Susan Galina is lost--and that's just the beginning of this thoroughly enjoyable journey. On the cruise ship Odyssey, Susan and her friend Pat meet writer Max Merriwell and are drawn into a series of mysteries fueled by the alarming possibility that Max's pseudonyms are somehow taking on lives of their own. The lines of reality become more blurred every day, forcing Susan to face some private monsters while Pat constructs an elegant quantum physics explanation of the growing chaos.

There's plenty of wackiness and just plain fun--trance-inducing conga music, wolves on the recreation deck, and the Flaming Rum Monkey--but Adventures in Time and Space is more than simply a wild ride through intersecting possibilities: it's also an exploration of personal relativity, the power of individual choice to create any number of potential realities. Readers should be ready to enter into the spirit of the game: as one character says, "Reality is a much more flexible concept than most people think." Murphy's clear prose, sharp wit, and keen observations of the dreams and fears of the human heart make the most of all the possibilities. --Roz Genessee


From Publishers Weekly
In this cerebral equivalent of a roller-coaster ride from Nebula-winner Murphy (Wild Angel), Susan Galina, a quiet librarian with a repressed imagination, faces all sorts of amusing, thought-provoking challenges on a cruise through the Bermuda Triangle. Susan falls for the ship's security officer, attends a writing class taught by Max Merriwell (her favorite author), is stalked by one of Merriwell's seemingly autonomous, pseudonymous alter egos, and along the way reinvents herself. The novel's surface, however, is not smooth; it loops back onto itself beautifully. Pat Murphy is on the cruise and also a character in a book by Merriwell, as well as the author of these Adventures. The title of these Adventures is the title of a book that Merriwell dreams that he has written. The narrative is replete with absorbing ponderings on the nature of reality and the nature of the novel. "Fiction writers are all liars," Merriwell says at one point. "People tend to forget that." Furthermore, all people are liars rewriting their own lives, whether with small lies or more complex ones. Characters in novels are lies who can lie, but they can be just as real as people outside novels. In this book obsessed with books, the questions of who is in charge, who is real and whether the answers to those questions matter will leave readers pleasantly dizzy. (Nov. 6)Forecast: In addition to literate SF fans with a sense of humor, this good-natured romp should appeal to those whose tastes run to the metafictional.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Newly divorced and seeking a change in her life, Susan Galina accompanies her friend Pat on a vacation cruise that turns into a bizarre encounter with shifting realities and multiple possibilities. As the ship enters the Bermuda Triangle, mysterious occurrences challenge the perceptions of the passengers, and Susan must face her own uncertainties before she can sort out the chaotic forces that threaten her friends and her newfound happiness. Murphy (There and Back Again, Wild Angel) here completes her triptych of novels that pays homage to classic tales of adventure and whimsy with an eerie mystery that recalls the works of Lewis Carroll and the theories of quantum physics. Highly recommended for sf collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gently pulling her fans' legs again, Murphy writes a final novel involving her fictional coauthors, Max Merriwell, who writes science fiction (There and Back Again, 1999), and Mary Maxwell, who writes romantic fantasy (Wild Angel, 2000). Susan Galina and her friend Pat Murphy are temporarily unemployed and taking a lavish cruise, thanks to Susan's entry in a writing-magazine contest. Max Merriwell is also on board, conducting a writing workshop that includes Susan, Pat, and a handful of other passengers. Confused and depressed after her recent divorce, Susan is buoyed up by a vibrant, irreverent doctoral candidate in physics. Tom Clayton, the ship's security officer, would like to cheer Susan up, too, but a mostly drunken group of passengers, members of the E Clampus Vitus society, keeps his hands full. Add the mysterious appearances of obstreperous writer Weldon Merrimax and the mischievous Mary Maxwell, neither of whom are on the passenger list, and stories about the Bermuda Triangle start sounding plausible. Smart, funny, thoroughly addictive, Murphy's jaunt is reminiscent of Connie Willis' lighter work. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Cruise into murder, mayhem, and alternate realities.

Award-winning author Pat Murphy takes us aboard a luxury cruise ship and into the strange confluence of time and space known as the Bermuda Triangle, in an engaging science fiction romp that recalls the work of Kate Wilhelm.

Susan Galina and her friend Pat have escaped their normal lives into the elegant, isolated world of the Odyssey, a luxury cruise ship heading from NY to Europe via Bermuda. Pat is working on her doctoral thesis in quantum physics, and Susan is recovering from a recent and unhappy divorce.

