Read about the other entries on the list.Extracted, by Sherry Ficklin & Tyler H. Jolley
The plot: The Tesla Institute (yes, that Tesla) trains teenage time travelers to protect the time stream from other time-travelers seeking to alter it. It’s a time-travel war, and the battlefields are everywhere and anywhere in time. One of these time-traveling teens is Lex, whose girlfriend dies during a mission gone wrong. The only way to save her is to alter the time-stream without changing his own past, which means going behind enemy lines for tech that can take him back. That’s when Lex runs into Ember. To their surprise, Lex and Ember know each other, and the pasts hidden from them both come flooding back. With the truth on their side, Lex and Ember have to work together to save their futures before the time war takes away their pasts—again.
What makes it unique: Time travel! Steam-powered mechanics are fun enough, but using it to jump through time and alter history? This story had me from page one. That, and some serious time spent on pondering the consequences and ethics of changing history. The icing on the Extracted cake is the fascinating and fun relationship between the two main characters, siblings each dedicated to their different sides in the time war.
--Marshal Zeringue