Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

by Armand Baltazar, Armand Baltazar (Illustrator)

Overview

For fans of Rick Riordan and Brian Selznick, author-artist Armand Baltazar introduces Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic, the first in a new science fiction/fantasy series that explores a world painted new by the Time Collision. Integrating art and text, this epic and cinematic adventure features more than 150 full-color illustrations.

You’ve never seen Earth like this before: continents reshaped, oceans re-formed, cities rebuilt, and mountains sculpted anew. Dinosaurs roam the plains alongside herds of buffalo, and giant robots navigate the same waters as steam-powered ships. 

This is the world Diego Ribera was born into. The past, present, and future coexisting together. In New Chicago, Diego’s middle school hallways buzz with kids from all eras of history and from cultures all over the world. The pieces do not always fit together neatly, but this is the world he loves.

There are those, however, who do not share his affection. On his thirteenth birthday, Diego learns of a special gift he has within, a secret that is part of something much bigger—something he cannot understand. When his father, New Chicago’s top engineer, is taken by the Aeternum, Diego must rescue him and prevent this evil group from disrupting the fragile peace humanity has forged.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062402370
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/28/2019
Series:	Timeless , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	624
Sales rank:	1,006,468
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Armand Baltazar was born on Chicago’s North Side, not far from the famed Wrigley Field. After attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Armand began a visual storytelling career in feature animation as a background artist, visual development artist, and art director for DreamWorks Studios, Walt Disney, and Pixar Animation. He currently resides in Northern California with his family, creating the art and stories for the epic adventure series Timeless. You can visit him online at www.armandbaltazar.com.

Armand Baltazar was born on Chicago’s North Side, not far from the famed Wrigley Field. After attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Armand began a visual storytelling career in feature animation as a background artist, visual development artist, and art director for DreamWorks Studios, Walt Disney, and Pixar Animation. He currently resides in Northern California with his family, creating the art and stories for the epic adventure series Timeless. You can visit him online at www.armandbaltazar.com.

Editorial Reviews

Like a midsummer action movie, the scope (and budget) of the book is dazzling. Six hundred glossy pages, with hundreds of luscious color illustrations by Baltazar, depict a world after a cosmic event that has reshuffled epochs. People from every era coexist with dinosaurs and giant robots. Kids will swoon.” — New York Times Book Review

★ “This epic tale from Baltazar, is not only wildly imaginative and attention-grabbing, it’s downright beautiful: more than 150 full-color photorealistic art pieces bring the characters and setting to life. A series opener that conveys a true sense of wonder and excitement on every page.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Intricate illustrations, stunning in their lush coloring and quality, are liberally interspersed. [C]inematic dialogue, glossy plot twists, and movie-ready illustrations will likely make readers feel they’ve had a theatrical experience.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“The stunning artwork is the real star here. Sure to be popular with middle school fantasy readers.” — School Library Journal

“Armand Baltazar’s adventure is fused with lush, rich illustrations, full of inventive and exciting ideas that make me want to lean into them and see what happens next!” — Pete Docter, Academy Award-winning director of Inside Out, Up, and Monsters, Inc.

“Vivid world creation and brilliant characters make Timeless an unforgettable, wondrous journey that will stay with you long after the final page.” — Ridley Scott

“Armand Baltazar’s alternate universe blazes to life with vibrant colors and gleaming light, and his world will take its place alongside the classic adventure stories of H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.” — James Gurney, New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Dinotopia

“Armand Baltazar’s incredible artistry and imaginative world creation sparks a creative spirit; the kind that inspires minds to see beyond the conventional.” — Carlos Saldanha, director of Ice Age and Rio

“Dinos! Mechs! Steam power! Swashbuckle! Noir! Adventure! Pulp! All in one world? Armand Baltazar has blurred the lines of genre so well it seems ludicrous they were ever separated. A visual tour de force.” — Mark Andrews, Academy Award-winning director of Brave

“Timeless is a truly magical combination of futuristic and historical, fantasy and adventure, familial and romantic-balanced to perfection!” — Brenda Chapman, Academy Award-winning director of Brave and Prince of Egypt

“Baltazar’s story is a captivating adventure lavishly illustrated with beautiful full-color paintings worth lingering over.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The multicultural fledgling Rangers are outfitted with steam-powered antigravity skateboards, giant mechanical robots, and mystic powers and sent to battle prehistoric monsters and WWII-era Messerschmitts in elaborately detailed fantasy settings.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

Vivid world creation and brilliant characters make Timeless an unforgettable, wondrous journey that will stay with you long after the final page.

Ridley Scott

Timeless is a truly magical combination of futuristic and historical, fantasy and adventure, familial and romantic-balanced to perfection!

