As a poor teenager living in the Dregs, Dash Keane can only escape his dismal reality by competing in illegal rooftop races. But then he gets a chance to race through time … and he becomes a star.
As a poor teenager living in the Dregs, Dash Keane can only escape his dismal reality by competing in illegal rooftop races. But then he gets a chance to race through time … and he becomes a star.
Being a penniless teen from the Dregs never really got Dash Keane down. I mean, yeah, he’s far from happy that he’s a scruffy and poorly dressed nobody. He gets about as much attention from the girls at school as last week’s trash.
But he has plans.
You see, Dash is a rooftop runner. That fact may not be readily known by everyone around him because, well, the races are illegal. So Dash has to obscure his identity with a helmet. But nobody runs and leaps from high-rise rooftops with Dash’s speed or flair. Nobody takes chances and grabs the online gamblers’ attention like he does.
Yeah, sometimes it’s negative attention. The authorities, for example, aren’t so fond of teens almost dying in building-leaping races and stuff. But it’s still attention. And Dash is certain that between his athleticism and best bud Goron’s techy skills, their videos are gonna get him places.
Then it happens.
A guy named Mr. Myrtrym, the head of entertainment for the massive Dominus Corporation, comes looking for him over at Rooftop Ralf’s place. (Well, he comes looking for the “Red Dragon,” Dash’s onscreen alter ego. But still, he wants Dash!)
This is a chance of a lifetime. Or actually, many lifetimes if you want to be accurate. Dominus, you see, runs the timenet. After the discovery of time travel, there was a massive struggle over how best to use it. And the corporates won out.
Now, Dominus Corp. uses time to entertain the downtrodden masses. By sending actors and small insect-like cameras into the past, they can film, essentially, reality TV shows. They can visit feudal Japan or sail as pirates on the high seas. They can send people back into the heat of a world war and get some incredibly realistic action. Because … it’s real. No sets. No huge production budgets.
And the best thing is that no matter what happens back there in the past, they say it won’t negatively impact the present. It has something to do with the fact that the speed of time is consistent, or some such thing. The scientists explain that everything encountered in the past is only a shadow of the past. It’s not real. Dash isn’t sure how it works, but this could be his ticket.
If Dash can pass the audition, this Myrtrym guy could make him a timestar!
Of course, when Dash is sent back to the Cretaceous period and told to go steal a dinosaur egg, he suddenly pauses for thought. The nerdy scientists say that it doesn’t matter if anything from the past is killed, but what if someone from the future is gobbled up by a two-story high dino? I mean, he’s fast and all … but still.
When Dash hears the first terrifying roar, he suddenly realizes that he may not have thought this whole thing through very well.
There are no Christian beliefs directly addressed here, but …
… later in the story, Dash begins to consider the morality of his choices.
People in the past are said to be mere “echoes” of the “real” people who were there but who no longer exist, for instance. Dash wonders: If he takes a life is it real or more like a video game? Does killing impact you even if it’s not real? Is it wrong to hurt an echo’s feelings? Are lies wrong in every situation?
Dash also wrestles with the idea of putting his desires over those of others. And he determines that self-sacrifice and service to others is ultimately far more rewarding.
Dash’s efforts to obtain fame can be seen as an analogical illustration of today’s teen efforts for online social media fame.
The future world of Echo Nova is a distinct place of have and have nots, a world that’s predominately controlled by corporate interests. And Dash wrestles throughout Echo Nova with the important things he’ll have to sacrifice—friends, family, relationships—in order to achieve the “have” side of that ledger. The book asks if that goal, in any form, is worth it.
In that struggle, Mr. Myrtrym represents the haves. He’s handsome, wealthy and polished. And at first, he appears to have Dash’s interests front and center. But we eventually see him for what he is: a greedy man who wants to project his “godlike” corporate and technological power.
Dash’s parents, on the other hand, are not wealthy. In fact, they initially represent everything that Dash does not want to be. And they warn him to avoid the very opportunities he seeks. We later see clearly that some of their seemingly negative choices are for Dash’s (and their family’s) protection. They all express their love for one another.
Dash meets several people in the past—a Wild West sheriff and two people from feudal Japan, key among them—who not only help him learn how to use weapons but how to think about a given weapon’s use as well. They each compel Dash to consider the dearness of life.
Dash’s brother, Knox, and his good friend, Garon, are both consistent and caring, even when Dash seems to be heading in the wrong direction. They both try to help Dash make wise choices.
It’s implied that along with a number of surgeries, Dash is given certain performance-enhancing drugs as well.
Dash is an older teen who takes physical risks (one of the reasons that he is chosen as an action timestar). As such, we see him in a variety of perilous situations. He catapults off a building to grab a moving train; he bounds from the sharp-toothed mouth of a sea creature; he leaps from a motorcycle to take on the driver and a gunman in the back of a speeding vehicle; he jumps from the back of a galloping horse and plummets from elevated areas; etc.
Though some of those above situations can almost feel cartoonishly oversized, there are also some heavily violent moments where Dash is badly beaten and thumped around. Elsewhere, people get slashed with swords and shot with pistols, sometimes in large groups. (There’s nothing gory described, but we are told of a battle scene and the dead left behind.) Vehicles crash and explode.
After being accepted as a timestar by Dominus, Dash is given a variety of surgeries that improve his physical abilities. The operations also make him physically more attractive (face and body muscularity). He is told to take off his shirt and display that improved physique.
Dash meets and falls for a woman he meets in the past. And she is instrumental in helping him see that his desire for fame and wealth are both potentially destructive. The two draw close, embrace and kiss.
[Spoiler Warning] Dash’s love for this young woman compels him to sacrifice for her and others. And we learn that his parents had to make a similar series of loving choices in their youth.
What would you give up to achieve your goals or deepest dreams? Do you think those sacrifices would be worth it?
How do we balance our aspirational dreams with our closest relationships?
How do you think following God’s leading in our lives may require us to lay down our desires in order to be obedient to Him?
Echo Nova is a fast-paced, action-focused YA sci-fi novel. And its protagonist’s struggles with the price of fame can be easily looked at through a real-world, social media lens. The story also raises faith-adjacent questions about moral choices and self-sacrifice.
Parents of pre-teen readers, however, should note that this book’s conflicts involve some death dealing and lightly described bloodiness.
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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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