A new fantasy series by the author of the Thieftaker series (which I really enjoyed).

One thing that stood out for me: the fact that this is both a science fiction novel (time-travel) and a secondary-world fantasy novel. Haven't seen that mix before, and it certainly made this novel stand out.

Jackson is a very good writer, and his characters are well-drawn and quite engaging. The world-building is well-done, too. Some of the dynamics/science is a little strange, but Jackson does a good job of making it work.

An intriguing novel, and one that made me keen to read more by the author.

Mearlan IV, the ruler of Daerjen is looking to add a Walker to his retinue. That Walker is 15 year old Tobias Doljan. A Walker is someone with thew ability and training to walk backward and forward in time - usually to give important messages to someone to watch out or be careful about something. And of course a ruler such as Mearlan wants to make sure he has a Walker to warn him about dangers. But Mearlan has a job for Tobias - an unusual request and one that he won't repeat. Mearlan wants Tobias to go back and tell the younger Mearlan not to start the war that he's currently in and losing.

There's an important side-effect to Walking through time. The body ages with the amount of time Walked. If a Walker goes backward one day, he ages a day, and if he goes forward one day, to the time he initially left, he ages another day, even though no one else has aged. Mearlan IV has asked Tobias to Walk backward 14 years, to an integral point before the war starts. Of course Tobias, who will be 29 in body and 15 in mind, will have to try to find a way to convince Mearlan that he was sent by his older self.

But along the way, assassins are trying to take out Tobias, and disasters occur that suggest the future will be changed in some very unexpected ways. Tobias may be the only one who can salvage or resurrect the future the way it's supposed to happen.

I've read a few time-travel books and they're always pretty confounding, but author D.B. Jackson has done a pretty remarkable job of making sense of the vagaries of time travel. I do like the addition of aging, which does put some limits on how far backward or forward someone can travel.

The story is greatly interesting right at the start as we get settled in to this world and the beginning of Tobias' quest. As the action picks up I lost interest in some of the story. Things change drastically, and the changes keep coming for a bit, and at some point it is just a little too much. It settles back down (if action chases can be considered 'settles down') and we return to story-telling over action sequences which is much more interesting.

The book is the first part of a series and as such, there are unanswered questions and an unresolved story-line when we get to the end of the book.

I liked Jackson's writing, and the overall concept is quite intriguing. Jackson takes on a challenging theme with time travel, but he builds a story around it very well. But his story is much more interesting than his action sequences.

Looking for a good book? <em>Time's Children</em> by D.B. Jackson is a clever fantasy and well-written. I look forward to the next book in the series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Angry Robot books are usually a safe bet, them having almost perfected the art of perhaps spotting the next big talent and getting it right a lot of times. I enjoy their books because of two reasons, exciting new talent and also the breakthrough original storylines that push the boundaries of the genre and make you think. I can sense a pattern - and so with Time's Children as well, the latest from DB Jackson ( Who is popular for the Thieftaker series writing as David B Coe)

A time-travel concept melded with flintlock fantasy? Wohoo, reel me in. D B Jackson wastes no time in setting us up for a complex web of time-travel ( with of course the complexities that arise with parallel time-lines), political intrigue and conspiracies galore. Things can get hairy soon with the world going topsy-turvy on parallel time-lines but the focus of Jackson's tale never wavers from the central plot. Of conspiracies being thwarted to save the young heir of a kingdom under attack.

