The idea behind this book is fabulous. What would you do if you could buy more time? Unfortunately the story had enough flaws that made it hard for me to get lost in the world and accept the characters. They were very one dimensional. The plot itself finished anticlimactically with everything "back to normal" without any of the intrigue, mystery, or danger explained, solved, or even thought of by the characters at the end. I understand that it's part of a series that will explore things that would take longer than one book could hold, but I wasn't left with that feeling. I was left thinking: "Stupid teenagers are just living it up and ignoring the less than shiny parts of their world." ( )

The idea behind this book is fabulous. What would you do if you could buy more time? Unfortunately the story had enough flaws that made it hard for me to get lost in the world and accept the characters. They were very one dimensional. The plot itself finished anticlimactically with everything "back to normal" without any of the intrigue, mystery, or danger explained, solved, or even thought of by the characters at the end. I understand that it's part of a series that will explore things that would take longer than one book could hold, but I wasn't left with that feeling. I was left thinking: "Stupid teenagers are just living it up and ignoring the less than shiny parts of their world." ( )

I was hooked within the first page of this book, mainly because it was set during a hoverbike race. The mere mention of a hoverbike left me excited to get stuck into the book and discover the world within it. The plot is interesting straight away, Raffi is on the cusp of adulthood so buys a year in the Chronosphere – time works differently here so that a year lasts only a minute in the real world. It seems like a perfect situation, he can put off growing up for another year but no one will ever know he was gone. Very quickly however he starts to realise that this perfect world isn’t quite so perfect, there are darker things going on and very quickly Raffi gets caught up in them.

Raffi’s a great leading character, I think teens and adults alike will be able to identify with his wish to put off growing up a little longer. I certainly found myself rooting for him from the start, and worrying about what was going to happen to him at various points throughout the book. The group of friends he makes within the Chronosphere are an interesting group, I liked the way we got to know them a little bit and then the rug was pulled from us as a few secrets were revealed. I finished the book looking forward to finding out more about them all.

The world created in this book is fascinating, the technological developments are all really exciting though there are points where the technology becomes quite scary. I liked the way that the science behind the time bending aspects of the book is included, there was a risk this could have been confusing but for me it was balanced just right. ( )