Brenda Chapman

Intricate illustrations, stunning in their lush coloring and quality, are liberally interspersed. [C]inematic dialogue, glossy plot twists, and movie-ready illustrations will likely make readers feel they’ve had a theatrical experience.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Dinos! Mechs! Steam power! Swashbuckle! Noir! Adventure! Pulp! All in one world? Armand Baltazar has blurred the lines of genre so well it seems ludicrous they were ever separated. A visual tour de force.

Mark Andrews

Armand Baltazar’s alternate universe blazes to life with vibrant colors and gleaming light, and his world will take its place alongside the classic adventure stories of H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

James Gurney

Armand Baltazar’s incredible artistry and imaginative world creation sparks a creative spirit; the kind that inspires minds to see beyond the conventional.

Carlos Saldanha

Like a midsummer action movie, the scope (and budget) of the book is dazzling. Six hundred glossy pages, with hundreds of luscious color illustrations by Baltazar, depict a world after a cosmic event that has reshuffled epochs. People from every era coexist with dinosaurs and giant robots. Kids will swoon.

New York Times Book Review

Armand Baltazar’s adventure is fused with lush, rich illustrations, full of inventive and exciting ideas that make me want to lean into them and see what happens next!

Pete Docter

The multicultural fledgling Rangers are outfitted with steam-powered antigravity skateboards, giant mechanical robots, and mystic powers and sent to battle prehistoric monsters and WWII-era Messerschmitts in elaborately detailed fantasy settings.

Booklist

The multicultural fledgling Rangers are outfitted with steam-powered antigravity skateboards, giant mechanical robots, and mystic powers and sent to battle prehistoric monsters and WWII-era Messerschmitts in elaborately detailed fantasy settings.

Booklist

Intricate illustrations, stunning in their lush coloring and quality, are liberally interspersed. [C]inematic dialogue, glossy plot twists, and movie-ready illustrations will likely make readers feel they’ve had a theatrical experience.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

07/01/2017
Gr 5–8—More than 100 eye-catching full-color illustrations showcase this fantasy's diverse cast of characters and their world of seagoing dinosaurs, horse-drawn carriages, flying skateboards, and giant robots. Thirteen-year-old Diego Ribera lives in the coastal city of New Chicago on an Earth cataclysmically transformed by the Time Collision. Continents have moved, and the Vastlantic Ocean has overtaken the eastern third of the United States. The Collision brought several periods of time together, and the resulting mixture of animals, people, and technology from many eras has created a politically unstable world. A faction from ancient Rome kidnaps the protagonist's father as part of a violent plot to reverse the Collision, and in the ensuing chaos a pirate ship picks up Diego and three companions. The rest of this sprawling novel follows the newly dubbed Rangers of the Vastlantic as they attempt to rescue the teen's father and defeat the Romans. The writing is less polished than the illustrations, and a character list would have been helpful for readers trying to keep track of the massive cast. While the racial diversity of the main characters is welcome, it's disappointing that the only black female Ranger ends up as the pirate ship's cook while others become a navigator, pilot, and ship's engineer. VERDICT The stunning artwork is the real star here. Sure to be popular with middle school fantasy readers.—Beth Wright Redford, Richmond Elementary School Library, VT

School Library Journal

2017-07-15
The great Time Collision ripped apart time and space and remade it: dinosaurs in the distance, spaceships in the skies, robots, and humans of all eras now inhabit this remixed world. Santiago Ribera is a Pinoy engineer whose inventions are aiding postwar stability in New Chicago, the home he shares with his wife, Siobhan, an Irish fighter pilot and war hero, and their son, Diego, whose otherworldly power begins to make itself known on his 13th birthday. Baltazar's story is a captivating adventure lavishly illustrated with beautiful full-color paintings worth lingering over. Diego is a likable kid who sometimes gets it wrong but makes it right. The women and girls avoid both one-dimensionality and overcompensatory badassery and have emotional depth—for the most part: one of two prominent black characters in the book, Paige, outruns her role as sassy best friend but not by far. None of this nuance is given to the other black main character, Ajax. Not only is he a humble but incredibly strong man over 7 feet tall, but he fought for the Union after escaping enslavement, and he's bought into the dominant American narrative that includes the misapprehension that Paige, a black girl in Chicago, is not fighting systemic racism and has the "freedom to choose a better way"—that she is not "bound to [history]." His earnest articulation of this lesson makes it very hard to overlook the use of two common black character tropes and undermines what is otherwise an exciting new series. Expert illustration and imaginative worldbuilding with unfortunate stereotyping. (Steampunk. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews