Viral Nation

August 5, 2013
Grimes's debut, first in a planned series, meshes time travel and the viral apocalypse subset of the dystopia novel. By the time a cure is found for the virus that has ravaged the U.S., the population is so depleted that all citizens move to one city in each state. In Reno, siblings West and Clover live together, taking their daily doses of preventative medicine while their father is off working for the government's execution squads. Sixteen-year-old Clover is excited to have been accepted to the prestigious local Academy, but let down when her spot is revoked due to her autism. Instead, she's directed to work for the Company, where she will train to become a Time Mariner, traveling into the future to learn of as-yet-uncommitted crimes, which are then punished proactively. This leads Clover to discover a threat to her family, pulling her into a cross-time conspiracy. Grimes occasionally slips into familiar predestination clichés of time travel books, but the overall concept and sensitively defined character of Clover carry the book through. Ages 12âup. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds.

June 15, 2013
In this disjointed time-travel novel, teens use information from their future selves to lead a rebellion against the corrupt corporation that controls the United States. When a plague decimated the U.S. population, the Waverly-Stead company used time travel to develop a suppressant and subsequently became the de facto replacement government. Sixteen years later, the company drafts Clover--due to her autism--to become a time traveler. In a mission to the future, Clover meets Jude, who gives her a pamphlet with information about a rebellion that she, present-day Jude, and their friends will start in her own time, partly to save her brother, West, from a pre-emptive execution. Science-fiction enthusiasts will find that the intricacies and implications of gathering information from the future to change actions in the present are inadequately described. Characters often express their own confusion and get headaches thinking about these topics, then simply move forward without resolution, which frustratingly requires readers to do the same. Character development is spotty and at times over-reliant on repetition. Clover's autism is repeatedly characterized by nervous hand-flapping and a reluctance to be embraced, while the eidetic memory that supposedly makes her perfect for time traveling is largely overlooked. Fans of science fiction or dystopian adventures will find that the convoluted plot, one-note characters and inexplicable villains result in a lackluster story. (Dystopian adventure. 12-18)

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