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The Time Hackers
You ever open your locker and find that some joker has left something really weird inside?
Seventh-grader Dorso Clayman opens his locker door to find a dead body.
Thirty seconds later it disappears.
It’s not the first bizarre thing that has appeared in his locker and then vanished.
Something’s going on.
Somebody has decided to make Dorso and his buddy Frank the target of some strange techno-practical jokes. The ultimate gamesters have hacked into the time line, and things from the past are appearing in the present. Soon, the jokes aren’t funny anymore—they’re dangerous. Dorso and Frank have got to beat the time hackers at their own game by breaking the code, before they get lost in the past themselves.
Seventh-grader Dorso Clayman opens his locker door to find a dead body.
Thirty seconds later it disappears.
It’s not the first bizarre thing that has appeared in his locker and then vanished.
Something’s going on.
Somebody has decided to make Dorso and his buddy Frank the target of some strange techno-practical jokes. The ultimate gamesters have hacked into the time line, and things from the past are appearing in the present. Soon, the jokes aren’t funny anymore—they’re dangerous. Dorso and Frank have got to beat the time hackers at their own game by breaking the code, before they get lost in the past themselves.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
34 people are currently reading
279 people want to read
About the author
Gary Paulsen
409 books3,984 followersGary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
January 20, 2023
It's easy to to pigeonhole Gary Paulsen as an outdoors survival author, but you never really knew what genre he would write next. The Time Hackers is an example of this, a work of speculative fiction sure to stretch the conceptual limits of kids who read it. Twelve-year-old Dorso Clayman and his friend Frank Tate live in a future that has seen a spectacular tech breakthrough. Using the right computer chip, real scenes from history can be projected for viewing in the here and now. We can witness U.S. Civil War battles, visit the Renaissance or Dark Ages, or even dial all the way back to the Ancient world and watch Jesus minister firsthand. However, actually traveling backward through time remains impossible, and looking at the future is, too, as that time period hasn't yet occurred. Still, the new paradigm opens up myriad options for education and entertainment...until an anonymous someone begins transporting rancid, decaying objects from the past into Dorso's locker at school.
Frank is skeptical of Dorso's claim that someone is defying physics to send real objects from the past—objects that vanish mere moments after arrival—but he sees it for himself when a prehistoric woolly mammoth appears in Dorso's vicinity. Soon both boys are routinely finding themselves snatched back into the past, landing in the middle of dangerous scenes from history. This is no visual projection: Dorso and Frank are at physical risk from Civil War bullets and pirate swords, but who is responsible for putting them in peril of life and limb, and how? Time travel is supposed to be impossible.
Dorso and Frank could report these alarming developments to the police, but would they be believed? Probably not, and besides, this is their chance to solve a major mystery by themselves. Messing around with the time-space continuum is a threat to humanity, and the person doing so needs to be stopped. Dorso recognizes a certain young man who appears every time they are pulled into the past, a man who seems to realize that Dorso and Frank don't belong there. Is he a villain attempting to tinker with history for malicious reasons, or just fiddling with technology for his own amusement? Dorso and Frank have to find out before something goes wrong and the human race is snuffed out by a brilliant rogue with more power than any individual should wield.
The Time Hackers has a few moments of good humor, and the concept is impressive, but lots of opportunities for a transcendent story are missed. The time travel element could have brought the narrative full circle in deeply surprising, satisfying ways, but instead the final reveal feels lukewarm, forgettable. The book's best insight is its portrayal of tech censorship; as soon as this magnificent window into the past was achieved, society elites began censoring what could be accessed, based not on public opinion so much as their own oligarchical view of what people should be allowed to see. In that respect, Gary Paulsen foresaw the concurrent rise of thought tyranny and Information Age technology. All things considered, The Time Hackers had a lot more potential, but I won't complain too much about the final product.
Frank is skeptical of Dorso's claim that someone is defying physics to send real objects from the past—objects that vanish mere moments after arrival—but he sees it for himself when a prehistoric woolly mammoth appears in Dorso's vicinity. Soon both boys are routinely finding themselves snatched back into the past, landing in the middle of dangerous scenes from history. This is no visual projection: Dorso and Frank are at physical risk from Civil War bullets and pirate swords, but who is responsible for putting them in peril of life and limb, and how? Time travel is supposed to be impossible.
