Title: Eye of Ra
Series: Repeating History: Book One
Author: Dakota Chase
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press (2nd Edition)
Length: 180 Pages
Category: Teen Fiction, Time Travel
At a Glance: This is a great way to start out a very interesting series. I hope the author can keep up the great work, with a bit of tweaking, and I can’t wait to see where Merlin sends them next.
Reviewed By: Kel
Blurb: Both Aston and Grant have a talent for finding trouble—it’s what landed them at the Stanton School for Boys—but this time, their mischief might send them to a completely different world.
When they accidentally destroy their teacher’s priceless archaeological artifacts, he demands they replace them. And since the teacher in question is Merlin, refusing isn’t an option for the two boys. Thanks to Merlin’s magic, they’re about to become time travelers.
The first piece on their list is the Eye of Ra, a mystical amulet belonging to the young King Tut. Ancient Egypt is nothing like Aston and Grant expected, with its war, disease, and lack of modern technology. To survive, they must befriend King Tut and learn to trust him—and each other. In a primitive world, where death and danger wait around every corner, one thing is clear: revisiting history could cost someone their life.
Review: The premise of this story and series is great. Two delinquents get into trouble with their history teacher, and he sends them through time to replace items they accidently destroyed. What’s not to love about that? History in a fun way, drama, time travel and two teenage boys who don’t know what they’re doing. Wonder mix.
The story starts out with us meeting Ashton and Grant, both in front of a judge for stupid actions they took. Ashton for joyriding in a car, Grant for breaking into an office building of his dad’s. Both actions seem pretty typical for teenagers who do things without thinking of the consequences until it’s too late. At the same time, it becomes obvious that the boys are acting out because of things going on in their lives, and you feel kind of bad for them. Their reasons seem big to them but aren’t really. Ashton is dealing with his mom’s death, which is a big deal, but he’s also dealing with a new stepmom, which he’s being unreasonable about, like most kids his age would. Grant is mostly ignored in his family, and he does things to try and get reactions from his parents.
Things heat up between the boys and they get into a fight, causing major damage to their history teacher’s office and destroying all his collected artifacts. This is where the time travel aspect of the story comes into play. Their teacher is Merlin, THE Merlin, and he sends them back through time to replace the items they’ve destroyed. This is a very unique idea and I love it. The author even gets around the paradox of time travel by saying that they can’t change the past, that things will play out how they’re supposed to and even if they try to change things, fate or karma will fix it and things will follow their course. It’s an interesting way to get around the paradox and show that even though the boys might change things temporarily, it won’t change the history we know.
In this first book, Ash and Grant are sent back to King Tutankhamen’s time to retrieve the Eye of Ra necklace from him. It’s interesting to see how the boys react to how things were in the past, how much different everything is from their time and them trying to figure out how to deal with getting what they need to go home, and struggling with trying to help Tut. I like the dilemma that this puts them in and how they can reconcile their moral ideals with what history has told them happens. It actually helps show the boys growing, slightly for now, but they start to realize that even though they’re on a mission, they still have the need to do the right thing for the people they’re interacting with.
The action is pretty good, even though there’s not a lot of it. The major battle near the end of the story is fairly bloody, but the author does a good job of not going too brutal. One thing I do think the author falls short on is the dialogue of the boys. While, for the most part, it’s pretty accurate, it’s almost too tame. I’ve raised boys, I know how they talk, and even at fifteen and sixteen they swear a lot. The author doesn’t have to go overboard, but I did expect some more tame swear words at least. The romance is almost non-existent in this story, which is fine. This is a YA book and it should focus on the story, but it’s obvious that at least Ash is attracted to Grant, and it seems the feelings are reciprocated.
I found myself caring about if the boys were going to complete their mission, even though I knew they would, but I also found myself caring about Tut. It’s obvious the author has done some excellent research about Tut and what life would have been like during his time; it really added to the story. By the end, I wanted to know what happened after the boys left, how Tut handled things, and who, if anyone, killed him. I know those are answers we’ll never really know, but I still wanted to find out.
This is a great way to start out a very interesting series. I hope the author can keep up the great work, with a bit of tweaking, and I can’t wait to see where Merlin sends them next.
You can buy Eye of Ra here:
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