Invictus

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher at ALA. This is an honest review.*

I LOVE time travel books, so when someone else compared this to Doctor Who, I knew I had to read this. Invictus is sort of a YA version of Michael Crichton's Timeline, except with a better plot and a much better concept of how travel between time and space might work. The main character, Farway, is sabotaged during his final exam to become a time traveler, but that's all he's ever wanted to be. Especially since his mother disappeared during a time travel mission of her own and he's planning on saving her, so he finds his own way to time travel: become a smuggler.

I liked the worldbuilding in this book, and especially enjoyed how the concept of time show more travel is handled. It's a new-ish thing for the world, so they don't really have it all figured out; they don't know the consequences of time travel or what happens if you change things (that saves a lot of time and debate about the mechanics of it). My favorite part is that they have a system designed to help you fit into the time you're going to. There's a dedicated historian who has studies fashion and such from different decades to help the person actually going out onto the field not be totally obvious. So brilliant!

The characters are also delightful. They kind of just go with the flow and don't really have too much of a plan, but are smart enough to get themselves out of trouble when it calls for it. Reminds me exactly of post-college grad kids. It's lovely. Their friendship and dedication to each other is also heartwarming and perfect and made me root for them so hard. There's some romance, but it doesn't take over the story, which is my preferred version of romance.

The story itself is CRAZY. It starts off slow to make sure there's a solid foundation in place and then just takes off and has twists and turns and surprises. I was kept in suspense the whole time and loved the ride. Overall, I think it ended nicely, though I would have liked just a couple more things explained. But, there weren't any glaring plot holes by the end of it, which I considered I feat of magic on Graudin's part.

Definitely read this if you're a time travel fan, and maybe consider reading it even if you're not. It's one of the best time travel books I've read and has such great characters and a thrilling story. show less

For fans of Dr. Who and Guardians of the Galaxy, Invictus is an invigorating and exciting book. It is a sci-fi/time travel story designed for people who don’t like sci-fi. I was incredibly lucky to sit next to Ryan Graudin at the 2017 Texas Library Conference Texas Tea, where she booktalked it as her upcoming book. I immediately ran to Little Brown and begged them for an ARC. (My apologies to the rep who probably thought I was crazy.)

Invictus is the name of a time travel ship captained by Farway Gaius McCarthy. Farway was born outside of time, meaning he was born while his mother’s time travel ship was headed back from the past to its present. (Crazy, right?!) Far was on track to be a time traveler from the academy when his final show more was sabotaged by another time traveler impersonating Marie Antoinette. Just when Far thinks that his dreams are dashed forever, he receives as offer to be a time traveler for a black-market ship where he and his crew travel back in time to steal artifacts from important events in history to be sold. The Invictus crew is made up of Far’s cousin, Imogen, who’s hair colors know no bounds; his girlfriend, Priya, who is also the ship’s medical staff; his friend, Gram, who is obsessed with Tetris and “vintage” games; and Imogen’s pet red panda, Saffron. Each crew member brings a fun personality that readers will connect with and cheer for as the book goes on. Their dynamics reminded me of the quote “Friends are the family that you choose.”

During a heist on the Titanic, Far meets Marie Antoinette again! Readers learn more about her and why she is inherently obsessed with ruining Far’s missions while following the Invictus crew on a whirlwind adventure to save time.

Ryan Graudin builds the most simply intricate world I’ve ever read and made time travel easy to understand, especially why time travel should be only used to observe and record and never tamper with the past. I guarantee that Invictus will grab you by the bootstraps and not let go! (If you are a Rick and Morty fan, you will appreciate the multi-verse theory in play in the book as well.) show less

“A boy without a birthday?” The sparkler was nearing the end of its run, but the newcomer's expression lit and fizzled, “What a strange wonder.”
It was a testament to how much Eliot disgruntled Farway that these words didn't serve as instant ego fuel: Why, yes, I am a strange wonder. The most special of snowflakes! Born out of time, forever running to catch up to it! He resorted to mumbling instead “All it's ever done is fritz out the med-droids. The bragging rights wear off real quick.”

I met Ryan Graudin when she came to Greenville, SC, on her tour for Blood for Blood (an alt-history YA WWII novel I enjoyed) and I am reading her back catalog slowly but surely.
This is a time-travel tale that gave me a Jumper mixed with The show more Never-Ending Story kind of vibe. It also is one of those hip YA tales that succeed in making me feel old. But I did manage to enjoy the world building and the creativity of it. show less