Dorso and Frank could report these alarming developments to the police, but would they be believed? Probably not, and besides, this is their chance to solve a major mystery by themselves. Messing around with the time-space continuum is a threat to humanity, and the person doing so needs to be stopped. Dorso recognizes a certain young man who appears every time they are pulled into the past, a man who seems to realize that Dorso and Frank don't belong there. Is he a villain attempting to tinker with history for malicious reasons, or just fiddling with technology for his own amusement? Dorso and Frank have to find out before something goes wrong and the human race is snuffed out by a brilliant rogue with more power than any individual should wield.
The Time Hackers has a few moments of good humor, and the concept is impressive, but lots of opportunities for a transcendent story are missed. The time travel element could have brought the narrative full circle in deeply surprising, satisfying ways, but instead the final reveal feels lukewarm, forgettable. The book's best insight is its portrayal of tech censorship; as soon as this magnificent window into the past was achieved, society elites began censoring what could be accessed, based not on public opinion so much as their own oligarchical view of what people should be allowed to see. In that respect, Gary Paulsen foresaw the concurrent rise of thought tyranny and Information Age technology. All things considered, The Time Hackers had a lot more potential, but I won't complain too much about the final product.
October 22, 2019
Dorso the main character keeps finding weird things in his locker. He keeps ignoring it because it is not out of the ordinary. Until one day it is out of the ordinary the things that people are putting in his locker are never real just holograms. But this one time it is real, his friend Frank helps him uncover what is making this happen.
April 20, 2017
Very interesting short read on time travel. My kids, ages 10 & 14, and I both enjoyed Dorso's adventures as his computer is hacked and takes him through time as the hackers engage in a game that could bring serious changes to the future's timeline.
February 17, 2011
The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen is a very intriguing book. The book is staged in a world where bringing back images from the past is possible. For example, if you wanted to, you could see the Gettysburg Address if you wanted to. The main character of this book is a twelve year-old boy named Dorso. Dorso has a friend named Frank who is always trying to find a way to get around the blocks that prevent you from seeing naked women in the past. Dorso has been getting holograms from dead animals in his locker and they make it smell really bad (the images also bring smell). One day, Dorso gets a hologram of General Custer and Custer looks right at him and almost waves, which is impossible because holograms cannot see you, you can only see them. Then it happens again, this time with Beethoven. Dorso tells Frank this but Frank doesn't believe him, until a mammoth comes out of nowhere and kicks frank ten yards! They realize that somebody somewhere has figured out how to break the time paradox but wonder why it was Dorso who got Thrown in the middle of this. They later find out that it is a game by two gamesters (crazy people). The object is one person goes back in time and tries to mess it up and the other tries to stop him. Dorso and Frank find them and steal their laptops (the things that let them time travel. After that, they go through a series of time jumps and meet the real creator. He explains that the time machine was built for good, but those two gamesters found it and used it for bad, but Dorso and Frank saved all of time from them!
This is one of Paulsen's better books. He had a way of connecting to the reader through Dorso and Frank. He also had a way of keeping me addicted to the book. Not everything is perfect and this book had its flaws. Paulsen could have used more imagery because I found myself having to image what the scenery looked like a lot. Overall, The Time Hackers was a very engaging book!
This is one of Paulsen's better books. He had a way of connecting to the reader through Dorso and Frank. He also had a way of keeping me addicted to the book. Not everything is perfect and this book had its flaws. Paulsen could have used more imagery because I found myself having to image what the scenery looked like a lot. Overall, The Time Hackers was a very engaging book!
January 19, 2012
Woolley mamoths, pirates and Bethoven all in the same story? That’s what you get when you travel trough time. Time Hackers is a Science Fiction book about two kids named Dorso and Frank whose computers get hacked and the hackers send the boys back in time. They go on crazy adventures in the past. At any moment, the boys can get sent back in time which problem because they never know when it is going to happen. Dorso Clayman and Frank Tate teenage nerds who are not noticed by anyone Both boys try hard to figure out how to stop the time traveling and who keeps sending them back in time. During all the time traveling they keep seeing this person, who looks different and suspicious. They find this is one of the hackers but could there be more? I liked this book because it was interesting to find out where the time hackers were sending them. I also really liked that there was a lot of action in the story. I liked that the book had short chapters but what could have been better is describing the setting not when they were time traveling. The Time Hackers is a great book for anyone who likes science fiction or time travel.
February 16, 2011
Author Gary Paulsen does a great job of explaining the science fiction aspect of this book for me, since my aptitude for this genre is pretty weak. Aimed at children 10 and up, The Time Hackers carries the reader through countless historical events, such as the Revolutionary War, the time of the Wooly Mammoth, pirate ships attacks, Cro-Magnon cave paintings, and the Crusades.
Main character, Dorso, and his friend Frank are unwittingly brought into a time-travel game concocted by 2 gamesters. Dorso's laptop holds the chip responsible for the whole saga and it is hoped that Dorso can do somthing to eventually stop the two gamesters from literally changing history. If this summary sounds confusing I apologize, but you really need to read the book to fully understand the story. That may sound like I'm trying to get out of writing this review, but my recommendation is to read it and enjoy it for the science-fiction/fantasy aspect it has to offer.
Main character, Dorso, and his friend Frank are unwittingly brought into a time-travel game concocted by 2 gamesters. Dorso's laptop holds the chip responsible for the whole saga and it is hoped that Dorso can do somthing to eventually stop the two gamesters from literally changing history. If this summary sounds confusing I apologize, but you really need to read the book to fully understand the story. That may sound like I'm trying to get out of writing this review, but my recommendation is to read it and enjoy it for the science-fiction/fantasy aspect it has to offer.
Read
March 28, 2012I really liked this book. It is a mystery in a way. I always wanted to keep reading because I always wanted to know what was going to happen next because there was always something about to happen and a piece of the puzzle about to be put together. It was very interesting because it seemed like it could be happening now because of how things are but in the book there is so much technology. It is funny how they act like that kind if technology wasn't a huge breakthrough and how it is a part of their everyday lives. So I rally enjoyed reading this book.
March 20, 2013
Intriguing premise: a time-traveling mystery involving middle school kids that starts in the future. One caveat: the author reiterates the sidekick's PG-13 obsession with unclothed females excessively, to such an extent that it's distracting, no longer funny, and increasingly creepy as the story unfolds.
February 28, 2017
February
The Time Hackers
Gary Paulsen
Dorso keeps getting pranked. A lot. He has discovered with his friend, Frank, that someone out there is violating the time paradox and messing with history. Scientists have theorized that it is impossible to go back in time and kill and ancestor of yours because then you wouldn't be alive to do so. Dorso is walking to school with Frank one day when everything flashes white and they find themselves on a pirate ship with people fighting. Then after a minute or two it happens again and they're back walking to school and only a fraction of a second has passed. Someone locked on to Dorso's computer and after this happening repeatedly (they went in the middle of a swamp, in an alleyway, in the middle of a desert, and more), they figure out two people have found out how to travel through time, space, and generate holograms wherever. They're playing a game where one is messing with history and the other is trying to stop him. In all of the times where Dorso and Frank are teleported, there is a laptop that controls it. Dorso and Frank manage to capture two laptops, so he has three (counting his own laptop that the "gamesters" have locked on to). Then they are teleported to a room where after talking to a voice from the speaker on the wall for a bit, they manage to escape and after running through many life-size holograms of Dorso's house (including his mom and his little sister)they arrive in a garage with a man on a laptop. Dorso goes to grab it, dropping the three he was holding, but the man falls back out of his chair with it. After saying thank you creepily, he vanishes and they are teleported back. Later, Dorso finds a note instructing him to push F1 WS on his laptop. When he does, Dorso is teleported to his front porch 200 years from now, where the man that vanished before is sitting on a park bench in the park next to the big oak tree that was where his house used to be. He says thank you for saving my life and explains everything from how he was an engineer who discovered how to travel through time and space and he kept it to himself but the two "gamesters" hacked his computer and found his address and took his laptop and computer chips to how the computer chips where the ones pranking Dorso because they needed something to do to warm up to be ready to travel through time and space. In return for saving his life and history, the man gives Dorso and Frank a treasure chest buried in Dorso's backyard containing around two million dollars worth of Confederate gold coins.
I think the theme of this book is perseverance. Not many other kids would've kept working try and save the history of the universe because it took a lot of courage and smarts. If they would've given up, who knows what the time hackers could've done. When on the pirate ship, other ships are shooting cannonballs at them and pirates are trying to kill Dorso and Frank, but they persevere to the end. They are hiding behind a desk when tons of arrows are shot at them and they persevere until the end. The theme of The Time Hackers was perseverance.
