Author: Kim Curran
Expected publication: September 4th 2012 by Strange Chemistry
 

I received an eARC from Angry Robots via Netgalley. Thank you.

I thought of Tempest when I first saw this book. And let’s just say I have slight penchant to books told from guy’s pov. Besides, the idea of undoing a decision sounds very unique—no, awesome to me. So I requested this book preparing myself to the awesomeness.

Or so I thought. 😉

It was good, but it’s not remarkable. I think what lured readers like me was the concept of ‘shifting.’ I have read time-traveling books but this was my first to have read a character that can ‘shift (undo decisions he made).’ I thought once he found out what he is, and the relevance of what he can do, the adrenalin will rush in. But I didn’t get that jumpy feeling. I liked boy’s pov (in this kind of book) for the very reason of getting action-packed, the adventure-like feeling. It’s just a bonus if there’s romance too. But I was disappointed that I didn’t get that. Unlike others I was more interested at the beginning but it dragged as I continue on.

I’m not sure if there’s a sequel but for me, it felt complete (which is nice, actually). What I liked about it was there were several mini arcs. From Scott knowing his ability, the training, the investigation about the deaths then Project Ganymede and lastly the ending. Plus point that I didn’t suspect the real antagonist, so that was a nice twist. Anyway, I liked each arcs felt resolved. The reason why I liked the beginning (and bit of the training) was because I was really interested with his shifting. I got to know how it affects others, or the events/future, and the shifter’s decisions are the only decision he can undo. It has a shounen manga atmosphere when Scott was on his training and there were two guys fighting (training) in a speed-of-light-like since they were undoing their decisions—their moves. It was cool. Other than that, the rest were pretty average.

Scott was a nice protagonist. Maybe I was expecting him to be fun, hilarious a la Percy Jackson since I kinda sensed the trait when I read the prologue. But unfortunately he’s not. Although that said, I liked that I saw his character matured. While Aubrey is a great example of my peeves. I hate it when kids act like old person (adult) but failed to deliver. It was unbelievable; with the smoking, tough chick act/speaking. It was forced, fake. I did predict that she might be Scott’s ‘apple of the eye’ and needless to say I was right. But it just happened. They kissed, and I was like, ‘WHAT?!’ I didn’t see any romantic vibes between them (if there were it’s so not evident) so I find that out there. Oh, well…

While it felt short to my expectations I still enjoyed it. Aside from the impressive concept, everything was pretty mundane to me.