Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell

Recently, I had some time to kill before a Boy Scout meeting so I jumped into a used book store and grabbed this off the shelf and it turned out to be a real find. I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Pat Murphy. In it, Susan, a timid divorcee is taking a cruise with her friend Pat. She meets a writer, Max Merriwel who is giving a writer's seminar during the cruise. Max, who has written under multiple pen names befriends Susan. As the ship moves into the Bermuda Triangle, strange things begin to happen, of course. Susan begins to meet people who appear to be the enbodiments of those Max's pseudonyms. What is going on? Susan discovers that not all of them are friendly and Max may be in danger. And who is the character Pat Murphy? Susan tries to sort all of this out as she finds exciting romance on the cruise. This book was a lot of fun. It has adventure, comedy, excitement and even a bit of quantum physics. I plan to read Murphy's books that preceded this one, "There And Back Again", and "Wild Angel".

Just remember the phrase "Flaming Rum Monkey" & you'll be okay. I have to tell you that after being delighted by this book; I went to Emeril's restaurant at CityWalk in Orlando for my birthday & had their best barkeep Susan make this drink for me...AWESOME. But it is only a portion of the book that keeps me coming back & re-reading it over & over again - & learning something new each time. Pataphysics, Time/Space Continuim, things that I as a math phobe in a million years wouldn't be learning in college...however, as a confirmed sci-fi reader since the early 60's & a profound collector of names like Saberhagen, Sagan & Asimov; have bumped into the use of said ideas. The writer's workshop onboard ship also fired me to begin writing again. What a GREAT book. Even the use of firing the imagination & watching those things come to life, albeit with extra stimulis & the use of locations like the Bermuda Triangle. What I would have to say about this book is that it allows you to SCIENTIFICALLY let your hair down & just suspend your mind long enough to enjoy the personal interactions with the characters & fill your mind with the additional more technical subjects like Shroedinger's Cat & become enchanted with science like you've never envisioned it before, certainly not out of any middle or upper level high school or undergrad college course that I ever took. I loved this book, my mother, the first woman draftswoman engineer graduated in America in the 1940's loved it & I'm sending it now to every engineer type that I know to see what happens to their own personal goals in creating new concepts from seeds of change... Seeds of change...that's what Pat Murphy's books are... seeds of change... Enjoy [...]

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but it's just made it onto my list of favorites. Lighthearted and fun, reality-twisting and metafiction at its best, I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't take life all that seriously--or is at least willing to take everything in the universe equally seriously, as the pataphysicists Murphy invented suggest.

This book is perfect for sitting on the back porch on a beautiful summer Saturday afternoon. The book is delightfully light without feeing frivilous. You'll finish it with a smile on your face and the feeling of a well spent afternoon. Descriptions of the plot would give away much of the fun ...Buy a copy for yourself, and buy one for a friend. It's well worth the investment.

Like all of the novels by Pat Murphy/Max Merriwell/Mary Maxwell, this is a fun book that takes you to odd places inhabited by even odder people. It's a lot of fun, has some interesting insight into how people invent their own lives, and says a few things about Quantum Physics as well. Enjoy!