The Time Hackers
Gary Paulsen
Dorso keeps getting pranked. A lot. He has discovered with his friend, Frank, that someone out there is violating the time paradox and messing with history. Scientists have theorized that it is impossible to go back in time and kill and ancestor of yours because then you wouldn't be alive to do so. Dorso is walking to school with Frank one day when everything flashes white and they find themselves on a pirate ship with people fighting. Then after a minute or two it happens again and they're back walking to school and only a fraction of a second has passed. Someone locked on to Dorso's computer and after this happening repeatedly (they went in the middle of a swamp, in an alleyway, in the middle of a desert, and more), they figure out two people have found out how to travel through time, space, and generate holograms wherever. They're playing a game where one is messing with history and the other is trying to stop him. In all of the times where Dorso and Frank are teleported, there is a laptop that controls it. Dorso and Frank manage to capture two laptops, so he has three (counting his own laptop that the "gamesters" have locked on to). Then they are teleported to a room where after talking to a voice from the speaker on the wall for a bit, they manage to escape and after running through many life-size holograms of Dorso's house (including his mom and his little sister)they arrive in a garage with a man on a laptop. Dorso goes to grab it, dropping the three he was holding, but the man falls back out of his chair with it. After saying thank you creepily, he vanishes and they are teleported back. Later, Dorso finds a note instructing him to push F1 WS on his laptop. When he does, Dorso is teleported to his front porch 200 years from now, where the man that vanished before is sitting on a park bench in the park next to the big oak tree that was where his house used to be. He says thank you for saving my life and explains everything from how he was an engineer who discovered how to travel through time and space and he kept it to himself but the two "gamesters" hacked his computer and found his address and took his laptop and computer chips to how the computer chips where the ones pranking Dorso because they needed something to do to warm up to be ready to travel through time and space. In return for saving his life and history, the man gives Dorso and Frank a treasure chest buried in Dorso's backyard containing around two million dollars worth of Confederate gold coins.
I think the theme of this book is perseverance. Not many other kids would've kept working try and save the history of the universe because it took a lot of courage and smarts. If they would've given up, who knows what the time hackers could've done. When on the pirate ship, other ships are shooting cannonballs at them and pirates are trying to kill Dorso and Frank, but they persevere to the end. They are hiding behind a desk when tons of arrows are shot at them and they persevere until the end. The theme of The Time Hackers was perseverance.
March 9, 2022
This was the first Paulsen book I've ever read, and overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with the ending. The story had a good amount of suspense and intrigue, but the resolution was a bit flat and unsatisfying overall. The story could be a good jumping-off point to learn more about the infancy of cybersecurity (the book was published in 2005, so it's quite out of date in some ways), and it would be entertaining for those readers who like time paradox stories. The book is not hard science-fiction, so there are a lot of relatable aspects that readers will be able to envision without much difficulty, and the story may be a good entrance into science-fiction for readers who have not explored the genre.
July 10, 2021
I don’t have much to say other than this was a fun, quick read that I found at the library. I loved how they left the gamesters or whatever they called them in the past. I thought that was hilarious. I also loved Frank and the way he thought and how ok he was with everything that kept happening to him. He seemed like it was just another day in his life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2024
More like 3.5 stars...
I know the late Gary Paulsen is best known for his wilderness survival tales, but I always liked his short, weird comedies. I loved "The Boy Who Owned the School" for example. "The Time Hackers" is a comedy, but this time with a sci-fi aesthetic. While it doesn't always land, it is a quick read and mostly fun.
I know the late Gary Paulsen is best known for his wilderness survival tales, but I always liked his short, weird comedies. I loved "The Boy Who Owned the School" for example. "The Time Hackers" is a comedy, but this time with a sci-fi aesthetic. While it doesn't always land, it is a quick read and mostly fun.
September 13, 2017
It was fun, at least at some parts... I think that Gary Paulsen did a lot better on other books, but not this one. I only liked some parts of the book, like the end, and probably the time where they were traveling around through time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2019
Boys see holograms from the past and future that conflict with their life.
June 13, 2019
Really fun story!
March 16, 2021
Interesting concept!
January 3, 2024
I did not like this book at all. It was a quick read but there was too much time travel for me and I couldn’t really get into the setting. The story line was also hard to understand.
October 23, 2025
Fun and fast storyline, but a little dark and the best friend's perversion was way too much. 🤦♀️
March 19, 2017
The book could have been better in my opinion. It was very slow at times, and it felt like I was falling asleep at others. The book did have some good parts though.
