C.R. Berry

Having read the first two books in the Million Eyes trilogy I was really looking forward to seeing how C.R. Berry would wind everything up. Once again, I was really pleased to see the recap at the beginning (why don't all book series have them?) which served as a really helpful reminder of all that had gone before….and that was a lot!

This book starts well into the future in 2219 with a terrifying alien called the Shapeless doing something rather unpleasant to Jackson Montgomery, witnessed by his wife, Cara. We’re also taken to Victorian London with Harriet Turner, who had previously met Jack the Ripper and was horrified by his vicious crimes against women. How these characters are linked to each other and to the previous books is just brilliant. In fact, the whole trilogy is plotted to perfection, with the sort of mind-bending detail that I find thrilling.

I'd say this is a series that needs to be read in order if you're going to get the most out of it. Everything comes full circle in this third book and all the threads are pulled together. I loved the way that I was rapidly transported from one time to another, one chapter in the past and the next in the future, throwing me around time as if I was in a time machine of my own, or in fact had popped one of the little red pills that send the characters through time. I enjoyed the challenge of keeping up with it (I'm not entirely sure I completely managed it but I did well enough) and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent reading this book.

Berry has done a fantastic job with the Million Eyes books. These books are clever, twisty, intricate, compelling and exhilarating, with an alternate view of some major aspects of history and a fascinating idea of what the future may hold, all bound up with some fabulous time travelling exploits.… (més)

A couple of years ago I read and really enjoyed Million Eyes by C.R. Berry, the first in his time-travelling trilogy. When I picked up Million Eyes II: The Unraveller I was very pleased to see a recap at the beginning which helped me to remember all the twisty timey-wimey goings on in book 1. Book 2 is, I am happy to report, just as twisty and just as much of a crazy romp through time, taking in various well-known events in history.

Million Eyes is a company with eyes everywhere. They're in the auto-drive cars, the computers, the phones. Adam Bryant works for them but when he's contacted by Dr Samantha Lester about the disappearance of his friend, Jennifer, he starts to wonder if the company he works for is all it seems.

The story jumps around in time. We follow Jesus in the year 28, there are dinosaurs 66 million years ago (I loved the plot twist about them), the Gunpowder plot, and more and it's such an engaging and fascinating story. It's fast-paced and exciting and exactly my kind of read, with a mixture of time-travel and conspiracy theories. I love stories that are not told in a linear fashion and this definitely fits the bill. I had to exercise my brain a few times and there were moments of clarity where the only word available to me was 'wow'.

I'm really looking forward to book 3 now as I need to know what's going to happen next. Berry isn't afraid to take out his main players so I wonder who will take centre stage next time. Million Eyes II: The Unraveller is a quirky adventure through time with a hint of The Da Vinci Code about it. If you like time travel and history then I'd recommend the series.… (més)

Time Travel: check
Royalty: check
History: check
Conspiracy theories: check

Yes, Million Eyes has all of the above which is what made me fairly sure I would enjoy it. In fact I loved it and found it hard to put down, reading it within the space of a day.

The concept of the story is that tragic royal events weren't actually meant to happen and that they all came about because time travellers went back in time and made them happen, all in the pursuit of a rather oddly named textbook. What always completely flummoxes me about time travel is the question of whether people in the future are making the events happen to create an eventuality of their choosing or whether they were going to happen anyway and they're not altering anything, just experiencing it, and oh my goodness……….there's my mind flummoxed all over again.

I absolutely love this kind of story, one that challenges me to get my head around it, to put pieces together to make a whole. I thought Million Eyes was incredibly well-plotted, everything made perfect sense even whilst my mind was trying to get itself around all that was going on. As a royalist and someone who enjoys historical fiction, I found the idea absolutely fascinating that Princess Diana's crash might have been orchestrated for some reason other than the many conspiracy theories we already know about, and I found completely thrilling the possibility that the Princes in the Tower in 1483 might have disappeared in different circumstances to what history tells us might have happened.

This is also a story of technology and its sometimes dubious powers. The notion of a million eyes watching us isn't exactly new but it's stories like this one that really make me think of the consequences of our modern environment.

This book was right up my street and I'm so pleased to know it's the first in a trilogy. I enjoyed the characterisations, with Jennifer and Ferro investigating in the current day, the villains of the piece, and then the historical figures, and I thought the author's writing was engaging, smart and skilful. If you love a mind-boggling tale combining fact and fiction that really makes you think then Million Eyes comes recommended by me.… (més)