#BookReview: The Murder Machine by Heather Graham

SHE DID THE JOKE!!!! One of my favorite jokes EVER, one that I literally laugh out loud every time I see it, goes like this: “My wife asked me why I carry a gun in the house. I said ‘Decepticons’. She laughed. I laughed. The toaster laughed. I shot the toaster. It was a good day.”

Ladies and gentlemen, a minor spoiler: Deep in the heart of this book about AI tools controlling our machines and how these tools could be used for murder, there is a line:

“If I’m going to need to shoot anything, he thought dryly, it would need to be the appliances.”

YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHE DID THE JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That alone MADE this book for me. That one line guaranteed a 5* review. Because it referenced my favorite joke ever. 🙂

Now, the rest of the story, taking place largely in the area I currently live (Jacksonville/ St Augustine, FL) with a few trips to some areas I’ve visited over the years (Tennessee), was a fun one just because of the personal connections… and the well told story. This is one that could have gone a T2: The Future War (an excellent book from earlier this Millenium, the conclusion of a trilogy that picks up immediately after T2: Judgement Day and tells a better conclusion to the Terminator story than anything put on screen since T2) route, given its basic premise… and yet chooses to make everything more more human focused.

Which makes it absolutely more terrifying.

Overall a well told story that could seemingly work as a series starter – and it would be very interesting to see where such a series goes.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Murder Machine by Heather Graham was originally written on April 22, 2025.

#BlogTour: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a strong scifi book that will possibly cause a war within Booklandia. For this blog tour, we’re looking at A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen.

Here’s what I had to say on the review sites (Hardcover.app, TheStoryGraph, BookHype, Goodreads):

Title Vs Genre Will Cause A War In Booklandia. This is a book where the title will quell any riots over the story… and yet so many places (perhaps because of the publisher? unclear there) classifying this as a “romance” for genre purposes… is going to spark those very riots. To be clear, this book does NOT meet RWA qualifications for a “romance novel” – and is actually all the stronger for it. (As is generally the case, fwiw.) Which is why the title is correct and speaks to exactly what you can expect here: a scifi love story, both with the characters and from the writer to the audience. This is a quirky, funny, heart bursting, extremely cloudy room kind of scifi tale that is going to take you less on a rollercoaster of emotion and more through a multiverse of various combinations of emotions.

Yes, at its base this is a Groundhog Day/ Edge Of Tomorrow kind of time looping tale. Which then builds into almost Terminator level time looping. Even certain elements of a Michael Crichton TIMELINE or a Randall Ingermanson TRANSGRESSION or even a Jeremy Robinson THE DIDYMUS CONTINGENCY. All while based in and around a “super-LHC” – which reminds me, make sure to check hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com a few times while reading this book, just to be sure – and its experiments.

Overall this book really was quite good and quite a ride – one of the very few where I knew I had to immediately begin writing the review as soon as I finished the book itself. That, to me over the course of *so very many* books and Advance Review Copies over the last several years, is one of the marks of a particularly good book – you’re just left in such emotional upheaval that you *have* to write to get the thoughts out of your own head. But don’t go into this book expecting a romance – it does NOT meet those “official” guidelines – and, again, is stronger for it. It absolutely IS a love story (and yes, “clean”/ “sweet” crowd, you’ll find this one perfectly acceptable), and honestly one of the better ones I’ve read in the last several years.

Very much recommended.

Note that the review on Hardcover.app, TheStoryGraph, and Goodreads contains an extra paragraph that contains a spoiler that some may find beneficial to know about – this site, BookHype, and BookBub do not support spoiler tags to hide such details.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen”