'Off to Be the Wizard' by Scott Meyer (Book 1 of Magic 2.0)

Official Summary:

Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard. What could possibly go wrong?

An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.

Review:

With a kitschy title, an 8-bit cover graphic and playful description I just couldn't resist - can I go so far as to say this book won me over because it's adorable? Of course I can because my blog = my rules. Can't say that a book is adorable too often... in fact this might be the first time in my entire life I've gone and done that. Although, come to think it, I'm not in the business of reviewing children's books. It probably comes up a lot more in that genre. So, let's all agree that the word 'adorable' isn't used much with books marketed to adults and leave it at. (/tangent)

'Off to Be the Wizard' is not a stuffy, inaccessible nerd-fest like you might want to think. Heck, I almost missed out because immediately following the thought that this title was totally adorable (see above) was the thought that anything this cute has got to be so heavily infiltrated with geek references that I wouldn't be able to get past a few pages without wanting to hurl it against a wall.* In fact, the author does a great job at keeping the story light without letting it float away.

My one and only complaint is for roughly 30 pages, the middle of the book borders on the edge of fluff filler. So much so that I almost feel like it could have been cut out completely without consequence to the overall storytelling. Outside of that though, the title starts and finishes on high notes that kept me interested and I'll probably be throwing book 2, 'Spell or High Water' onto the T.B.R. pile.

Bottom Line: 'Off to Be the Wizard' isn't just a cute cover with a catchy title. It's a good story with a surprisingly thought provoking premise. If you've ever attended a comic con, PAX or something like it, then I think this title is right up your alley.  

*Proverbially of course - I can't go hurling my Kindle against a wall. It might break, and then I'd be sad. 

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'Timebound' & ' Time's Edge' The Chronos Files 1 & 2 by Rysa Walker

Official Summary:

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.

Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and her genetic ability to time travel makes Kate the only one who can fix the future. Risking everything, she travels back in time to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the murder and the chain of events that follows.

Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does Kate have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world?

Review:
I'm a sucker for sci-mance (and if that isn't an official term for a science fiction, romance mash-up, then it is now, on this obscure little book review site, you heard it here first!*), especially anything with a time travelling element. Time travel + romance = a pretty good time for the Jessle. That said, this series fits snugly in the sci-mance genre, making it an irresistible new series for me to follow.

Front and center to the story is a love triangle that's created by the timeline shake-ups that occur in 'Timebound.' The main character Kate has a choice between Trey, the guy she met because the timeline shifts and he's suddenly taken her place at school, and Kiernan, the guy from the early 1900's who knew her as 'his Kate' before a timeline shift changes her own memories and makes him a friendly stranger. The relationships get even more bizarre in 'Time's Edge' when dealing with the fallout of the timeline changes purposely made at the end of the first installment that cause Trey to forget that he had ever even met Kate, never mind having fallen in love with her.

That said, at it's core, this is a series about time travel and how changing a past event impact the future. With all the timeline bending that occurs it wouldn't have surprised me if this series had turned out to be a tangled spaghetti ball of a disaster but Walker does a commendable job with this narration; somehow keeping the story engaging and accessible at every turn. Even when the number of secondary and tertiary characters grows in book two the benefit of this tale being told from Kate's perspective really shines.        

Bottom Line: 'Timebound' introduces us to a world that is both captivating and compelling enough to have earned itself a place in Amazon's Kindle World's. 'Time's Edge' keeps the story going while remaining fresh and unpredictably interesting. If you're looking for something a little different in the over crowded YA space, and like time travel novels, this one is most definitely for you.

*Or not... admittedly, I haven't (and don't plan on) actually looking up whether it exists for the purposes of this quick little post here. The way this stuff works is I'll see it somewhere else in a few weeks time, wonder if it came before or after this post, get too lazy to check the date stamp and move on. Besides, if this term doesn't exist yet then it should if only because it is way way way too obvious not to. Then again (yes I'm debating myself here - don't worry this should be the closing remarks coming up now), isn't all YA these days sci-mance? Are sci-mance and modern YA interchangeable terms? Or is some librarian out there pulling out their hair right now because it would actually be YA sub-categorized as science fiction because all YA has romance in it. That's all teens think about, really...

