Review: Infinity Ring Book 1: A Mutiny In Time by James Dashner

Title: Infinity Ring Book 1: A Mutiny in Time

Author: James Dashner

Published: August 28, 2012 by Scholastic Inc.

Book Description:

Scholastic's next multi-platform mega-event begins here! History is broken, and three kids must travel back in time to set it right! 

When best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste stumble upon the secret of time travel -- a hand-held device known as the Infinity Ring -- they're swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. Recruited by the Hystorians, a secret society that dates back to Aristotle, the kids learn that history has gone disastrously off course.Now it's up to Dak, Sera, and teenage Hystorian-in-training Riq to travel back in time to fix the Great Breaks . . . and to save Dak's missing parents while they're at it. First stop: Spain, 1492, where a sailor named Christopher Columbus is about to be thrown overboard in a deadly mutiny!

My Thoughts:

So here is another series coming from Scholastic after 39 Clues. It is somewhat similar to the 39 Clues franchise with its format and stuff and also the physical book is the same size and pages. But now the element about this is Time Travel. I think someone in the Scholastic headquarters had been watching too much Doctor Who and decided "We should do a book series about Time Travel using children as our main character. And asides from Time Travel as the main point of the story we also have some "correcting" to do on history (or should I say Hystory) (honestly Scholastic you are not helping the generation today specially with all the spellcheck and stuff) as the protagonist's mission. Book 1 is written by James Dashner and that is the reason I picked this up since he is famous and I really like his works on the Maze Runner trilogy.

Onwards with my proper opinions and comments. First of all I think James did a good job in writing the book. It is well played out and he fairly established the basic personality of the main characters. But the fallout part is, I don't know if it is his fault but I am 80% sure that it is Scholastic is that they limited him with a set of number of pages which I think is not enough. Remember when Rick Riordan piloted the fiirst book of 39 clues where he really did a good job because he was able to make a good story with sufficient number of pages. But with this book, the second half of the story is rushed. Completely rushed. An extra 50 -75 pages would've done a great deal to this book.

The characters is a mixture a both and bad things. The good thing is that they are intelligent smart and funny. Their personalities play well with livening up the book. The downside is that I think some of it is forced like when they are in the past Dak is so obsessed with discovering the history that he puts that first before the mission?? seriously don't you want to save the world first before your obsession and remember that thing that happened? (you'll get this is you read the book) I think that is enough motivation to say to yourself Mission first.

So all in all I would've given this new children's book aroung 4-5 whales if it was a little bit longer but I will settle now in giving this 3 whales. Not a good start but the 2nd book is so much better ( I already finished it so look forward to the next review)