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Meredith McCardle

Teoksen The Eighth Guardian tekijä

3 teosta 97 jäsentä 4 arvostelua

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The Eighth Guardian (2014) 72 kappaletta
Blackout (2015) 24 kappaletta

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Loved this! Fantastic start to a new series for me. Doing a happy dance. Spies? Check. Time travel? Check. Stubborn, flawed heroine? Check. Good stuff.

Amanda, code name Iris, goes to a kick-ass spy training school. Color me jealous, because I SO want to go there. She's recruited early to a top secret branch of the government. And get this: they time travel. Remember the short-lived show from the 80s, Voyagers? I feel like the author and I are the only two people who watched it, because it is like Phineas Bogg and Jeffrey were the grandfathers of this program.

Did I mention that I loved it? Because I did. Subtracted a star because Abe annoyed me and I'm not sure how the next book will continue on without hitting the reset button somehow. But hey, it's time travel so anything is possible.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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GovMarley | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 6, 2017 |
Diese und weitere Rezensionen findet ihr auf meinem Blog Anima Libri - Buchseele

Meredith McCardles „Die achte Wächterin“ konnte mich, nach anfänglicher Skepsis, so sehr in seinen Bann ziehen, dass die gut 400 Seiten nur so dahingerauscht sind – und das trotz einiger Punkte, an denen ich schon während des Lesens etwas auszusetzen hatte.

So ist mir der Anfang vor allem deshalb relativ schwer gefallen, weil mir Protagonistin Amanda/Iris einfach nicht so wahnsinnig sympathisch war. Das hat sich im Laufe der Handlung auch nicht mehr geändert, eher im Gegenteil. Ich fand sie ziemlich unsympathisch, sehr auf sich bezogen und über weite Strecke auch ohne große Rücksicht irgendwem anders gegenüber.

Daraus resultiert du auch direkt mein altes Problem, denn da „Die achte Wächterin“ aus der Ich-Perspektive eben dieser Wächterin, Amanda/Iris, erzählt wird, bleiben die anderen Charaktere sehr, sehr blass – sie interessiert sich ja nur für sich selbst. Das ist wirklich schade, denn auch wenn einige der vorgestellten Figuren für diese Geschichte – es ist ja wohl der Auftakt einer Serie – lediglich Nebenrollen einnehmen, es wäre einfach nett gewesen, mehr über sie zu erfahren.

Auch hätte ich mir doch etwas mehr „historisches“ Feeling gewünscht – denn statt auf faszinierenden Sprüngen in fremde Zeiten liegt der Fokus hier ganz klar sehr viel stärker auf dem rasanten Thrilleraspekt, der sich aber zu… gefühlt 95 % im 20. Jahrhundert abspielt. Schade, denn auch wenn das Buch, dadurch recht spannend war, hätte ich doch etwas mehr Details gewünscht.

So ist „Die achte Wächterin“ von Meredith McCardle zwar rasant, fesselnd und definitiv nicht ohne Überraschungen gewesen, es war aber eben auch nicht, was ich erwartet hatte und gerade im Bezug auf die Details war ich daher doch stellenweise recht enttäuscht. Trotzdem kein schlechter Roman sondern der vielversprechende Auftakt zu einer Zeitreise-Agenten-Thriller-Serie, die zwar hier und da noch Verbesserungsbedarf zeigt, aber eindeutig Potenzial hat.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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FiliaLibri | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Nov 10, 2015 |
~~~~3.5 Stars~~~~

This book has an interesting spin on Time Travel, which is a topic I LOVE, and a tone that is riveting. It did drag on though and the history, which I LOATHED in school, is abundant (part and parcel with a Time Travel book it seems). The story is wrapped up nicely in the end, which always makes me a little leery, but makes for an exceptional jumping off point for the rest of the series.
 
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BethYacoub | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Dec 30, 2014 |
Amanda Obermann. Code name Iris.

It’s Testing Day. The day that comes without warning, the day when all juniors and seniors at The Peel Academy undergo a series of intense physical and psychological tests to see if they’re ready to graduate and become government operatives. Amanda and her boyfriend Abe are top students, and they’ve just endured thirty-six hours of testing. But they’re juniors and don’t expect to graduate. That’ll happen next year, when they plan to join the CIA—together.

But when the graduates are announced, the results are shocking. Amanda has been chosen—the first junior in decades. And she receives the opportunity of a lifetime: to join a secret government organization called the Annum Guard and travel through time to change the course of history. But in order to become the Eighth Guardian in this exclusive group, Amanda must say good-bye to everything—her name, her family, and even Abe—forever.

Who is really behind the Annum Guard? And can she trust them with her life?


First rate conceptual use of time travel combined with political intrigue and espionage. Imagine Amanda's shock the day the letter arrives with the invitation to attend Peel Academy. A place so exclusive that you don't apply to attend, they invite you. Yet somehow her mother knew what the letter meant, because she immediately went into hysterics, locking herself in the bathroom and screaming nonstop. What convinced Amanda to accept wasn't the invitation letter that talked about being trained to help the US government in any way they saw fit. No, it was the phrase that school representative whispered in her ear a week later, "legal emancipation." No more of her mother's bipolar extremes to be weathered, no more taking care of the person who should have been taking care of her, complete and utter freedom. Well, not so much freedom, but still, it got her out of small town Jericho, Vermont.

Amanda and Abe started dating almost from the word go, and had planned out their future already. All of which was shattered when Amanda was the first junior in 30 years to be selected to graduate from Peel Academy a year early. She should have trusted that sinking feeling in her gut when she first saw the man with the green tie at her tests on Testing Day. After her name was called to graduate she went up and got the envelope with her assignment and went to her dorm room, and he was sitting there, waiting for her. The envelope containing the name of the agency she'd been assigned to. . . all it had were two words. Annum Guard.

Suddenly she is at the Annum Guard house being told her name is now Iris. Everyone she's ever known, family, friends, all gone now, for Amanda Obermann no longer exists. Just Iris. Annum Guard is highly classified, and very few people know of its existence, which could explain why she's never heard of it in all the years she's been training to be a government operative of some sort. She's there on a trial basis, as the group wants to expand, and they need a test subject. Her choices are to stay and follow orders or end up being 'disposed of.' Clearly she elects to stay. But she blows her first training mission, and nothing is what it seems. From day to day she never knows what kind of treatment to expect from the leaders.

Eventually she gets sent on her first real mission, the mission that will determine if she stays at Annum Guard or is disposed of, as she knows far too much about them by this point to ever be set free. Her mission is to prevent something from happening. She's sent with two older operatives who have no intention of following her lead even though she'd been assigned team lead. Yet she manages to pull it off, because there's no way she's allowing them to dispose of her. Upon their successful return little things begin to start falling apart. She gets ahold of some confidential information and discovers some horrifying secrets. Secrets people in places of power will kill to keep. And they're trying to kill Iris. Luckily one of the other agents who catches up to her believes her, or does once the two read the proof Iris found. Proof that something is very wrong in the organization.

From here on out it is one nerve wracking jump through time after another as Iris and her colleague try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys while unraveling the mystery at the same time. The question is, will they make it, or will the secret die with them? Along the way Iris grows up, seeing just how selfish she'd been since the whole experience with the Guard began. Her colleague admits it's not all Iris' fault, that the others in the organization resented her before she even arrived and they could have made more of an effort to be welcoming. Add that to all the lies they were both told and it becomes much easier to see how these two who had been at each other's throats were now literally putting their lives into each other's hands.

Fast paced, entertaining, full of interesting takes on what might have happened during certain historical events, this is a quick and fun read. It ended leaving me looking forward to the next installment in the series, as there are still so many unanswered questions, and mysteries yet to be solved. Not too mention safeguarding the country, for if this technology ever fell into the wrong hands the world as we know it could change in the blink of an eye, and no one, other than the jumpers, would even be aware that anything had changed. Lots of interesting concepts to wrap your head around while you wait for the sequel.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Isisunit | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jun 11, 2014 |

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Teokset
3
Jäseniä
97
Suosituimmuussija
#194,532
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.4
Kirja-arvosteluja
4
ISBN:t
14
Kielet
1

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