A young man has to make the transformation from bookish nerd to street-smart warrior to survive as searches for his younger brother in an energy-starved future.
In an energy-starved future, Richard Hampton's world is blown apart when his younger brother Danny disappears and the police are too busy trying to keep a lid on a hungry, overcrowded city to search for him.
Richard has to make the transformation from bookish nerd to street-smart warrior to survive when he jumps the 'Food Train' for the disintegrating suburbs in a desperate search for Danny and his dog, Zonk.
Branded a criminal by a community of outcasts and condemned to death, Richard is rescued by streetwise Carrie, who joins in his search. As they trek across the remnants of the suburbia, facing criminal gangs, renegade militias, and the hardships of the road, their friendship evolves into something more.
The trail finally unwinds at a deserted complex in the remotest corner of the sprawling suburbs. The incredible secret they uncover there will alter their lives and their world forever.
Excerpt
The streetcar shuddered and pitched to the right as the passengers all rushed to one side to look out the windows. They jammed between the seats and each other, hands pressed flat against the glass, whispering 'oohs' and 'aahs' as they gaped at the spectacle.
It was a car – a full-sized, gas-powered automobile – as much a rarity on a Vancouver street as a sighting of the hottest new movie star. A full-throated growl reverberated from under the vehicle’s hood as the driver revved the engine, declaring to the world that he was burning massive quantities of precious, irreplaceable gasoline and didn’t give a damn. A sea of bicycles, scooters, and motorcycle taxis parted deferentially around it as the machine glided through the chaos.
Gripping a hand loop against the incline, Richard Hampton craned his neck and peered over the heads in front of him, following the progress of the automobile. The driver leaned on the horn as it plowed through a knot of traffic, rolling smoothly along in contrast to the clanking streetcar and coughing taxis. An old woman on a bicycle loaded down with hay wobbled into the gutter trying to swerve out of its path. A man on foot, hauling a wood-framed cart built from old automobile axles and wheels, barely had time to flip the driver a defiant finger before shoving his cart aside and diving for his life.
On the sidewalk, pedestrians lined up to gawk at the machine. In the windows of the decaying skyscrapers lining the street, shadowy faces turned in unison, like spectators at a sporting event, as they followed its advance. The automobile passed beneath a billboard plastered with the familiar red and blue logo of Can-Cartel – the giant oil company that had dominated all their lives for as long as Richard could remember.
Whoever owns that car, he thought, I’ll bet they’re connected with you guys.
An ear-splitting whine rose from behind them and a pair of ‘Mosquitoes’, as the public had nicknamed the tiny bikes the police rode, screamed through the parting traffic, sirens blaring. The bikes moved into position ahead of the silver automobile, acting as escort and controlling the crowd.
Richard heard an electrical crackle overhead and caught a whiff of ozone, and the streetcar rolled to a stop to a chorus of moaning and cursing from the passengers. It had tilted so much that the electrodes had slipped off the power lines above. As Richard continued to watch, the silver machine glided into the distance, lost again in the teeming traffic.
They were only a few blocks from his stop. As the streetcar driver hauled out the long pole to reattach the electrode, Richard pushed by the other passengers, stepped to the curb, and began the last leg of his daily journey home from a teaching job at East Vancouver Community College.
He strode past an abandoned parking lot, now crowded with cardboard and plastic shacks. This one even featured the rusted hulks of several ancient cars, abandoned long ago and probably homes for some of the dozens of people he knew would be living there. Even as he walked past, an old man shuffled into view, adjusting a ragged sheet of plastic that extended like an awning from the door of one of the wrecks.
At its far end, the lot fed into a narrow alley connecting to the street leading home. Richard passed through the gap and into the alley, scanning the shadows. The faint odour of urine and rotting cardboard lingered in the air. Down a side alley his eye caught a trace of blond that looked familiar. He stopped, peering through the geometric patchwork of light and shade, and spotted what had grabbed his attention.
Two figures stood in a beam of late afternoon sunlight half a block away, discussing something. One was almost hidden behind the corner of a cross alley – only his tattooed forearms, the curve of his gut, and a wisp of beard were visible. Opposite him stood the blond figure, and as the head turned Richard felt goose bumps rise on his skin. The profile bore a striking resemblance to the person he knew better than anyone on Earth – his younger brother, Danny.
