Booklog 66/2025: Nick Jones: The Observer Effect – Joseph Bridgeman #3 - Audiobook

Audiobook narrated by Ray Porter

Joseph Bridgeman is drawn back into time travel via the Continuum, together with time-traveller Gabrielle, American, punky acerbic – and she hates Joe’s guts. They travel back to Paris 1873, the burning of the Opera House (a real event) in order to save a talented musician from life-changing injury, and to rescue another time-traveller, Nils, who is stuck in a kind of time-traveller-limbo courtesy of Scarlet (the mysterious antagonist from the second book in the series). Joe is still trying to fit into his new life and regain the trust of Alexia (his love in the first book) but he readily accepts the role of observer on Gabrielle’s mission to Paris and gets drawn into subsequent jumps. One thing leads to another as the pair acclimate to each other and work out how they can succeed. There are hair-raising moments of intrigue and danger. The burning opera house sequence is tense and exciting. Ray Porter does his usual good job of narration, and after three books I’ve stopped asking why an American narrator was chosen to read an English protagonist. It works. Happy to move on to the next book.

Booklog 67/2025: Gareth Brown: The Society of Unknowable Objects

There’s a secret society of only four members, dedicated to finding and preserving magical objects, to keep them safe from people who might try to use them. It’s pretty quiet. There aren’t that many magical objects to be found, and Frank, who is the chap in charge, is secretive. When news of an artifact in Hong Kong reaches Frank he sends Magda to find it, and she’s immediately plunged into danger when it becomes obvious she’s not the only one on the trail. This is a likeable enough book, with some twists, though an author should always be a bit wary of using quotes such as ‘Like Michael Creighton at his finest.’ (Sadly, it’s not.) It does start with one of my pet hates, which is the character you are introduced to first, and invest in, ends up dead very soon. The main character is her daughter. Anyhow, despite that, there’s a mix of intrigue with a touch of romance in the air. Things come to a head when the Society’s magical artifacts are stolen and Magda and co, fly off to America to retrieve them, finding much more than they bargained for, not just the villain from Hong Kong, but something much more deadly. The epilogue introduces a new character and the promise of further adventures, but it doesn’t look like a follow-up has appeared yet.