'Mariana' by Susanna Kearsley

Blizzards are good for a few things. Dropping a few feet of snow is one, and blowing out the power to your home is another. That's right wonderful world of T.T.P. - a little stormed named Nemo ran through my corner of New England and brought down my power for a little over 40 hours from Friday night well into Sunday afternoon. Why am I telling you this? Well, I'd irrationally banked on the possibility of having an entire weekend holed up due to inclement weather doing nothing but making progress with my literary work-in-progress, catching up on some T.V. and, oh yeah... get a few blog posts together. Unfortunately, I hadn't factored in my particular homes tendincy to lose power every time a storm even glances by.

Ultimately, I tell you this because I'm asking for your pity understanding as I scramble to review everything I've read (have to say that was one benefit of the storm... I definitely caught up on the reading list). Hopefully I'll carve out some time and get them going again with some regularity. 

All of that aside, let's talk about 'Mariana' by Susanna Kearsley, shall we?  

I'm going to give this one a solid, 'meh.' Now granted, this flavor of book is probably teetering right on the edge of what I'd usually pick up, (and I wouldn't have even come across it at all if it weren't for my future-MIL buying it on our shared Amazon account), but it seemed interesting enough. I'm sorry if my interest gets peaked when the synopsis of novel is:

As if Greywethers were a portal between worlds, [Julia Beckett] finds herself transported into seventeenth-century England, becoming Mariana, a young woman struggling against danger and treachery, and battling a forbidden love.

Long review short, this novel was interesting... kinda. The opening was absolutely captivating but what followed was about 100 pages of borderline boring narrative, 100 pages of somewhat less boring narrative and than a truly stellar final third.... until you get to the last few pages and by the end I was absolutely confused.

Maybe I should explain that before someone points me out for being daft. I get what happened but without giving out any spoilers* that given the focus of the entire story I was more than a little miffed by the time the end came round.

Bottom Line: Read it if you love other things that Susanna Kearsley has done or historical fiction. This author has a great following and is insanely prolific. Skip it if you don't like fantasy romance or if historical fiction just isn't your thing.

*After I finished reading that last page I actually did a search on him because by the end of the book I couldn't picture what he looked like. I had a clear mental image of the other guy, but him? I'd pictured some mid to late-forties guy going gray... not, well  - and you know what? That's not surprising because according to my search I didn't find one, substantial description of what he looked like! Most of you might call that a nit-pick, but because I hadn't been able to give what's-his-face a "face" I couldn't connect with the character. That is the main reason that the ending felt like it'd been forced. Created for the soul (see what I did there?) purpose of throwing the reader an utterly unremarkable curve-ball ending. 

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'The Accidental Time Machine' by Joe Haldeman

A few years back I read Joe Haldeman's 'The Forever War' based squarely on the wonders of Amazon's recommendation. In this particular case, however, Amazon got it a little sideways and because of the book's focus on war and incredibly strange use of timelines, I didn't really enjoy it.

Fast forward about two years and I'm staring at my Kindle's ad-plastered screensaver flaunting the cover of 'The Accidental Time Machine'.  The fact that I bought the book says two things; A.) I must have a terrible memory because it didn't even cross my mind that I might have ever read anything by this guy before and, B.) Amazon knows how to pry money out of my wallet with pin-point precision.

While it's now clear that I'm going to need to work on B, I'm glad that I didn't automatically make the connection between these two titles. Where 'The Forever War' was dry and boring and, in my opinion, confusing for the sake of causing confusion, 'The Accidental Time Machine' was fun and well-paced with likeable characters that made sense from beginning to end.

I guess I'll need to rethink my general rule of striking author's from the to-read list that have previously delivered lukewarm titles. While it won't have me lifting the ban on certain authors anytime soon, it might bring on some interesting surprises like this one. 

Bottom Line: 'The Accidental Time Machine' is worth the read. It's a solid science fiction and a fun read to boot.