At first he assumed it was just some other kid who, at this distance, had similar features. After all, Danny should be at school right now. All the same, Richard turned up the alley, and the scene altered in a way that dispelled any doubt – a white dog with large black spots stepped out of the shadows and stood at the blond figure’s side. It was Zonk, Danny’s dog and his constant companion. At that exact moment all three disappeared down the cross alley.
“Danny!” Richard called after them, and broke into a run. Out of breath, he reached the intersection where they’d stood. There was no sign of Danny, Zonk, or the other man. He rushed down the cross alley and into a maze of passages. Soon after starting down one of them he decided he’d chosen wrong. He backtracked and tried several others, but by then his quarry had disappeared into the dark maze of the inner city.
Professional Reviews
Eldorado is a marvelous page-turner that never stops to breathe
Chaos reigns supreme, gas is the new gold, and Richard's only living relative, his younger brother that he was entrusted to raise and care for, has gone missing under the most dubious circumstances.
So begins an unlikely hero's quest (he's a community college gardening teacher) into the underworld of the afterworld, where villains with names like Crack unleash violence at every turn. Richard's journey takes him by foot to the wildlands of Surrey, BC, where bands of renegades huddle in the remnants of what once was Walmart. The action trips over itself with a furious momentum. Things happen too fast and spin out of control, as Richard goes deeper from everything he knows into the darkness, hoping that one day he might see his little brother again.
Eldorado, Wow
Eldorado, by Jay Allen Storey, is a well written dystopian novel that takes place in a future that is most likely only a few generations away, which is truly scary.Close your eyes and imagine a life in which most of the fossil fuels are gone, and the small amount that is left is priced so out of the average person's budget that it may as well not exist. Imagine how life would be. No longer will we be able to just run down to the supermarket and buy our food. Most likely we will either grow it ourselves or buy from a local farmer, if we are lucky enough to have a job. Try to think of any industry that would not be decimated. It's hard to think of one, isn't it?
The author has done a great job of creating this world on paper. His characters are well written. My favorite character, and surprisingly, the character most important to the development of the plot is Zonk, the dog.
The action is fast, and the development of relationships between characters is even faster. sometimes too fast. But the shocks and surprises that abound make this book more about the plot as a whole rather than those relationships. But the plot and the backdrop of this book are so well written that they are completely believable, which makes this a page-turner. Read it for yourself!
A Sobering View of the Future
In post Peak-Oil Vancouver, Canada, the future is not bright. The end of the Petroleum Age means the luxuries we've come to enjoy - automobiles, computers, and e-readers - have been left in the distant past. Suburban communities like Surrey have been largely abandoned, and Vancouver itself is becoming a human wasteland of joblessness and homelessness. This is the stage set for author Jay Allan Storey's new dystopian novel, Eldorado.
The novel's protagonist, Richard Hampton, is one of the few Vancouver residents with some semblance of a normal life. A college professor, he still has a house which he shares with his younger, troubled teenage brother, Danny. But when Danny disappears, the local police are unable to search for the missing youth, and Richard is forced to give up his comfort and set out to find his brother.
Richard's journey takes him through the decaying remains of a civilization that was built on cheap oil, and destroyed itself by not heeding the warnings about dwindling oil supplies. The world Storey creates is no Mad Max look at the future, but a sobering, realistic view of what might lie ahead of us.
Those lucky enough to have homes must turn to subsistence farming to survive. Fuel and electricity are rationed by the government. There are few automobiles, and those are owned only by the wealthiest citizens. Bicycles and the occasional antiquated electric street car are the main modes of transport; even the police are restricted to patrolling on small, underpowered motorcycles called "mosquitos" due to the high-pitch whine of their engines.
Criminal gangs and right-wing militias (who still don't believe the Oil Age has ended) make the abandoned suburbs where Richard must search a No-Mans-Land. Beyond the setting of Vancouver, wars are being fought for whatever natural resources remain, but without oil the great armies of the United States and China have become little more than 19th century horse-drawn throw-backs.
Eldorado is an engaging and thrilling adventure, while also being a serious and thought provoking warning about the future that lies ahead.
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