THE ELI EVENT

by Dave Gash

LOS ANGELES VAPORIZED—9 MILLION DIE!2015: Los Angeles is destroyed in the ELI Event, a space-weapon catastrophe that leads to a bleak and brutal distant future for all but the privileged few—unless rogue time-travelers from the twenty-fourth century can prevent the tragedy and mend the timeline. In an attempt to protect humanity from itself, the sentient computer ELI steals the weapon’s code, but unwittingly makes his only friend, fifteen-year-old Robin Kirkland, a suspect in the sabotage and the target of a military manhunt. ELI’s creators, scientists Stephen Wheeler and Kelly Duncan, find a mysterious ally in Arty, a mere janitor sent from the near future to prevent the ELI Event and change history. But there is another, anonymous ruthless Vice Governor Lokus has also jumped upstream to stop them and thus leave his elite and entitled future world unchanged. The race is on—not just to save present-day Los Angeles, but to alter the future of mankind and its machines forever.

312 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2010

Reviews

[AudioBookReviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

My full The Eli Event audiobook review can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

I was pleasantly surprised when Dave Gash only spent a minimal time explaining how time travel was possible. At first it was a little hard to keep up with the changing of scenes and characters but it didn’t take long to keep up. There is brief explanation of a traumatic event to the main character Robbie, I wish they would have explained it further or done away with it all together. I am always interested in a good revolt it is good to see the underdog fight tyranny and win. Especially one that involves computers and altering past events to change the present, or future. After we meet the main characters there’s a drawn out chase across the country some time jumping and computer tricks. I liked the connection between the awkward Robbie and the A.I. EL1, or ELI. It was fun to see the things he could do through internet connections to help his friend. When the Character Artie is brought in it set the story up for the one plot twist I enjoyed the most. All in all an ok plot for a book involving time traveling scientists and artificial intelligence, except the end is a bit of a disappointment. I would have liked to have seen how the changing events set the future more. It lets us go with a vague and brief description, but not much else.

Audiobook provided for review by the narrator.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story with a few surprising twist. A cross between Eagle Eye and The Terminator.