The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig
Series: The Girl From Everywhere #2
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: 28th February 2017
Publisher: Greenwillow
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:

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.

The Girl From Everywhere was one of my favourite books of 2016, so as soon as I saw this beauty available to review, I nabbed it. I waited a little while to read it because I have been in the worst reading slump of all time, and I wanted to make sure I was a) in the mood to read fantasy, and b) prepared to give it my utmost attention. I’m kind of glad I waited so long, because the way this one ended leaves so much room for a sequel that I’m pretty sure is coming. Or, at least, some sort of follow up story. Because that ending was not okay.

Anyway, back to the actual point of this review. In short, I loved The Ship Beyond Time! It had the same alluring fantastical feel that The Girl From Everywhere had. So much so that I ended up reading the entire book in less than a day. Seriously. After months of forcing myself to read everything, it felt amazing to fly through this. I just couldn’t put it down.

There’s a tonne of time travel in this one that had my brain doing somersaults. It at was all timey-wimey, and a couple of times I had to put the book down and repeat what I had just been told because the timelines were all over the place. Just like an episode of Doctor Who. It was fantastic. I just love time travel stories so much.

The plot format felt incredibly similar to the first book in terms of structure and pacing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it shows that Heilig put a lot of thought into the structure of the book, but I just wanted to point out this similarity in case you were wondering if there were any slumps or crazy side-plots. There weren’t, and everything fit together pretty nicely.

Also, I need to say that MY SHIP IS LEGIT. I knew it!

An interesting addition to the story was Kashmir’s chapters. I really enjoyed them, although I don’t feel like they’re were overly necessary. I’d have been more than happy with just having Nix’s point of view. However, I don’t think including Kash’s point of view detracted from the plot or the pacing. It was actually quite interesting to get inside his head. But I don’t think the book would have been lacking anything if his chapters hadn’t been there.

Then there’s Blake, who I still want to throw overboard. He doesn’t get any better in this book, and I wish he would just go back to Hawaii or maybe get eaten by a shark. Quickly, of course, as I wouldn’t want him to suffer. *cough*

Like I mentioned above, the ending was left very open. Apparently this series is just a duology, but I’m questionning that because of that ending. It can’t be, right?

Overall, I’m really pleased with how this series has turned (is turning?) out. Heilig’s writing is incredibly gripping, making this the perfect read-in-one-sitting book. I adore the time travel, and the characters (I want to know more about the side characters though, please and thank you), and all of the Navigation stuff. Go and pick this up if you haven’t already!