Two books into this series, and I'm impressed by the courage of Mark Lawrence.  Having a story with time travel and parallel stories, I admire that he made a decision at the end, just like Life requires.

I've read a few stories like this, with a character's decisions causing changes in the future... in a way every story has this, as our actions change what happens next, but most stories don't discuss that in the story itself.  Stories with time travel tend to need that discussion though, at some point.

Without spoiling the story, the end of the book is foreshadowed and the main character will have to make a decision.  The effects of that decision will influence the future of everyone we've started caring about in this series.  I anticipated that Lawrence would chicken-out and have the decision either a) not matter, or b) be decided by the Universe.

To my surprise and happiness, this failure to commit didn't happen.  I admire the way the story came together and still gives us an ending that works for the story, even if it's not what we may want.

What a wild ride! 'Limited Wish' was full of adventure, mystery and adrenaline!

'Limited Wish hooked me in hard and fast from the very first page, in fact I think I even enjoyed it more than its predecessor, 'One Word Kill,' which I also loved. Nicks story continued, and not content with battling cancer, and being a maths genius, he also started Cambridge University at the tender age of 16! That's not even the strangest thing that happened!.This book took me on a whirlwind adventure, involving time travel, paradoxes, creepy villains, (like seriously that train scene 😮)creases in the fabric of time, and the possible destruction of the universe! Oh is that all you say?!

My heart was racing throughout the whole of this book, I was on constant alert, with the shocking twists and revelations. My head did nearly explode with all of the maths and science, but it was done really well so that non geniuses like me could follow and understand!

'Limited Wish' still had the great feel that the first book had, centred around Nick and his friends, and they still played D+D! I loved the friendships, and the love and support they had for each other! Amongst the action, science and maths, there was the usual teenage angst and relationship dramas. There was some great dark humour too, mostly from Nick, as he had to deal with his ongoing cancer, violence and the universe trying to kill him.

I actually lost all my highlighted quotes, but one that stood out to me was when Nick said, "My dad used to say that he didn't love my mum because she was perfect, he loved her because her imperfections were a good match for his."


Truly I was captivated by this mind bending tale, and found myself simultaneously wanting to race through it, and yet wanted to take my time so that it didn't end too soon! Highly recommend 👍

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review


I love that I got to read One Word Kill and Limited Wish so close together. I have no idea how I'm going to survive the wait until November to read Dispel Illusion. This trilogy is a masterpiece. And I'm saying that having not read the third book.

OWK ended on a hopefull but very bittersweet note. LW picks up a few months later. In some ways Nick's life has improved, in others it definitely hasn't. Nick is now an undergraduate in Mathematics at Cambridge, having stopped hiding his genius in the interests of working towards discovering time travel. A sixteen year old prodigy draws attention and not all of it good. Between girl troubles, DD sessions, working with a Cambridge professor and negotiating with his tricky health, Nick really has enough to worry about. It's a shame that everything suddenly seems to be conspiring to try and kill him really.
And then there's the anomalies, the weird energy surges and the phase shifts. Suddenly Nick isn't worried about living another 25 yrs - he might not make it to the end of the week.


Never let it be said that Lawrence doesn't put his characters through hell. He certainlg doesn't stay his hand for a teenage character! Perhaps that's what makes the pay off so satisfying, when clever plotting, witty narrative and great characterisation converge to race to the finale. One thing Lawrence always does is stick his books endings. The structure is always sound without sacrificing character voice or agency.

Another point I'd make is that a time travel plot is incredibly hard to land. When you start looking at quantum mechanics and temporal anomalies, not to mention sheer logic, most time travel plots grow overripe faster than avocados. I'm enough of a physics hobbyist (read: nerd) that it can throw me out of the book. Usually a good story and great characters will keep me on board. Lawrence not only delivers both of those things but his time travel narrative actually stays robust and carries the story to its conclusion.

I could go on but you'd better just read the book. I love the characters and their friendship groups. The writing was poihlgnant in places, hilariously laugh out loud funny in others but always engaging. The nerdery, DD, science and 80s refs are brilliant. And this has one of the most beautiful closing chapters of any book I've ever read. This is excellent. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed this sequel much better than its predecessor. I am not exactly sure why that is true: maybe I was already immersed in the story so a continuation meant more to me than the initial dive into a new tale? Perhaps my mind was already accustomed to time travel lingo and mathematical theories thrown at me every other page? Either way, this was a bit more action-packed than the first, the stakes were even higher, and was sucked up from the first sentence until the breathless end. I'm really looking forward to the finale in this crazy, superbly-written series!

Limited Wish is the second book in the Impossible Times series. I liked the first book better but this is a fine continuation of the story set a couple of months after the first book. Nick and the team are back, but instead of Elton, there are some new characters called Helen and Eva who have some very serious impact on Nick’s life.

Thanks to NetGalley, 47North and Mark Lawrence for my copy.

First I want to thank Netgalley and the publishers, and author Mark Lawrence for the opportunity to read an ARC of this amazing novel. Limited Wish is the second of a three book Trilogy and it actually won't be out until later this month or next (depends on who talks to you). I have already read and LOVED the first book, One Word Kill. Everybody who loves nerdy stuff, science fiction, and time travel is talking about it! I have read many time travel novels, and lots of them are just trips to another time in history where the "real" plot unfolds. Not this series! Until now, my favorite time travel series has been the Time Riders books by Alex Scarrow. I read them all, and was so sad when the series ended. Well, the Impossible Times series is better! By Far! The various ways to cause a quantum mechanics paradox by traveling through time are actually explained here (sometimes well, sometimes not-so-well), and the main characters are relatable, believable and downright amazing. The plot, staring sixteen year old "reluctant genius & prodigy" Nick Hayes, is set in London in 1986, which is the year Back to the Future appeared in movie theaters in the UK. Nick would rather be a normal boy, but that isn't an option for a brilliant teenage cancer survivor who has already met himself as a time traveler (in book one). This time, as he meets a couple of girls who seem weirdly familiar, he realizes that his timeline has some dangerous wrinkles in it. And of course, he's not the only one in trouble; seems like the future of the entire world depends on what he does now. I never played Dungeons and Dragons when it was all the rage but I have friends who did. Nick and his small circle of nerdy friends play D & D for hours, and we see parts of the game leaking into their real lives. I was totally on board every minute, the same way we are when we're watching a great monster movie! I raced through this one, and found that it, like book one, has an appropriate ending (no real cliffhanger here), but I need book three!! I need it now!! Hey, Mark Lawrence, listen here: I need book three! This series is amazing -- REALLY. And DO NOT start with this book, but with book one: One Word Kill. You will love it.

"Limited Wish" is the second installment in the "Impossible Times" series and sets in a couple of months after the ending of "One Word Kill". Unfortunately, this part in the series feels more rushed than the last part. The characters are underdeveloped and the story gets really confusing towards the end. I think the novel needed to be expanded by a couple of hundred pages to really make sense.

Review
I read the first book in this series a few weeks back and I really enjoyed it so when I saw there was a copy available to read straight away on netgalley, I snapped it up. This book picks up a few months after the events of the first book, Nick has started attending university and doing mathematical research with a big shot professor and he's still playing dungeons & dragons with his friends at the weekend. However weird things start happening and he's sucked back into the world of time travel.

This was just as enjoyable as the first book, it maintained the fantasy aspect with detailed descriptions of the groups dungeon's and dragons game which cleverly begins to reflect Nick's own troubled life. The new characters introduced to us fitted in perfectly and really worked well with plot, it didn't feel like the author was misleading anything or straying too far from the main plot. Nick is a great main character, his character is so well developed and even though he's gone through so much he's still cracking jokes about his situation. It's something that Mark Lawrence does really well, balancing humour with the more hard hitting parts of the plot.

There is further explanations about alternate timelines whichwere enjoyable to read about and even though science and maths were never my best subjects at school and there were times when some of the terminology went over my head and I had to use the dictionary for help a few times, it was still easy to get the gist of things and follow along with the more complex aspects of the plot.

This is a really fast paced read, I read it within a few hours as I was desperate to know what was going to happen next and I've become rather attached to the characters now and invested in how things will turn out for them.. I'm interested to see in which the direction the plot goes next and how the series wraps up with the third and final book.

Rating:
4/5 stars.

* I recieved an ARC copy via Netgalley in return for my honest opinion.

Leave it to Mark Lawrence to write a second book in a trilogy that is even better than the first! I love how every series is of his is so unique, a wonderful mix of humor, heart, and action.

The universe is trying to kill you.

Just when Nick didn't think his life could get any more stressful, more time travelers show up and need his help. Because battling leukemia and life as a 16-year-old math genius now attending university wasn't enough, now the universe is out to get him. He is at the heart of a paradox that could cause not only his universe to be destroyed…

This has all the trademarks of Mark Lawrence's brilliant writing. There's the humor that is found even in the darkest days of a teenager battling leukemia:

"We need to play to our strengths." "We calculate him to death?"

The love and support found in a family:

"My dad used to say that he didn't love my mum because she was perfect, he loved her because her imperfections were a good match for his."

And the friendship that unites five outcasts who would love nothing more than to hide in a good game of D&D, but are forced to find the strength to battle real-life demons.

*quotes were taken from an uncorrected proof*

Limited Wish is a far more enjoyable read than Book 1 in the series, possibly, because I know what to expect now, (but also because there's less 'mirror action' in the D & D game than in Book 1 - sorry, not a fan because I've never played it, and I just don't get it (ducks for cover!)).
I read it in a few sittings, and look forward to Book 3 to discover just how Nick fares!

Many thanks to Publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC ahead of the release!

Limited Wish is a fine story, it pulls you in from the first page and keeps you on the edge of your seat as a good thriller should. It is a perfect follow-up to the One Word Kill and shares all the strengths with the first volume of the series.

In fact, it shares so much that it reminded me of the problem with Hangover and Hangover II movies. Both are great and deliver the laughs - but it is essentially the same movie. Different context, same plot devices. This is my only grumble with the Limited Wish. I liked it, but I also felt like I read this already (kind of...).

