Some books surprise you with how engaging and enjoyable they are while still being an easy read, and these initially fall into that category, though as you progress, the time-travel aspect gets very involved and they start to involve the multiverse, temporal lifeforms, and symbiotic/parasitic lifeforms.
Josh, the main character of the story, is an interesting figure, being a kid who is heading towards a life of crime, primarily because of circumstances rather than intent and is diverted from that life when he is disturbed while burgling a house and suddenly finds himself in 1944, in Adolf Hitler's Wolf's Lair.
The initial book weaves in numerous time periods and several paradoxes, some of which still hurt when I think about them, but that's what makes a good time travel story. The second book delves further into alternative timelines and sets up a story arc which i assume will unfurl over the coming books in the series. The one thing that spoils these books slightly is the simplistic way events and situations happen, but since the age group they are aimed is quite a bit younger than me, it can be overlooked.
If you enjoy time travel shows such as Doctor Who, The Time Tunnel, etc., chances are you will thoroughly enjoy these.
The future is in danger, history hangs by a thread...
The fate of humanity rests in the hands of a secret order of eccentric time travellers; their mission to protect the timeline from the forces of chaos.
Using the powerful Infinity Engine, they carefully calculate every possibility and outcome before making adjustments to the past – until the anomaly, Joshua Jones, appears and throws all of their plans into turmoil.
Initiated into the Order in a bid to escape his broken past, Josh embarks upon an epic adventure into alternate histories, temporal guilds and the nightmarish creatures of the maelstrom.
But his old life still haunts him, and when a mission goes horribly wrong, the temptation to make a forbidden adjustment is almost irresistible.
Caught between a magical world of infinite possibilities and a life of crime, what will he put first, mankind’s future or his own?
Format
Kindle EditionDate Acquired
1st March 2022Retail Cost
£2.99Number of Pages
454Year Read
2023A dangerous prophecy
An altered timeline
And a world of malevolent creatures
The second book in Andrew Hastie’s imaginative and original Infinity Engines series, Maelstrom is an action-packed, dystopian time travel adventure.
Caitlin has disappeared and someone has changed history. Lost in an alternate reality, Josh must discover who has disrupted the timeline and try to fix the continuum.
But there’s a problem. The Order has become divided over an old manuscript which describes the Maelstrom — a chaotic realm filled with ancient gods that exists outside of the timestream. One faction believes that Josh will be the key to unlocking its power, the other that he needs to die to save them from oblivion.
Josh must find Caitlin and a way into the maelstrom, discover the author of the book and rewrite the prophecy.
Format
Kindle EditionDate Acquired
1st March 2023Retail Price
£9.99Number of Pages
420Year Read
2025Time is running out.
The Eschaton crises are converging.
Josh may be the only one who can save them, but he's trapped in the future.
The Oblivion Order is falling apart, and the timeline is beginning to unravel. Dalton's obsession with the Djinn threatens to bring down the continuum and the only way to stop him is to resolve the riddles of the Eschaton Cascade and find Josh's father.
Follow Caitlin and Josh as they discover the origins of the Order and the future that the founder was aiming to avoid.
Format
Kindle EditionDate Acquired
27th August 2023Retail Price
£10.99Number of Pages
446Year Read
2026What if you could go back in time and discover the real identity of Jack the Ripper?
It's 1888, the slums of London's East End are overrun with crime, disease and poverty. In the dark alleys of Whitechapel, a serial killer begins a killing spree, preying on prostitutes and leaving them horrifically mutilated. Detective Inspector Sabien is assigned to the case. A seasoned officer of the Protectorate, the temporal police force of the Oblivion Order, Sabien is tasked with tracking the down murderer.
Seconded to the nineteenth-century, the Inspector has a rare talent, the ability to travel through the timelines of the victims, giving him a 100% track record and earning him the nickname of 'Sherlock'. But this investigation is different, the Ripper seems to be able to hide from him, and as the body count begins to stack up, Sabien finds himself struggling to discover the killer's identity.
Infinity Engines: Missions takes you on a journey into an alternate history, one that might have been if it wasn’t for the work of the Oblivion Order and their mission to save the future, by changing the past.
Format
Kindle EditionDate Acquired
27th August 2023Retail Price
£5.24Number of Pages
133Year Read
2026Four years after the Nihil and the Order has a new threat.
A clay tablet is discovered at an excavation in Knossos, Crete. The text is written in a language that no one can decipher, but the Nazis have come to claim it and Napoleon sends his own Savants Temporal to the Minoan tomb.
Meanwhile something ancient is infecting the descendants of the great houses of Europe.
Book four in the best selling Infinity Engine series.
Format
Kindle EditionDate Acquired
1st October 2023Retail Price
£10.99Number of Pages
382Year Read
2026