May 18, 2017
I picked up this skinny little book at a booksale at one of the libraries I frequent, saw it was about time travel, and decided to give it a shot. While I was not really disappointed in the book, that could have been because I wasn’t really expecting much from it in the first place. The book itself is only 87 pages long and the text is pretty big so I already wasn’t expecting much from the plot. The characters were kind of boring, being stereotypical static young teen boys. But it was a pleasant enough way to occupy my brain during my lunch break.
You can read the rest of my review here: http://ohmybookishness.weebly.com/blo...
You can read the rest of my review here: http://ohmybookishness.weebly.com/blo...
October 14, 2011
Draft Four
Book Review by Vivian
The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen
What would you do if one day you open up your locker and a dead man is hanging in there and disappears a few seconds later? And what would you do if you and your best friend were traveling back and forth in time? Find out what two middle school boys will do in The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen.
A middle school boy, Dorso opens up his locker and finds a dead body in it. This is not the first time that things have been appearing in his locker then disappearing. So he and his friend Frank think it is just a prank by someone else using a projector, but this time it smells. They realize this in not a prank at all, and things from the past start to appear in their time... or are they going to the past? A mysterious young man is also following them to the times they travel to - at least they think they’re time traveling. Now Dorso and Frank have a huge problem - they have to save themselves from being lost in time!
I like how the book is written so detailed that you can visualize the whole story in your mind easily and make a clear movie of it. It doesn’t only tell you what happens in the story, it also tells you about the setting, the thoughts and dialogue of the characters. The Time Hackers is also written in a way that makes it so exciting that it’s hard for me to stop when I have to.
I think the author wrote this book to show people that you can solve a huge problem with only just a couple people if you work together. I also think he wrote it to have fun for himself and also for the readers. I was surprised when I saw this book in the Gary Paulsen section of the school library because he had never written a science fiction story before.
I think The Time Hackers is a great book. Some of the parts where they were talking about time travel got a little confusing for me. But I think the whole book in general is pretty good. This is not the best book by Gary Paulsen that I’ve read: I think my favorite book by him is Mr. Tucket, the first book of The Tucket Adventures. I think so because Mr. Tucket is much more interesting and meaningful to me, and it’s also a lot deeper than The Time Hackers.
I think if you have a chance to read The Time Hackers, you should definitely try it. I think anyone who likes to read an exciting science fiction adventure story would like it. In addition, people who don’t read science fiction should try this as well because it’s interesting, exciting, and Gary Paulsen is a great writer. And of course, if you have a chance to read The Tucket Adventures, definitely read those too! So whenever you see The Time Hackers or The Tucket Adventures, don’t hesitate to pick them up and read!
Book Review by Vivian
The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen
What would you do if one day you open up your locker and a dead man is hanging in there and disappears a few seconds later? And what would you do if you and your best friend were traveling back and forth in time? Find out what two middle school boys will do in The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen.
A middle school boy, Dorso opens up his locker and finds a dead body in it. This is not the first time that things have been appearing in his locker then disappearing. So he and his friend Frank think it is just a prank by someone else using a projector, but this time it smells. They realize this in not a prank at all, and things from the past start to appear in their time... or are they going to the past? A mysterious young man is also following them to the times they travel to - at least they think they’re time traveling. Now Dorso and Frank have a huge problem - they have to save themselves from being lost in time!
I like how the book is written so detailed that you can visualize the whole story in your mind easily and make a clear movie of it. It doesn’t only tell you what happens in the story, it also tells you about the setting, the thoughts and dialogue of the characters. The Time Hackers is also written in a way that makes it so exciting that it’s hard for me to stop when I have to.
I think the author wrote this book to show people that you can solve a huge problem with only just a couple people if you work together. I also think he wrote it to have fun for himself and also for the readers. I was surprised when I saw this book in the Gary Paulsen section of the school library because he had never written a science fiction story before.
I think The Time Hackers is a great book. Some of the parts where they were talking about time travel got a little confusing for me. But I think the whole book in general is pretty good. This is not the best book by Gary Paulsen that I’ve read: I think my favorite book by him is Mr. Tucket, the first book of The Tucket Adventures. I think so because Mr. Tucket is much more interesting and meaningful to me, and it’s also a lot deeper than The Time Hackers.
I think if you have a chance to read The Time Hackers, you should definitely try it. I think anyone who likes to read an exciting science fiction adventure story would like it. In addition, people who don’t read science fiction should try this as well because it’s interesting, exciting, and Gary Paulsen is a great writer. And of course, if you have a chance to read The Tucket Adventures, definitely read those too! So whenever you see The Time Hackers or The Tucket Adventures, don’t hesitate to pick them up and read!
