JONATHAN DAVIS AND THE TIME PARADOX

In this middle-grade SF/fantasy, a present-day boy with prophetic dreams and a mind attuned to time is the only hope for 31st-century Earth after an alien takeover.

Jonathan Davis, 11, is largely solitary at school, haunted by strange, lucid dreams and thoughts about the vast universe. Nat’s illustrated series opener then takes flight into two different timelines. Three months ago, Jonathan and his only real junior high friend, Ethan, explored an abandoned church, the long-rumored site of a spooky, paranormal phenomenon. Indeed, there the two found a “portal” that took them to a place in a wholly different space/time zone, where Jonathan confronted and battled fearsome creatures from mythology. Those episodes alternate with the present, in which Jonathan, merely trying to enjoy a night of backyard telescope viewing, gets pulled into the year 3003. Sibling “star kids from the sky,” the namesakes and equivalents of Greek gods Apollo and Artemis, appear and explain to Jonathan that future Earth has been secretly invaded and overwhelmed by the evil Taygateans, mind-controlling extraterrestrials who want to use enslaved humans to help terraform a new world for them to colonize. Jonathan is the “chosen one” to save humankind because he alone can master the intricacies of a sort of universal clock called Hora Prima. All he has to do is rearrange chronological events so that the Taygateans never arrive on Earth. Easier said than done? Well, yes and no, because readers are often told that Jonathan is destined to succeed, no matter the odds. Weird technologies and wild creatures—some associated with different world cultures, others wholly original—show up along the way in an anything-can-happen fashion that is (partially) explained by “string theory.” (Hmmm, was that addressed in a Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan lecture?) But how the church portal dovetails with the alien stuff is a nice touch. Cool illustrations by Peres are a major asset, and young readers who don’t require practical ground rules for such way-out material should eagerly follow along. The author includes a glossary that features both “real” (scientifically grounded) and imaginary details.

This engaging, anything-goes SF/fantasy should hold young attention spans, with more installments promised.