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Paradox
Past. Present. Future. Fate. They’re all connected. Before Zac Ryger discovered TEMPUS, a secret project developed by his father, it never dawned on him that time travel could be a curse. After accidentally using it, he must face the fact that his actions might have caused small changes to the timeline, setting in motion a chain of events that affects everyone around him. His journey forces him to face the ultimate Is fate fixed, or can events in time be changed? (YOUNG ADULT)
243 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 2, 2013
7 people are currently reading
383 people want to read
About the author
C. David Milles
6 books7 followersAlthough not a superhero, C. David Milles does have a dual identity. He is a middle school teacher by day and a writer by night. He enjoys exploring the building blocks of stories, especially through the lens of the Hero’s Journey.
He loves all things geeky: superheroes, video games, reading, and writing. His favorites include television shows like Lost, Fringe, and Doctor Who, and movies like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and Back to the Future.
He is married and has two children.
He loves all things geeky: superheroes, video games, reading, and writing. His favorites include television shows like Lost, Fringe, and Doctor Who, and movies like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and Back to the Future.
He is married and has two children.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 5, 2013
I received this book for free from Goodreads first reads program.
Paradox - Something absurd or contradictory. A statement, proposition, or situation that seems to be absurd, or contradictory, but in fact is or may be be true.
The title of this book sums what goes on in the book perfectly. We follow Zac Ryger, a forlorn young man who has lost his mother and has a rather distant father. While visiting his father, Zac finds a secret chamber that leads to a time machine; of course, Zac doesn't know this and inadvertently ends up back in the past, to the day of his birth to be exact. After being retrieved by Bryce, one of Dr. Ryger's associates, Zac is given the run around before finally being able to join the team. When he joins the team he is given specific rules for time travel. To never interfere with the past is the chief rule. Of course anyone who would like time travel to exist, would like to go back and change things. The main example, and the one given in the book, is killing Hitler. But what Dr. Ryger and his associates explain is a paradox. If Zac were to go back and kill Hitler, perhaps another dictator would arise who would be worse or if by killing Hitler (and no other dictator would arise) in the future there would be no precipitating event to prompt the building of a time machine, thus a time machine in the present wouldn't exist. Yep, that's a circle.
Instead what the team does is go back in time and witness events, come back to the present and give those "witness" statements to the police. One would assume they had an inside man because all of the tips coming in would start to look suspicious if you ask me. Zac seems to get this concept, for a moment or two and then goes back to his original argument that "we can always go back and change it." No, Zac you can't. The main driving force behind Zac is that he wishes to go back and change his past so that his mother lives. For him this is the main focus of his character, his regret and pain, and at times it blinds him to everything else. Unfortunately this causes his character to become slightly frustrating. I felt like shaking him and screaming "No, you can't go back. Stop saying that you can!" One quote by Bryce sums up how I was starting to feel about Zac "You're problem Zac, is that you're so fixated on your past, on fixing or changing what's already happened. But right now, you're missing a huge opportunity to make things right in your present…" Bingo! But the more I think about that quote, it's kind of amusing, but I'm not about to spoil why.
While going on missions, things start to go wrong, the machine no longer transports our group to the correct locations and a mystery to how and why it's happening crops up. Finding the glitch is what takes up that last 100 or less pages; however, the foreshadowing in the book leads the reader to the correct answer before Zac gets there. Needless to say, the chief rule of time travel gets broken again. Once you read the book you'll figure out what I am talking about. In the end what happens to Zac's biggest motivator does not come as a big surprise.
All in all Paradox is a solid book that has interesting elements and it is quick and easy to read. I just wish the book was a tad bit longer so that we could see the characters grow and so I could learn more about Dr. Ryger's drive to build a time machine.
Really what this book reminded me of was philosophy class. So I will leave you with a paradox. I have given you reasons I liked parts and didn't enjoy parts as much, I have given sufficient evidence for myself to give the book three stars; however, what I believe to be sufficient evidence may not be sufficient evidence for you and since sufficient evidence cannot be universally defined then nothing can be proven to be true. My suggestion is to read the book and find your own answer.
Paradox - Something absurd or contradictory. A statement, proposition, or situation that seems to be absurd, or contradictory, but in fact is or may be be true.
