Rysa Walker travels to a dark past with new novel Timebound

Science fiction story not for short attention spans

Erin Wells

When Prudence Kate Pierce-Keller’s (Kate) grandmother, who suddenly reappears after being gone for more than a decade, gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate thinks nothing of it.

“Timebound,” written by Rysa Walker, takes the reader through the life of Kate who, because of the CHRONOS gene and the blue medallion, acquires the task of traveling through time to fix the future and ensuring that her evil grandfather Saul doesn’t take over the world. He creates a religion and forces people to convert, otherwise they’ll vanish. She also learns that if she cannot fix the future, her grandmother will vanish and Kate will have never existed.

Overall the execution of the novel is very confusing because it doesn’t make it that evident  what time period she was in before traveling to the next. It is also confusing how only those with the CHRONOS gene are able to use the medallion and their memories stay intact although they would be changing the timeline.

One aspect that  made the novel more enjoyable despite the novels overall unappealing aspect, is the addition of a love at first sight scenario. During one of Kate’s timeline travels she meets Trey Coleman who she describes as Mr. Tall Blond and Handsome and they both fall madly in love. Changing the timeline comes with  the cost of Trey having no memory of her existence, but despite the consequence, she pursues her destiny quest to change the future.

As if the time traveling aspect in the novel isn’t already confusing, on top of that the main characters have practically the same names. The grandmother’s name is Katherine and for most of the novel Kate refers to her as Katherine opposed to grandmother because of the timelines. Prudence Kate Pierce-Keller goes by her middle name Kate and her aunt who disappears during one of the timelines and initially thought to be helping Saul is named Prudence.

Most of the novel is pretty disappointing because there never is much of a profound climax and the whole story was downright confusing. The main reason one would dare to read the novel from start to finish is how the author successfully ended each chapter with a cliffhanger therefore engaging the reader in wanting to know if it could get any better. Sadly the fact that the last chapter also ends on a cliffhanger, it is unable to meet expectations.