YA Review: Invictus by Ryan Graudin

The Premise (from NetGalley): Farway McCarthy was born outside of time. With nowhere to call home and nothing to anchor him to the present, Far captains a crew on a dangerous mission into the past. When he collides with Eliot – a mysterious, secretive girl, whose very appearance raises questions about time itself – Far immediately distrusts her. But he must take a leap of faith, following Eliot on a race against time, if he is to protect everything he’s ever loved from disappearing forever…

Thoughts: in the interests of full disclosure, I will hereby announce that I adored this book. Although, as I have frequently bemoaned, I don’t usually understand time travel, I absolutely love to read about it and the thought of Ryan Graudin – author of Wolf by Wolf, one of my favourite books of the last few years – publishing a book in this genre has had me giddy for months. Invictus doesn’t disappoint. The book gets off to a blistering start, with Farway’s mother in ancient Rome and accidentally giving birth outside of time (a concept I love), before heading 17 years into the future  to see Farway trying to graduate from time travel school. Or, as I like to think of it, the thinking reader’s Hogwarts. The pace is really fast and there aren’t any lulls as the book progresses, but somehow there’s no sense of things being rushed. If you’ve read Wolf by Wolf and Blood for Blood, you’ll know Graudin is a genius at managing loads of action alongside emotional developments, relationships you care about and fascinating backstories, and Invictus is no different. The plot is very sci-fi in ways I won’t explain because they would spoil it; it’s all very cool.

Invictus combines a few of my favourite things; aside from time travel, it almost seems like a space-set novel too, because of how much time is spent aboard the amazing-sounding time travel craft. The crew’s adventures throughout time mean that the book also contains lots of fun and impeccably researched historical details too; I particularly liked the way every detail of how this would work had been thought out, for example with the ship being crammed with historically accurate outfits fit for every era. The book only adds to the idea that time travel would be the coolest thing ever.

I loved the characters too and the rapport between Farway and his crew is both touching and very funny. The banter between those aboard the Invictus is a really entertaining part of the book and their close bond gives the dramatic bits real emotional import. Also they have a pet red panda, which is my main ambition in life.

In Conclusion: Invictus is everything I want in a book; it’s fun and exciting, with a wildly inventive plot (that actually makes sense – not always true in time travel stories), filled with fascinating characters and zingy dialogue. My only disappointment with the whole thing is that it’s a standalone book rather than the start of a series. I can’t wait to read what Graudin writes next.