This really is a *HASHING amazing book. Through the storytelling by Ryan Graudin and sheer expanse of time traveled, it feels epic. I pre-ordered 'Invictus' based on the recommendations of the other authors of the book, the intriguing one-liner, and feeling that the title implied a novel of immense proportions and it it didn't disappoint me.
It may only be coincidental that my son's name is Roman, but I happen to have a penchant for stories that include venturing to Ancient Rome, and combine that with time-travel, a red panda, Rubik's cubes, as well as teleportation, and this is a must-read. The story is hard to explain in a neat little nutshell - and I can't even imagine how the author Ryan quickly describes this book to people! One show more way would be to say that 'Invictus' is about a group of time-traveling-treasure-hunting-teenagers who basically end up saving the world from history and time fading away into nothingness. Make sense? Probably not (I guess you will have to read it).
I loved the crew of whimsical characters, and those wonderful chapter titles! Sometimes I'd get lost in the amazingly imaginative techie talk that Graudin somehow came up with for this book, but that's a little because I'm still a sci-fi newbie (it happens a lot with many sci-fi/fantasy novels). I have to reread to grasp it all, but it feels like ultimate proof of the incredible world-building that has been accomplished. It's so complex and rich, that a second read is necessary to absorb it all and bring more of it to life.
It also turns out I have forgotten all my Latin from my boarding school days but I was delighted to be transported back to the Coliseum that I've visited, except that it's now in use and there are gory scenes described. Graudin also transports us to places like Vegas and back to the Titanic. All of that is a real treat. Since I have a movie background, I just couldn't help but envision this as a movie (sorry, Ryan) because the imagery and storyline just scream 'film it' to me! Basically that just means it was so effective in terms of me visualizing the words I was reading into something vivid in my head. Read it and tell me how cool the costume and set design would be...
Anyway, I was kind of glad to read that this will be a standalone novel without any followup (some people may not agree). It's so beautiful with its ending, leaving me to imagine what's next. There's so much that goes on for these characters, you trust that they will go on the right path.
This book really is a marvel and a real success for Ryan Graudin, who has made a side step away from her grittier other novels. I hope she writes more in this vein. Everyone needs to read this, NOW.
*And HASHING needs to be the next new word in everyone's vocabulary. It was just one of the cool words Graudin came up with! show less

Invictus is a thrilling, captivating adventure story that spans from Ancient Rome, to present-day Las Vegas, to the 2300s AD, and much more. I love time-travel novels, so as soon as I read this book’s description I was hooked.

Farway Gaius McCarthy is an exemplary cadet at the Academy, until something goes wrong during his final exam. What should be the end of Far’s dreams for his future turns into the adventure of a lifetime (or several lifetimes) when he’s offered a job commanding a ship on the black market. On a mission to steal an extremely valuable book from the Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who finagles her way into a position on his crew. While Far and the rest of the crew try to figure out who this girl is and what show more she’s hiding, they end up learning that their world is in danger, and thus begins a race to save history as they know it.

Invictus was an absolutely thrilling adventure of a read. I had a lot of big hopes going into this book, and it really exceeded my expectations.

I loved all of the characters in this book (with the exception of any antagonists, of course). For time-travelers from several hundred year in the future, Far, Imogen, Priya, Gram, and even Eliot were very easy to relate to. Imogen was probably my favorite character out of all of them, although it’s really hard to choose a favorite. I think she’s the most positive influence on the TM (time machine) crew, and her love of rainbow-colored hair is awesome. The relationships between all of the characters on the Invictus crew were wonderful, and the dynamic between Far, Priya, Imogen, Gram, and Eliot was really fun to read.

I’m partial to spoiler-free reviews, so I can’t say too much about the main conflict in the story. Once the reason behind Eliot’s appearance in their lives becomes clear, the Invictus‘ crew has some very hard decisions to make. It’s interesting to think about how you would react if you were in their circumstances. It was hard watching them go on a mission to save their world, not knowing how it would turn out or if they would ever see each other again.

There was a lot of action in this book, but no gratuitous violence or anything like that. The action scenes were compelling and thrilling to read. Racing through history on a mission to save (okay, steal) precious artifacts is such a cool idea, and while that wasn’t really a super big focus of the book, the few scenes where that did happen were some of my favorites. The pacing of the story was really on point, and the action fit perfectly into the overall narrative.

I read this book over the course of about 4 or 5 days, which is actually a really long time for me (not because Invictus didn’t hold my attention; it was just a very busy few days in the real world!). I enjoyed it though, because I loved spending time with these characters and I didn’t want it to end.

I honestly don’t have any complaints about Invictus. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure stories. I don’t think you have to be a big sci-fi fan to really enjoy Invictus. If the synopsis appeals to you at all, give this one a shot! show less

This was EVERYTHING I've ever wanted from a book and more. It's late and I've just finished and I have tears in my eyes because it was SO EFFING GOOD. I really hope it's NOT a standalone, because I could go on trips with the crew of the INVICTUS for ages!!


I absolutely loved this book. It delivers on the promise of "Doctor Who meets Guardians of the Galaxy" (which are two of my most loved things!)

From the beginning when we meet Farway's mother and learn of his strange birth, to the end where it starts all over again -- i loved this book. I loved the crew, flamboyant Imogen, calculating Gram, and warm, clever Priya. I loved the fact that they have their own "trash panda". I loved the dynamics of the relationships between the characters. show more and i absolutely LOVED the world building that Ryan Graudin has done -- she made it so easy to visualize the world of Central and all the timelines they visited.

This book is a fun, bumpy adventure ride from one page to the next. I was sad that it was only a standalone, because i would love to go on another trip with the crew of the Invictus ANYTIME. show less

I really enjoyed this book. I think the characters and their dynamics were some of the highlights of this story for me. It reminded me alot of firefly and legends of tomorrow. I loved how it was a self contained story but I still want to see these characters again cause they were so much fun to read but I loved a self contained story. I would have loved to see more heist elements in the story but I thought it was a very fun read and again handled time traveling in a easy to understand way. I hope to read more by this author soon!