In the mid-21st Century, a top-secret consortium of corporations and governments have made time travel possible, only to realize that intruding on the past has been a terrible mistake. At the program’s outset, a thousand scientists, engineers and support staff were confined to a subterranean complex where a corporate contributor specializing in artificial intelligence equipped their apartments with Happy Home Companion software.
Time traveler Marta Hamilton has little tolerance for other people intruding into her life, much less a software “Dear Abby,” so Marta bullies her Happy Home Companion into silence. Finally convinced of the grave dangers of time travel, government overseers suspend operations, and only the Happy Home Companion remains.
Marta and fellow traveler Marshall Grissom hope they can finally leave the past behind, but when a federal judge is murdered, they understand their vulnerability to horrible manipulations by future counterparts. Marta and Marshall return to the Arizona desert where they confront a Happy Home Companion cult of vengeance, the outlaw Gillis Kerg, and an evangelical zealot waging a war on science.
Review by Twinsie Kelly
Unique Multiverse Murder Inc Fringe Tale
This is book 4 in the series. I have not read the first 3 and feel that it can be read as a standalone. However, I am rather intrigued to see how everyone got to this point so I will be going back to the beginning.
Ok, so most of us have seen Back to the Future and know the ramifications of messing with the past and/or future. Well, in this story, the government is part of this secret mess. Eventually, a decision is made to shut this crazy thing down. However, something is happening in the parallel universes and everyone’s worst nightmare is coming true. OH! And the universes are named after old TV shows (i.e. Gunsmoke, Jeopardy, etc.) which is AMAZING!
We encounter quite a crazy cast of characters throughout the book. This includes people with political positions (one with a slogan of “Make American Stupid Again”), time travelers, assassins, scientists, and regular ole people. There is even a horde of quickly learning, while extremely gullible and naïve, AI’s.
The baddies are determined to take over the program and destroy anyone who stands in their way to ultimately own the future by manipulating the past. As if power wasn’t cruel enough, it becomes villainous and ultimately the future travelers come back to manipulate the past for power. It’s insanity with internal mutiny from other universes! Bringing the team back together is only half the fun. And when they finally do collide, things get really exciting! The characters are witty and fun but when the AI’s get involved, things get even better!
The author did an incredible job of bringing a very surreal science fiction story to life but also adding in a lot of laughs and sarcastic eyerolls. It seriously had me turning pages like a mad woman. I highly recommend that you pick this up and meet the Lady Godiva, the Prophet Shehoo, Leviticus Deuteronomy Humphollar, and the many other characters within these pages.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A native of eastern New Mexico, Mike Murphey spent nearly thirty years as an award-winning newspaper journalist in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. Following his retirement from news journalism, he and his wife Nancy entered in a seventeen-year partnership with the late Dave Henderson, all-star centerfielder for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners.
Our company, Dave Henderson Baseball, produced the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners Fantasy Camps for twenty years. The Murpheys have also partnered with the Roy Hobbs adult baseball organization in Fort Myers, Florida. Mike’s love of fiction, cats, baseball and sailing affords him to split his time between Spokane, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona, where he enjoys life as a writer and old-man baseball player.
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