Joseph Bridgeman is now a fully-fledged time traveler, traveling to the past to ensure the future remains stable. He bonds with a Tang dynasty horse sculpture, known as a "mingqu," which takes him back to 8th century China, the furthest he has ever traveled. Only problem is, the horse was part of an auction set up by a company called Extempero, run by a rogue time traveler, who is aided by Scarlet, another rogue time traveler who used to work for The Continuum, where Joseph works as well. Two other people make the job to China with him, the head of the company and the winner of the auction. Joseph is captured and his mission to the past fails, which sets up catastrophe for the future of mankind. Joseph has to do everything he can to remedy this disaster. He ends up saving a surgeon from committing suicide the day of the great San Francisco earthquake in 1989, but he also rescues four people he was not supposed to rescue, which contributes to another future index disaster. Time has rules about what can happen in the past.

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the gifted book!

The fourth book in the Joseph Bridgeman time travel series, and now Joseph is a full fledged member of the time traveling group, the Continuum. And when an antique focus object goes missing, he is thrust into a new mission that takes him WAY back in time and throws him into investigating a secretive organization that somehow connects back to the Continuum and his own time travel journey.

The most mind bending of the series yet, this book really opens up so many possibilities for books to come while also being a great standalone as well. I got some Blake Crouch vibes in the second half as the plot got more complex and I was here for it.

This series would work SO WELL on the screen, I really hope it gets adapted into a TV series.

4.5★s
The Quantum Chain is the fourth book in the Joseph Bridgeman series by British author, Nick Jones. With two successful time travel change missions under his belt, Joe is relaxing back into his life, hoping things with Alexia will progress further, and a little worried about the direction his best friend Vinny’s renewed relationship is taking, when he gets a call from the woman he refers to as a red-haired hand-grenade.

Gabrielle Green needs his antique dealer assistance in acquiring a Tang Dynasty ceramic horse. The mingqi is a focus object, an item that is a conduit to a particular past event that needs changing, and this one has gone off its expected path. A quick trip to Amsterdam with a loaded credit card fails: the item is already sold to Emil Zanak, who runs Extempero.

As the Continuum is rather desperate to get their focus object back, Joe is suitably attired and equipped with a generous budget and a convincing past to get him into the auction. But that doesn’t go as planned. Joe is shocked and stunned when he learns exactly what Extempero does. He improvises, and manages to get to eighth Century China anyway, attempting to carry out the mission, even with Zanak and the auction winner in tow.

While this corner of China in 753AD is friendlier than he expected, Joe’s best efforts aren’t always good enough and, assisted by an old friend, he has a lucky escape from a nasty fate involving archers. He does learn the method and extent of Scarlett’s perfidy, something he needs to quickly bring to the Continuum’s attention. It turns out to be much more serious than Joe realises, and it seems like someone within the Continuum is feeding Scarlett information.

Between them, Joe, Gabrielle and certain trusted members of the Continuum set up a trap for Scarlett: it’s the only way they’ll stop further deterioration of the Future Change Index. Will they succeed?

This instalment sees Joe flitting between the eighth and twenty-second Centuries with relative ease, becoming a temporary multi-millionaire, managing several narrow escapes from those intent on doing him harm; he is shot with a tranquiliser dart and tied to a tree, gets to stand on the Golden Gate Bridge, and barely escapes an earthquake with his life.

Reading this series in order is highly recommended as there are many spoilers in this book for the previous three and, read as a stand-alone, The Quantum Chain would be rather confusing. In fact, with two Joes at one stage, the plot gets quite convoluted, even for the reader who has faithfully read each book. It will be interesting to see what Nick Jones has in store for his protagonist in further books. Excellent time travel fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing.

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.

And with the fourth book in the series, it's been knocked out of the park once again. It functions as a tidy and fast paced adventure, but also gives more breadcrumbs to the series-wide mysteries.

This series follows Joseph Bridgeman, an ametuar time traveller. In this book, Joseph is part of the time-travel-police. However, his missions are just as messy as when he was freelance.

I thought I knew what I was getting into with this book. I've read the prequels, and I'm accustomed to the wild quest through time. I was wrong, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. And the plot twists in this book knocked my socks off!

If you're looking for a complicated, hard scifi were you can figure out the rules, this series isn't for you. It's soft time travel, with new rules and exceptions to old rules being introduced as you go. If you're looking for an adventure, this book has got you covered.

My video review: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LdGISSSLQG8&feature=shares&t=732

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

I love time travel stories and the Joseph Bridgeman series in particular. This story really worked for me and it was beautifully done. I was hooked by the premise, and the story did what I was hoping it would do. The characters were vibrant and engaging. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to read this book. Nick Jones has a top notch writing style and I look forward to more from him.

This excellent series continues to grow stronger and stronger with this fourth addition to the Joseph Bridgman series. Joe is now an experienced time traveller and is learning more about the Continuum, the organisation he travels for, when he’s not working in his antique business in London. In this episode he comes across an organisation called Extempero that collects the very artifacts that the Continuum needs to use as focus objects for their time travellers to travel to the correct time to fix an anomaly. In order to find out who is involved and why they are doing this, Joe must undertake several dangerous missions, and finds himself not only bending the rules but facing a time travel paradox.

This is definitely a series that needs to be read from the start as the world building develops slowly and the reader learns the rules of time travel and how the Continuum operates along with Joe without it ever becoming too complex all at once. I particularly like the concept that time itself is an entity that knows what it needs to be healed. Between missions Joe is also trying to squeeze in a personal life, worrying about his best friend Vinny whose ex-girlfriend has turned up with the daughter he didn’t know he had and is now trying to control his life and also working on proving his relationship with Alexia, the woman he loves. The end of the novel indicates that there is a lot more to come in this exciting series so readers can happily look forward to at least one more exciting episode in the future.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope he writes more! I am totally hooked!

The Quantum Chain by Nick Jones

Sometimes, authors should quit while the plaudits are still fresh. . Nick Jones, for exam[ple. The first three books featuring his unwilling time traveling Joseph Bridgeman were fresh, filled with twists and turns. They were additive and fun to read. Not so The Quantum Chain, the fourth in the series. I read his latest book courtesy of Net Galley and Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

I hated the book and gave up halfway-through, which I hardly ever do. On the positive side, the book answered questions left hanging in the previous books. Sadly, that's all it did. The plotting was sluggish and predictable. I had other books waiting in my TBR file calling to me. My friend Nancy Pearl once said if you weren’t excited by the book after 50 pages, let it go. So I did.

Sorry, Mr. Jones. Maybe next time.

In the latest entry in the fabulous Joseph Bridgeman series, time traveller Joe goes back to 743 China. I love this series because the time travelling is not part of some super-complicated hard science world, but is instead just part of a rollicking adventure story full of excitement and twists and turns. Love Joe, love the side characters, and most of all, love the time travel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

WOW. I said this about book 3 and I'll have to repeat myself for book 4 - this series just gets better and better. Nick Jones, that is some imagination you've got! I love reading time travel books and there are plenty of bad ones out there - if you're a fan of them as well, do yourself a favor and start this series today. (yes, you really do need to read these in order) One teeny tiny complaint: I wanted more Vinny! The dialogue between Joe and Vinny is always laugh out loud funny.

The writing is so descriptive and so detailed that you can absolutely see what Joe sees. The pacing is quick and the technical aspects of the traveling are so really, it's all highly believable! Can't wait to see what you come up with for book 5.

One of my all-time favorite tv shows is Quantum Leap (the original) and I can absolutely see these books as a tv series. Mr. Jones, I hope you get your wish as stated in your acknowledgments. Someone please help this man get a production option!