Vortex on Vertu Prime (The Portal Adventures book 3) by Andrew J. Harvey delivers thrilling sequel to Crisis at Calista Station with a well-calculated balance of humor, action, and suspense ideal for middle school readers. The story opens with a museum field trip where a restless Tania is bored and wanders off on her own. She discovers an abandoned teddy bear that turns out to be powered by artificial intelligence as a bodyguard for Li-otho, a young, alien princess. When Tania discovers him, he has just broke free from the stasis bubble he was stuck in for centuries. Tania names him Edward and isn’t keen on carrying him around since she is too old for a Teddy Bear and stuffs him in her backpack. In short order, she regrets rescuing the bossy AI Teddy with a fuzzy memory.
Tania arrives home to learn they are going to spend the holidays at Veral Station where she is supposed to meet up with her friends Mark and Windracer. Upon arrival, they find the station in need of major repairs. They don’t even have running water! So plans are made for the children to stay in a 5-star hotel on Veral Prime for a week. The hotel is situated in a small section of the planet's only remaining arcology city contained within an immense pyramid structure. It is all that is left of a civilization that destroyed itself in war centuries ago.
On their arrival at the hotel, Edward realizes that Vertu Prime is his home planet and that the war was due to his failure to protect Li-otho. When archaeologists at the hotel inadvertently activate a temporal warp generator the kids and Edward travel back in time. Edward’s power reserves run perilously low, and it depends on the children to find the generator and turn it off before it destroys the planet.
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Book review: Vortex on Vertu Prime
Vortex on Vertu Prime is a quick read, fast paced, time-travel Sci-fi adventure. I ran it by my 10-year-old assistant reader. He opened the book and devoured the first 80 pages before it was time for him to go home. He is an avid reader and gives it two thumbs up. And an even bigger compliment, he said he is interested in checking out Crisis at Calista Station (The Portal Adventures Book 2). I recommend Vortex on Vertu to kids who enjoy Sci-fi, time-travel, and life on another planet. It’s a fun blend of mystery, science, and time travel creating a ticking clock to save the world and I’m happy to give four stars.
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About Author: Andrew J. Harvey
Andrew spent his high-school years in the school’s library lost in the worlds of Andre Norten, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. His first commercially accepted series of novels (the Garden Adventures) was originally completed to read to his two sons at night. Now his children have left home he lives in Perth with his wife, one dog, and sixty-four gold fish. Andrew can be contacted at www.andrewjharvey.com.
In addition to writing, Andrew is also the Principal of Hague Publishing. Established in 2011 as an independent publisher of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Hague Publishing is registered in Western Australia, and publishes original work by Australian and New Zealand authors.
Previously Principal for the Davies Literary Agency, Andrew was also editor and publisher of The Western Australian Year Book for a number of years, in addition to being the editor and a writer for ‘Afterlife - the on-line magazine for Atmosphere users’.
Andrew's first published short story (A Messenger to the Dragon) appeared in Aurealis - Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1992.
A passionate reader of Alternate History Andrew is presently working on completing further books set in the Cross-Temporal Empire.