Alex Scarrow - The Mayan Prophecy

I am definitely back on the weird books after a few - what most people would call - normal books.  This is one of the book series I have read written by a male author as I seem to primarily read books from female authors because they are more character driven but it's good to mix it up with a more action based book.  Thankfully, I know for certain that this book is also character driven with an interesting story as I've thoroughly enjoyed the preceding books.

The Mayan Prophecy is the eighth book in the TimeRiders series by Alex Scarrow; the series focuses on three young people - Liam O'Connor, Maddy Carter, and Sal Vikram.  The background behind this series is that the three main characters were meant to die in different periods of time; Liam, a young Irishman, should have gone down on the Titanic in 1912; Maddy, a young woman from Brooklyn, who should have died on a plane which was going down during a terrorist attack in 2010, and Sal, the youngest of them all, a young girl from Mumbai, who should have died when a skyscraper collapsed due to fire in 2026.  They are recruited by an older gentleman called Foster who gives them a second chance and live, to work for a secret agency that supposedly helps prevent time travel destroying history.  They go on many adventures throughout the books, traveling through time to ensure that they fulfil their objective of keeping history on track until they start to question what they are doing and who they are and are then in turn targeted by the people they are supposed to work for.  Because of this, they go into hiding and then travel to the Victorian age to set up shop there under their own agenda, helping if the world if they need to but making sure no one picks up on where they are.  Over the time they have spent working as time travellers, they have begun to realise that there is a price for going through time as they all begin to age rapidly, Liam more so than the others because of his more frequent trips travelling through time.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Science fiction lovers

Favourite Characters: Liam - loveable, loyal, brave, caring, and Irish

Favourite Part: It took Liam no more than an hour to reach the halfway point of the 'climb'; it was more a stiff uphill walk than proper climbing.
[...]
But apart from needing the rest and the water, it was a perfect place to stop, if for no other reason than to take a couple of minutes and savour the spectacular view.
He was no more than a hundred feet up from the jungle floor, above the green canopy of the rainforest, and yet it felt like he was halfway towards the sky. - Page 191-2

Good Points: More character/story driven; characters continued to develop; dynamic between the TimeRiders; this book stood out against the others yet again

Bad Points: Bob wasn't featured as much

The Mayan Prophecy picks up with Sal wandering around the streets of Victorian London, thinking about who she really is because she feels lost, even more so than Maddy and Liam who are in the same boat.  Meanwhile, Maddy is trying to decipher an ancient text that Becks has been keeping a secret which could possibly tell the TimeRiders of their true purpose.  The three TimeRiders and their companions - Rashim and their support units - travel forward in time to speak to an old friend from a previous book because he may inadvertently know about the TimeRiders' true purpose.

What is great about the TimeRider series, especially this book, is that Scarrow has made them more character and story driven than most books I find in this genre.  While this series overall is character and story driven than others I have read, this book in particular focussed on the characters and how they interacted rather than going into great detail about great big battle scenes which allows more of a connection to be formed or more developed between the reader and the characters because you can understand the way they are thinking through the various descriptions.  While action is good to keep you engaged during an intense situation and good for the middle of the main story, understanding how the characters are feeling about coming towards the end of their journey and finding the truth about themselves and possibly the future of the world.

After a few books into a series, the characters, if they are present consistently like Liam, Maddy, and Sal, the characters can stop developing and just repeatedly do the same thing time and time again, much like the characters in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series for example (see Stephanie Plum reviews if you want a more detailed explanation).  However, Scarrow keeps developing the main three characters as well as the recurring characters as they've grown up from the inexperienced teenagers that just did as they were told by an unknown power to the independent young man and women they have become now, going off on their own, more self-aware than they were when they first started out.  I can't wait to see how Scarrow ends this series and how he finishes these characters' stories, no matter if it's sad or happy in the end.

The dynamic between the three TimeRiders has progressed over the books from them just being acquaintances forced to work together to close friends bonded through the horrors they've faced to surrogate siblings who they couldn't imagine living without.  I love how dynamic in this book because Sal is at breaking point and seems to be becoming mentally unstable due to prior revelations; this tests the TimeRiders, particularly Maddy and Liam, because Sal is pulling away from them and cutting them out of her life because she feels she doesn't deserve this life while they try to help her and bring her back out of her shell.  It's almost heart-breaking to see them become parted now after all this time after everything they've been through but it was right for Scarrow to do because it added allowed the TimeRiders to be tested and the reader was able to see if they truly care about one another which, from my point of view, was the essence of the series, a close-knit team travelling through time together, they need to be safe with one another and care or it wouldn't have worked for so long.  Showing Maddy and Liam staying strong proves that at least one part of the team is safe while Sal could be considered the weak link which unfortunately occurs more often in a group of three.

