Shanna LauffeyReseñas

I've been far too busy to write this review today, so I wrote it next week and then time-travelled back a few days with it - easy!
   Akalya does this sort of thing routinely, 'shifting' back and forth through both time and space. No time machines are involved though, unless you count the mind as one; like all the Harekaiian, she discovered this talent, unprompted, as a child and has been honing it ever since.
   Sounds too easy? It isn't, the ability is severely limited: you can't shift blind, you visualise your destination so need to have visited it, or at least seen it, before; you can't, for example, shift through a locked door if you've never been in the room beyond - peer through the window first though... For the same reason, your wanderings are restricted to your own lifetime, between the dates of your own birth and death.
   Sounds wonderful then? It must have been - until someone began abducting Harekaiian and blocking their shifting ability. How? Why? And most ominously (since Akalya and her kind are secretive, living in the interstices of our own civilisation) how did the kidnappers even learn of their existence in the first place? When several are abducted before Akalya's very eyes, it becomes her quest to find out.
   Although Akalya shifts back to 1965 to set up a 'safe house' just a few doors down from the one she grew up in, El Porto is described without sentimentality: the beach sand with its faint tarry smell, the oily foam which sometimes washes in from tankers at a nearby refinery. What impressed me most about Lauffey's writing though is its pace - a measured, unhurried style which matches the black-and-white family-album style photographs of the book perfectly. I liked some of the finer details of time-shifting too, things the reader might never think of at all but which are second nature to Akalya - and help make a story like this feel so authentic - such as the way she uses street corners (clever!).
   Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off down the pub - I can always post this review later...or, of course, earlier...

Akalya is one of a hidden race of humanity called Harekaiian, who genetically have the ability to shift in space or in time, although not both at the same time. While living in Los Angeles in 2015, she is faced with the danger of a billionaire-financed secret scientific team which has captured several of her fellow Harekais, including her best friend, Gaye, with the hope of dissecting and experimenting on their cellular structures in order to uncover the source of their time and distance shifting abilities. Akalya begins an heroic journey to save her fellow Harekais, as well as to uncover the truth in the past of how the secret of her race was unveiled, a process that leads her to a new relationship back and forward in time. This book is a collection of the first five novellas in a set of ten, originally published individually. Even though each novella episode has its own storyline that can be read individually, the episodes do follow a larger story of Akalya’s quest and discovery. Through Akalya, later nicknamed Kallie, and another Harekai member who has become a physics professor, the author works at trying to scientifically justify the potential conflicts of the time traveling aspects, including adding possible rule limitations that cause some complicated time and space shift travels, but there still appear to be moments which might seem to cause conflict in the timeline continuum. However, sci-fi fantasy adherents will still probably enjoy the heroic and empathetic characters finding life in a time shifting universe.

Shanna Lauffey. You may not of heard of her, but her work speaks for itself and may entice you to read more as time goes on.

I picked up Time Shifters, the first chapter of ten conceived chapters that will be coming out later this year. The end of the novel hints at a possible TV series. I’m not sure if it is that strong of a story, but I have hopes.

Story and Plots:

The story is a Young Adult novel, simply written, for the most part clear and concise. The first person narration is by one Akala, who is a member of a special group, the “Harekaiian” people – people who can travel through time or space (one or the other, not both at the same time) and through heredity or luck, have attained these abilities.

They’re a shy people, afraid to be discovered, go in small groups or alone, and wander the time stream, having a good time. This part of the story is interesting – I mean, would you just be a beachcomber, a Gypsy free spirit, just roaming the time stream and goofing around?

Anyway, a man discovers the group and wants the abilities for his own. He hires a few people but does not know a rogue group is formed from his actions, a group that wants to find out quite invasively what makes the Harekaiian people tick – through dissection! Yikes!

It’s interesting watching Akala go through these motions – her friends are caught and somehow lose their ability whenever a man by the name of Marcus, apparently a half-breed who has some but not all these abilities (reminds me of Spock!) and apparently is in league with these kidnappers.

Akala must resist falling in love enough to find out who is behind all this and what she can do to stop the bad guys from slicing & dicing her friends.

I must admit some frustration with this character, how she decides to go back in time a few weeks to rest and then pops back to where she left off – let’s not goof off, Akala!

