Publisher: Orion's Children Books
Format: ARC**
Published: 21st September 2017
Number of Pages: 464
Book: For Review*
Genre: Science-Fiction, Action-Adventure, Historical, Mystery, Romance, YA
Recommended
Age: 12+
Contains: Violence,
Death, Alcohol References
Blurb From Goodreads:
Time flies when you're plundering history.
Farway
Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder
from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far's birth defies the
laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he's ever wanted, and after
failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship
with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal
valuables from the past.
But
during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always
seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far's
very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through
time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.
Review:
“There
wasn't much solitude among four souls, one mannequin, and a red attack panda...”
Farway McCarthy is unique. He is a
boy born out of time aboard a time travel machine, the son of one of the
greatest time travellers around. He's always wanted to follow in his
mom's footsteps, explore history like she did.
Which is why he isn't going to let a fexing
sim of Marie Antoinette foil him.
And it’s also how he ends up with the
Invictus, the captain of his own TM, chasing through history for treasures with
his crew. It's aboard the Titanic that everything begins to
unravel.
Eliot is a mystery and a nuisance, an
enigma and a thief. Far doesn't trust her, but he must – it's the only
way to stay alive.
But Eliot has more secrets than just her
last name and where she hid that fexing enormous yellow dress she wore aboard
the Titanic. And her secrets could mean the end of everything Far holds
dear – the end of history itself...
I adore Ryan Graudin. She is an
amazing amazing author – and Invictus has proven she can write bloody
anything. I fell in love with her Wolf
By Wolf series so when I saw they were giving away proofs of Invictus at YALC, of course I had to join the queue. I made friends, I waited,
I chatted and then finally I had this beauty in my greedy little hands and
wanted to cheer. I also wanted to start reading it right that very
second, but anyone who's been to YALC knows there's ironically not all that
much time for reading while you're there! So I waited, took Invictus on holiday, started reading on
the plane, and was over 100 pages in without even realising it.
Oh. My. God! I love all of Ryan's
books so much that I can't choose a favourite – but Invictus is just phenomenal! It has everything – sci-fi, history,
romance, adventure, mystery, a blue box, a red panda and more! I fell in
love with everything about Invictus –
it's just hashing marvellous!
The characters – oh how I loved them all!
I fell for each and every one of the Invictus crew – although a certain fuzzy
beastie stole my heart good and proper! I want a red panda like Saffron
now – I never knew I could want a red panda so much. I may need to buy a
cuddly one and call it Saffron because I'm pretty sure having a real one is all
kinds of illegal.
Onto the human cast now! It's hard to
make third person POVs sound unique to each character – especially when you're
writing from as many as Ryan did over the course of Invictus. And yet she managed – each character had their own
way of narrating, their own way of thinking, and I bloody loved it. Plus the characters were all just so
three-dimensional and likeable – and all had brilliantly unique senses of
humour!
Far was brilliant – brave, clever,
determined, a hero I could really get behind and root for. He also wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the
imagination and I loved him more for it.
Imogen was literally adorable – I love my
cousins to pieces, but I must admit Far’s cousin was just amazing and I want
her! I loved how cheerful she was, I
loved how she changed her hair colour every day, I just loved her so much!
Eliot was an intriguing character and I loved
how we slowly learnt about her over the course of the book. She was mysterious, funny, brave and badass –
I loved her!
Priya was also really adorable! The medic of the crew, she thought anything
could be cured with some chai tea – and as a Brit I can relate the this notion
of tea fixing everything whole heartedly!
I also loved her relationship with Far, although I do wish we’d seen
more of how they got together.
Gram was really cute – a scientist at
heart, he was very logical and practical and not brilliant at the human
interactions at times! I adore him and
his relationship with Imogen was just everything!
Oh my god, this story! I was on the
edge of my seat the whole time, reading like a mad thing, totally unsure about
what would happen next. The twists were insane – and truly brilliant!
I loved the beginning of the story, where the crew of the Invictus go
about time stealing priceless artefacts that would otherwise be lost to
disaster. That was awesome and a lot of
fun to read! But then the second half,
where the stakes kick up by a million and the race is on – not to save an
artefact or two but life itself? Yeah, I
loved that!
Also I really really wanna live in Far's
time – travel through history, recording and experiencing, observing and
learning. It just sounds amazing! And while the futuristic aspect
could be hard to grasp, I found it so easy to immerse myself in everything
about Invictus – and loved every
minute!
Anyone who knows me is aware that I am
normally a total fantasy girl. I love dragons and magic and potions.
I don't really read sci-fi all that much – but god am I glad I read Invictus! Invictus was hazing amazing and I loved every single second of
it! So whether you live for sci-fi,
fantasy or fuzzy red pandas, read Invictus! This book has just secured Ryan’s place on my
auto-buy list for all of time and space and I really just cannot recommend it
enough!
Star Rating:
5 Out of 5
5 Out of 5
Read this
book if you liked:
Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Doctor Who
Happy Reading
Megan
* This
book was received from Orion in exchange for an honest review
**
Quotes used are from a proof copy and may have been changed in the finished
book
