TimeRiders
Encyclopedia
TimeRiders is a series of young adult science fiction
novels written by Alex Scarrow
. It is planned to have nine books and is currently published by the Penguin Group
.
in New York City in a two day time dilation
'Time Bubble', on 10 and 11 September 2001. Each novel revolves around a major change in the historical timeline and the team must work with each other to fix it with the help of a 'support unit' - a cyborg who can mimic human behaviour.
The series also focuses on several minor characters some of which are recurring:
In the book the newly recruited team are thrown into the thick of it before they’ve had a chance to fully train. Paul Kramer, a brilliant physicist from the future, has plans to alter the past – to lead Nazi Germany
to victory over the Allied Forces
and to ensure an ordered World Reich under his rule. Liam and the team’s support unit, Bob, are sent back in time to try and stall Kramer’s plans, whilst in the present, Maddy and Sal witness New York altered by the arrival of a time wave to a terrifying new reality – an apocalyptic landscape of ruins and the savage mutated descendants of some nuclear holocaust
. (ISBN 978-0-1413-2692-4) Published 4 February 2010
Maddy mistakenly opens a time window sixty-five million years ago
in the hunting ground of a deadly undiscovered species of predator, and in the process Liam, Becks and a group of college students are sucked in and are trapped there. In an attempt to survive they build a camp and attempt to send messages into the present time, while Maddy and Sal, with the help of the computer Bob try to find them and rescue them. (ISBN 978-0-1413-2693-1) Published 5 August 2010
In 1994, Adam Lewis, a British computer hacker finds his name in the Voynich manuscript
after decoding a section of it, a code which is almost one thousand years old. He locates and confronts the TimeRiders in 2001, who then travel back to Sherwood Forest
in 1193 to discover the origins of the ancient message. But a strange hooded man appears interested in the same thing, and the TimeRiders, realising that they are in a quest for the holy grail
, attempt to find its key, before the hooded man does.
(ISBN 978-0-1413-3348-9) Published 3 February 2011
A time wave has struck that alters the entire history of the American Civil War
. Abraham Lincoln
has followed Liam into the present from 1831 - and now the world is in a dangerous state of limbo. If the TimeRiders can't return Lincoln to the past, the Civil War will never end. Can Maddy persuade two colonels on either side of no man's land
to cease fire long enough to save the future?
(ISBN 978-0-1413-3633-6) Published 14 July 2011
Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire
- has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula
. Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past. Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right? (ISBN 978-0-1413-3649-7) Due to be published 02 February 2012
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novels written by Alex Scarrow
Alex Scarrow
Alex Scarrow is a British author, whose books include A Thousand Suns, Last Light, Afterlight, October Skies, and the young adult science fiction series TimeRiders.-Early life:...
. It is planned to have nine books and is currently published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...
.
Summary
The novels revolve around teenagers known as the TimeRiders who are recruited by an entity known as 'The Agency' moments before their deaths. The Agency was set up to protect the established set of events throughout history and to fix it if it is tampered with. They operate from their field office underneath an archway of the Williamsburg BridgeWilliamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
in New York City in a two day time dilation
Time dilation
In the theory of relativity, time dilation is an observed difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from gravitational masses. An accurate clock at rest with respect to one observer may be measured to tick at...
'Time Bubble', on 10 and 11 September 2001. Each novel revolves around a major change in the historical timeline and the team must work with each other to fix it with the help of a 'support unit' - a cyborg who can mimic human behaviour.
- "Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world . . ." - The TimeRiders series' summary.
Characters
The series follows three main protagonists:- Liam O'Connor - The team's field agent, Liam was a steward on the Titanic in 1912, and was saved moments before the ship's BowBow (ship)The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
began to buckle during the sinking. He was recruited because of his ability to think decisively in tough situations. Liam has a close bond with both 'Bob' support units after the first one helped him out during the team's first mission. At the end of TimeRiders: Day of the Predator Foster tells Maddy that he is actually the older version of Liam, and it is later reveled in the series that Liam is ageing faster than the other team members due to the effects of time travelling.
- Maddy Carter - The team leader, Maddy was saved moments before a terrorist attack on a commercial jet in 2010 by Foster. She was a computer hacker for MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, and was recruited because of her computer intellect. Maddy has formed a bond with the support unit 'Becks' after confiding in her secrets which the rest of the team cannot know yet. She is also currently the only one who knows that Liam is ageing faster and that he may be Foster because she has not yet reveled her knowledge of this to the team.
- Sal Vikram - Sal was recruited by Foster in 2026 MumbaiMumbaiMumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
when she was saved moments before a SkyscraperSkyscraperA skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
collapsed due to a fire. She was recruited because she was a champion in a fictional future number placement puzzle Pikado. Because of this, she is responsible for noticing any minor changes which may have been caused by a 'shift'. Moments before she was recruited during the skyscraper collapse the last thing she remembers seeing is a teddy bear which she has seen residing in a shop close to the teams 2001 base. Towards the end of the first book she was captured by mutantMutationIn molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
humans and supposedly killed, but returned to the team when the original timeline was restored, having been away from the time bubble during the initial time wave. In the fourth book she time travels for the first time with Liam back to 1831.
