Danger Boy Episode 4:
City of Ruins
by Mark London Williams
City of Ruins
by Mark London Williams
CITY OF RUINS by Mark London Williams
Category: Paranormal
Age Recommendation: Grades 6+
Release Date: 1/9/07
Publisher: Candlewick
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
Rating: 5 Stars
It's the year 2020 and Eli Sands is being held captive by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the
people who pushed him into this whole Danger Boy, time-travel thing to begin with. They claim to be studying him to find
out what it is about his bio-mechanical structure that gives him the ability to travel through time unharmed. But, that's
about all they'll tell him, and it's the least of his concerns. Eli has many more important questions, like where are they
keeping his friends?
Thea, a human girl from far in the past, and Cline, a highly evolved dragon-like creature from a completely different time and
place, have become Eli's time-travel companions. Eli doesn't like being apart from the "family" they have created. Speaking
of family, where is Eli's mother? He hasn't seen her since they all accidentally ended up in the 1960's. If DARPA can keep
track of him, why can't they seem to locate his mom? And how about his dad? Isn't he supposed to be working for them?
The only personal contact Eli has is with the DARPA agents, and he only knows them by number, not even their code
names, much less their real names!
When the alarm goes off and Eli is deserted, he sees an opportunity that he can't pass up. He escapes his prison and
wanders through the DARPA tunnels in search of his friends, and maybe some answers.
Finding his friends proves to be the easy part, and raises more questions than answers. Cline mysteriously appears in
another set of rooms. Rooms that somehow duplicate the rooms that Eli lived in with his parents when they started their
time-travel experiments. How did these things get here? Who would want to replicate Eli's home? Why? Thea is being
interrogated elsewhere by the same DARPA agents that were testing Eli. But Thea seems to be not right somehow. Eli is
sure she has the deadly slow pox that has been infecting the public and forcing quarantines all over the world. 30, a head
DARPA agent, explains that the slow pox epidemic was created by DARPA to control people. The only people infected
are the ones they infected on purpose, and Thea was not chosen for that. But then why is she sick?
It turns out that DARPA's effort to control everything is causing it all to fall apart. The harder they try to contain everything
and everyone, the more everything spirals out of control. And now they need Eli's help. But why should he help the people
who held him hostage, who kept him from his father, lost Cline to a traveling freak show, and created a disease that
mutated and infected Thea and is now incurable? He shouldn't. But he will. Because he might be able to fix all of this,
repair the damage that time-travel has created in history, find his mom, locate Cline, and, hopefully, save Thea.
In order to do any of that, he'll have to travel back to biblical times, to a Jerusalem destroyed by war and unwelcoming to
strangers. A place far in the past where Eli finds a strange array of friends and enemies from the future.
This is Episode Four in the DANGER BOY series, and the first one that I read. (I know, not really the normal way to go
about things.) Due to the fact that I missed the first three, I was a bit hesitant to read this. I admit I was a bit lost at times. I
don't tell you all of this to discourage you. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Even not completely knowing what was going on
I thought this was a great book! I love the characters; Cline especially is hilarious with his extreme intelligence and odd
appreciation for pop culture. I really like the concept of the story, as well as this particular piece of it. Also, it's a really
cool way to get a bird's eye view of history! If you've read the first three, I bet you'll like this one. If not, but you're a fan of
time-travel, or history, or just good adventure, go check out the series. I know I plan to. I don't think either of us will be
disappointed.
Category: Paranormal
Age Recommendation: Grades 6+
Release Date: 1/9/07
Publisher: Candlewick
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
Rating: 5 Stars
It's the year 2020 and Eli Sands is being held captive by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the
people who pushed him into this whole Danger Boy, time-travel thing to begin with. They claim to be studying him to find
out what it is about his bio-mechanical structure that gives him the ability to travel through time unharmed. But, that's
about all they'll tell him, and it's the least of his concerns. Eli has many more important questions, like where are they
keeping his friends?
Thea, a human girl from far in the past, and Cline, a highly evolved dragon-like creature from a completely different time and
place, have become Eli's time-travel companions. Eli doesn't like being apart from the "family" they have created. Speaking
of family, where is Eli's mother? He hasn't seen her since they all accidentally ended up in the 1960's. If DARPA can keep
track of him, why can't they seem to locate his mom? And how about his dad? Isn't he supposed to be working for them?
The only personal contact Eli has is with the DARPA agents, and he only knows them by number, not even their code
names, much less their real names!
When the alarm goes off and Eli is deserted, he sees an opportunity that he can't pass up. He escapes his prison and
wanders through the DARPA tunnels in search of his friends, and maybe some answers.
Finding his friends proves to be the easy part, and raises more questions than answers. Cline mysteriously appears in
another set of rooms. Rooms that somehow duplicate the rooms that Eli lived in with his parents when they started their
time-travel experiments. How did these things get here? Who would want to replicate Eli's home? Why? Thea is being
interrogated elsewhere by the same DARPA agents that were testing Eli. But Thea seems to be not right somehow. Eli is
sure she has the deadly slow pox that has been infecting the public and forcing quarantines all over the world. 30, a head
DARPA agent, explains that the slow pox epidemic was created by DARPA to control people. The only people infected
are the ones they infected on purpose, and Thea was not chosen for that. But then why is she sick?
It turns out that DARPA's effort to control everything is causing it all to fall apart. The harder they try to contain everything
and everyone, the more everything spirals out of control. And now they need Eli's help. But why should he help the people
who held him hostage, who kept him from his father, lost Cline to a traveling freak show, and created a disease that
mutated and infected Thea and is now incurable? He shouldn't. But he will. Because he might be able to fix all of this,
repair the damage that time-travel has created in history, find his mom, locate Cline, and, hopefully, save Thea.
In order to do any of that, he'll have to travel back to biblical times, to a Jerusalem destroyed by war and unwelcoming to
strangers. A place far in the past where Eli finds a strange array of friends and enemies from the future.
This is Episode Four in the DANGER BOY series, and the first one that I read. (I know, not really the normal way to go
about things.) Due to the fact that I missed the first three, I was a bit hesitant to read this. I admit I was a bit lost at times. I
don't tell you all of this to discourage you. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Even not completely knowing what was going on
I thought this was a great book! I love the characters; Cline especially is hilarious with his extreme intelligence and odd
appreciation for pop culture. I really like the concept of the story, as well as this particular piece of it. Also, it's a really
cool way to get a bird's eye view of history! If you've read the first three, I bet you'll like this one. If not, but you're a fan of
time-travel, or history, or just good adventure, go check out the series. I know I plan to. I don't think either of us will be
disappointed.