Book Review: The Missing Yesterdays by @TerryMarchion

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The Missing YesterdaysThe Missing Yesterdays by Terry Marchion
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the concept of The Missing Yesterdays. It felt fresh and fun, and was just right for a younger YA audience.

Description

In the distant future on another planet, Christopher and his brilliant bumbling scientist of an uncle are trying out a new invention when they’re transmitted to coordinates unknown. But when they make the return trip, they find something has happened, and New Earth is now uninhabited.

That’s right, the human race no longer exists on this planet, so they take a trip back to the unknown coordinates, and end up in the midst of a primitive tribe, penned in by a mysterious Godswall. But what does that have to do with why the human race failed to make it to New Earth? And how can they set everything right again before they blink out of existence?

Review

Of course, 4 stars means there are complaints, so here’s a quick run-down of what I found:

  • The writing at the beginning (and probably throughout the book, but I just started interpreting it correctly) often pairs the actions of one character with the words of another character, making it difficult to understand who is talking.
  • There’s also times when (if paired correctly) a dialog tag is not necessary because of the actions of the character.
  • There are times when we stop and stare at everything (sometimes appropriate, sometimes would’ve been more dynamic to work it into the action.
  • There’s a few times where the author explains things a little more thoroughly than necessary.
  • And there were a few things in the story that I felt the author could have addressed more fully (like where the missing villagers were going – I think I know, but to just ignore what happened seems a bit unfortunate).

That being said, I think you should give it a try. If writing issues perturb you terribly, you’ll probably dislike the book, but if you can overlook those, the story is worth the effort. And the next book, The Purloined Pictograph, seems to have improved, so there’s that. I’ll publish my review Wednesday.

The Missing Yesterdays is a fun ride through the makings of New Earth, a sci-fi adventure with loads of potential.

**This book was squeaky clean. :)

View all my reviews

One Response

  1. […] (though book one, The Missing Yesterdays was still an interesting read – you can see my review here), and my 4-year-old son and I enjoyed the […]

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