Our main protagonist is Tobias, a young teenager who grapples with the power and responsibilities that come with, being one of the rare few posssessed of an ability to time-travel (Walker). Time-travel are of three types: Walkers can ford across time, Spanners move across distance and Crossers can walk through physical obstacles. Even before he can finish his graduation from the Academy of Travelers, Tobias is recruited by a desperate sovereign of the Kingdom of Daerjen to help stop a war that has now been raging on, for at least fourteen years. Just barely more than a novice, Tobias doesn't have a choice but to agree to the demands and finish that walk, fourteen years into the past. Now time-travel comes with a cost, that the Walker loses those years of his life. So technically by the time Tobias travels back to the courts of Daerjen, he already has hit late twenties. A teenager trapped in a grown man, his choices are even more limited as he realises that soon after reaching the courts, the entire Sovereign and his royal family are assassinated by the enemies of the empire. An act orchestrated by a power-crazed Autarch, of the Oquamaran empire with the help of his own set of Travelers. Now Tobias is stuck in that time-frame with the princess, a mere baby dodging the ministrations of the set of assassins sent to wipe out the royal family and stamp their authority on these shores.

Meanwhile in a completely different set of future ( having sprung along with Tobias and the assassins meddling with one version of the past!) Tobias' friend Mara realises that something is wrong with the timelines. Possessed of an uncanny knack to figure this out, Mara takes the help of a time-demon known as Tibirrin, called Droe to possibly go back in the past, help out Tobias and thus right the wrongs in her present. With so much altered, is there even a present that is relevant? But Mara doesn't stop to question such and flings herself headlong into that warped hallways of time, trusting only her own flawed optimistic judgement.

The time-travel paradox is dealt with cleverly enough, saddling the travellers with cost of that travel. Losing years traveled in their own physical self, ageing through such time. Jackson's prose is very straightforward and easy enough, so you don't realise that you are halfway through a 500-plus pages book as you are sucked straight into the conspiracies and the exciting time-travel. I was very excited with the concept of the time-demons that he introduces, fairly early on itself. In fact there are different kinds of demons in this world, all of them having a sort of interplay with time. Tobias' POV is the more significant one and Jackson draws out the confusions and the conflicts that he faces at every turn, saddled with responsibilities far greater than what a fourteen year old should be taking on. Mara's character is the secondary fiddle and is so set up to basically bail out Tobias from this seemingly impossible quandary. Clever enough twists in that storyline but not something that would knock your socks off. Mara and Droe are very interesting side-characters and I felt they truly deserved a lot more face time. For example, questions of why did Mara even decide to attempt to go back and untangle those crossed-up time lines wasn't clear. The motivation being true-blue love wasn't enough for me. And Droe, a time-demon clearly besotted by a Walker for no apparent reason, also was a bit shaky grounds for me. I also felt the story of Orizili and his wife could have shaped up into something really nice, making for an antagonist whom we could have rooted for.

In terms of narrative and pacing, I felt the overlay of time-travel in a flintlock fantasy setting was damn cool - there are a lot of neat examples of world-building throughout. However, the pacing hits a wall right after Tobias lands up in Daerjen on his mission. The slump is recovered only towards the fag-end when things pick up pace again, frenetic and urgent.

I might be building this up as a disappointment but truly, the time-travel concepts are very neatly done and the adventure is only beginning to unfurl. Things are nicely set up for Time's Demon coming out in May 2019 and this is a world and book, with tremendous potential to be explored. If you love time-travel and are bored with the straightforward unsatisfying explorations of the same in science fiction, then hit this one up. Fantasy infused with clever time-travel, a satisfactory opener to what can turn out to be rollercoaster ride.

This one just took too long to really get into the story - I found myself not wanting to pick it up, and did a stop-start thing for quite a while before I just had to acknowledge that maybe I didn't want to read it all that much.

I will say, the writing is quite good (aside from the aforementioned slowness) and the characters seemed pretty interesting. Just not enough to keep me reading. I hope to try things from this author in the future, perhaps it was just this book!

I loved D B Jackson’s “Thieftaker” Chronicles, set in pre-Revolutionary Boston, with an appealingly flawed hero and a system of magic that extorts a dreadful toll. The plots moved right along, part police procedural, part magical battle, part romance. My interest never wavered, and at the end, I counted many of the characters as friends or at least recognizable enemies I must never trust. So I dove happily into this fantasy with its intriguing premise of magic wielders who can not only cross distances but time itself. I assumed the setting would be vivid, the characters compelling, and the magic itself carefully thought through and integral to the world and the plot.

