Rewinder (Rewinder Series) by Brent Battles. 260 pages. 47North.
It’s been a while since I’ve found a book that kept my interest so much that I read it from start to finish in essentially one sitting. This is one of them. What’s even better is that it’s a time travel book, a genre that offers a lot of possibilities but much too often includes a lot of misses. This isn’t one of those.
Rewinder is the story of Denny Younger, a young man who grows up in a modern-day America that we wouldn’t recognize, simply because America doesn’t exist. The British Empire reigns supreme, and he has grown up in a strong class-oriented society, where as an “8” he can look forward to a life as a servant or worse. But he is smart, addicted to books, and determined to get as far ahead in life as he possibly can. Mandatory testing (it seems like every YA book includes some sort of coming-of-age test, doesn’t it?) leads him to a corporation who singles him out to join a life as a Rewinder, and he is drawn into a world that offers him not only incredible possibilities, but incredible dangers and knowledge that can both liberate and condemn him.
I can’t tell you much more than that without ruining the surprise, because there are surprises in it, as well as the fun of time travel paradoxes and meeting up with historical figures. You find yourself rooting for Denny, identifying with him, and at one point, seeing how alien he and his world really is.
It’s a great story, and when at the end I learned that Brent Battles is both an award-winner and the author of 20 books, it made sense. What’s even better, it has a sequel, one that I’ll be picking up right away. I recommend you do the same.
I give it five out of five stars.
The Great Adventure 