The title of this book sums what goes on in the book perfectly. We follow Zac Ryger, a forlorn young man who has lost his mother and has a rather distant father. While visiting his father, Zac finds a secret chamber that leads to a time machine; of course, Zac doesn't know this and inadvertently ends up back in the past, to the day of his birth to be exact. After being retrieved by Bryce, one of Dr. Ryger's associates, Zac is given the run around before finally being able to join the team. When he joins the team he is given specific rules for time travel. To never interfere with the past is the chief rule. Of course anyone who would like time travel to exist, would like to go back and change things. The main example, and the one given in the book, is killing Hitler. But what Dr. Ryger and his associates explain is a paradox. If Zac were to go back and kill Hitler, perhaps another dictator would arise who would be worse or if by killing Hitler (and no other dictator would arise) in the future there would be no precipitating event to prompt the building of a time machine, thus a time machine in the present wouldn't exist. Yep, that's a circle.
Instead what the team does is go back in time and witness events, come back to the present and give those "witness" statements to the police. One would assume they had an inside man because all of the tips coming in would start to look suspicious if you ask me. Zac seems to get this concept, for a moment or two and then goes back to his original argument that "we can always go back and change it." No, Zac you can't. The main driving force behind Zac is that he wishes to go back and change his past so that his mother lives. For him this is the main focus of his character, his regret and pain, and at times it blinds him to everything else. Unfortunately this causes his character to become slightly frustrating. I felt like shaking him and screaming "No, you can't go back. Stop saying that you can!" One quote by Bryce sums up how I was starting to feel about Zac "You're problem Zac, is that you're so fixated on your past, on fixing or changing what's already happened. But right now, you're missing a huge opportunity to make things right in your present…" Bingo! But the more I think about that quote, it's kind of amusing, but I'm not about to spoil why.
While going on missions, things start to go wrong, the machine no longer transports our group to the correct locations and a mystery to how and why it's happening crops up. Finding the glitch is what takes up that last 100 or less pages; however, the foreshadowing in the book leads the reader to the correct answer before Zac gets there. Needless to say, the chief rule of time travel gets broken again. Once you read the book you'll figure out what I am talking about. In the end what happens to Zac's biggest motivator does not come as a big surprise.
All in all Paradox is a solid book that has interesting elements and it is quick and easy to read. I just wish the book was a tad bit longer so that we could see the characters grow and so I could learn more about Dr. Ryger's drive to build a time machine.
Really what this book reminded me of was philosophy class. So I will leave you with a paradox. I have given you reasons I liked parts and didn't enjoy parts as much, I have given sufficient evidence for myself to give the book three stars; however, what I believe to be sufficient evidence may not be sufficient evidence for you and since sufficient evidence cannot be universally defined then nothing can be proven to be true. My suggestion is to read the book and find your own answer.
May 26, 2014
A sci-fi YA novel for fans of Lost:
Last year I reviewed Divergent, and while I said I enjoyed it a lot, the voice of the main character sounded like the female protagonist in just about every other YA book I'd read, and I said in my review that I wished we could have more unique voices in YA fiction, not just stereotypes that sound like every other teenage girl in every other book (see "13 Reasons," also a book I reviewed last year). C. David Milles, a FB friend, saw my review and asked if I would like to read his book, which had a female character in it whom he thought had a more unique voice. I said sure, and he sent me a copy of Paradox. I just completed it and thought it was a great read. For Lost fans (Milles and I are mutual fans of the TV series), if you look you'll see little Lostie hints in there that gave me a chuckle, and it has various homages to sci-fi books and films that have come before it. The basic premise is that the main protagonist, a young man who's been largely raised by his father after his mother was murdered right in front of him when he was a child, discovers that his father has created a way of going back in time, and has hired a staff of people to help him use it. They all have dark and disturbing pasts of their own, but he has them working for him with one major caveat: no one is allowed to go back in time to try to change things. And, for his own good, he's blocked out the date of his wife's murder so that he won't be tempted to go back and do the very thing he's told them they can't do. Instead, they use the machine to try to help the police in the present by going back to the recent past to see a crime being committed. However, when you have this many broken people working on a project, one of them is bound to snap and decide they will avenge something in their past, and it's when that happens that disaster strikes. A great book, full of suspense, with — yes, you guessed it — unique voices in YA fiction.