The description was promising: Fifteen year-old Tobias Doljan, a Walker trained to travel through time, is called to serve at the court of Daerjen. The sovereign, Mearlan IV, wants him to Walk back fourteen years, to prevent a devastating war which will destroy all of Islevale. Even though the journey will double Tobias' age, he agrees. But he arrives to discover Mearlan has already been assassinated, and his court destroyed. The only survivor is the infant princess, Sofya. Still a boy inside his newly adult body, Tobias must find a way to protect the princess from assassins, and build himself a future... in the past.

As I read, I found my expectations were not amiss: the world was complex and interesting, and the characters, particularly the demons, got me curious. I loved the system of magic. An auspicious beginning, I thought. But as page after page went by, each one piling up more secondary characters that seemed to serve no purpose but to be left behind in an unending prequel to the plot promised by the description, I found myself looking around for something else to read. Add to that, the descriptions went on and on…and on, Robert Jordan style. As I’m not a fan of Jordan except as a cure for insomnia, this didn’t work for me.

Don’t get me wrong, D B Jackson is a marvelous writer. The “Thieftaker” books showcase his ability to depict settings with wonderful characters caught up in nonstop action on many different levels, with internal angst as well as external dangers. The prose in Time’s Children is just fine, and often even better than fine. But beautiful writing alone could not, for me, overcome the overlong static passages and the repeated bits of action, interaction, and minor plot threads that seemed to go nowhere.

In the end, I gave up. I’ll wait for the next “Thieftaker” novel or give Jackson’s next a chance…so long as it is not this particular series.

All this said, this is only my own experience and opinion. It’s not that I’m opposed to long novels with leisurely descriptions. I love Tolkien’s writing and re-read The Lord of the Rings at regular intervals. There’s a travelogue in the form of a novel if ever there was one. But the conception of the world and the way it’s imbued with enchantment makes Middle Earth itself the focus for much of the trilogy. That wasn’t my experience with Time’s Children. Perhaps other Tolkien fans – or Jordan fans – will love this series. I wish them joy of it, and D B Jackson himself success with his work.

"Time's Children" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by D. B. Jackson (http://www.dbjackson-author.com). Mr. Jackson has published six novels. This is the first of his "Islevale Cycle" series. 

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Situations. The story is set in another world where magic is possible. The primary character is fifteen-year-old Tobias Doljan. 

Doljan is a student of magic with a specialty as a Walker who can travel through time. He is sent to the court of Daerjen. The sovereign of Daerjen, Mearlan IV, asks him to Walk back in time fourteen years, far beyond what is normally allowed. Doljan agrees to take the risk and the burden of aging himself fourteen years in order to stop the war that has been going on. 

Doljan survives the trip back in time, but Mearlan and his court are unexpectedly attacked and killed. The only survivor is Doljan and Mearlan's baby girl. Doljan, though only fifteen in the body of a thirty-year-old man, must find a way to save the princess and evade the invaders. 

Doljan's close friend and love from the magic school, Mara, senses the disruption in the timeline when Mearlan is killed in the past. Though she has forgotten who Doljan is, she knows she must follow him into the past to correct the change in history. 

Plots that span time. Magical creatures. Threats from foreign powers. This has the making of a great fantasy series. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the nearly 13 hours I spent reading this 528-page fantasy. I liked the plot and the characters. I think the twist of aging those who travel through time adds to the story. I like the cover art. I give this novel a 5 out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

A riveting and original take on time travel and all of its wary dangers. I enjoyed reading this novel and appreciate how well the author handled serious topics and heavy moments, as well as his interesting take on some of the creatures we find in the story. With some exceptional world building and a lot of elbow grease obviously having been put behind the effort, Time’s Children is definitely something to read before the year has run its course.

Fifteen-year-old Tobias Doljan is a Walker, able to walk through time. This is usually only into the recent past. But when Tobias is called into the service of Mearlan IV the sovereign of the court of Daejen, he is commanded to Walk back an unprecedented fourteen years. The catch is that in doing so his body will age fourteen years while his mind remains that of a fifteen-year-old.

On arriving Tobias discovers Mearlan has been assassinated, his court destroyed and the infant princess, Sofya, is in great danger. How will Tobias, a teenage boy, deal not only with all the perils of keeping a baby safe, but also adjust to the reality that the world he now lives in perceives him as a twenty-nine-year-old man?

D B Jackson has come up with an interesting concept, in that a teenage boy must think and act with all the gravitas of an adult responsible for the future of the world he left, which in the scheme of alternate realities has effectively changed forever.

Jackson does well to put this over while keeping the plot fast-paced and filled with relentless danger round every corner. The poor boy/man is rarely given a moment’s peace from the assassins (also Walkers, but with a mechanism which provides them with an added advantage) sent back to kill both him and the princess.

We are not only concerned with Tobias’s story, but also Mara’s, Tobias’s would be girlfriend in his reality, who senses something is very wrong but can’t work out why. She is a Spanner, able to span great distances, but there is more to her talents than she at first realises. A meeting with Droë,a time demon, which feeds on the life essence of the living, and an entity who had developed feelings of attachment towards Tobias in his reality, pushes Mara to do something about her suspicions.

That some of the bad guys have a complex backstory, hinging on loyalties and ties of deep love, does add another layer to the narrative, and I am hoping that this will be explored in more depth in the next novel of The Islevale Cycle series as well as Tobias’s adjustment to adult responsibilities and his relationship with his allies.

Time’s Children is a novel which really entertains, creating gasps of horror and sharp intakes of breath in all the right places, as well as sighs of relief when our hero somehow extricates himself or is saved from dire situations. 

Given Tobias's age, the story and style of writing, Time's Children is a novel which will appeal to the older young adult reader looking for a great story, as well as an adult audience.

[Review publishing on October 28th, 2018 at https://pagesbelowvaultedsky.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/mini-review-times-children-the-islevale-cycle-1-a-fast-paced-time-travel-fantasy]

I found this to be a pleasantly lukewarm read for the most part. The prose is simple but engaging. The worldbuilding isn’t overly complex but still snags your attention. It doesn’t do anything out-of-this-world fantastic, but it sets up a nice jumping off point for what could be a very good fantasy series.

The world of Time’s Children is one where Walkers (those who can time travel), Spanners (those who can cross long distances in a blink of an eye), Seers (those who can glimpse into the future), and other such gifted individuals ply their services to nobility. Tobias is a 15-year old Walker who has been tasked with traveling back 14 years to prevent a war. Everything goes awry when he arrives, however, and he becomes witness to the assassination of the royal family and ends up having to flee the castle with the baby princess in his arms.

The time travel plot doesn’t kickstart until about 1/3 of the way into the book, which I actually quite liked. I appreciated that Jackson took the time to not only establish Tobias’ character, but also the rules of time travel–clothes off when traveling; running into your traveled self is dangerous; and if you travel back 12 years, you age 12 years, and when you travel forward again, you age 12 more–and the political situation of these countries. It’s fascinating stuff and I enjoyed this slower-paced first half more than the action-filled second half.

I also loved that these Walkers aren’t romanticized. While respected by nobility and commoners both, their job isn’t a pretty one. They exist, really, to clean up the nobility’s mistakes, sacrificing years of their life while doing so. A character remarks to Tobias near the beginning that there’s little to separate it from slavery, and I couldn’t agree more. I hope it gets brought up again in the later books because it’s great foundation for character conflicts.

