ARC #Review - Future Lost by Elizabeth Briggs #YALit #Science #Fiction

Series: Future Shock # 3
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Release Date: April 3, 2018
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction

It’s been a year since Elena Martinez and her boyfriend Adam first got involved with Aether Corporation, and they’re trying to move on with their lives. But when Adam goes missing, Elena realizes that he’s done the unthinkable: he went to Aether for help developing his cure for cancer. Adam betrayed her trust and has traveled into the future, but he didn’t come back when he was supposed to. Desperate to find him, Elena decides to risk future shock, and time travels one more time. This future is nothing like they’ve seen before. Someone has weaponized Adam’s cure and created a dangerous pandemic, leading to the destruction of civilization. If Elena can’t find Adam and stop this, everyone is at risk. And someone will do anything to keep her from succeeding.

Future Lost, by author Elizabeth Briggs, is the third and final installment in the author's Future Shock trilogy. Elena Martinez thought she was done with time traveling, Aether Corp., and Project Chronos. She thought she and Adam could finally settle down and live an ordinary life. Well, not so ordinary when Adam is supposed to be the one whose Genicote will eventually cure cancer if it doesn't kill people who don't have the dreaded disease first.  

Genicote has become Adam's obsession to the point where it has become an addiction which leads to him doing really stupid things and hoping Elena won't figure out what really happened. Elena always knows when something is wrong. She's been to the future 4 times. She has seen 4 different paths her life might take. She has lost friends (Trent & Zoe) and she has made new friends with Zahra, Paige, and Ken who were Team Echo. Does she always make the right choices? No, but what's the fun of having a character who is perfect all the time?

When Adam goes missing, Elena realizes that he’s done the unthinkable: he went to Aether, Vincent Sharp, for help developing his cure for cancer. The same Vincent who promised that Elena's slate was clean and they wouldn't be used by Aether again. Adam, however, persuades Vincent to send him to the future so he can figure out how to make his genicote safe. Adam betrayed her trust and has traveled into the future. 

But, after not returning when he was supposed to, Elena decides to risk future shock, and time travels one more time into the future. This future is nothing like they’ve seen before. The future has literally become a dystopian nightmare with infected people acting like zombies. Here there are infected cities, & militias, & quarantine zones. Here Elena learns from future Paige that Adams's so called cure has been turned into a nightmare called the Black Friday Virus.

I won't mention those who were responsible for the virus release or what happens to certain characters in this dystopian future. You can find out for yourselves by reading the book. As the global pandemic spread, some people have found that they are immune to the virus. But, if Elena can’t find Adam and stop this pandemic from happening, everyone is at risk. For readers, this means a whole helluva lot of time traveling from various points in the future and the present. Literally, ever other part is either from the present, or the future.

This means that Elena has to once again put her life on the line because Adam does things that you want to kick him in the balls for and leave him on the side of the road. But, for the first time, Elena realizes she's not a superwoman who can do everything all at once. She needs her friends. She also needs to be able to trust Adam won't continue to betray her and go out and cause even more problems. I'm going to explain my rating briefly. It's all about the ending. An ending that left me barely able to write a review, let alone express my opinion over how the author ends this series. Let's just say that beware reader for surprising and shocking twists!

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#Saturday Review - Future Threat by Elizabeth Briggs #YALit #Science Fiction @lizwrites @AlbertWhitman

Series: Future Shock # 2
Format: E-Galley, 272 pages
Release Date: March 1, 2017
Publisher: AW Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Six months ago Aether Corporation sent Elena, Adam, and three other recruits on a trip to the future where they brought back secret information--but not everyone made it back to the present alive. Now Elena's dealing with her survivor's guilt and trying to make her relationship with Adam work. All she knows for sure is that she's done with time travel and Aether Corporation.

But Aether's not done with her--or Adam, or fellow survivor Chris. The travelers on Aether's latest mission to the future have gone missing, and Elena and her friends are drafted into the rescue effort. They arrive in a future that's amazingly advanced, thanks to Aether Corporation's reverse-engineered technology. The mission has deadly consequences, though, and they return to the future to try to alter the course of events.

But the future is different yet again. Now every trip through time reveals new complications, and more lives lost--or never born. Elena and Adam must risk everything--including their relationship--to save their friends.

Future Threat is the second installment in author Elizabeth Briggs Future Shock trilogy. As the story opens, it has been (6) months since protagonist Elena Martinez was part of a research project called Project Chronos that sent a group of teenagers into the future 30 years in order to collect future technology. In those six months, Elena found a niche to fall into. 

She's going to college, she is in a relationship with Adam O'Neill, the boy who will one day discover for a cure for cancer, and her own personal demons, Aether Corporation, has stuck by their agreement and left Elena and the remaining members of Team Delta alone. For her friend Chris, that means that he has had time to be with his girlfriend who is expecting their first son any day. How quickly things change. 

Aether once again drags Elena, Chris, and Adam (formerly Team Delta) back into the fold after one of their newest teams, Team Echo, fails to return from the future. Given absolutely no option but to do what they are told, Elena and team once again find themselves 30 years in to the future. This time, things have drastically changed since the last time they were here. Things are more advanced, and some interesting twists have happened since there were there last.

For Elena, who has perfect memory recall, this trip to the future will test her in every possible way imaginable, including her relationship with Adam. As Elena & team track down Team Echo, Ken, Zahra, Paige, & Jeremy, they encounter some troubling aspects that lead them to find a way to prevent even more troubling effects from happening in the future.

I love the fact that Briggs doesn't leave readers in a lurch. She concisely summarizes what happened in the previous novel, but also gives Elena realistic issues like flashbacks, and nightmares to deal with. We see her struggling to come to terms with her relationship that has grown leaps and bounds over the past 6 months. And yet, she still believes that she somehow isn't worthy of being loved after what happened in the past. 

We also see an Elena that is suffering from survivors guilt knowing that she survived when others weren't so lucky. One could say that this story is Elena's way of making things right for what she believes is her fault. It may put a heavy load of responsibility on her back, but she isn't going to leave anyone behind, no matter how much they desire otherwise.

The ending has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, but not because of anything that the author did. No, this book is a fantastic ride with a really fascinating storyline, and twists that will keep you guessing right until the ending. Rather it's because of what certain characters do behind Elena's back that has now forced her to rethink things. With one more book in the series to come, I dare say that I am hopeful of more Chris, and yes, even more of Team Echo who has become some of the more interesting characters you will read about. 

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