Future Threat

February 15, 2017
The second installment in Briggs' time-travel trilogy introduces new players and conspiracies that threaten Elena's present and future. Six months after the events of Future Shock (2016), Mexican-American Elena Martinez is adjusting to money in the bank, college classes, and a sweet relationship with caring and brilliant Adam, a white boy and fellow survivor of Aether Corp.'s deadly mission to the future. But Aether isn't done with them. Aether forces Elena, Adam, and their final team member, Chris--a black 19-year-old who's about to become a father--to return to the future 30 years hence to rescue the missing team of teens they sent to commit corporate espionage. Once in the future, Elena, Adam, and Chris discover their future selves are living the dream, but the mission itself, of course, turns disastrous. Those who survive it then attempt subsequent and even more dangerous jumps to the same timeline. There's a diverse set of new characters: Jeremy, the Aether CEO's resentful, white, MIT-grad son; Zahra, a no-nonsense Iranian-American hacker from Beverly Hills; Ken, a half-Japanese, half-white chemist; and Paige, a perky white gymnast--with roguish Zahra by far the most interesting. The action is well-executed when not bogged down in specifics of time travel. As for romance, Briggs raises the stakes in this entry, showing Elena and Adam exactly how beautiful their future could be if they fight for it. A quick and satisfying middle volume that may make readers almost wish it was the end. (Science fiction. 13-17)

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February 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-In the second novel of a planned trilogy, Elena and her team are forced once again to return to the future. This time, though, their goal is not to steal technology to bring back to the present. Instead, their mission is to locate and bring home Team Echo, four youths who have failed to return to the present. Arriving in the future a second time, Elena and her team are quick to notice that this is not the same future that they were just in. As their scheduled return comes closer with each passing second, they must face the fact that a member of Echo has been killed and that they will need to return to the future once again to try to intervene and save a life. With each subsequent return, however, they fail to bring back the entire team. The shifts in the future become more and more bleak, and team members cannot resist the urge to check up on their own futures, even meeting themselves at future times. Briggs offers fast-paced action, and readers will easily forgive the occasionally didactic and cliched dialogue as they enjoy the creative incarnations of the future, including the use of old ("flexis") and more modern ("inbeds") personal interweb interfaces.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2017
Grades 8-11 Elena Martinez was done with the Aether Corporation after the events of Future Shock (2016). She returned from a far-flung future, as did her sort-of boyfriend and fellow time traveler Adam, but not all the friends who joined them on their mission made it back. Unfortunately, the shady tech-giant corporation isn't done with her. Forced to time travel again, Elena and two companions seek out another team who were lost 30 years in the future. The wonders of this new time line are fraught with danger, and even though there's proof that all three make it out alive and well this time, Elena can't help but feel uneasyand flashbacks to the horrors of last time aren't helping. The time travelers have more tools at their disposal this time around, but there's still something Aether isn't telling them, and it could put lives at stakeagain. Elena's PTSD and anxiety are poignant and chilling, bringing a realistic human element to the sci-fi world of time travel. Briggs incorporates suspense and thrilling adventure, creating a gripping sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
Not long after returning from their mission to the future (Future Shock), Elena, Adam, and Chris are forced by Aether Corporation to time travel again, this time to rescue another team gone missing. However, to save all their members requires multiple trips--each more perilous than the last and resulting in consequential shifts to the future. Another suspenseful, action-filled sci-fi thriller.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)