A young genius invents time travel in the year 2061. He goes forward to the year 2111, and everything seems to have progressed as expected. When he does another “test run”, he finds that the world is destroyed. So he travels back in time to extract his father moments before he is about to kill himself, in hopes that he will be able to help figure out what went wrong, and when. Now his father and two colleagues search through various timelines to extract the chosen individuals who will save the world, hiding away in a homemade bunker located in the Cretaceous period while they decide their next steps. Throw in the British Secret Service and other world governments hunting for the device, and things become very complicated.

Safa Patel is an elite police officer, expertly trained in combat and strategy. However, the man she is sworn to protect repeatedly sexually assaults and threatens her, and she then dies while saving him from a terrorist attack. Some female readers might become frustrated by the fact that our “strong female character’s” strength seems to come from her foul language and impressive skills in physical combat. Other than that, we are constantly reminded that she is stunningly beautiful, has perfect breasts and perfect legs, among other objectifying qualities. Nevertheless, she is one of the more entertaining characters in the series and proves she was extracted for a reason.

Ben Ryder is an insurance investigator who saved the lives of a woman and her child by killing five gang members when he was just 17 years old, then dies while saving hundreds of people from a terrorist attack in a subway years later. Throughout the story we learn that he is extremely intelligent, but it soon becomes obvious that he is not at all trained to handle the reality that he is dead and he was chosen to save the world. He has a mental breakdown as a result. Although he grows the most out of all the characters, the first book heavily focuses on Safa trying to pull him out of his depression until he can’t take it anymore: “We’re not supposed to be here. I want to go home.”

Then we have “Mad” Harry Madden, a World War II legend. He accomplishes the impossible feat of single-handedly taking down a heavily defended submarine base, but is extracted from his timeline before drowning, and completes the dream team. Some readers may argue that Harry is the least compelling character among the group, as he seems to be the only one who isn’t freaked and just goes with the flow of being “captured” and placed in a bunker until further notice. “It’s a part of war,” he reasons. Nevertheless, I enjoyed each time he had dialogue in the series.

Anyone interested in time travel stories will appreciate what R. R. Haywood does with this series. The first book, Extracted, focuses on building the world of the novel and introducing us to our three heroes and their backstories, while also illustrating their team dynamic. While crucial to the overall arc of the story, some readers might struggle with the slow pace.

The second book, Executed, is where the ball really gets rolling. New characters join the fray and facilitate the original mission; Miri, an experienced military intelligence official who becomes the new mission leader, and Emily, a British Secret Service agent who questions her position after learning about the dream team’s mission. However, things become tricky when British Secret Service agents discover one end of their home base (Berlin 2046 where they often travel for supply runs), and it’s a race to prevent them from tracking down the inventor and his family. Otherwise, the possibility of dangerous groups developing more time travel devices becomes a reality.

Haywood takes us back and forth between the points of view of the British Secret Service agents and our original save-the-world team, while continuously jumping to and from different points in time; this writing style is suspenseful enough to suck you in while you try to connect the dots between the timelines (for example, something random occurs and it isn’t clear until much later in the book, when the series of events eventually come to fruition). It also doesn’t hurt that our team successfully scares the crap out of multiple world governments into halting their search for the device.

The third book, Extinct, finally gets to the original mission: stop the end of the world. When they first check on the future, it seems as if their actions worked; however, now the disgraced former leader of the British Secret Service got a hold of another device and is out for blood. The path to revenge includes messing with the past to draw out our team – and I use the term “messing with” lightly (think: what if other countries dropped nuclear bombs during WWII?). The remainder of the book’s action scenes take place in Berlin 1945, with our team trying to undo the damage and getting help from the unlikeliest of places. Oh, and a dinosaur crashes into the bunker while running away from some predators, which has an interesting effect on secondary characters (while obviously throwing another wrench into the original plans).

Readers diving into the Extracted Trilogy will have to keep an open mind in terms of time travel theory – in other words, grasp the rules in the context of this story and you’ll be fine (e.g. “time is not fixed”). Haywood’s characters are loveable and believable, and the relationships between them are heartwarming. They all would die for each other, making you wonder yourself how far you would go to save the world and those working with  you. I’m pretty sure this series is meant to be a trilogy, but the ending was left open enough for a fourth installment. Sci-fi enthusiasts are encouraged to begin this series and will definitely enjoy it as long as they can get past the first book.

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