Last year I reviewed Divergent, and while I said I enjoyed it a lot, the voice of the main character sounded like the female protagonist in just about every other YA book I'd read, and I said in my review that I wished we could have more unique voices in YA fiction, not just stereotypes that sound like every other teenage girl in every other book (see "13 Reasons," also a book I reviewed last year). C. David Milles, a FB friend, saw my review and asked if I would like to read his book, which had a female character in it whom he thought had a more unique voice. I said sure, and he sent me a copy of Paradox. I just completed it and thought it was a great read. For Lost fans (Milles and I are mutual fans of the TV series), if you look you'll see little Lostie hints in there that gave me a chuckle, and it has various homages to sci-fi books and films that have come before it. The basic premise is that the main protagonist, a young man who's been largely raised by his father after his mother was murdered right in front of him when he was a child, discovers that his father has created a way of going back in time, and has hired a staff of people to help him use it. They all have dark and disturbing pasts of their own, but he has them working for him with one major caveat: no one is allowed to go back in time to try to change things. And, for his own good, he's blocked out the date of his wife's murder so that he won't be tempted to go back and do the very thing he's told them they can't do. Instead, they use the machine to try to help the police in the present by going back to the recent past to see a crime being committed. However, when you have this many broken people working on a project, one of them is bound to snap and decide they will avenge something in their past, and it's when that happens that disaster strikes. A great book, full of suspense, with — yes, you guessed it — unique voices in YA fiction.
December 29, 2016
For starters I was guessing if this book was written for children or not. The start of the book is pretty common with many stories I have read. Truth is that I would call this young adult.
It's a pretty clean prose with a straightforward story line. Interestingly this is a bit different for time travel stories. I felt that some of the telegraphing of the plot was a bit heavy... to the point I could easily figure out what was up, but the truth is that I am a nut about these things so I can't fault the story for that.
I found the characters to be decently developed. It certainly could have been a bit better for some, especially to throw the scent off of some things a bit better.
The time travel aspect makes pretty decent sense and was enjoyable to read. I found that I was really pulled in at about the halfway mark in the book, but it fell off a bit as the "reveals" began... as I had figured those out before they occurred.
All in all a decent read.
It's a pretty clean prose with a straightforward story line. Interestingly this is a bit different for time travel stories. I felt that some of the telegraphing of the plot was a bit heavy... to the point I could easily figure out what was up, but the truth is that I am a nut about these things so I can't fault the story for that.
I found the characters to be decently developed. It certainly could have been a bit better for some, especially to throw the scent off of some things a bit better.
The time travel aspect makes pretty decent sense and was enjoyable to read. I found that I was really pulled in at about the halfway mark in the book, but it fell off a bit as the "reveals" began... as I had figured those out before they occurred.
All in all a decent read.
June 26, 2015
this book blew my mind. first off, if you're looking for a fun time-travel story- then this is not the book for you. The characters all take time-traveling very seriously and discuss the ramifications of it constantly (pretty much every chapter). It gets a bit repetitive, but by the time the ending rolls around, all the discussions become abundantly clear. The main character, Zac, stumbles upon his father's time-traveling machinery within the first chapter of the story. Contrived? Yes. But everything that seems contrived or seems like it is useless IS SAID FOR A REASON. There is little to no romance (apart from Zac having a crush on one of his coworkers). But if you're looking for a book that really makes you think and has good twists, I definitely recommend this.
July 12, 2017
I read Paradox a while back, but I still remember it as one of the best books I've ever read!
I always loved thinking about Paradoxes, but this book went way beyond. It doesn't just present a paradox that goes in this endless circle - Paradox actually resolves this circle and for once, everything clicked! I don't want to put any spoilers, but by the time you get to the end, you will be amazed by how well the paradox works itself into the plot. Paradox is full of suspense and really unpredictable. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially if you want your mind blown!
I always loved thinking about Paradoxes, but this book went way beyond. It doesn't just present a paradox that goes in this endless circle - Paradox actually resolves this circle and for once, everything clicked! I don't want to put any spoilers, but by the time you get to the end, you will be amazed by how well the paradox works itself into the plot. Paradox is full of suspense and really unpredictable. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially if you want your mind blown!
January 13, 2014
An excellent joinery into the world of time travel, along with all of the intricacies and quirks that reside there. I thoroughly enjoyed this, particularly when my smug sense of having had it all figured out was proven wrong. Well played, Mr. Milles. Well played.
May 16, 2016
Going homec
A quick return home makes a good story, even if going homelands a visit to the past. You know what happens but can not change a thing.
A quick return home makes a good story, even if going homelands a visit to the past. You know what happens but can not change a thing.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews