Format: E-Galley, 464 pages
Release Date: February 28th 2017
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
The breathtaking sequel to the acclaimed The Girl from Everywhere. Nix has escaped her past, but when the person she loves most is at risk, even the daughter of a time traveler may not be able to outrun her fate—no matter where she goes. Fans of Rae Carson, Alexandra Bracken, and Outlander will fall hard for Heidi Heilig’s sweeping fantasy.Nix has spent her whole life journeying to places both real and imagined aboard her time-traveling father’s ship. And now it’s finally time for her to take the helm. Her father has given up his obsession to save her mother—and possibly erase Nix’s existence—and Nix’s future lies bright before her. Until she learns that she is destined to lose the one she loves. But her relationship with Kash—best friend, thief, charmer extraordinaire—is only just beginning. How can she bear to lose him? How can she bear to become as adrift and alone as her father?
Desperate to change her fate, Nix takes her crew to a mythical utopia to meet another Navigator who promises to teach her how to manipulate time. But everything in this utopia is constantly changing, and nothing is what it seems—not even her relationship with Kash. Nix must grapple with whether anyone can escape her destiny, her history, her choices. Heidi Heilig weaves fantasy, history, and romance together to tackle questions of free will, fate, and what it means to love another person. But at the center of this adventure are the extraordinary, multifaceted, and multicultural characters that leap off the page, and an intricate, recognizable world that has no bounds. The sequel—and conclusion—to the indie darling The Girl from Everywhere will be devoured by fans of Rachel Hartman and Maggie Stiefvater. Includes black-and-white maps.
"I have lived on the tip of insanity, Wanting to know reasons, Knocking on a door. It opens. I've been knocking from the inside!'
The Ship Beyond Time is the second and final installment in author Heidi Heilig's The Girl From Everywhere duology. Readers who read the first book, will once again find themselves right back where the previous installment ended. It is December 1884, protagonist Nix Song, and the crew of the Temptation is leaving Hawaii in a hurry thanks to the events of the previous novel. Alongside Nix are her father Slade who has vowed to give up his addicted, Kashmir (Kash) her best friend & romantic interest, Rotgut, Bee, & Billie the dog. One thing has changed, and this change is a huge one.
Nix has chosen to take the helm of the ship thanks to the status of Slade. This change comes with lots of peril, lots of feelings, and a period that sees Nix grow into both Captain and Navigator of the Temptation. This book is about possibilities. It is filled with action, and adventure, and traveling through time and mythology using maps. It is a story about Nix's ability to guide an entire ship through the Margins and arrive at different locations, like present time NYC. Pay close attention while in the Margins though. You never know what might reach up and grab you.
Also aboard the Temptation is Blake Hart who made a difficult choice in the previous book, and now has no real place to go. He also makes a hard choice in this book, but I can't, nor won't speak on it at all. I won't say that Blake is a challenge to Nix's love for Kash. I will say that Blake is a character who sees things differently because he hasn't been on the the adventures the rest of the crew has. He is also a decent cartographer which comes in handy.
When Nix is approached by the mysterious Donald Crowhurst, she becomes intrigued about the possibilities of changing history and certain events and yet another adventure to a mythological place that shouldn't exist. With her father's fate pretty much written in stone, it will be up to Nix to see if she can save her own fate and her own love before something goes wrong. Nix takes the crew to a place called Ker-Ys. It is here that the crew is reunited with a former mate of theirs named Gwenole. I liked Gwen. She's brash, she bold, she's a Captain of her own ship, and someone who Nix isn't afraid of.
There is a curiosity in this book as well. A curiosity I quite liked. We get a few chapters from the perspective of Kash, and I am grateful for that. I like having a different view of what is happening to Nix and the crew through his eyes. Nix has been warned that she will lose the one she loves, and to say that her fate isn't challenged, would be silly. Slade suffered through the same loss with Nix's own mother Lin who she never got a chance to meet. This story once again blends real world with things only found in books. I am quite devastated to learn that this is the final book in the series. Especially after the ending. I did hope that I was seeing things and that Heilig will write another adventure. There is infinite possibilities of where she could go with another story.
A side note; I received this from the publisher via Edelweiss. There is a huge part of this story missing from the ARC. The story would have been more interesting and fun had the publisher actually offered early reviewers copy of the maps that are supposed to be included, or, for that matter, if we could go to the author's web page and find them there. I would request that the author offer said maps on her web page as well.