Their limitations are interesting too – you can only travel during the time of your own lifetime, can use time or space-distance travel, not both. And you can touch someone to take them with you, which she uses to great effect upon her enemies.

Plotholes:

The story has a few but I think that’s intentional to entice the reader to go to the next chapter in this series of ten. Who is Julia? And how is Mason involved? And what of the rich guy who is apparently manipulating everyone in this story? Where did these people come from in the first place? And we never really meet or learn about Akala’s friends, and how exactly they lost their powers of time & space when Marcus is around.

Bottom Line: Despite my perhaps over-criticizing the story, it flows well and is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Recommended. The author’s next book is Children of the Morning.

All I can say is More Please. This series reminds me of my favorite X-Men!

Just as good as the first, except I feel the Chicago area scenes could have been handled better. But then I'm a Chicago native.

*Book source ~ Purchased at Amazon

Akalya is different than a regular human. She is a member of the Harekaiian and they are time shifters. They don’t know exactly how or why they are different than others, only that they can use their mind to shift through time and distance, but never at the same time. They live simply and peacefully trying their best to stay under the radar of anyone who might harm them to find out how they do what they do. When Akalya witnesses the capture of some of her brethren and manages to escape, she realizes it’s up to her to find out who the enemy is, why they’re nabbing her people and, most importantly, rescue the victims. Luckily, she has time on her side.

While this is predominantly sci-fi it’s also a thriller as Akalya races to find out how to rescue her people. Fortunately, she can shift back and forth in time, so the task isn’t as urgent as it could be. She literally has time on her hands to gather intel and plan what to do. Her movements and thought process are interesting and the time and distance shifting becomes quite complicated as she tries to avoid any contact with the enemy. I’ve always had a problem when it comes to time travel books and that’s probably why I tapered off in reading them. However, even though I couldn’t quite grasp the mechanics of time travel in this book, it didn’t squash my enjoyment of the story. I like Akalya and her solutions. Her knowledge of her people and their abilities is also fascinating. Even though she’s no scientist or expert in biology she still has a decent understanding of how her people shift. The plot is a bit simplistic as are the solutions she applies and there isn’t a lot of character development, but overall I enjoyed it very much. There is resolution in this episode, but the door is wide open for the overall arc to continue and I’m looking forward to it.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a non-reciprocal review.
(This review will contain spoilers).

Time Shifters is a fairly short story. It does a pretty good job of pulling the reader into its world, where, for Akalya, shifting around through time and space is completely normal.

She and others like her blend into the background as they go through life, but someone is starting to kidnap them, and she decides she should do something to save them.

Akalya is a pretty strong character. I like that she's a fairly old character, and I also like that she definitely had strong opinions about what she liked. I didn't feel like she was a blank slate.

She's pretty realistic in her motivations. On one hand, she doesn't really know the other Harekaiian all that well. But she feels compelled to save them - not because she has some superb sense of justice, but there's a layer of problems facing her. One of the captives is someone she's familiar with and wants to help. She's also worried about the fact that her people are being kidnapped, and she could be next. There's also a smaller sense of not wanting to turn her back on them. All of her feelings about it are very understandable.

The way she uses her powers to solve problems is interesting. She has a great advantage over others, but she's not invincible, and she doesn't know what tricks the enemy is using.

It was a fun read. It did drag at parts where things got over-described. For example, using her powers makes her hungry and she often stops to eat in the book, but I didn't need to know exactly what she was eating every time. Sometimes she made mental commentary - like comparing shakes in the late 60's to modern shakes. Other times it was just a list of food.
I think the other weak spot was when she was with Marcus. We get told more about the time they spent together and don't get shown too much of it, so the connection we're supposed to believe they formed during their talk wasn't as strong as it could have been. I also got a little lost in how he got to where he was. She teleported him back in time, and had him bring her food in another place, but after he brought her food what happened to him?
In the spot where it's initially described, he kisses her, brings her food, and then is sort of forgotten in the narrative. It doesn't say he leaves or vanishes or anything. It's like the book just forgot he was there, and the Akalya travels through time on her own. So wouldn't he have still been left in that time? I got a bit lost at that part.

It was a nice start for a series though, with a strong lead and an interesting plot.