A steady flow of madcap antics and sardonic charm.
Marshall Grissom could be described by some as a lovable oaf, but it definitely depends on who you ask. Marta took Marshall as a lover, but that doesn’t mean she’s fooled by his unthreatening manner. When things go wrong, and they always go wrong with these two, Marshall tends to survive while his adversaries do not. Is he a calculated, ruthless, trained assassin? Or is he just incredibly lucky? Marta and Marshall disagree on his superhero skill set, but time will tell. As this unlikely couple hammers out their bizarre work-life balance in Grenada, the world around them continues to march to the same avaricious drum. So when a close friend with a significant estate is found dead in his bed, Marta is sure it was no accident. But without evidence, accusations surrounding the death of a 108-year-old man won’t be an easy sell. Fortunately, a top-secret time machine concealed in a clandestine desert facility is at their disposal. Unfortunately, Marta and Marshall aren’t the only ones with their sights set on the Arizona facility. As events play out, these time travelers are reminded that playing fast and loose with time and quantum space has ramifications. They’ve lost colleagues, friends, and political allies, but when lives are on the line in multiple universes, there is always more that can be lost. Marta and Marshall will have to deal with unusually thorough mobsters, egotistical politicians, shopaholic AIs, and other entities beyond human imagination if they hope to preserve their fledgling trust and happiness together.
Every book in this series boasts intelligence and wit, but Quantum Consequence might be the funniest, most absurd of them all. You know you’re in for plenty of deadpan humor with characters named Flex Force, Humphollar, and Pete Piper Perkins III, “a tragic victim of alliteration.” Sometimes demented and sometimes frighteningly plausible, Mike Murphey’s writing sustains hungry readers with a steady flow of madcap antics and sardonic charm. The plot is over-the-top hilarious, the clever dialogue never lets up, and outrageous scenes often sneak up without warning. The effect is a pleasing balance of futuristic innovation and silly satire, one that treads lightly on heavy subject matter. In a future where science is equated with heresy and megacorporations become the religion of choice, it’s tough to tell if this punchy novel is darkly predictive or madly creative. A story about finding family even when society might be losing its soul, Quantum Consequence is a perfectly entangled web of mass consumerism, cultural decay, and tongue-in-cheek political commentary.
