Nick of Time is the first young reader's book written by bestselling author Ted Bell.
In the grand tradition of epic novels like Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island comes a wondrous tale of time travel, adventure, and riches, in which twelve-year-old Nick McIver sets out to become “the hero of his own life.”
The setting is England, 1939, on the eve of war. Nick and his younger sister, Kate, live in a lighthouse on the smallest of the Channel Islands. Nick and Kate come to the aid of their father who is engaged in a desperate war of espionage with German U-boat wolf packs that are circling the islands. The information they provide to Winston Churchill is vital as he tries to warn England of the imminent Nazi invasion.
One day Nick discovers an old sea chest, left for him by his ancestor, Captain Nicholas McIver of the Royal Navy. Inside, he finds a time machine and a desperate plea for help from the captain. He uses the machine to return to the year 1805. Captain McIver and, indeed, Admiral Nelson’s entire fleet are threatened by the treachery of the French and the mutinous Captain Billy Blood. Nick must reach deep inside, using his wits, courage, and daring to rescue the imperiled British sailors.
His sister, Kate, meanwhile, has enlisted the aid of two of England’s most brilliant “scientific detectives,” Lord Hawke and Commander Hobbes, to thwart the invading Nazis. She and Nick must face England’s underwater enemies, a challenge made all the more difficult when they discover the existence of Germany’s supersecret submarine.
In this striking adventure for readers of all ages, Nick must fight ruthless enemies across two different centuries, on land and sea, to help defeat those determined to destroy his home and his family.
Review:
So if you want an idea of the premise of this book, think Master and Commander meets Robert Muchamore's Henderson's Boys series meets Linda Buckley-Archer's Gideon trilogy. So in other words it's a genre-meshing book that's part swashbuckling, rollicking, high seas tale, part steampunk time travel adventure, and part England vs Nazi Germany espionage thriller. "Why steampunk time travel?" you may ask. Well, the time travel engine in question was invented by Leonardo Da Vinci, instead of some scientist in the future - hence it cannot be considered a sci-fi time travel adventure. Also, the "supersecret submarine" mentioned in the summary is another piece of steampunk technology as it did not really exist (I using the very loose "alternate history" definition of steampunk in this review).
The biggest issue I had with this book was that I felt it was a little too juvenile for me. Even though it was in the teen/ya fiction section of the library I got it from, it turned out that the protagonist was only 12 years of age, and that the book was more geared towards that demographic (grades 6-8) than older teens. If you ask me, the book was improperly shelved. The juvenile-ness of this book wasn't all bad though. The whole book had a feel of good, clean, innocent fun to it which I haven't seen in a book I've read for quite some time. If you ask me, YA and adult fiction today have far too much gritty, dark, heavy tones to them - somewhere along the line we lost a sense of light and innocent fun that we used to have (take The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia for example). In any event, this book brought back pleasant memories of the days where I read World War 2 and historical naval fiction like there was no tomorrow - in short, it brought out the kid in me! (and that's a good thing)
I also thought Nick of Time could have been longer and more epic. The plot could have been expanded and developed far more than it was - the book just ended far too soon! With the way Bell set things up, the book could easily have been twice its length (and twice the fun!). Oh well...
In addition to the plot needing further developing, the main antagonist's (Billy Blood) character could have been much better developed as well. We just don't see or hear enough of him to understand his origins, his motives, how he came to possess the time machine, etc. It's a little annoying. Hopefully his character will be better developed in the sequel!
All in all, I quite enjoyed (read: loved) this book. In a word, it was fun - and a lot of fun at that. I highly recommend it to fans of WW2 fiction, naval fiction, historical fiction, espionage fiction, or time travel. If the book wasn't on the juvenile side, I would have given it 5/5.
4.5/5 stars
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