March 19, 2009
The Time Hackers, by Gary Paulsen, is a fantastic read that combines such suspense between its very little pages.
Time Hackers is about two boys, Dorso and Fred, who end up finding out that the situation that there in could change the whole world.
This book takes place in the future, so all of the common things we do today are history and a bore in there world. Like TV for example, is watched by no one. Same with writing, everyone writes electronically now on tablet notebooks.
Long story short, Dorso ends up discovering that a few weeks ago when he sent in his laptop to get fixed, something was put in his notebook that could change their whole life as we know it.
In their time, scientists discovered that you could bring the past to the present by hologram.
Well, this crazy smart dude ends up discovering that if you could bring a hologram to the present, real life should be able to be transported too. If your wondering how in the world is this done, it has something to do with the speed of light and reflecting it forward into todays time.
The guy who invented this chip is all against violence, so he would've never done anything bad with it. But on the other hand, the people who found out what he discovered and decided to use it to play games. The two 'time hackers' who stole this guys chip were playing a game in which one person tries to stop the world from extinction, while the other one tries to save it. But they don't even realize that being in the past could make the whole world blow. Because when matter combines with antimatter it could end the world.
The master mind who invented this chip realized that people could die if the past would change, so he thinks.
If you went back in time and killed your ancestor, you would've never been born which means your ancestor would still be alive and so one. It's a very confusing theory, but it makes sense when you think about it.
Will Dorso and Fred ever make it out of this tragic happening, or will the whole universe collapse before their eyes?
Read The Time Hackers to find out!
Time Hackers is about two boys, Dorso and Fred, who end up finding out that the situation that there in could change the whole world.
This book takes place in the future, so all of the common things we do today are history and a bore in there world. Like TV for example, is watched by no one. Same with writing, everyone writes electronically now on tablet notebooks.
Long story short, Dorso ends up discovering that a few weeks ago when he sent in his laptop to get fixed, something was put in his notebook that could change their whole life as we know it.
In their time, scientists discovered that you could bring the past to the present by hologram.
Well, this crazy smart dude ends up discovering that if you could bring a hologram to the present, real life should be able to be transported too. If your wondering how in the world is this done, it has something to do with the speed of light and reflecting it forward into todays time.
The guy who invented this chip is all against violence, so he would've never done anything bad with it. But on the other hand, the people who found out what he discovered and decided to use it to play games. The two 'time hackers' who stole this guys chip were playing a game in which one person tries to stop the world from extinction, while the other one tries to save it. But they don't even realize that being in the past could make the whole world blow. Because when matter combines with antimatter it could end the world.
The master mind who invented this chip realized that people could die if the past would change, so he thinks.
If you went back in time and killed your ancestor, you would've never been born which means your ancestor would still be alive and so one. It's a very confusing theory, but it makes sense when you think about it.
Will Dorso and Fred ever make it out of this tragic happening, or will the whole universe collapse before their eyes?
Read The Time Hackers to find out!
May 15, 2011
Never thought Gary Paulsen would disappoint. This is a little time travel, science fiction thing he wrote and I don't like it. I own it, along with several other works by Gary, but only read it today because of three of the sweetest fifth grade girls you would ever want to meet. They all approached me at my desk on Friday at school with concerned looks. Two of them explained that they had both checked out separate copies of the book at our school library on Thursday afternoon. One had already finished the book and shared it with the third girl. The other was about half-way through. When we looked, we discovered that it was in our Gary Paulsen box. The concern? "It keeps talking about naked ladies and watching women take baths." They showed a passage to me and using as much context as I could, I briefly explained that the the main characters are adolescent males and that as kids get older, they begin to get curious about the human body. "And if you have any questions about that sort of thing, ask your parents." I also explained that if they felt uncomfortable, ever, about anything they were reading, they could always just stop reading and abandon the book. Having read it now, I can tell you the naked lady stuff (time travel, historical figures, hoping to catch some dames in the nude) is very minor, but not to an innocent fifth grade girl. The reason I personally don't like this book is I don't really care for science fiction (as much as other genres) and TIME TRAVEL is really hard for me (I'm too much of a realist). So, not a good fit for a fifth grade girl, but I'll be keeping my copy in our classroom's Gary Paulsen box just the same.
