Shelf Control #42 – 04/02/2022
Hello everyone and welcome to today’s Shelf Control post! Shelf Control is a regular feature here on my blog (typically fortnightly on a Friday) and is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up!
For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out Lisa’s introductory post.
Today’s chosen book is a science-fiction novel that is semi-vague about the main storyline, but gives me enough to tell me that I’m going to enjoy it, whatever the detail turns out to be.
So, do you want to find out what today’s book is?
Invictus – Ryan Graudin
Time flies when you’re plundering history.
Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far’s birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he’s ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past.
But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far’s very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.
My Thoughts…
I am intrigued by the synopsis of Invictus. Having read more science fiction in the last few years, I’m confident that I’m going to enjoy this one. I’ve read similar sounding books even fairly recently and I’ve gotten on with all of them! I only hope that the time travel element isn’t too complicated to follow; otherwise I am sure this will be a great read!
Science fiction is a genre that I told myself I wanted to read more of. Whilst it isn’t my most read genre by any stretch of the imagination, it is creeping up the ranking. I do find myself reading more and more, and the good thing about the genre is the diversity in technology authors have to play with. It’s a rapidly evolving beast, with bold ideas as to what technology we will have access to in the future. Yes there are common themes, but it is a little more diverse than the fantasy genre, in which the same troops are generally regurgitated.
At around 460 pages Invictus is a decent read, but equally not too long either. It’s also a good opportunity to try something by a new author; having read the synopsis of another book she has written (Wolf by Wolf), I think this is something I could enjoy as well. However, I’ll see how I get on with Invictus before I start adding any more books to the list!
Have you read Invictus, or any other books by Ryan Graudin? Let me know in the comments!