Fans of D&D, Stranger Things and Dark Matter - should really give it a go. The easy flowing story, plot thrills, cute characters - it got it all for a good escapism session. Suitable for both lovers and haters of YA genre.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK, 47North and the author, Mark Lawrence, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of Limited Wish in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I am a huge fan of Mark Lawrence's novels which is why I jumped at the chance to review this book. And I was certainly not disappointed either.
The storyline was well thought out and written with intriguing characters and descriptive imagery. I was hooked from the start and, as with every other novel by this author, read in one sitting.
Well worth a read. 4.5 stars.

Damn!!!! This was such a brilliant book!!!! I didn't think that Mark Lawrence could better his first book but boy he did!! And probably for the first time in my life I've read books that had paradox, mathematics, science and quantum mechanics in it and I actually enjoyed it. As I had written in my review of the first book, he's so brilliant in describing the extraordinarily difficult and complicated theories in such a simple way that even a layman like me could understand and appreciate it so much. And the book is also so funny in parts, especially Nick with his friends and when he meets Eva. Overall, this is just a wonderfully brilliant book but now I'm grumpy as I'll have to wait for quite some time before the next book is available and I so want to read it now!! Again, this book is much more than a 5 star read but since that's the amount of stars available 5 stars it is. Thank you Mark Lawrence for this wonderful book. And a big thank you to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK and 47North for giving me a chance to read this wonderful book in exchange of my honest review.

I didn't think it was possible but Mr. Lawrence topped the first book. The weaving of timelines is done to perfection. As is always the case, his prose is second to none. Bring on book three!

I received this via Netgalley and I can't wait for the hardcover to come in so I can add it to my collection.

Just perfect !!!
What a wonderful mind Mark Lawrence has to create such a wonderful book as this it just has everything you would want in a story and I thought he couldn’t better book one well he surely has with this one so god only knows what is to come with book three and I just wish I didn’t have to wait so long for it, having read books one and two back to back I now have serious withdrawals while awaiting book three.
This is an amazingly written series and I would say has something for everyone it has science, time travel, paradoxes but also at its core it has love and I can’t fault anything about the books at all and I guess you can see I just fell in love with them.
So here I am wishing I could split off in another future timeline and be reading book three, instead I will be patient and just thank the amazing Mark Lawrence for giving me so much pleasure reading this fantabulous series. All the stars and more and highly recommended.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK, 47North for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I'm already a fan of Mark Lawrence, having loved his Red Sister series, and I see him as kinda a lite Jay Kristoff or Roth.
He writes fun, easy to read novels that focus on small core groups, and this series is his first advance into science fiction. I actually bought the first one after getting this galley, so I could read them in order. I read a lot of science fiction, both hard and lite, and it sits somewhere in the middle. The main character, Nick, is a maths genius, like his father, and sometimes I got lost in trying to wrap my head around the concepts he was using (paradoxes, anyone?!), but really, you can't go wrong with a good time travel series. And this is one, weaving typical 1980's nostalgia, time travel, and coming of age strains together into a sometimes poignant but always exciting thread that I will not spoil by giving away any spoilers!

Stranger Things with Time Travel - what's not to like?

Limited Wish, book two of the Impossible Times trilogy, is a highly-enjoyable and heady sci-fi adventure with heavy emotional beats. Although this book takes a bit longer than One Word Kill to have its full scope be revealed, the mind-bending paths that we’re being led through becomes a twisty and challenging puzzle that deepens as the story progresses. Exploring the implications of the characters' actions and their ripple effects through various timelines is as impressive as it is complex. Yet Lawrence does an admirable job interpreting these rule-breaking time-travel theories and making them quite clear for the reader to follow.

The book itself is a paradox in a sense, as it is simultaneously a light and heavy read. Romance, role-playing games, and challenges at school help to shape Nick’s coming of age tale, yet it also asks the reader to contemplate advanced mathematics and physics theories, time loops, paradoxes, universal energies, and the potential existence-destroying possibilities that stem from it all. Although Lawrence outlines some of the bigger concepts in as clear a way as possible, I still recommend spending a bit of extra time to think about and absorb each new fold before continuing. Like any good book, you get out of it as much as you put in, and I found myself pausing and doing a bit of extra research to consider some new angles of where the story might be headed. And if any book makes me want to research math and physics on my own time -- for fun! -- then that’s a pretty damn good compliment to the author.

Limited Wish shares a fair amount in common with its predecessor which, considering the plot, is entirely expected, but also serves as a bit of a detriment. Once again, the D&D game emulates Nick’s real-life dilemmas… or perhaps his dilemmas are emulating the game. A few of the story's beats feel familiar, which may be an unfair dig at a story that involves time loops and paradoxes. But it's a small gripe when weighing it against how damn entertaining this story is. These books are relatively short, but make the most of their pages by creating strong characters that leave a lasting impact on the reader, and a furious pace that will force you to want to read this story in just a sitting or two. With only one book to go, and many more questions raised than answered, I can't wait to see what Lawrence has in store for the conclusion.