Time Riders by Alex Scarrow [Secret Santa 2013: 'I know who you are']

Original title: Time Riders (first of the saga)
Author: Alex Scarrow
Genre: YA, Science-Fiction
Publisher: Puffin Books, the Penguin Group
First published in 2010
ISBN: 978-0-141-32692-4

"Mankind was never meant to dabble with time. Never! But now that we know how to somebody needs to make sure that nobody actually does so. And, if some fool does go back in time, then it's someone's job to fix the damage caused as quickly as possible." - pg. 21-

LIAM O'CONNOR should have died at sea in 1912.
MADDY CARTER should have died on a plane in 2010.
SAL VIKRAM should have died in a fire in 2026.

Liam O'Connor, sixteen years old, was having his last very minutes in the legendary sinking Titanic when an old man came to him and brought him to the future to experience wonders and excitements of being a Time Rider. He was not alone, though. Madeline (Maddy) Carter, was a genius eighteen years old girl who liked working with the computer; hacking and programming were her hobbies. Saleena (Sal) Vikram, however, was an indian girl of a young age of thirteen and very observant. They were recruited from different time and different places by a mysterius old man named Foster.

People should not meddle with time, because when they do, they will deliberately or not, change history, and thus change the future. There was a secret organization to fix the timeline everytime there was a ripple in time; they observe, analyze and go back and forward in time to fix it. They are what we call the time-cops or Time Riders. Liam the operator of the team, Sal the observer, and Maddy the analyst and the leader learnt together under the tutelage of none other than Foster.

They, accompanied by Bob their "robot", were in the middle of their training when something drastic changed the year of 2001 (a time where they stayed in their New York headquarter). They traced it back to the year of 1956 when President Eisenhower at the White House was killed by German invasion. But what happened when Liam was stuck in 1956 and captured by the German?

The story was pretty good since a time-travel story always fascinates me. My favorite caracters so far are both Maddy and Liam, especially Liam since he was from the past and the interaction he had with the future people was always so hillarious.

Now that the serious matter was covered, let's go to the fun part!

Masih ingat program tahunan BBI yang namanya Secret Santa? Inilah saatnya menebak identitas si Santa baik hati yang mengirimiku buku di atas. Sebenarnya ada satu buku lagi pemberian si santa, tapi sepertinya harus diriview satu-satu, jadi saya akan tulis di posting selanjutnya.

Untuk menebak identitas si Santa, dia mengirimiku riddle seperti foto di samping ini.
Ada tujuh macam benda yang gambarnya ada di kertas tersebut, dan ketujuh benda tersebut akan membawaku padanya.
Siapa dia???

Berikut daftar benda-benda tersebut dalam bhs Inggris karena ucapan si Santa juga berbahasa Inggris:

SPOON
APPLE
ROSE
NUTCRACKER
IPAD
AGENDA
BLACK BOX

Lalu kita ambil semua huruf depan dari benda-benda di atas:

S-A-R-N-I-A-B

Huruf-huruf acak di atas bisa disusun menjadi sebuah nama: SABRINA

Ketemu! Dan masih ada satu bukti lagi yang menguatkan identitas si Santa lho.... yaitu pada hari pengumuman X kepada santa oleh divisi event akhir tahun lalu (saya lupa tanggal berapa, heheeeee), ada satu nama yang mengirim friend request ke akun goodreads saya. Nama yang tertera di friend request itu adalah: SABRINA.

Kebetulan kah? menurut saya tidak.

Jadi dengan ini secara resmi saya menyatakan terima kasih yang sebesar-besarnya atas buku-buku hadiah dari kak Sabrina. Makasih kak Sabrina si Santa baik hati... *peluk*... I love them a lot, meski baru dibaca satu buku...hehee....

So, apakah tebakanku benar, wahai Santa?