The Quantum Chain - Joseph Bridgeman #4

 

 

The Quantum Chain is the fourth Joseph Bridgeman time travel mystery by Nick Jones. Released 4th Oct 2022 by Blackstone, it's 350 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. 

I have always loved time travel stories. I devoured every episode of Dr. Who, Star Trek, every story and book about time travel with gusto. Obviously some were better than others, but I loved (and still love) them all. This series is one of the better representatives of the genre. It's full of fun history and watershed moments for the reluctant hero, hapless but plucky Joe, to right and to try and help untangle. He's an unlikely everyman hero, really relatable, muddling along the best he can manage and trying to fix what he can fix. 

I love the way Joe has developed over the last several books. After being more or less blackmailed into joining a time traveling-timeline-fixing-agency, he's finding his feet and learning to work with a partner. Although the missions are *never* as easy or problem-free as promised, they manage to pull it out in the end. It's an ensemble cast and like lots of very well written quest stories, every part is integral to the whole. The book is so cleverly constructed and I'm already looking forward to more. It's *full* of time paradoxes and the way the characters solve them are clever and believable (in context). 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of  13 hours 58 minutes and is capably narrated by Ray Porter. He does an impressive job with wide ranging geographical accents and genders. I absolutely love his voice for Vinny, who reminds me a lot of my very fond memories of Brian Glover in Mystery! as Magersfontein Lugg (Campion series). When the book started, I was afraid that Mr. Porter's very gravelly baritone would be too strong for the part (I "hear" Joe up in my head as a very put upon and almost nasal whinge sometimes) but I soon warmed to him and he's very versatile and definitely enhanced the read a lot. Sound quality and production values were high throughout the recording.

Four and a half stars. Fun, clever, and very entertaining. Five stars also for the audiobook version. This would be an excellent mood elevating choice for a series binge read. The books follow-on solidly from one another, and readers should read them in order.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.