February 24, 2013
The blocks of the time paradox have been breached! The fate of the universe rests in the hands of two middle school boys. The book The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen was a tale of two boys wrapped up in the elaborate scheme of two extreme gamers. In the story, figures and items from the past can be brought back into holographic form in the future. When this technology was invented, people used this to their advantage, but not in a positive way. People used this to view pornographic images, and and to alter the space time continuum. To continue, the two boys were accidentally involved, one of the boys named Frank had a laptop that he sent to the factory for repairs, and during its time there a chip was inserted into his computer. This chip sent Frank and his best friend Dorso to all sorts of places and situations throughout history, the chip almost caused the demise of both of the innocent boys. In the end the boys made a few discoveries that shocked both of them as the situation was not the same as it appeared to be. Time Hackers great read for middle school aged kids looking for a somewhat complicated, but short and thrilling read. This sci-fi thriller has great twists and shocking turns in the plot, and this helped me rate it as a 7 out of 10 chips. The author did a great job of putting a huge amount of information in a short book while organizing it all to perfection. The author also had a great ending, it left me with many curiosities, but I felt like I understood all of the jarring twists and turns he through at me. Overall, I thought time hackers was a great and thrilling read, I recommend anyone looking for a quick read to try out this book.
December 7, 2013
MontanaLibrary2Go
Waste of time. Fortunately not a lot of time, as it's only 96 pages and so only wasted half an hour of my evening. The characters are annoying (yes, I get that 12 year old boys want to see naked ladies. I do not believe that there are many 12 year old boys who are so consumed and obsessed by the concept that it takes precedence over all else, including the amazing events happening to him and his friend here. Additionally, if he wants to see naked women, why do they have to be naked famous women? I can't imagine that the poorly-constructed-by-author blocks that the government put in place to protect youth from seeing inappropriate things covered every moment that any female anywhere in time or space through the entire span of human existence was briefly nude), the technology is badly defined, plotted, and explained, the story is pointless, the conclusion is too neat, the whole thing probably took Paulsen a good, I don't know, 15 minutes to write and another 15 minutes to calculate how much money he thought he'd get from it. There was not a bit that wasn't either unnecessary or badly written, sometimes both.
Waste of time. Fortunately not a lot of time, as it's only 96 pages and so only wasted half an hour of my evening. The characters are annoying (yes, I get that 12 year old boys want to see naked ladies. I do not believe that there are many 12 year old boys who are so consumed and obsessed by the concept that it takes precedence over all else, including the amazing events happening to him and his friend here. Additionally, if he wants to see naked women, why do they have to be naked famous women? I can't imagine that the poorly-constructed-by-author blocks that the government put in place to protect youth from seeing inappropriate things covered every moment that any female anywhere in time or space through the entire span of human existence was briefly nude), the technology is badly defined, plotted, and explained, the story is pointless, the conclusion is too neat, the whole thing probably took Paulsen a good, I don't know, 15 minutes to write and another 15 minutes to calculate how much money he thought he'd get from it. There was not a bit that wasn't either unnecessary or badly written, sometimes both.
November 18, 2016
I read the Time Hackers by Gary Paulson. It all started as Dorso Clayman discovers a medical cadaver in his school locker ("It was an old cadaver. Runny").discovery of a "hologram projector chip" has led to "time projection": anyone with a laptop could now "pull images from the past and project them anywhere." Yet this technology is supposedly governed by the "paradox of time"; individuals can view the past but cannot physically be transported back in time so as to be able to alter history.
I liked that it is a mystery. and no one knows who the time hackers are. But what I would change is dorso's name because it is a weird name and it's hard to pronounce. What I also liked about it was that Gary Paulson had a way of connecting to the reader through Dorso and Frank. He also had a way of keeping me addicted to the book. Not everything is perfect and this book had its flaws.
Paulsen could have used more imagery because I found myself having to imagine what the scenery looked like a lot. Overall, The Time Hackers was a very engaging book!
I recommend this book to people that like mystery books.
I liked that it is a mystery. and no one knows who the time hackers are. But what I would change is dorso's name because it is a weird name and it's hard to pronounce. What I also liked about it was that Gary Paulson had a way of connecting to the reader through Dorso and Frank. He also had a way of keeping me addicted to the book. Not everything is perfect and this book had its flaws.
Paulsen could have used more imagery because I found myself having to imagine what the scenery looked like a lot. Overall, The Time Hackers was a very engaging book!