Which brings me to my main problem: the characters. Tobias himself is a sweet, likeable boy who reminded a little bit of young FitzChivalry. But pleasant and likeable is about the extent of his character. I would have loved an in-depth exploration into his PTSD as I can only imagine the psychological havoc that a sudden aging can wreak on a person. Unfortunately, it’s an area for character growth that the story doesn’t really take advantage of. Yet, anyway. Considering this is only the first book, I assume–hope–we’ll see more layers to him in the sequels. As for the side characters, they’re a diverse bunch and they’re all given PoVS of their own, but I had a hard time connecting with any of them.

All in all, though, this was a fast-paced, highly readable fantasy with a lot of potential and room for growth and I’m interested to see where the author takes the story next.

Review copy provided by publisher via Netgalley

I've had a hard time trying to articulate exactly what I thought made this book special. It's quite unassuming. It was a book that I found myself willing to put down at night, not because it was bad or I was bored, but because I wanted it to last as long as possible. I savoured it, I enjoyed the writing and the characters and I didn't want to rush it. It was almost a heavy read, a book that made you feel for Tobias and his struggle.

Tobias is a wonderful character. He is devoted to his job, he is willing to take risks, he does his best to do the right thing. After travelling back in time he finds himself in a 29 year olds body. He takes on the mammoth task of trying to single handily prevent a war and then when everything goes wrong, he takes on a baby and tries to escape. He has to find a way to fix everything while navigating a city he doesn't really know and with nobody who knows him. Tobias never complains, he continues trying to move forward.
All of the characters felt distinct and you had to appreciate just how fierce the women in Time's Children are. Those on either side are capable, willing to face their fear and get things done, even at their own detriment.

The magic revolved around time and movement. Walkers could travel through time, Spanners could travel distances and Crossers could move through solid matter. People with the talent were trained and needed specific objects to be able to use their magic. For walkers there was a heavy price for using the magic.

There was a lot of world building, but it felt organic. It didn't bog down the story. It flowed, it built up tension and had me wanting more. There was political intrigue, demons, twisted timelines and pirates. The book surprised me and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next. (Book 2 will be out in May 2019)
I received this book from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Time's Children is everything you want in an epic fantasy series. Magic that defies logic, yet seems to work. War that is never-ending, save for a drastic solution. Fascinating creatures who roam the corners and the seas, beckoning travelers into peril. Above all, a protagonist you get to know, who feels and struggles and strives to do his best to save the world.

The novel is a tour-de-force, setting a fascinating tale of magic and intrigue amidst a world filled with dark corners and creatures who are not to be trusted. I loved every part of this book, and applaud the author on creating a compelling story filled with brilliantly rendered scenes, settings and details that made the world come alive. Prepare to be swept away by the tides of this masterful story.

Full review at: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2018/10/23/times-children-a-brilliant-journey-through-time/

This book mixes time travel and fantasy seamlessly in a secondary world, and presents it in an impossible to put down package. The time travel in this book is top notch, never losing the fantasy feel, while still adding all the best time travel elements. My favourite twist is how when the walkers travel through time, they age the number of years they’ve travelled. This really ups the stakes for the characters, as they have a lot of lose by travelling so far into the past. The world-building is spot-on, and the strength of it really comes through in the alternate timeline, where the reader gets to experience the changes that occur when Tobias changes the past. Add in time demons and it’s brilliant how the time travel magic is so entwined with the world-building.

As far as characters go, I wasn’t much of a fan of Tobias, I just found him to be too much of your classic hero (not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but it just doesn’t do it for me as a reader). I did really enjoy Dröe and Mara, who I thought were really interesting characters (I’m not sure I completely buy some of Mara’s motives, but I found her to be a great character regardless).

Overall, this is a great book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy and loves time travel and wants to experience both at once.