The series also focuses on several minor characters some of which are recurring:
- Foster - At first, not much was known about Foster, he was the initial leader of the team who recruited the other three and showed them how to notice the changes in time, how to identify the change's point of origin and fix it. He reveals to the trio in TimeRiders that the team before them were killed in action. He eventually leaves the team at the end of the first novel due to his deteriorating health caused by time travelling, he leaves the time dilation field and 'syncs' with the rest of history thereby making it almost impossible for the team to find him again. In TimeRiders: Day of the Predator however, Maddy discovers where Foster is on the second day of the time dilation field. However, being out of the dilation field Foster cannot remember every meeting so every time Maddy meets him, it is his first time seeing her since leaving the team. At the end of TimeRiders: Day of the Predator it is revealed by Foster that he is fact an older version of Liam. Foster's appeared is at the end of TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code. He is only mentioned in TimeRiders: The Eternal War.
- Bob - Bob was the team's first support unit who was originally described as a ‘meat robot’ which is grown from within a test tube. In TimeRiders, before Bob and Liam could return to the field office, Bob's body suffered injuries beyond repiar, therefore Liam had to remove the support unit's Artificial IntelligenceArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
(AI) from his internal memory which was eventually transferred to the field office's central computer. A second Bob was grown at the beginning of TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code and the original Bob’s AI was copied and uploaded to the new Bob's internal memory. Throughout TimeRiders, Bob begins to consider Liam as a friend, a feeling which was copied to the second Bob. Bob currently resides within the field office's central computer and assists Maddy and Sal in research whenever a shift is detected.
- Becks – In TimeRiders: Day of the Predator, after the original Bob was no longer able to carry out field duties, another support unit had to be grown. To do this, support unit embryos had to be gathered from a drop point in San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake1906 San Francisco earthquakeThe San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
. After bringing the embryos back to the field office however, Sal made an error and as a result grew a female support unit instead of a male. Becks' 'consciousness' is a copy of the original Bob's AI however as the story develops, Becks adapts her own personality and although retains the data from Bob, develops an independent identity. Beck's physical body is damaged beyond repair during the climax of TimeRiders: The Eternal War and Maddy dislodges her head and brings it back to the field office in order to preserve the data on her internal storage.
- Bob 2.0 - In TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code, the team decide to grow another male support unit in the same image as Bob. When the second Bob is grown, the team once again make a copy of the original's AI and transfer the copy to the new Bob's internal memory. Bob 2.0 and Becks are able to communicate using Near Field CommunicationNear Field CommunicationNear field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...
technology whilst out in the field. Bob 2.0 retains all of the original Bob's AI including memory, however is not the same Bob and is a separate, independent support unit.
- Adam Lewis - Introduced in TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code, Adam is a British computer hacker from ChelmsfordChelmsfordChelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...
in England who finds his name in the Voynich manuscriptVoynich manuscriptThe Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912....
after de-coding a section of it, a code which is almost one thousand years old. Maddy and Becks confront him in 1994 about the subject whilst he is attending the University of East AngliaUniversity of East AngliaThe University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
, after accidentally leaving behind some crucial evidence, Adam was able to track the team down to their field office in 2001. He eventually joins the team for the remainder of the novel. Maddy comments that he reminds her of her cousin who died during the September 11, 2001 attacks. When Adam has to depart, Sal pleads with Maddy to allow him to become a permanent member; however, she refuses but gives him a warning to not attend work that day in the World Trade CenterWorld Trade CenterThe original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
. Shortly afterwards however, he stands outside in Times SquareTimes SquareTimes Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
and questions his sanity about the events which have occurred. He decides to check whether he still has his old life and heads toward his office only mere minutes before the attacks.
Books
The current order of novels are as follows:- TimeRiders
In the book the newly recruited team are thrown into the thick of it before they’ve had a chance to fully train. Paul Kramer, a brilliant physicist from the future, has plans to alter the past – to lead Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
to victory over the Allied Forces
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
and to ensure an ordered World Reich under his rule. Liam and the team’s support unit, Bob, are sent back in time to try and stall Kramer’s plans, whilst in the present, Maddy and Sal witness New York altered by the arrival of a time wave to a terrifying new reality – an apocalyptic landscape of ruins and the savage mutated descendants of some nuclear holocaust
Nuclear holocaust
Nuclear holocaust refers to the possibility of the near complete annihilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare. Under such a scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars....
. (ISBN 978-0-1413-2692-4) Published 4 February 2010
- TimeRiders: Day of the Predator
Maddy mistakenly opens a time window sixty-five million years ago
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...
in the hunting ground of a deadly undiscovered species of predator, and in the process Liam, Becks and a group of college students are sucked in and are trapped there. In an attempt to survive they build a camp and attempt to send messages into the present time, while Maddy and Sal, with the help of the computer Bob try to find them and rescue them. (ISBN 978-0-1413-2693-1) Published 5 August 2010
- TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code
In 1994, Adam Lewis, a British computer hacker finds his name in the Voynich manuscript
Voynich manuscript
The Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912....
after decoding a section of it, a code which is almost one thousand years old. He locates and confronts the TimeRiders in 2001, who then travel back to Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423 hectares surrounding the village of...
in 1193 to discover the origins of the ancient message. But a strange hooded man appears interested in the same thing, and the TimeRiders, realising that they are in a quest for the holy grail
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...
, attempt to find its key, before the hooded man does.
(ISBN 978-0-1413-3348-9) Published 3 February 2011
- TimeRiders: The Eternal War
A time wave has struck that alters the entire history of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
has followed Liam into the present from 1831 - and now the world is in a dangerous state of limbo. If the TimeRiders can't return Lincoln to the past, the Civil War will never end. Can Maddy persuade two colonels on either side of no man's land
No man's land
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
to cease fire long enough to save the future?
(ISBN 978-0-1413-3633-6) Published 14 July 2011
- TimeRiders: Gates of Rome
Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
- has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
. Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past. Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right? (ISBN 978-0-1413-3649-7) Due to be published 02 February 2012