Cross, Julie: Tempest
Tempest (2012)
Written by: Julie Cross
Genre: YA/Time Travel
Pages: 89/339 (ARC)
Series: Book One (Tempest Trilogy)
Release Date: January 17, 2012
Disclaimer: book received from publisher via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program for the purpose of review.
Why I Read It: Time travel. The idea that the main character would keep going back in time to change the past to keep his girlfriend from dying in his present had me hooked immediately, so when I saw this in the LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program, I said, "Yes, please!" and waited until December/January to read it.
The premise: ganked from Amazon.com: The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies - nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors - it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.
Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. This sucker was a DNF for me, so what's to spoil except the beginning? I'll even forgo the cut!
My Rating: Not My Cup of Tea (DNF)
Maybe it's because I tried reading this after Catherynne M. Valente's excellent The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Seriously, that could be the whole problem right there. But I picked this up, started reading, and was utterly unengaged, even though the whole "girlfriend gets fatally shot" thing happens in the first 24 pages. But I think that's the problem: in that short of time, I'm not made to care about our hero, Jackson, nor do I have a real reason to root for his relationship with Holly. It's not like I want Holly dead or anything, but that sense of urgency I'd feel for Jackson to save her isn't there because I'm not connecting, and that's unfortunate. It doesn't help either that I found Jackson rather unlikable. He keeps his time-traveling a secret from Holly, which I don't mind, but when they have a big argument, Jackson's reactions to a lot of what's happened (even something as simple as getting Holly's feminist roommate out of the room) just rubs me the wrong way. I guess it boils down to the fact I don't buy Cross's first person narrative MALE voice.
Cross also really doesn't bother much with setting in the pages I read, which makes my imagination work overtime to try and fill in the blanks using what few context clues I get, and that's irritating when I think I have it worked out and I get a new clue to dislodge that mental picture.
That's basically my technical assessment. I put it down after 89 pages because I really, really didn't care about what I was reading (not good for a book that's supposed to be an SF thriller), and I dreaded picking the book back up. So I didn't, and picked up something else instead.
For my buck, if you want a good, suspenseful story about a guy who keeps time traveling in order to avert disaster and save the woman he's falling in love with, I highly recommend watching the film Source Code instead. And that's not as insulting-sounding as it seems: Tempest has already been optioned by Summit Entertainment, the fine folks who've brought you the film adaptations of the Twilight books.
That is all.
Cover Commentary: It's rather compelling. I kind of like the symbolism of people falling through time and trying to reach each other, but never touching. That said, I wonder how easy it's going to be to make the covers of the next two books to match this one, to keep up the consistency. Still, it is eye-catching.
Next up: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson