Product Description

In this techno-thriller from the best-selling author of the Fire of Heaven Trilogy, a successful TV newscaster is hurled into a parallel world exactly like ours except for one minor detail: Christ didn’t come there 2,000 years ago, but today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1086165 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Saunders's (Pastoralia) idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children's book illustrator Smith's (The Stinky Cheese Man) heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops in this unconventional fairy tale for grownups. Saunders describes the setting, the town of Frip, as "three leaning shacks by the sea," which Smith represents as oblong two-story towers in brick red, ocean blue and mint green situated on irregular plots of land with sinewy trees against a yellow sky that suggest a Daliesque eerieness. The 1,500 gappers, spiky little creatures with multiple eyes, feed on the goats that graze the shacks' backyards; by habit, they split into three groups to attack all three properties at once. One day, the gappers decide that henceforth they will concentrate all their efforts on the goats at only one house, the one closest to the seaAinhabited by a girl, Capable, and her grieving, widowed father. Soon, the two unafflicted families begin to tell themselves that they are superior to Capable and her father ("Not that we're saying we're better than you, necessarily, it's just that, since gappers are bad, and since you and you alone now have them, it only stands to reason that you are not, perhaps, quite as good as us"). Of course it's only a matter of time until everybody's luck changes. The Saunders-Smith collaboration is inspired. Smith adds witty touches throughout, and Saunders's dialogue features uncannily amusing deadpan repetitions and platitudinous self-exculpations. Saunders is much too hip to bring this fable to an edifying ending, but things do conclude as happily as is possible in the morally challenged, circumscribed world of Frip. 100,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour. (Aug.) ELI: A NOVEL Bill Myers. Zondervan, $12.99 paper (304p) ISBN 0-310-218039 ~ In this compelling if at times frustrating novel, Myers imagines a parallel universe in which Jesus Christ is born not 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem but 30 years ago in Santa Monica, Calif. Through Conrad Davis, a universe-hopping journalist, we meet the 20th-century Jesus, whose name is Eli Shepherd. In less capable hands, science fiction about a contemporary messiah might become a morass of polemic and pulp, but Myers weaves a deft, affecting tale that preserves the enigmatically audacious Jesus of the New Testament and situates him in our weary, jaded, media-saturated society. And unlike other contemporary Christian novelists who transparently take aim at all things left of center, Myers delivers a messiah who transcends politics, eschewing both the Left and the Right in favor of a place his listeners have never heard of, called "The Kingdom of God." Eli's travels with his disciplesA who include a pornography mogul and a white supremacistAenlighten, entertain and challenge both his fictive and actual audience. Yet it's disappointing that the novel climaxes as Eli's betrayer is revealed; the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension feel like afterthoughtsAevents that deeply affect Conrad but not necessarily anyone else. Despite this and other lapses, such as Eli's uncharacteristically lame explanation for the absence of female disciples, this is a refreshing departure from the usual clich?s of popular Christian fiction. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In a last-ditch attempt to convince his TV producers to run a story on alternate realities, Davis Conrad decides to film the professor who convinced him that such realities exist. Along the way, after a strange accident he can't remember, Davis finds himself fleeing police by hopping into a VW van straight out of the 1960s. The group he's with, dressed in tie-dye and peace symbols, head for a motel laundry room, where they've heard that a miracle will occur. As he lays eyes on an unnamed baby boy, Davis flashes back to a sterile white room, where he seems to be hooked up to machinery. Then, he realizes two things: he's actually popping in and out of an alternate reality where people will think he's crazy if he says anything, and all of the Bibles he can find don't include the New Testament. And the child in the alternate reality? His name is Eli, and he is just starting to prove to one and all that he is the Son of God. Myers (Blood of Heaven) seems to start out in circles but sets up a thought-provoking plot revolving around a simple question: What if Jesus came now for the first time? With this thrilling and ominous tale, Myers continues to shine brightly in speculative fiction based on biblical truths. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
... the always surprising Myers has written another clever and provocative tale. -- from the June 1, 2000 issue of Booklist

Customer Reviews

Radical and Challenging Fiction
In ELI, best-selling author Bill Myers asks the question, "what if Jesus had been born 2000 years later?" The concept is familiar to readers of the book JOSHUA, but Myers' execution puts ELI at a higher level than JOSHUA ever reached.

ELI's story revolves around the character of journalist Conrad Davis, who is thrown from our world into a parallel reality thanks to a coma-inducing auto accident. Davis soon realizes, even though he is not a Christian, that everything about this new reality is the same, save for the fact that no one had the faintest clue who Jesus Christ was. Through his work and his ex-wife he happens upon a controversial figure named Eli, and soon parallels between Eli and the person of Jesus begin to appear. Conrad is taken with what Eli represents and he takes a leave of absence from work to become one of his followers.

What results is a modern day enactment of the ministry years of Jesus; specifically His passion week. Myers freely admits at the beginning of the book that this story is a work of fiction. But this fiction has the familiar ring and power of Biblical truth. Because in changing the setting of the story of Jesus, Myers has given it a contemporary and radical edge that strikes at one's preconcieved notions and ideas about the character of Jesus and the world He was born into. Though Myers does take some literary freedom in the translation, the end result is quite sound. I found it much harder to point a finger at the Pharisees and unfaithful disciples after reading this book because the story's concept forced me to put myself in their shoes and, in this modern situation, I realized that I wasn't sure that I would fare any better than they did.

In the end, ELI succeeds precisely because of that radical twist. The afore mentioned JOSHUA showed us that we, who are so comfortable with our ideas of Jesus, would probably find him just as much of an outlaw if He came today. ELI accomplishes the same thing but takes it further by forcing us to look at the bigger picture and apply the lessons He taught to our modern world in a surprising new light. In the story's end Conrad is forced to make a hard decision about Eli. The reader hopefully will be just as challenged in their walk with Christ. A fast-paced, thought-provoking read: Four stars.

Mercy + Justice = Jesus
When this book caught my eye in the bookstore I didn't expect it to be this amazing. The idea of getting a glimpse of what it would be like if Jesus had come 2,000 years later, today, was very intrigueing. In this book I was impacted time and time again over the truths, emotions, and outcome that Jesus, or "Eli", made and provoked. I was reminded and given a firm reason to why we so desperately need Jesus's blood and death. Have you ever had a Bible that translates things into "today terms"? Such as when they talk about a certain about of money and they have a footnote that says exactly how much that money would be worth today? Well, "Eli" is like a big footnote for the story of Jesus. Bill Myers puts the story of Jesus into terms that we can relate to, and the effect is breathtaking. I highly recommend this book if you are familiar with the story of Jesus, but if you aren't then please read the real thing first in the book of John in the Bible.

Jesus said that? -- Yep
I must admit to being a little skeptical about this book before reading it, but I enjoy Bill Myers' writing, so I bought it. I'm certainly glad I did. Myers succeeds brilliantly in waking the reader up to Jesus' life and ministry. For someone who grew up in the church, this is almost a must-read. I (and I would expect most people) have a lot of pre-conceived notions and ideas about Jesus that would make a lot of His claims sound perfectly reasonable. But coming out of someone else's mouth, they sound absolutely ludicrous (unless you believe it). Not only does this show what people must have thought of Jesus 2000 years ago, but it also illustrates what non-believers today must think of Jesus and those who follow Him.

Entertaining yes, but even more thought-provoking.