To Susan's delight, she discovers that her favorite author, Max Merriwell, is also aboard ship, teaching writers' workshop. Susan's life becomes even more interesting when she meets Tom Clayton, the handsome chief of security. This cruise looks very promising indeed.

But the pleasant shipboard vacation turns dark as the Odyssey passes into the Bermuda Triangle. Each year, Max Merriwell writes three novels: a science fiction novel under his own name, a fantasy novel under the pseudonym Mary Maxwell, and a mystery novel under the pseudonym Weldon Merrimax. The trouble begins when Max receives a threatening note that appears to come from Weldon Merrimax, Max's own pseudonym. Susan hears wolves howling in the night, the ship's passengers are seized with a dancing mania, and monsters lurk in the ship's corridors. An eyewitness reports a murder—but the victim of the crime is not on the passenger list and the body is nowhere to be found. While others struggle to understand these strange events, Pat seeks the explanation in quantum theory.

Out of these elements, Murphy builds a suspenseful, funny, fast-paced novel of shifting and intersecting realities that is a joy to read.



About the Author
Pat Murphy has won numerous awards for her science fiction and fantasy writing, including the Nebula Award for best novel, the Philip K. Dick Award for best paperback original, and the World Fantasy Award. Her past novels include The Falling Woman, and most recently There and Back Again and Wild Angel. When she is not writing science fiction, Pat Murphy writes for the Exploratorium, San Francisco's museum of science, art, and human perception. She lives in San Francisco, California.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Susan Galina and her friend Pat have escaped their normal lives into the elegant, isolated world of the Odyssey, a luxury cruise ship heading from New York to Europe via Bermuda. Pat is working on her doctoral thesis in quantum physics, and Susan is recovering from a recent and unhappy divorce." "To Susan's delight, she discovers that her favorite author, Max Merriwell, is also aboard ship, teaching a writers' workshop. Susan's life becomes even more interesting when she meets Tom Clayton, the handsome chief of security. This cruise looks very promising indeed." But the pleasant shipboard vacation turns dark as the Odyssey passes into the Bermuda Triangle. Each year, Max Merriwell writes three novels: a science fiction novel under his own name, a fantasy novel under the pseudonym Mary Maxwell, and a mystery novel under the pseudonym Weldon Merrimax. The trouble begins when Max receives a threatening note that appears to come from Weldon Merrimax, Max's own pseudonym. Susan hears wolves howling in the night, the ship's passengers are seized with a dancing mania, and monsters lurk in the ship's corridors. An eyewitness reports a murder - but the victim of the crime is not on the passenger list and the body is nowhere to be found. While others struggle to understand these strange events, Pat seeks the explanation in quantum theory.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this cerebral equivalent of a roller-coaster ride from Nebula-winner Murphy (Wild Angel), Susan Galina, a quiet librarian with a repressed imagination, faces all sorts of amusing, thought-provoking challenges on a cruise through the Bermuda Triangle. Susan falls for the ship's security officer, attends a writing class taught by Max Merriwell (her favorite author), is stalked by one of Merriwell's seemingly autonomous, pseudonymous alter egos, and along the way reinvents herself. The novel's surface, however, is not smooth; it loops back onto itself beautifully. Pat Murphy is on the cruise and also a character in a book by Merriwell, as well as the author of these Adventures. The title of these Adventures is the title of a book that Merriwell dreams that he has written. The narrative is replete with absorbing ponderings on the nature of reality and the nature of the novel. "Fiction writers are all liars," Merriwell says at one point. "People tend to forget that." Furthermore, all people are liars rewriting their own lives, whether with small lies or more complex ones. Characters in novels are lies who can lie, but they can be just as real as people outside novels. In this book obsessed with books, the questions of who is in charge, who is real and whether the answers to those questions matter will leave readers pleasantly dizzy. (Nov. 6) Forecast: In addition to literate SF fans with a sense of humor, this good-natured romp should appeal to those whose tastes run to the metafictional. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Newly divorced and seeking a change in her life, Susan Galina accompanies her friend Pat on a vacation cruise that turns into a bizarre encounter with shifting realities and multiple possibilities. As the ship enters the Bermuda Triangle, mysterious occurrences challenge the perceptions of the passengers, and Susan must face her own uncertainties before she can sort out the chaotic forces that threaten her friends and her newfound happiness. Murphy (There and Back Again, Wild Angel) here completes her triptych of novels that pays homage to classic tales of adventure and whimsy with an eerie mystery that recalls the works of Lewis Carroll and the theories of quantum physics. Highly recommended for sf collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews