Review - The Children Who Time Lost by Marvin Amazon

Title: The Children Who Time Lost

Author: Marvin Amazon

Release Date: October 25, 2013

Pages: 518, Paperback

Goodreads Rating: 3.75 stars

My Rating: 4/5 stars

My Content Rating: PG-16 (Violence)

Summary from Goodreads: What happened to the children?

The year is 2043, and humans have been mysteriously unable to reproduce for almost thirty years. To prevent panic and keep the population from dwindling to nothing, global authorities offer a Lotto, where a few winners each week can enter a time portal and bring back adopted children from the future. They’re never allowed to talk about what they saw.

The exception to this system is Los Angeles resident and reluctant celebrity Rachel Harris, the only woman of her generation to naturally give birth. Years of medical tests and treatments have been unable to explain or replicate her pregnancy, and the whole world grieved when Rachel’s daughter died in a tragic accident.

When Rachel wins the Lotto, she’s shocked, and then elated. She can be a mother again. But the baby she meets in 2108 carries a secret that will shatter Rachel’s reality and endanger everyone close to her. Now Rachel must race across time to save her life and her child, even as she discovers that nothing—and no one—are what they seem.

The Children Who Time Lost is a unique sci-fi thriller, full of action and intrigue!

The negatives:

• Not far enough in the future?  It seemed odd to me that a good portion of the book took place only 30 years in the future and yet so many things had changed.  One of the biggest changes was flying cars - I just can't see that, in the span of thirty years, not only would flying cars have been invented, but the infrastructure would have been put in place for this to be the only mode of transportation.  I mean, it's taking my state 4 years to widen a highway near my house!  Other advances were robots who basically took over all menial tasks (again, this seems a bit far-fetched for just 30 years in the future) and strange things like floating couches.  (Really?  Why exactly would we want or need our couches to float?).  I just felt like a good portion of the book should have been taking place further in the future (although you do find out that the timeline is kind of crucial, but I won't spoil how) OR there should have been a really good explanation given for why technology suddenly advanced so quickly (I think there was kind of an implied reason, but it certainly wasn't spelled out as well as it needed to be).

What I LOVED:

• The unique plot.  When I read the synopsis for this book, I was immediately intrigued.  I mean, when was the last time you read a book about a barren society that travels through time to adopt children from the future?  Um, never?  That's what I thought.  And the idea of the lottery was also incredibly interesting to me.  Imagine if children were so precious that the only way to get one was to enter a huge lottery and hope and pray that your name would be called.  Most couples would "play" the lottery for years with no luck.  Just imagine how precious a child would be in this society.  And then, the idea that Rachel has lost a child is just that much more heartbreaking.  
• Lots of action and suspense.  Fans of sci-fi action will be very happy with this book because the action pretty much never stops.  Rachel (and others with her) are pretty much constantly running from danger and are constantly under attack.  No one is safe in this book - the stakes are high and people die.  Then there are the central mysteries of the book - there are lots of them.  Who is running the lottery and what are their motives?  What happened to the Children Who Time Lost (the first set of children who were supposed to be brought back from the future, but who never arrived).  Who is after Rachel and what do they want with her new son?  There are lots of twists in this book - some of which I saw coming, but some that were a surprise.
• The ending.  This book had a unique ending that I was not expecting - at least not in the way it played out.  I can't say much more without giving things away, but the ending was somewhat shocking and left me with questions - not sure if Amazon plans to turn this into a series, but he certainly could!

If you're a fan of sci-fi thrillers, then this book is sure to please.  The Children Who Time Lost is action-packed and very unique!  I give it  4/5 stars.

***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***

About the Author: Marvin Amazon is a Nigerian-born, British author who currently lives in Essex, England. Marvin stretches his imagination with movies, video games, comics, and, of course, novels. He credits the library across the street from his childhood home in Battersea, southwest London, with opening his eyes to the engrossing worlds of fantasy and crime fiction.