When the cost of time travel is actual time off your life, to travel 14 years in the past is a huge sacrifice, but to stop a war from happening seems to be worth it to a 15-year-old Walker named Tobias. The problem is that other people are very motivated to see this war happen and crush the kingdom that Tobias has gone to work for straight out of school. Tobias is now on the run with an infant princess, looking and sounding like a 29-year-old man, he is still very much a 15-year-old boy inside trying to do the right thing. An interesting world setup with not only time walkers but people that can phase through solid walls and others that can travel great distances make all tree types very useful to the various kingdoms around this world. A fun read and there are more planned in this series.

I’ve loved a good time travel story since the old days when I saw a double header of Back to the Future and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure at a drive in movie theater. Yes … I am old. (ha!) I loved the twisty-turny way it made my brain feel. What if Marty met himself? What if his parents figured out who he was. What if someone died and it eliminated his timeline? Time travel can be tricky! Time’s Children is not afraid to meet these questions head on.

Tobias is a young man with an innate ability to “time walk” with the use of a Chronofor. He is 15 years old and has been trained primarily as an assassin. He will be employed by the king of an embattled kingdom, who hopes to use Tobias’ abilities to prevent the war. Time travel in this book ages a person. For every year you walk … you age. Tobias takes a walk 14 years into the past and emerges to find himself a 15 year old mind in a 29 year old body. This creates an interesting character arc. His body is different, he’s not been slowly habituated to the slow aches and pains of growing up and older. He’s a boy in a man’s body, still idealistic and I think a little tenderhearted. However, his walk has now changed history in ways that couldn’t have been foreseen and now he is stuck. I don’t want to say more because SPOILERS.

I quite liked the book and the authors style of writing. It put me in mind of Jeff Wheeler’s books. They are easy to sink into. As a trigger warning, there is some off-focus torture in the book. I say off-focus because it is not dwelt on in grisly detail, but the effect and emotion is kept intact. I’m not sure exactly how many books are going to be in this series, but I know that there is a second book coming out relatively soon. I’m hoping I can come across it on Netgalley in the near future. I’d really like to see how this story shapes up.

Song for this book: What Time Do You Call This? by Elbow

A 15-year-old in a 29-year-old body, stuck 14 years in the past, trying to keep a baby safe and change the future for the better. That was a premise that caught my attention. It's unique and intriguing but also very heavy and sad when you realize that no one, especially a teenager, should have to sacrifice that much or have that much responsibility put on their shoulders. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think this is a good time for some lists!

Things I Disliked:

- The book was a little too slow-paced for my taste.

- There were a lot of descriptions of settings (rooms, cities, buildings).

- There were multiple POVs, and I liked some more than others. But the various POVs did give the book a slightly more epic feel with a wider scope, without going overboard, so that's something some readers may like.

- This is not my preferred version of time travel---the kind where characters are actually able to change the outcome of the future. However, I accepted that as the premise of the book going in, so I can't really complain about that.

Things I Liked:

- The creativity of the Walkers, Crossers, and Spanners. Walkers can walk back in time. Crossers can pass through wood or stone. Spanners can teleport over distances. But they all require training and the proper tools, and there are rules and limits and sometimes consequences (like how Walkers age whatever amount of time they travel, both when they go back in time and when they go forward to get back to the present).

- The creativity of the whole premise. A 15-year-old in a 29-year-old body getting stuck in the past and having to keep the princess, who's only a baby, safe, with assassins following close behind.

- The main characters were good people who were trying to do the right thing, so they were easy to root for.

- The heavy topics were handled with the seriousness they deserved. No teen should have to sacrifice as much as Tobias did, or take on as much responsibility as he did, and those things were not taken lightly or glossed over. This whole book had a heavy, serious feel to it. And the dark scenes, violence, etc. were written well. I feel like the author found the perfect balance of not being gratuitous in his descriptions of violence but not pulling any punches or sugar-coating things either. (Trigger Warning: *MILD SPOILER* There were some fairly explicit scenes of torture, but it was a brief section that could be skipped, I think, if need be. *END SPOILER*)

- Interesting supernatural creatures. Like time demons that fed upon the years of life left in a person and loved riddles, and mist demons that loved song.

