Starred Review ALA Booklist (Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2012)

Starred Review Hautman, one of YA literature's most versatile authors, opens a new sci-fi trilogy in this story of Tucker Feye, son of a small-town Minnesota preacher. After a quick prologue that explains how a future race of sorta humans constructed a series of "diskos" to travel in time and witness important moments in "an ancient and largely discredited discipline once known as History," we return to the present day as Tucker Feye begins noticing shimmering diskos hovering in the air. Hoping to find his missing parents, he steps through one and is wormholed through time, skipping around as far back as Jesus' crucifixion at Golgotha and forward through multiple civilizations and even to the vanishing point of humanity, with serious reverberations felt among all points along the way. Hautman isn't afraid to tackle massive complexities w faith in God can be either demolished or cemented by witnessing the death of his "son," the inherent paradoxes of time travel, the possible ramifications of our digital revolution rapid succession and with crystal clarity. And while it would be easy enough to coast on the killer premise, he makes sure to carefully craft his characters and construct a tight-fitting plot for them to shoot around in before toying with readers' heads. This fast-paced opener to the Klaatu Diskos trilogy will satiate adventure seekers, and the refined brain candy will be delicious to more thoughtful readers. If anything, there simply isn't enough of everything, but it's hard to fault a book for being too tantalizing. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hautman's written sci-fi before, but the many fans he's picked up from recent gems like The Big Crunch (2011) and the National Book Award winning Godless (2004) give this series the potential to be a blockbuster.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Vivid imagination and deft storytelling make for refreshing speculative fiction in this time-travel tale. Tucker Feye is an ordinary teenage boy, leading an ordinary, near-idyllic small-town American life--but that's before he starts seeing the "disks." Once the mysterious shimmering phenomena appear, Tucker's preacher father vanishes, then returns with a strange teenage girl and without his faith; Tucker's mother loses her sanity, and eventually both parents disappear. After moving in with his (previously unknown) Uncle Kosh, the really weird stuff starts happening. However, after a riveting opening scene the narrative seems to slow to a crawl, but the thorough characterization and careful worldbuilding pay off spectacularly once Tucker discovers that the disks are gateways through time and space. Hautman doesn't make things easy for his readers: As Tucker bounces through historical crisis points past and future, short chapters and steadily ratcheting stakes present life-threatening situations and bizarre personages at a dizzying pace (most of them already-familiar characters with new names or under different guises), That this remains intriguing rather than confusing is a credit to the sure-handed plotting and crisp prose, equally adept with flashes of snarky wit and uncomfortable questions of faith, identity, and destiny. Less satisfying are the climactic cliffhangers, which reveal that the entire story is but a set-up for the rest of the series. Part science fiction, part adventure, part mystery, but every bit engrossing; be sure to start the hold list for the sequel. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2012)

Time and space are refracted again and again through mysterious portals in Hautman's intricately layered universe. When Tucker's parents disappear through a circle in the air he follows them, thus beginning his dangerous journey through the millennia. The first of a planned trilogy plants Tucker and his family in a religious and ideological battle across time, hinting at intriguing developments to come.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Vivid imagination and deft storytelling make for refreshing speculative fiction in this time-travel tale. Tucker Feye is an ordinary teenage boy, leading an ordinary, near-idyllic small-town American life--but that's before he starts seeing the "disks." Once the mysterious shimmering phenomena appear, Tucker's preacher father vanishes, then returns with a strange teenage girl and without his faith; Tucker's mother loses her sanity, and eventually both parents disappear. After moving in with his (previously unknown) Uncle Kosh, the really weird stuff starts happening. However, after a riveting opening scene the narrative seems to slow to a crawl, but the thorough characterization and careful worldbuilding pay off spectacularly once Tucker discovers that the disks are gateways through time and space. Hautman doesn't make things easy for his readers: As Tucker bounces through historical crisis points past and future, short chapters and steadily ratcheting stakes present life-threatening situations and bizarre personages at a dizzying pace (most of them already-familiar characters with new names or under different guises), That this remains intriguing rather than confusing is a credit to the sure-handed plotting and crisp prose, equally adept with flashes of snarky wit and uncomfortable questions of faith, identity, and destiny. Less satisfying are the climactic cliffhangers, which reveal that the entire story is but a set-up for the rest of the series. Part science fiction, part adventure, part mystery, but every bit engrossing; be sure to start the hold list for the sequel. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

School Library Journal (Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2012)

Gr 8 Up-Tucker Feye has had a pretty normal childhood in his small, sleepy Minnesota town. As the son of the local minister, he has always believed in God and taken the world pretty much as it appears. Then one day he sees his father disappear through a hazy disk floating above their roof. When he returns, he is completely changed. Not only is he accompanied by a mysterious girl wearing blue rubber shoes, but he also has lost his faith in God. As things quickly begin to spiral out of control and his mother begins to lose her mind, Tucker wonders about the disk. When he ventures through one himself, he begins a journey that takes him through the recent past and into the distant future, causing him to question his faith, his family, and even what he knows about the world around him. While the idea of time travel is intriguing, and Tucker's journeys are interesting and startling, this mind-bending novel moves slowly and feels very much like a setup for the rest of the series. Some characters, like Tucker's father, seem sketchy at best, and the author's explanation of the creators of the Diskos is confusing. This is a compelling read that gets muddled in the particulars but might still be of interest to readers who enjoyed Hautman's previous books and those science-fiction fans who like a challenge. Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA