Time Trapped

June 15, 2013
Ungar doesn't do much to move the plot along but does lighten the tone and trot in some promising new characters for this follow-up to Time Snatchers (2012). Caleb finds himself once again in the clutches of Uncle, a mad, Fagin-esque type in 2061 who snatches waifs from the timestream and trains them to steal important artifacts from various historical eras. Memories magically restored, Caleb is charged with training a team of young new recruits. As team members include strong-minded, street-wise con artist Razor and 10-year-old autistic tech whiz Dmitri, it's much like herding cats--particularly as missions to snatch Newton's apple, the first glass of Coca-Cola and other treasures are set up to fail by Caleb's rival Frank, who schemes to wrest control of the organization from its bizarrely obsessive founder. Eventually Caleb and his hot fellow agent Abbie lead a rescue that leaves him, Abbie and Razor at least temporarily at peace and in safety and returns the other recruits to their original locales aboard a time-traveling subway car. Running gags and missions that devolve into comical chaos are pluses, but both Caleb and the story are left more or less where they began, and frequent allusions to the opener will cause new readers to flounder. Caleb's wooden, present-tense narration doesn't help matters. For fans of the first book only. (Science fiction. 11-13)

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February 1, 2014

Gr 6-8-A sequel to the excellent Time Snatchers (Putnam, 2012). After spending five months in peaceful ignorance of his past, Caleb, a time-traveling thief, is forced to return to Timeless Treasures, where he is back under the thumb of Uncle, the Faginesque leader of a band of thieves. Things have changed while Caleb was gone. Uncle is more erratic and strange, and cruel Frank is running most of the day-to-day operations. As Frank exercises more and more harsh control, it puts Caleb and his new recruits in danger; something will have to be done before all their futures are snatched away from them. With his memories and time-snatching ability restored, Caleb feels the loss of his adopted family as well as the fear of being back with Uncle and Frank. These emotions propel much of the action in the book as Caleb tries to find a way to protect the recruits and get home. Ungar cleverly includes real historical occurrences in his characters' time-travel episodes, so the book serves as an enlightening glimpse into different eras and events. Characters are well established and most take interesting and honest turns. However, the action is uneven at times, and the resolution of the main conflict comes off as rushed and slightly anticlimactic. Nonetheless, this is well-done science fiction that is built around a very intriguing concept.-Erik Knapp, Davis Library, Plano, TX

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