- The writing flowed well.

Overall

As I said, this was a little slow-paced with a little too much description for my taste, but I still thought it was a good book. The writing and the creativity made this a worthwhile read that I think many fans of high fantasy, time travel, and fantasy/sci-fi mashups will like!

As always., the majority of this review is in the podcast episode!

Where do I start? I'm not usually one or time travel stories - I get tangled up thinking too hard about paradoxes and the like - but the premise of this time-based novel is pretty clear. Once you go back, things change for good and you can't change it back.

Jackson's writing is full of emotional turmoil and hard-hitting events that take your breath away as you make your way through the story of Tobias, the fifteen-year-old-boy charged with going back in time to stop a war. This proves disastrous as his sovereign is murdered and his timepiece (that allows him to travel time) is destroyed.

Each time I had to put this book down for work or whatnot, I couldn't wait to pick it back up. I got to the last twenty pages and kept thinking to myself, "There's not enough pages left to fix this, oh god there's not enough pages left to fix all this!" And I was right! There weren't! And I can't wait for the sequel!

It's no secret that I love anything to do with time travel (Doctor Who anyone!) When I saw the synopsis of Time's Children, I knew that it would be a book that I loved and would just speed read through, and I did.

Right from the opening salvo you are drawn into this world. The different types of magic Walkers, Spanners and Crossers encompass movement through time and space. This enables people with the talent to either walk through time, move through solid matter or cover great distances is a small period of time. While not a new type of magic in the fantasy world, it is used really well in this setting.

Our main character Tobias, is a Walker able to move through time. This is a rarer talent in his time and makes him very popular. At only fifteen he is sent to work at a far court , to do that rulers bidding. This move sets into motion a chain of events that will change the past and the future. The consequences of walking through time means that the amount of time you've walked is added to your age. Tobias walks back 14 years which ages him 14 years, making him a boy in a man's body.

The writing and world building in this novel is fantastic. I loved the way everything is described and the way you don't get all the information at once. I also really liked how it cut from Tobias in the past to our main supporting character Mara, in the future. This shows us what has changed and makes you wonder just what Tobias has done in the past to change it.

I'm really looking forward to the next in the series, and while it didn't end on a cliffhanger, there was enough tension that I would have just kept on reading!

I've given Time's Children 4.5 stars.

I requested Time’s Children from Angry Robot Books on NetGalley partly because of its unique and interesting premise. Basically, a fifteen-year old boy travels fourteen years back in time. Doing so had some pretty interesting consequences for our character, Tobias. Basically, every time he travels through time, he ages. So, when he was sent on a mission to try and prevent a war fourteen years before the start of a war, he arrives looking like he’s in his late twenties. So basically, he gets stuck in the past in an adult body despite having the mentality of a fifteen-year old boy. Not something anyone would be keen to experience.

First up, as usual, the worldbuilding. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in Time’s Children. Basically, the magic users here use the aid of certain magical devices in order to access their abilities. There are those who can travel through time, those who can travel great distances, and even those who can create such devices. There are clear limitations to the usage of such devices and capabilities which I really appreciate. I think that having these clear limitations allow the world to be more believable. Of course, having people researching ways to circumvent these limitations also make for a more believable world.

In addition to that, the royal assassination that happens when he goes back also had clear implications for what happens in the future. I liked that the future basically changed drastically because of it and that we actually got to see it change. It was a very tangible way of seeing that yes, this world has consequences. What the character does is very vital and we actually see how it changes the future world that they have. How it was woven into the story through the eyes of another character was also very interesting.

