IN THE CITY OF TIME - Gwendolyn Clare

Willa Marconi has been doing research in a laboratory at the University of Bologna in 1891 when her mentor at the school dies unexpectedly. Without her mentor's support she risks losing her access to the lab, her stipend, and all her research to date.  But when she discovers a strange signal while using her radio equipment, she fights to hang on to her research.

Fast-forward about 140 years - 2034 and the Earth has become uninhabitable. Humans exist only in pockets of artificial worlds which are often on the verge of collapse.  Jaideep lost his parents when the Bay Area pocket collapsed and now Riley will do anything to help Jaideep, including making a time machine to travel back in time to prevent the catastrophic event that caused the Earth's devastation.

Something goes wrong, however, and instead of Riley and Jaideep going back in time, Willa is pulled forward with them and the three of them are stuck in an abandoned city with an android time-cop hunting them and only a faulty time-machine to help.

This book is set in the same universe as author Gwendolyn Clare's Ink, Iron, and Glass books (the first of which I reviewed three years ago), but you don't have to have read those books to enjoy this.

Clare has done a nice job of providing us with post-apocalyptic science fiction story, mixed with some time-travel, featuring some pretty resourceful teens.

The teen characters make-or-break this novel (since there aren't many characters beside them), and they are definitely a nice trio of diversity with some mad skills and witty banter that should endear them to teen readers. The time cop is also a powerful character in its own way, but I couldn't help but constantly picture the cop from the Terminator movie.

Looking for a good book? In the City of Time by Gwendolyn Clare is a nice diversion and for fans of time-travel science fiction a quick yet satisfying read. 

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

In the City of Time

author: Gwendolyn Clare

series: In the City of Time #1

publisher: Feiwel Friends

ISBN: 9781250230744 

hardcover, 336 pages

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