After all of the adventures the three TimeRiders have been on, Liam especially, from the Cretaceous period and Sherwood Forest to the height of the Roman Empire and Victorian London where all of their adventures are intense and full of action while this time, they are travelling through time to find a Mayan tribe that could be the key to their past as the future of the world.  As previously stated, there aren't as many action scenes between the various characters as they go through time which makes this book stand out personally because it seems to be a more emotion driven book, particularly when scenes are described in greater detail because I then can feel more involved in the story rather than just watching Liam or Bob fighting off someone so the TimeRiders and their team can survive.  For me, this marked the beginning of the end for the trio and the series which part of me is dreading because I've really enjoyed this series yet I am looking forward for the climax because I want it to be as memorable as this one.

Liam is definitely my favourite TimeRider because of five simple reasons; he's loveable, loyal, brave, caring, and Irish, what more could a girl need in a fictional character.  I can't be the only one in the world that finds Liam adorable just because he's Irish initially; Irish accents are a wonderful thing and writing Liam's dialogue with an Irish twang made it even more realistic, thank you Mr. Scarrow for fuelling my imagination.  As I've said, it isn't just the vapid reason that Liam is Irish that makes him my favourite character; he's loveable, loyal, brave, and caring which is proven in scenes where he tries to get Sal to open back up to him after she's shut him out because they used to be close.  His bravery was proven through another interaction with Sal but I don't want to put it into the review because I feel it may spoil the book for those that haven't read it yet or even started the series.

Bob, the artificial intelligence that helps Maddy and Sal detect time anomalies that occur with his database and the TimeRiders' knowledge of the world, has always been a favourite of mine because I like the thought of having an AI I can interact with - maybe I've watched Iron Man to many times and want my own J.A.R.V.I.S.  Due to the three TimeRiders, Maddy specifically, not being in their hideout very much in this book, Bob (the AI) isn't mentioned very much which I was disappointed about because he was one of my favourite characters even if he is a piece of technology with a growing personality, much like the TimeRiders' support units.

It took Liam no more than an hour to reach the halfway point of the 'climb'; it was more a stiff uphill walk than proper climbing.
[...]
But apart from needing the rest and the water, it was a perfect place to stop, if for no other reason than to take a couple of minutes and savour the spectacular view.
He was no more than a hundred feet up from the jungle floor, above the green canopy of the rainforest, and yet it felt like he was halfway towards the sky. - Page 191-2

I found myself enthralled in this extremely descriptive part of the book because I became entranced by the sheer beauty of what was being described and I longed to be where the TimeRiders were without the imminent danger they were facing.  I was going to put more of this part into this review, I decided just to keep these three sentences in because I found them the most appealing.  It's moments like these that tell me it's a character/story driven piece as they are calm yet tell me something about a character, in this case, Liam as he looks out into this amazing view, which implies to me that he is an introspective young man who wants to see the world which I found appealing because I would love to venture out of my hometown without a care in the world and go out and see the amazing things that are out there.

Now it's time to wait for the ninth and final book to come out; while it doesn't seem too long since this series started, it's been enjoyable with the interesting characters and intriguing adventures that cover a variety of times and places.  I have no clue how it's going to end, Scarrow has left it a complete mystery, not even adding the blurb to the final book online for anyone to read apart from the last chapter which is set centuries in the past set in the Lost City the TimeRiders visited in this book, hinting at something though it is unclear as to what at the moment.  Hopefully all will be explained in the final book as Scarrow is a thorough writer.  I encourage anyone to read this series if they enjoy a long story which is spread out over the entire series as well as almost mini adventures that are contained from book to book though moments are mentioned occasionally depending if it is relevant at the time.  Come on November!!

Predictions

1. Liam and Maddy are able to pull their team back together

2. They finally meet Waldstein
3. They finally discover what the future holds for them

Other Books by Alex Scarrow