As for the characters, I really liked Tobias as a protagonist. He starts off being really excited to be posted to a royal court and while he is pretty young, he also happened to be rather responsible. He understands the importance of his position and he goes along with this insane plan because he understands the implications of it. Unfortunately for him, things don’t work out as expected and he becomes stuck in the past. I really enjoyed how this was portrayed because Tobias was really forced to grow up quickly especially since he has to take care of the princess. The bits where he has to fight to keep the both of them alive and out of danger has got to be some of my favorite parts of the book. I’m really excited to see where his story goes and how he basically deals with his situation.

Mara is also another interesting character because we see her in the first few chapters and at first, she’s just a side character. Someone who Tobias might regret leaving. Then, as the change in the timeline happens, she forgets about him but senses that something is wrong so she enlists’ Droe’s- a sort of time demon- help. She does eventually figure it out but what happens while she’s discovering all of these things is also interesting. She lived an entirely different life than what we were originally shown and we did see how the world changed through her eyes. I felt like the way it happened was very natural and it flows rather well.

The plot is fairly fast-paced and I read through it in like a day or so. It’s also pretty fun and rather well-written. For me, the best part of the book is really the interesting world and the premise. The ending leaves me with some questions for what happens next and I’m really excited to see that. That said, I can definitely see myself reading the next one because I do want to see what happens next.

I’ve never read anything by this author before but was intrigued by the synopsis of this book. It’s actually the second time travel story that I’ve read recently but this is far from the standard sci fi or paranormal fare and is actually a fantasy piece. Essentially we have three types of what’s known as Walkers and some can travel distance, others can even penetrate through objects and the rarest of all can move through time. They all have innate abilities but use golden devises bound with magic to harness and direct their passage so a little like a certain device imagined by J K Rowling.
Tobias is our fifteen year old hero and he’s sent to aid a ruler of a distant land at war. Here is where I struggled with the concept and ramifications of this storyline. In order for Tobias to walk back in time just one hour he has to sacrifice an equal part of his lifespan meaning he would age one hour there and another to return. Ok perhaps not exactly terrible you might say but Tobias is asked to travel fourteen years back in time effectively ageing him from fifteen to twenty nine ! Plus when he gets there the all too trusting and strangely loyal Tobias discovers something has changed time leaving him far from home and quite literally holding the baby !
I found this a little slow initially and I struggled to connect with Tobias or understand his motives. This man child willingly gives up a huge chunk of his life for a kingdom he knows nothing of. Plus if he were to return to his own time it would add more age to his body effectively making him forty two. Now luckily the author took his readers away from that horrific thought and gave us viewpoints from characters connected with Tobias which greatly opened up the world building and brought much needed humanity. At times I found this a painful read and yes I admit I developed great sympathy for Tobias but luckily the ending left this reader satisfied and hoping that the next instalment won’t be too far away.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Time's Children by D.B. Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've never read the author's other works but that doesn't really matter here. I was caught by the description alone.

It's a high-fantasy time-travel novel!

Yup. So we have all the goodies of messed up timelines, time-walkers, and similar time/space practitioners in a magic rule system seated in a heavily world-built fantasy world! All the benefits of a kingdom built from scratch AND the breaking of it several times during different periods of its history!

Yay!

And I wasn't disappointed in the text, either. It starts great with a kid on his effective journeyman quest, only when he's asked to break the rules, we're slapped in the face with the consequences of this particular magic.

Every day you go back in time ages you in direct proportion. A fifteen-year-old going back in time by 14 years will have lost half his life in a single jump. Ouch.

I can easily recommend this to fans of either Epic Fantasy or Time Travel SF. It combines the best of both worlds and with all the assassins, intrigue, and even love going on here, the novel entertains very roundly indeed.

Officially it could be classified as a "saving the baby" tale, but because we keep seeing the timeline change in future and the kingdom change with it, it gets very interesting.

My only complaint? The ending is only mildly satisfying. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a series or a single novel, but if it's a single novel, then I kind of wish it came with a more kickin' ending. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the beginning and the core. :)