I finished this book within 3 days, and I'm now gutted that the series I fell in love with is coming to an end. As I've mentioned in previous reviews, I originally bought the first book way back in 2010, purely because it mentioned the Titanic, a subject which I'm fascinated by. But it's become so much more than that, in three years. Book 9 will be released in 2014, and it looks like the die hard fans are going to be waiting almost a year to get their hands on it.

I've read some of the other reviews have mentioned that the first half of the book is quite slow, but I disagree. I was giggling by page 21, and was sucked straight back into the world of Maddy, Liam, Sal, Bob and Becks. After the revelations from previous books and the appearance of Bertie (who has some diary entries in this), I have a feeling there's plenty more where that came from, up Alex's sleeve. There were a couple of subtle hints at what the final book could contain, which, along with the previous revelations, are shocking and always seem to come out of nowhere. But at the same time, always seem to make perfect sense. It's like a big lightbulb going off multiple times over your head.

There were times I did feel like slowing down my reading of the Mayan Prophecy, and savour it a bit more, but unfortunately, I just could not put it down. I was desperate to find out more about Bertie (some reviewers apparently didn't see this coming, but I totally did, and I hope to see him in the final book).

I have to say, for a YA book, this part of the series, has a very dark and quite frightening ending. I'm not exactly the age group for this kind of book, but even I found the events leading up to the last page quite mind boggling, and if I could have hid behind the couch, I would have done.

So far, I have read only a couple of Alex Scarrow's adult books ([[ASIN:0752884298 October Skies]] and [[ASIN:1409103072 The Candle Man]]) but I don't think anything he will ever write will top this series. I pre-order every book as soon as I possibly can (for instance, I pre-ordered this book in February - it wasn't released until August) and I just know, it will be the same with the last book. I do think, like many other Time Riders fans, there's going to be great mourning when this series is over. I don't think I remember falling in love with a YA series since my days of Sweet Valley High and The Babysitter's Club (showing my age!)

I hope after book 9 is released, it doesn't go down the path of "I'm bored of the series now, so they will wake up in the shower, and it was all a dream", but something tells me that Alex has had the whole story arc in his head from the beginning. He knows how it's going to end and where it's going to end, and I'm sure he too will be sad to finish writing it. I also hope that Liam, Maddy, Sal, Bob and Becks manage to live on in some way - I can totally picture it as a TV series, or on a movie screen near you.

I just hope I don't need any tissues for the last book, as I nearly needed tissues for this one!

This book proves to me that the author stopped caring about the series. I don't know that I noticed anything specific my first time though. But here, on my second reading, there too much.

Adam shouldn't know anything since they rewrote the Voynitch Manuscript, excluding the code that he would recognize.

Maddie just refuses to change as a character. Every time she acknowledges a change in a person (Bob, Becks, Liam) she briefly reacts to it and then goes back to treating that character in the EXACT SAME WAY!

I hate to write this as I love the premise of the series, but it's like the author gave up. Hell, he didn't even keep the characters using the same vernacular! All of a sudden everything was written for a British readership. Every bit of slang was British.

Oh, and let's not forget the very, anti-American stance of foreign policy. I swear it's like Scarrow is going out of his way to highlight how America screwed up. Yeah. We did. But damn, we aren't the only jerks in this messed up world.

And, for extra credit, Scarrow hadn't bothered to keep his website up to date, though every single book preaches to the skies that you should follow the series online.

I love the premise of this series. The fact that I'm reading again says something. But damn. Have a little respect for your readers...

Again,some plot twists are sketchy

Sal...
Alla nya karaktärer: Adam, Billy, Bertie...
Alla uppoffringar, underliga maskiner och enigmatiska hemligheter från framtiden.
Konflikter och karaktärsväxt.
Hur kommer det sluta?
...


Amazing. Even better than the last one, especially the audiobook. Hmmm... go listen to it. I can assure you, you won't be disappointed. 😏

It feels like Alex Scarrow just keeps on upping his game for each book in this series. How will the next and concluding 9th book play out? Serien har haft sina avstickare, men nu. Nu. It's finally time for the big reveal. The truth about all the secrets of the universe will, ultimately, be told. And I've got a strong feeling it will blow my mind.

I guess I'll know in 20h or so. See you then!

2 star rating because I’m feeling mean, but it’s close to a 2.5. I thought about giving it three stars because I’ve come this far in the series already and the book held my attention the entire time. Buuutttt,,,here are my thoughts:

I'm just so...tired, this book was so disappointing. Maybe just because I can see where this is headed and I'm not thrilled with the idea it's gonna be a "it was all aliens and humanity is just one big alien experiment" ending.
Wait......H.G. Wells wrote alien stories, didn't he? Oh god, the series really IS gonna end with aliens

As always, Alex's writing kept me absolutely hooked and made me think about things I may not have thought so deeply about before.