‘Future’s Dark Past’ looks promising, but when the last page is turned, quickly makes you wonder if you could travel back in time and consider choosing another book to read. Set in the near future, Earth is now a wasteland. Survival is only possible for a few, lucky enough to reside in specially built shelters. For life to continue, the past has to change and it falls to a select few to make this happen. Time is running out for altering the past. Artificial intelligence designed to create a wormhole to the past has mutated into a sentient force, making it unpredictable and dangerous. It certainly makes one think about contemporary issues such as climate change and AI. Listed as general fiction, I would consider it to be more suitable for a teen audience, particularly with the protagonist being a younger person. There was real potential for the authors to make this into a gritty read, but unfortunately it was lost. Whilst I’ll remember JL Yarrow’s book for a few months it won’t be one I return to read again simply because it could have been so much more. ( )

This book was written by a husband and wife team and yet it feels like it was written by a single person (although lost of threads remain unanswered - they could be keeping this for the next book I guess). It is about a time war with lots of mystery and deception. The story is a little messy though. It jumps around a lot and I found myself getting a little lost towards the beginning, although it got better when I got more used to the style. My favourite parts were when we had spent a few chapters in the same place though as these were the points where I felt the most absorbed in the story.

I liked our main character (Hunter) and I loved the depiction of the AI (I mean, who doesn't want a wolf walking around and interacting with a virtual world, shaking snow off itself). I wouldn't be surprised if it will become more important in later books. Be aware that it has a very open ending so you may want to wait for the next book to be published before you read this if that's something that bothers you.

I'm curious about how the marks work (although I'm not a big fan of the scene that leads up to Hunter discovering it - expectations of toxic masculinity (sad that it's still a thing then) and yeah. When I read about the mark I immediately thought it felt forced.) I'm also curious about how time travel impacts aging (Hunter visits Doctor Hilfer (which I must admit, I read as Hitler on more than one occasion) and is excited because it had been weeks for him. I also wonder how this impacts Hunter's relationship (does he age faster than his girlfriend, for example).

This was definitely an interesting debut. You are left with a lot of questions at the end, but hopefully future (or are they?) books will answer them. ( )

J.L. Yarrow is the pen name of a couple of writers (husband and wife) who wrote this book together. The story is fast-paced and I read it in a breeze. Since it deals with temporal travel it's a bit messy, but this is expected. What I dislike is the amount of dead threads, however. Hoping not to spoil too much, here there are two examples. At the beginning of the book we find a person who seem to be maybe not a protagonist but at least a supporting character, but who is barely mentioned in the second part of the book. Hunter recovers too quickly from illness, even if he cannot possibly be enhanced like other characters. It may be that the authors want to leave the possibility of a sequel, but this is a bit of cheating... ( )

I went back and forth between really liking this book and it falling a bit flat. The dialogue seemed like it was written by a teenager in places. It lacked nuance and emotional depth. When I read a book I know it's good when I stop reading the words and I just hear the story in my head. This book did not always achieve that. The storyline was intriguing, but a bit hard to follow with the jumps back and forth between different years. Overall I enjoyed it as a quick easy read before bed but wouldn't necessarily recommend it or look to read a second story by these authors.

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ( )