Customer Reviews

Lost Time

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Violynne is twelve years old and living on the planet Lindos. Her parents disappeared a year ago while searching for the lost civilization of the Croon.

She lives in an unique house shaped like a crescent moon with her butler, Einhart, and her Aunt Madelyn. Then one day her house gets robbed, and they get an invitation to go to the capital city to attend the Perpetuity Masquerade Ball. This ball is given by the Arbiter, the supreme ruler of the planet. Violynne doesn't want to go because she thinks that the Arbiter is the one who made her parents disappear.

When they get to the capital city, havoc erupts. Violynne is amazed to discover that her butler and her aunt aren't who she thinks they are, and suddenly she ends up alone and determined to find her parents.

I enjoyed this book immensely. There are great sci-fi names such as the Coil, Raki, Croon, Quashers, Lyrling, Aros, and Arguaylan. There are brilliant sci-fi gadgets, too. They have thoughtbooks, flying cars, houses that can think, time portals, and planet-wide rules and edicts. That makes it interesting, but what makes it real is that you fall in love with the heroine. You hope that she will find her parents because the love between them is genuine.

I have read a lot of sci-fi in my life, and what makes a good science fiction tale is the humanism of the characters. This book had it all. It was a very good story!

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

I'm not a huge fan of the science fiction genre because most writers seem to be more interested in the gadgetry and alien beings than in the characters. Ms. Schmid avoided those pitfalls and gives us an engaging tale of a young woman in search of answers. It's partly a mystery, partly a thriller, and wholly a fine heroic quest.

It's inevitable than any writer of books for teens will be compared to J.K. Rowling. While this is a slim book (compared to the Harry Potter tomes), the quality of Ms. Schmid's writing is as imaginative and engaging as anything produced by the accomplished Rowling. Schmid creates a very believable "other" world populated with fully developed characters. The story takes off like a rocket and keeps moving forward. Most teens should like the book (even if adults do, too!).

Violynne is 12 years old and lives on the planet of Lindos. Her parents, Alexander and Viola Vivant disappeared a year before while searching in dig sites for Croon artifacts that were left behind by a vast empire that vanished. Violynne is worried about her parents because they disappeared, the planetary scanner of the planet could not locate them. Violynne lives with her Aunt Madelyn and her butler Einhart. One night someone breaks into her house and steals her father's violin. Violynne, Aunt Madelyn, and Einhart all believe that it was the ruler of the planet, the Arbiter of Lyrling. They get an invitation from the Arbiter, saying to join him at the Perpetuity Masquerade Ball. Violynne does not want to go because she thinks that the Arbiter made her parents disappear. When they go to the party, Violynne sneaks around the Arbiters office and finds her father's thought-book that he took to the dig sites. Only Violynne can open the book. She goes home with the thought-book, when she does her Aunt Madelyn gets arrested because of her unnecessary statements at the party. She goes hiding and is stuck between the Arbiter after her and the real ruler, The Coil. Einhart disappears, but Violynne eventually finds him dressed as a Quasher, they go back home and look through the files and information of her father's though-book. They realize the Arbiter is trying to get any kind of power he can get. The Arbiter was looking for and Time Power Source for power.
Einhart and Violynne finally set off and look for her parents. They go into the dig sites and search in the darkness. Einhart and Violynne search and search until they find an opening small enough for Violynne to go through. Violynne goes through the opening and finds the Time Power Source. She tries to find an operation system for the Time Power Source. She finds the light source and turns the lights on, she looks and looks and finds these arches, and one of them says "IN TRANSIT". She peers inside and could see her parents. She realized that those were her real parents she was seeing inside the arch. Violynne's parents were alive; The Croon imprisoned her parents in a time sphere. Then, Violynne found the arch with a workstation inside it. It was a group of glasslike sphere connected to each other with glasslike tubes. It had endless stream of ancient Croon writing traveling at light speed. She had found the operation system. A creature named Nia that Violynne met before appeared. She had to stall Nia and try to find some kind of off button to turn off the system. She looked all around the system looking for something to shut it off, and she realized that what she was seeing was a projection of Nia. Violynne quickly slipped out her laser and fired at the arch. The explosion went into fire, Violynne ran for protection and the projection of Nia flickered away. The floor began to shift and robotic bugs began to crawl out. She shot as many as she could with her laser, the walls and the floor shook rapidly. She huddled in between statues. Then it went black.
Einhart found Violynne, when she finally caught her sight and was awake; she saw her mom and dad. When she woke up again she found herself in a hospital. She found her Aunt Madelyn at the hospital and was happy to see her released. And so Violynne found her parents and were back together, and Aunt Madelyn was in prison any longer.
I give this book a 5 out of 5 rating. It was a very suspenseful book. I also liked the names in the book like Quashers, Coil, and Croon. It very futuristic, with aliens and lasers, it just made the book very futuristic.

Susan Maupin Schmid's LOST TIME tells of pre-teen Violynne, who is orphaned and wonders what happened to her parents, archaeologists who vanished during a dig. When a thief breaks into the house seeking her, she's involved in a host of spooky events that may provide clues to her parents' disappearance and the mystery revolving around them. High school readers will find it an involving read.

Lost Time is an engaging and cleverly written book. I am always on the look out for interesting and positive female protagonist, especially in the science fiction genre, and Violynne is a gem!

Few humans reside on the planet Lindos; Alexander and Viola Vivant and their daughter Violynne are some of the few. Violynne's parents are archeologists seeking sites with Croon artifacts left behind by a vast empire that has since vanished over a millennium ago. She is worried and frightened because her parents disappeared a year ago and even the planetary scanner cannot locate them. Currently Violynne lives with her butler Einhart and her Aunt Madelyn.

One night someone breaks into their house stealing her father's violin. The family believes the ruler of the planet the Arbiter of Lyrling sanctioned the theft. The Arbiter invites the family to a party; once there Violynne snoops around until she finds her father's thought pack that he took to the dig. Only she can open it, but the Arbiter wants to control her. He arrests her aunt to force her hand, but Violynne instead goes into hiding as she is caught between the Arbiter and the real ruler the Coil. Each has a different agenda that holds in common using Violynne, but she wants to find her parents apparently LOST IN TIME.

This is an entertaining young adult science fiction thriller. The diverse alien species are fully developed yet it is easy to understand their motives as each of the races want to make Violynne play their tune. LOST TIME is filled with enough action to keep audience interest, but it is the manipulations of Violynne by the various species that makes this a fun outer space thriller.

Harriet Klausner