WOWWWWW!!!!!! That was the most fun I'd had with a book in awhile. I felt like the book had a nice balance of character development and fast paced action. There was no dull moment whether it be a conversation on the ship or world building. I feel like I fell in love with the characters and their banter from page 1. I was surprised to find out the this is only a standalone and while I believe that Graudin wrapped up the story nicely, I just want more adventures with Farway and his crew. When an author makes me want more from their characters, I consider it a success. I've only read the Wolf by Wolf duology (which was just as awesome), but I can already tell that Ryan Graudin is an author whose books I will look forward to in the future.

“Invictus” is a fantastic YA sci-fi adventure. I whole-heartedly agree with Revis’s review which says that it’s Firefly as teenagers with a tardis! Such an apt description. Here, we follow Farway (Far) as he fails to become what he has always desired to become- a Recorder, someone who travels through history to record key events (just as his mother was). Turned away from the Academy, he finds himself entering a life of crime, stealing key artifacts from history for wealthy buyers in the present. He gets to choose his crew (a fun cast of characters) and for each mission they complete, they also get to make one of their own. Things go awry when they are collecting something from the Titanic.

Absolutely engaging and fascinating, we get to explore not just one realm of sci-fi but so many. I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers, but I felt like a kid at Christmas with this book- sci-fi lovers will absolutely rejoice! This book was absolutely an original and delves into how we define ourselves and our world as well as how the past shapes the future. The characters here were fantastic. I loved Far’s cousin, Imogen, whose personality is as colorful as her hair. Priya, Far’s love interest, was steady and solid- I wish we had gotten to explore their relationship more, but it broke the YA barriers for being relatively drama-free and a good dose of a pretty healthy relationship. Gram was a fun character as well and reminded me of Wash from Firefly quite a bit, in the best way!

One of the really great things about the way the book is written is that we don’t focus exclusively on Far’s perspective but get to see things from different character’s perspectives, really giving each of them a life and deeper personality. I also loved that I couldn’t figure out all the twists and turns and the plot kept surprising me as I read- it’s wonderful to follow a story and continue to be surprised by where it takes you. This is a great journey! I could easily see this being made into a fantastic TV show- brilliant characters, fascinating premise, and just the perfect amount of adventure/mystery.

This is a really excellent book which I hope will be followed up with more books featuring these characters. I think it’s a really great sci-fi read (not just YA) and I look forward to more from this talented author! Please note that I received an ARC through netgalley. All opinions are my own.