Invictus by Ryan Graudin

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Time flies when you’re plundering history.

Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far’s birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he’s ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past.

But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far’s very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.

This one was a bit of an odd duck for me. I really, really enjoyed it at parts, but other times, I just felt…nothing – like, I was just going through the motions of reading the words and flipping the pages but I just felt eh. However, I really enjoyed it for the most part, and I would definitely recommend you to add it to your TBR if you enjoy a good time-traveling Doctor Who feeling kind of book.

What I was most sold on was the fact that it mentioned the words, “heist on the Titanic”. Literally I didn’t know a single other thing about the book – only that I needed to get my hands on it desperately. The Titanic has always been such an intriguing setting to me (I blame my Magic Treehouse days), and Graudin created such an intriguing concept with it – however, I was pleasantly surprised that we got to travel to other time periods and other great historic moments. I thought it was going to be strictly the Titanic, but Graudin picked such interesting moments to jump around to in space. I loved it, and honestly, I wished there was more time spent jumping around.

I also loved the whole concept and setting besides the time traveling parts. Graudin created such a developed set of rules for her land and time, and I was so intrigued with the non-jumping time period as well. Far and his team are sent to plunder history for a black market dealer, and it literally is as cool as it sounds. Graudin explains everyone’s roles quite brilliantly, and I never felt confused at all. It was very well-thought out.

The characters were interesting as well. Um, there is a red panda involved, and he was, of course, my favorite thing in the entire book. He was fantastic, and I’m in so much love. Can we get a vote for every book to have a red panda? As for the non-animal characters, I really enjoyed Far, Imogen, and Elliot. Imogen and Elliot were probably my favorite, but Far was a pretty great main main character as well. Priya and Gram were good as well, but I felt that they didn’t get as much time to shine, which didn’t make me like them as much as I could. I didn’t love, love, love anyone, though, although I liked them well enough.

A whole new worlddddddddddddddddd…or timeeeeeeeeeeeee.

The action was interesting as well. I felt it was handled so brilliantly in the beginning. I was on the edge of my seat with the heists they were doing and with the questions concerning Elliot, but well, by the end, it kind of fell flat? Like, literally in the biggest moment and EVERYTHING IS GOING WRONG time, I was…skimming through the pages, counting down how much I had left. I was seriously bored as the world was ending around our characters at the climax – which isn’t a good thing. I just felt it got to be meh, and I don’t quite understand why. Maybe the pacing got to be too slow? Or I was just too disconnected? I’m not quite sure.

However, this was a super good read, and I really enjoyed it for the most part. It had its few struggles, but I thought that it did good overall. I enjoyed the characters, the concept was amazing, and the writing was good. I wish the ending would have been quite a bit stronger. 3.5 crowns actually, which is the most fitting thing ever because that means Jasmine rating who was taken to a whole new world JUST LIKE THIS BOOK AND I LOVE THE WAY THE UNIVERSE WORKS.