The Time Portal

By: David B. Smith

Narrated by: David B. Smith

“You can’t change the Big Thing.” All time-travel tales inevitably succumb to this established dictum governing good science fiction.

9/11 tragedies and Auschwitz can’t be overruled without the “butterfly effect” causing even greater havoc. When high school senior Jordan Wickam gets a mysterious bootleg iPod that flips back his calendar exactly seven days, he piles up a greedy fortune betting on horse-racing exactas. Then on the night of the senior prom, he’s abruptly forced to decide: Do I play God?

A baseball teammate’s date is killed in a DUI car crash; should he scoot back a week and rewrite the glittery event? But his digital toy also hides an unexpected menu erasing whole centuries at a time. Four additional thrill rides beckon with their promises of adventure and romantic temptation. Jordan suddenly has a front-row seat for presidential assassinations and a deck chair on the world’s unluckiest ship. As tension escalates, Jordan slowly begins to comprehend why he was chosen.

“The Time Portal” blends fiction with true details, using some of the most appealing historical stories ever enjoyed by large audiences. Each adventure places the listener squarely in the arena of action: a crippled Kirk Gibson prepares to face the Oakland A’s untouchable Dennis Eckersly with Jordan and his unsuspecting youthful dad in Dodger Stadium’s loge section. 1865 is equally accessible. His heart in his throat, Jordan buys a ticket for the April 14 performance of “Our American Cousin,” knowing there are no White House guards on alert to protect a vulnerable Abe Lincoln.

Jordan also scoots back to another April 14 with an icy wind blowing across the top deck of Titanic as an alien passenger from Long Beach realizes he must not, dare not shriek a warning at the tower lookouts. “Dead ahead! Iceberg!” David is also the author of the Rachel Marie series of love stories all set in his childhood home of Bangkok. Be sure to download #1, "Love in a Distant Land," by Tonya Foster Yancey.

©2019 David B. Smith (P)2014 David B. Smith

Excellent Family Adventure

I thoroughly enjoyed this family adventure novel, narrated expertly by the author. The book has an important story to tell and tells it through the interest of a teenager traveling through time. The life transformation made by the main character echoes the life transformation that takes place within the reader. It has action and interest to capture adults while being completely appropriate for teenagers. This is one of the few audiobooks that could and should be listened to by parents together with their teenagers.