom, he has no idea who the tiny,
beautiful girl is riding it. But in the few moments before it vanishes,
returning to wherever—and whenever—it came from, he recognizes the other
tiny rider: himself!
His search for the time machine, the girl,
and his fate leads him to the New-York Circulating Material Repository,
a magical library that lends out objects instead of books. Hidden away
in the Repository basement is the Wells Bequest, a secret collection of
powerful objects straight out of classic science fiction novels: robots,
rockets, submarines, a shrink ray—and one very famous time machine. And
when Leo’s adventure of a lifetime suddenly turns deadly, he must
attempt a journey to 1895 to warn real-life scientist Nikola Tesla about
a dangerous invention. A race for time is on!
In this grand
time-travel adventure full of paradoxes and humor, Polly Shulman gives
readers a taste of how fascinating science can be, deftly blending
classic science fiction elements with the contemporary fantasy world
readers fell in love with in The Grimm Legacy.
