Erasing Time

August 13, 2012
Catapulted 400 years into the future, 18-year-old twins Sheridan and Taylor Bradford are appalled by the Brave New World they encounter. Mankind’s first time machine, the Time Strainer, has brought them forward by accident, apparently because, like a bad Internet search, their names resembled those of the target, scientist Tyler Sherwood. Worse, there’s no way back, and the future is a fascist dystopia. Hill’s (Slayers) vision teeters on the edge of farce in both premise and details, yet never takes that step too far. Sheridan focuses on the values of her upbringing while adjusting, sometimes wrenchingly, to a new world. By her side is Echo, the bereaved survivor of another set of twins, who understands the girls’ desire to escape the domed city-state of Traventon. As a “wordsmith,” a historian and linguist, he can help bridge the gap in their knowledge—but can he be trusted? This age-old jailbreak plot is seasoned with plentiful, often amusing novelties and historical misinterpretations. It’s a mash-up of Weird Science and Erewhon, and though the social message can get heavy-handed, the fun is never far behind. Ages 13–up. Agent: George Nicholson, Sterling Lord Literistic.

July 15, 2012
A dash of time travel gives a fresh flavor to the quickly staling dystopia genre. Just as apprentice wordsmith Echo, a historian who's studied the progression of the English language, prepares to flee his totalitarian city in the year 2447, a mad scientist unleashes the Time Strainer. Programmed to retrieve Tyler Sherwood, who revolutionized theories about matter in the 21st century, the time machine mistakenly delivers identical twin females, Taylor and Sheridan. Because of his abilities, Echo is assigned to monitor and translate for the teenage sisters. The initially slow third-person narration picks up pace as it alternates between Echo's and Sheridan's points of view. After learning about a Mafia-like organization that controls society and the mad scientist's real plans for the Time Strainer, the twins decide to escape. Although kissing hasn't changed in four centuries, Sheridan's not sure she can completely trust Echo to help them. What the story lacks in detail of the futuristic time period, it makes up in its attention to the evolution of language and religion. Taylor and Sheridan's quick-thinking idioms allow them to make plans right under the guards' noses and strike while the iron is hot. For once, literature buff Sheridan outshines her physicist-prodigy sister. Dramatic twists and turns to the very end ensure readers' attention and the possibility of an equally thrilling sequel. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

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April 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-Twins Sheridan and Taylor are snatched from their comfortable home and dragged 400 years into the future by scientists with dubious intentions and a time machine. While the science strains credulity, it's really just a device to set the twins up in the future. Present at their arrival is historian and wordsmith Echo, charged with acting as translator and then babysitter when the scientists realize that the girls are not the groundbreaking scientist whom they intended to pull forward. The future is both too comfortable, breeding a clueless citizenry oblivious to the rampant pollution and lawlessness outside their domed cities, and slightly menacing. Silly fashions and frivolity mask a society riddled with corruption and a Big Brother state that has outlawed religion of any kind. In order to escape a mind wipe, the siblings enlist the help of Echo, who has connections with the mafialike Dakine, and the "doctors" who are the underground preservers of religion that conduct like-minded believers out of the city to a safe haven. The twins' use of idiom as a means of secret communication is amusing, and the gentle romance between Echo and Sheridan will attract some readers, but the strong religious themes make this book a better choice for readers of Christian fiction looking for something with a sci-fi twist.-Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2012
Grades 8-12 When 18-year-old twins Sheridan and Taylor are sucked into the year 2447, they're thrust into the middle of a power play between a government that controls all aspects of citizens' lives and two rebel factions fighting to break free. Pseudo science dovetails with quick-paced action as an instant attraction sparks between Sheridan and Echo, a handsome translator who isn't being entirely truthful about his motivations to help them escape. It's a little convenient that the girls are a minister's daughters, able to follow a type of religious underground railroad to find a path to safety among the rebels, but their background fits neatly with the repeated themes of duality, faith, and sacrifice (along with a healthy dose of well-deserved paranoia) that permeate the story. Hill leaves the ending wide open for a sequel, and the combination of action and romancewhich has become a trademark of the ever-growing trend of dystopian serieswill make readers eager for the next installment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)