Skip to main content

story identification - First book of a series: boy disappears from his life, becomes time travelling agent


I read this book some time in the mid-2000s. I'm pretty sure the author's name began with R.





  • The main character is a (probably teenaged) boy who encounters a strange girl at his school and subsequently begins to 'disappear' from his own life. It's an effect similar to that in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere: people look straight through him and don't realise he's there, he vanishes out of old family photos, and so on. I think his (probably younger) sister remembers him for longer than his parents or anyone else, but eventually it's only the strange girl who acknowledges his existence.




  • She turns out to be an agent in an organisation who use time travel to sort out 'mistakes' in time. I believe her messing about to prove to him that she had time travel powers was what caused him to disappear: she went back in time to pop up in an 80-year-old photo from one of his school books, but her pushing someone else out of the photo ultimately led to a change in the course of the Second World War and the untimely death of our hero's grandfather.




  • There's also a typical villain character: creepy and powerful, dressed in a black cape, with some ominous name like 'Midnight' or 'Darkness', he commands a swarm of gargoyle-like creatures and has the ability to stop time (he once conducts a whole conversation with our hero in between the eleventh and twelfth chimes of the clock).





Much of the story revolves around trying to undo the damage this girl agent did to history, and contending with this villain in order to do so. It was only the first book of a series, but I never got any of the others. (I think I read a sneak preview of the second book, which may have had something to do with Shakespeare, but don't take my word for it.)


If I had to guess, I'd say the two main characters were called Jamie and Anna, but again I'm unsure.


I've hunted around a bit online for this book but couldn't find it. Does anyone else know what book I'm talking about?



Answer



Found it!


After trying lots of different search terms, I took my best guess at the characters' names and blindly went ahead with Jamie, Anna, and Midnight. A Google search for "Jamie Anna time travel agents Midnight" yielded a bunch of results most of which weren't even related to sci-fi, and one which jumped out at me as soon as I saw it: Time Runners by Justin Richards. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and everything fitted exactly as I remembered it.


cover


I read this book some time in the mid-2000s. I'm pretty sure the author's name began with R.




Time Runners is a series of fantasy novels written by the British author Justin Richards. [...] The first novel Freeze-Framed was released in March 2007.



The main character is a (probably teenaged) boy who [...] begins to 'disappear' from his own life.



The novels are narrated in the first person by the schoolboy Jamie Grant, who at the start of the first book is twelve years old and has just started a new school. The Time Runners of the series title are people who fall through a time break and who therefore "no longer exist": they cannot be seen and are not remembered, but they continue an existence outside time, with some degree of power over it.



[He] encounters a strange girl at his school [...] I think his (probably younger) sister remembers him for longer than his parents or anyone else, but eventually it's only the strange girl who acknowledges his existence. She turns out to be an agent in an organisation who use time travel to sort out 'mistakes' in time.



In the first book of the series, the narrator, Jamie Grant, is introduced, along with his mum and dad and little sister Ellie. Jamie is having trouble settling at school when he meets Anna, a Runner who appears to be fourteen years old but is later revealed to have many years of experience as a Runner. [...] The Runners comprise an alliance from many places and times who work to protect time [...] with some degree of power over it.




There's also a typical villain character: creepy and powerful, dressed in a black cape, with some ominous name like 'Midnight' or 'Darkness', he commands a swarm of gargoyle-like creatures and has the ability to stop time



Darkling Midnight, an Adept (someone with a very powerful control over time) who the Runners see as their enemy, and who is assisted by evil time creatures called Skitters.



I think I read a sneak preview of the second book, which may have had something to do with Shakespeare, but don't take my word for it.



The second book of the series recounts the first mission on which Jamie and Anna are sent as Runners. They go to 1596 to prevent an assassination, and in the process meet William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I.



I haven't managed to find much more about this book on the internet than what's on the Wikipedia page and the blurb from the back cover, but it's definitely the right one.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...