The Klaatu Terminus by Pete Hautman (review)

Readers who have followed Tucker Feye and Lah Lia in their bounces across time and space (The Obsidian Blade, BCCB 4/12, and The Cydonian Pyramid, BCCB 9/13) will be glad to see them return in this series finale, bringing the possibility of some answers about who is responsible for the time travel portals through which they’ve been traveling. Tucker’s uncle Kosh makes a strong reappearance as well, with much of this book devoted to the bittersweet story of his unrequited love for his brother’s fiancé, Emily. Other characters who have been important in the first two books are brought into the mix, and Hautman deftly manages to bring their stories together amidst more harrowing danger and intricately timed escapes. Readers will need to pay close attention to understand just when the individual scenes are taking place as the characters enter and exit portals and move between by-now-familiar parts of Wisconsin’s present, past, and future. Hautman closes the series the way a middlegrade sci-fi series should be closed: all questions are answered, and the good guys survive, prosper, and eventually get married to the right people, while the bad guys get their throats ripped out by jaguars or suffocate in the unbreathable air on Mars. Those who have braved the inherent yet well-handled confusion of time travel in the first two books may want to refresh their memories before picking this up so that they can more fully experience the satisfying snick as the last portal closes.