Chess Desalls

Valcas uses an altered pair of sunglasses to help Calla escape to a different place and time. He offers his further protection in exchange for a promise. Intrigued by Valcas and the possibility of time travel, Calla accepts. That is until she learns that his search for her was no mere coincidence. Calla sets off on her own, taking the Travel Glasses with her. Torn between searching for her estranged father and reuniting with the rest of her family, she tracks down the inventor of the Travel Glasses in hopes of discovering more about Valcas' past and motivations. With Valcas hot on her trail, Calla hopes to find what she's looking for before he catches up. The Call to Search Everywhen is a serial series of novel-length installments. Travel Glasses is YA fantasy filled with metafiction and other literary twistiness. It's a thought-provoking narrative about trust, relationships, reality and illusion.

Travel Glasses (The Call to Search Everywhen, Book 1)

Cross-posted on Knizhnitsa


I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Travel Glasses” enters the YA market with a fresh premise and the ambition to explore a topic that is still underrepresented in the genre. Time travel is not an easy subject to tackle, yet “Travel Glasses” manages to find an interesting and innovative approach to this classic sci-fi concept.

Chess Desalls’s debut novel is the story of Calla - a girl who lives a secluded and protected life. Her world turns upside down after she meets Valcas - a charming young man who can travel through time and space with the help of a pair of altered sunglasses.

However, Valcas is not who he appears to be. He has reasons for offering Calla his help and protection beyond caring for her safety. Once Calla finds this out, she manages to escape him and sets out on a journey through time on her own. With the help of the Travel Glasses, she tries to solve the mystery that is Valcas and find a safe way back home.


The Plot

In “Travel Glasses” Chess Desalls takes a new and interesting approach towards time travel by designing the Travel Glasses as the device used by the characters to traverse time and space. I found this very refreshing and intriguing as opposed to the ever-present giant and complex machines and portals that reign in the sci-fi realm. However, the principles behind the Glasses are confusing and sometimes contradictory. Theory of time travel is hard to understand in general but I think what makes it particularly hard to grasp in “Travel Glasses” is how the information is being presented - which often feels as if a big bomb of information is being dumped on the reader without giving them the time to understand and analyze it.

The plot itself is saturated with action and plot twists. The simple writing style makes the story easy to follow while keeping it engaging at the same time. However, the quick sequence of events sometimes makes the novel feel rushed and disorientating. As I previously said, this is due to the fact that there isn’t much time for the reader to evaluate the information that they are being presented with.

Overall, I feel that it would be fair to give points to the author for her imagination and ambition and the ability to keep the reader entertained throughout the book.


The Setting

Traversing time and space with the Travel Glasses gives the reader the opportunity to see several different worlds and time periods through Calla’s eyes. Chess Desalls explores a versatile set of worlds by assigning each of her characters a world that fits their personality. From the wondrous world where Valcas lives to the quiet and secluded world of the inventor of the Travel Glasses, the author uses every trick in the book to present the full set of possibilities that time travel creates for the traveller.


The Characters

Calla is not my prefered type of character to read, especially in first person prose, but at the end of the day, she fits the novel well. Her lack of knowledge about time travel and every new world she visits, her investigation about the Travel Glasses and Valcas, gives the reader to opportunity to explore the context of the novel alongside her. She asks the questions the reader would like to ask, demands explanation of the same things the reader doesn’t understand.

At the beginning of the novel, a lot of Calla’s reactions and actions don’t make sense (for example, she has cut connections with pretty much anyone she knows and doesn’t trust anyone, yet she chooses to go on a dinner with Valcas the same day she meets him). However, with the progress of the novel, qualities such as her bravery and determination to find answers to her question and survive prevail over the weaker aspects of her personality and give her the adventurous spirit that the narrative demands.


The Verdict

I feel like I might have been a bit too old and experienced for this novel (as in, I have read a lot of YA paranormal novels and I have consumed too much media). However, I found the novel a pleasant and much needed representative of the time-travel subgenre in YA literature. I would recommend this for the moments when school and work are too overwhelming and you just need something to take your mind off things.

Travel Glasses (The Call to Search Everywhen, Book 1)

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