Title: The Tempus Imperium

Author: Juliet A. Paine

Reviewer: Natalie Lincoln

Audience:  Secondary

Charlie Lamp is an ordinary seventeen year old transitioning between high school and university. Until she’s not. The murder of her much loved grandmother brings with it the knowledge of the  Temporal Sinistrum, a secret organization of time travellers and the rules one must follow to not destroy the chronology of time as we know it.

Poised on the brink of adulthood, Charlie is authentically Australian, and highly relatable. She is self-aware, intelligent and well equipped to cope with the new reality thrust upon her. This is no small feat given the loss of her grandmother and the simultaneous demise of her relationship with her long time boyfriend. She appears far more sensible than the more adult sinistrum agents and though I believed the narrative to be all wrapped up, the final chapter left me thinking that there must be another instalment to come.

As someone who grew up in the era of the film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (young folk, go watch this if you haven’t – it’s a classic!), the movement between time periods reminded me of their epic journey to differing time periods. Not so comedic though, Charlie must deal with the consequences of time travel methodology – the creation of syneghasts, shadowy creatures intent on destruction.

Though written about an almost adult, the writing is not overly sophisticated. Entirely readable however, the realism is nicely juxtaposed with fantasy and steampunk elements. As a teacher librarian, I was quite tickled by Charlies self-deprecating immersion into a world where she was forced to search the ‘old’ way and her acknowledgement of the skill involved in catalogue searching rather than Google. As a teacher librarian, I could also see how this novel could be used across the curriculums of particularly science and history, with much talk of both past and future time periods as well as physics concepts such as time continuums.

Serious and humorous. Realistic and fantastical. I personally would pitch The Tempus Imperium to junior high school years, though having said that, as an ‘old’ person, I totally enjoyed Charlie and her time travelling exploits.