I read this novel for The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, SPSFC. The following review is my own personal opinion as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole. Find out more about the competition here and my team, The Space Girls, here, and read all my reviews for the competition here!
Dr. Grace Carson is one of the lucky few scientists cleared for time travel. Years ago, her husband nearly destroyed her career by poaching dinosaurs. Grace turned him in, divorced the deadbeat, and two years later she’s ready to return to the work she loves: studying dinosaurs in their natural habitat. She has no interest in the new time agent, Ben Nakamura, assigned to her research station. No matter how charming or clever he is.
Unfortunately, her team isn’t alone. Poachers are trapping dinosaurs for the black market again. Another scandal like this could kill her research if it comes out, and Grace’s boss wants her to look the other way until the thieves are gone. But Grace can’t bring herself to let the criminals get away.
When the poachers discover Grace’s plans to blow the whistle, they attack her research station. Nakamura and Grace flee into the forest with her time machine, but it’s broken in the process. Nakamura knows a secret cache where they can hopefully fix the time machine, but it means a perilous trek through the wilderness. Braving prehistoric dangers together shows Grace she can trust Nakamura with her life, but she’s still not sure she can ever trust him with her heart.
First of all, I really need to read more dinosaur adventure books. I need recommendations, people, where are y’all hiding your dinosaur books?
Anyway. :D Time Traitors is a time travel book with dinosaurs and that already made me very excited to start reading it. We find ourselves on the side of Grace Carson, a scientist who regularly travels to the past to study dinosaurs and the prehistoric world. She hasn’t done it in a while, though, after an incident that nearly destroyed her career (and life), namely, discovering that her husband illegally hunted dinosaurs on the research missions she took him to. Oops. Now, after a long investigation and with her ex-husband in jail, Grace is getting a new chance, new students (and a bit more robust security detail) as she once again leaves to the past to be among her favourite creatures. Unbeknownst to her, and as we get to see, a new-old group of poachers already claimed the area near the research base on a mission to capture dinosaurs, and among them, an old acquaintance of Grace’s. As the two sides confront each other, with distrustful Time Guard on Grace’s side and her career on the line once again, what is the right decision? Leave it well enough alone or fight for the life of her beloved dinosaurs…and eventually her own life as well?
The setup of the book was excellent with a quick explanation around time travel and how and what it’s used for, quick introduction of the main characters with the emphasis on Ben Nakamura, a handsome and charming time agent ordered to keep an eye on Grace during the mission. We very quickly get to the past as Grace and co. gets settled on the research station, and very quickly get to see the poachers as well. I needed a bit of time to connect Julia to Grace, as Grace’s backstory around her husband and research only becomes totally clear later, but I ended up really liking the choice of these two POV characters. I preferred Grace’s parts, but Julia’s personality grew on me, and I found her motivation relatable and her relationship with Grace very interesting. The writing felt straight-forward, casual, and focused on action, but there are nice character moments as well, mostly connected to Grace and Nakamura. I especially liked our looks at the dinosaurs and Grace’s enthusiasm around them. This is a fast-paced, adventure-focused book, so we don’t get a lot of time to muse about the animals, but I appreciated those tidbits. As time goes on, and the researchers find more and more traces of the poachers, a strange, violent death also sows distrust between them, since there might be a traitor among them, working with the enemy. There are attacks, dinosaur and human both, chases, sneaking around, getting trapped, fighting ourselves out of near-death situations. There are also deaths! No one is safe, honestly.
By the end, it’s a race to even be able to travel back in time and safety, and Grace needs to work together with Julia to have a chance for survival. There’s also a further twist on the time travel aspect which was very cool. Plus, even through all the action, we see Grace and Nakamura’s relationship evolve, and I really liked their duo and chemistry.
I have to say the action-parts did not always manage to hold my attention that well, and like I mentioned, the sections with Julia and the poachers were sometimes less interesting to me. I would also have loved to get a more in-depth look at the side-characters, like the students, Grace’s boss, and the other Time Guards, which would have improved on the tension and whodunnit when trying to figure out the traitor among the science team. At the same time, it is immediately obvious that the book is a fast, action-y, somewhat light adventure, and it perfectly encompasses it at all times, staying in its lane.
I had a lot of fun, Grace was a great character to follow, and Time Traitors is a perfect read for a dynamic, tension-filled, even slightly romantic adventure—with lots of death and dinosaurs.
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