I recommend this book to people that like mystery books.
April 7, 2012
I just noticed that I never wrote a review of this book...
I stumbled upon it when search for Gary Paulsen's The River at the library. Having just become an avid watcher of Doctor Who, I thought it would be fun to read a young adult fictional tale of time travel.
At under 80 pages, this is a very quick read for an adult. Unfortunately, it's not Paulsen's best. Since I read it two months ago, I admittedly don't remember too much about the details of the book. It was cool that people in this fictional world were able to travel in time to watch events in history unfold rather than read them in a textbook. However, it was a bit hokey reading about the computer hackers who were trying to change history. As an adult, I wasn't satisfied with this book, but 8-12 year olds might find this book fun.
Recommendation: Fans of Paulsen's Brian Robeson books should skip this lesser known book.
I stumbled upon it when search for Gary Paulsen's The River at the library. Having just become an avid watcher of Doctor Who, I thought it would be fun to read a young adult fictional tale of time travel.
At under 80 pages, this is a very quick read for an adult. Unfortunately, it's not Paulsen's best. Since I read it two months ago, I admittedly don't remember too much about the details of the book. It was cool that people in this fictional world were able to travel in time to watch events in history unfold rather than read them in a textbook. However, it was a bit hokey reading about the computer hackers who were trying to change history. As an adult, I wasn't satisfied with this book, but 8-12 year olds might find this book fun.
Recommendation: Fans of Paulsen's Brian Robeson books should skip this lesser known book.
July 31, 2014
This book was certainly no Hatchet. The first half of this very short tale dwells on the pranks and obssesions of adolescent boys-excrement and dead rats in a nerd's locker and their desire to view famous ladies of the past in the nude on their computers because a time line has been discovered in which past events can be viewed on screen as they happen. No one is allowed to disturb the past for many reason, but when one of the two boys finds himself interacting with Custer and a woolly mammoth, something is clearly out of kilter. They realize that somehow their laptop is being used by gamers to play in the past, thus endangering the future. They go back in time physicially trying to figure out what's up, but ultimately are saved by a man behind a curtain, ala Wizard of Oz, though this guy really does have powers. The appeal of this book is most likely limited to adolescent nerds and we certainly need books for them, but it will repel girls and anyone over the age of fourteen.
September 6, 2011
Quite a departure from the other Gary Paulsen books I've read, but an engaging, quick read. Scientists have discovered how to look into the past, so anyone can view the actual battle at Gettysburg or see what Cleopatra really looked like. Then Dorso (what on earth is up with that name?!?) discovers that it's possible to actually go to the past and change the course of history. (Guess whose fault it is that Beethoven went deaf!)
There is some talk (by 12-year-old boys) about trying to see famous women naked or taking baths, so I'm not sure I want my nine-year-old son reading it yet, but it's really pretty tame. Some of the explanations seem a bit rushed and overly tidy, but it was a fun diversion for an hour or so.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
There is some talk (by 12-year-old boys) about trying to see famous women naked or taking baths, so I'm not sure I want my nine-year-old son reading it yet, but it's really pretty tame. Some of the explanations seem a bit rushed and overly tidy, but it was a fun diversion for an hour or so.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
August 23, 2012
This had a clever premise which became less and less believable as the story went on.
In the not-so-distant future, technology permits the viewing of the past via your laptop computer. Oddly, you can get both sight and smell of the past, but not the other senses, through a form of projective hologram.
A middle schooler begins finding surprises in his locker, apparently things projected from the past in strange ways. This leads him and a friend into a bizarre adventure in which someone appears to be playing deadly pranks on the two of them, ones that endanger reality itself.
Paulsen's explanations of what is going on keep breaking down, even in the resolution, where a scientist "explains" things. The adventure story is fun, but abrupt and never quite making sense. I did like the two main characters quite a bit, though.
In the not-so-distant future, technology permits the viewing of the past via your laptop computer. Oddly, you can get both sight and smell of the past, but not the other senses, through a form of projective hologram.
A middle schooler begins finding surprises in his locker, apparently things projected from the past in strange ways. This leads him and a friend into a bizarre adventure in which someone appears to be playing deadly pranks on the two of them, ones that endanger reality itself.
Paulsen's explanations of what is going on keep breaking down, even in the resolution, where a scientist "explains" things. The adventure story is fun, but abrupt and never quite making sense. I did like the two main characters quite a bit, though.
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