When history teacher Fritz Russell walks through his classroom door, he finds himself in the company of General Robert E. Lee – over 150 years in the past.Fritz finds his sudden time trip to the past both a gift and a chance for great adventure. But when a portal opens to the Oval Office, he realizes that the mysterious gate could also be put to a more serious purpose.When the president hires him … president hires him to help with national security, Fritz doesn’t believe there is any danger in traveling across time and space. But will his own government consider him expendable if he cannot solve the mystery of the portal?
Praise:
★★★★★ – “Michael R. Stern brings a new twist to the concept of time travel in this fun, fast-paced and inventive read.”
★★★★★ – “An exceptionally fine science fiction novel.”
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I’d read a few reviews and seen some promos for Michael R. Stern’s books in the past, but with a TBR toppling over and this being a genre I don’t often read, it never made the climb to the top… until this week. I decided it was time to read the first book, Storm Portal, in his Quantum Touch series. Now I could kick myself for waiting so long. This series isn’t just a science-fiction / time travel story; it has mystery, suspense, drama, intrigue, and wit, and characters I really like.
Fritz, our protagonist, is a history teacher in New Jersey. He’s married, trying to motivate his students, building new friendships, and then boom… his life changes. To find out the specifics, you’ll have to read the book since I am not going to spoil anything. It’s fair to tell you there is a lightning storm, and he’s electrocuted, but from there on… it’s quite a journey. He visits several important moments in history, including a candid discussion with General Robert E. Lee near the end of the Civil War, the actual Triangle fire that changed labor laws, and then… he enters the office of a US President. Fritz’s time travel discovery is no longer secret, and now he needs to figure out whether anyone believes him or is on his side.
At first, the book takes us through a teacher’s journey. Several chapters set the stage, clearly showing the author’s love of history and knowledge of critical events in our past. Meshed with some science and technology overviews, we come to learn what happened when lightning struck. Stern doesn’t get into nitty gritty details; he offers a fine balance of “just go with what I’m saying here” and “here’s the basics of how it works.” It captivated my attention immediately. In all the time travel stories I’ve read before, it was often about where and when the traveler went, or what problem they were trying to fix. Storm Portal takes a totally different stance: how does this work and why might someone try to kill me because of it!
The pages flew by. I read it in two sections, mostly because I had to meet friends for dinner and couldn’t keep reading the first day. The characters are tightly knit, and they ask good questions. Sometimes a scene is just witty and clever, others there is a bit of emotion attached to make us wonder — how would we handle the situation? Our protagonist knows nothing about time travel. He just got tossed back 150 years… and when the President and Secret Service are involved, you have to include some levity or it will be angsty and unbelievable. Stern balances all of this adeptly and kept me fully fascinated.
When I hit the 90% mark, I really kept wondering… he’s playing us. Stern is leading us down a path but really, there will be a secret soon that totally changes the game. Someone knows something, and we don’t know which character is actually being two-faced or double-crossing someone. Is it one of Fritz’s friends? The Secret Service? The National Security Adviser? I mean… come on… there are so many black SUVs following him, then a few shots are taken. We get glimpses of scenes with a vague speaker. And then boom, the book comes to a screeching halt. It was powerful and simply tons of fun to read.
There had to be a setup for future books in the series, and let me tell you… I’ve bought into it. I can’t wait to pick up the next book to find out what’s going on behind the scenes. Great book. Highly recommend. Easy to read, minimal complexity in terms of how time travel works, but full of education on history. A perfect combo for me.
My Review of : Storm portal (Quantum Touch Book 1) By Michael R Stern
When teacher Fritz Russell walks into his classroom and finds himself and his students in a forest, in the past, talking to Robert E Lee, to say I was hooked would be an understatment!
Although he has yet to discover the reasons behind this strange phenomenon or how to control it, his time travelling adventures continue.
When the American President becomes involved, Fritz´s search for answers becomes more urgent and desperate.
I read on, willing the good hearted History teacher and his band of friends to be able to find the answers he seeks. Would he succeed in closing the portal before he becomes a threat to national security and disappears by sinister means?
This book kept me enthralled from start to finish and definitely merits the five stars.
Don´t miss out on this great read!
Fritz Russel is a history teacher at a local high school in New Jersey. A lightning bolt knocks him for a loop. When he opens the door into his classroom to admit the class they walk into a grassy area where the find Robert E. Lee. He has just signed the surrender at Appomattox. They have quite a conversation and a second class joins them before they walk back through the portal and into the high school. Before the day is over another class walks into the Triangle Fire scene in New York City in 1911. They see the young women on fire jumping from the windows and plunging to their deaths, and somehow wander into the morgue before walking back through the portal. The last class walks into the Oval Office and meets the President at the White House. He accompanies them back through the Portal while ordering someone to be at the high school to pick him up. Events accelerate after this. One security officer wants to eliminate Fritz. Fritz’s wife worries about him and the effect the Portal has had on him and the school. A wild tale of technology is concocted to explain what the students saw. The White House has the classroom and the Russel home bugged. They also use special electronics to examine the schoolroom and find ghostly images of all the events. Does this mean there is Time Travel, or is the past coming into the future, or even a parallel universe. No one knows and all search for the key to open the Portal again. They even use the Portal to rescue an ambassador’s wife and children, and then the Ambassador in a foreign country. All this time they are unsure of the actual Key that unlocks the Portal and its potential. The Key will be found, but how will it be used in the future? Will they discover it is really Time Travel or is the Past surging toward us? Perhaps a sequel will solve that question.
What would you do if you inadvertently opened a time portal, stepped through it with a number of other people and then tried to figure out how to tamp down the experience, hide it from reality? Those are a couple of the dilemmas facing our hero in this interesting and enjoyable read. Others arise. On his third trip the hero steps into the office of the President of the U.S., then faces the difficulty of dealing with bureaucracy and bureaucratic dinosaurs. All these dilemmas are well presented by both the characters and the writer in his story line. The scenario of time travel and what one could do with it, if it could be controlled, is fascinating stuff. Mr. Stern makes it fun as well. The characters are well drawn, the story line is woven through with the lives of the characters. There is some political discussion. How could there not be? In our time, in any time in our history, politics would have to be involved in the life of a history teacher and particularly one whose use of a time travel portal might be used to benefit mankind. All in all this was a very enjoyable read. Five stars are well warranted.
Michael R. Stern conveys an original take on the notion of time travel wrapped up in this entertaining, innovative tale.
The portal allows the protagonist, Fritz, Russell, to journey to significant times in America’s history and speak with influential people such as Robert E Lee and even the president of the United States. The tale is advanced by the characters’ hunt to discover how to replicate the technique for more journeying through time. The dilemma; Fritz must unravel the riddle quickly if he is to have even minor safety for his own life.
Author Michael R. Stern’s Storm Portal book 1 has terrific, relatable characters, is resolutely written, finely stridden, and highly creative. Past and present circumstances will engross you and keep you turning the pages.
If you like intrigue, action, mystery, authentic characters, and going into time portals, this book will be right up your alley.
I’d read a few reviews and seen some promos for Michael R. Stern’s books in the past, but with a TBR toppling over and this being a genre I don’t often read, it never made the climb to the top… until this week. I decided it was time to read the first book, Storm Portal, in his Quantum Touch series. Now I could kick myself for waiting so long. This series isn’t just a science-fiction / time travel story; it has mystery, suspense, drama, intrigue, and wit, and characters I really like.
Fritz, our protagonist, is a history teacher in New Jersey. He’s married, trying to motivate his students, building new friendships, and then boom… his life changes. To find out the specifics, you’ll have to read the book since I am not going to spoil anything. It’s fair to tell you there is a lightning storm, and he’s electrocuted, but from there on… it’s quite a journey. He visits several important moments in history, including a candid discussion with General Robert E. Lee near the end of the Civil War, the actual Triangle fire that changed labor laws, and then… he enters the office of a US President. Fritz’s time travel discovery is no longer secret, and now he needs to figure out whether anyone believes him or is on his side.
At first, the book takes us through a teacher’s journey. Several chapters set the stage, clearly showing the author’s love of history and knowledge of critical events in our past. Meshed with some science and technology overviews, we come to learn what happened when lightning struck. Stern doesn’t get into nitty gritty details; he offers a fine balance of “just go with what I’m saying here” and “here’s the basics of how it works.” It captivated my attention immediately. In all the time travel stories I’ve read before, it was often about where and when the traveler went, or what problem they were trying to fix. Storm Portal takes a totally different stance: how does this work and why might someone try to kill me because of it!
The pages flew by. I read it in two sections, mostly because I had to meet friends for dinner and couldn’t keep reading the first day. The characters are tightly knit, and they ask good questions. Sometimes a scene is just witty and clever, others there is a bit of emotion attached to make us wonder — how would we handle the situation? Our protagonist knows nothing about time travel. He just got tossed back 150 years… and when the President and Secret Service are involved, you have to include some levity or it will be angsty and unbelievable. Stern balances all of this adeptly and kept me fully fascinated.
When I hit the 90% mark, I really kept wondering… he’s playing us. Stern is leading us down a path but really, there will be a secret soon that totally changes the game. Someone knows something, and we don’t know which character is actually being two-faced or double-crossing someone. Is it one of Fritz’s friends? The Secret Service? The National Security Adviser? I mean… come on… there are so many black SUVs following him, then a few shots are taken. We get glimpses of scenes with a vague speaker. And then boom, the book comes to a screeching halt. It was powerful and simply tons of fun to read.
There had to be a setup for future books in the series, and let me tell you… I’ve bought into it. I can’t wait to pick up the next book to find out what’s going on behind the scenes. Great book. Highly recommend. Easy to read, minimal complexity in terms of how time travel works, but full of education on history. A perfect combo for me.
My Review of : Storm portal (Quantum Touch Book 1) By Michael R Stern
When teacher Fritz Russell walks into his classroom and finds himself and his students in a forest, in the past, talking to Robert E Lee, to say I was hooked would be an understatment!
Although he has yet to discover the reasons behind this strange phenomenon or how to control it, his time travelling adventures continue.
When the American President becomes involved, Fritz´s search for answers becomes more urgent and desperate.
I read on, willing the good hearted History teacher and his band of friends to be able to find the answers he seeks. Would he succeed in closing the portal before he becomes a threat to national security and disappears by sinister means?
This book kept me enthralled from start to finish and definitely merits the five stars.
Don´t miss out on this great read!
Fritz Russel is a history teacher at a local high school in New Jersey. A lightning bolt knocks him for a loop. When he opens the door into his classroom to admit the class they walk into a grassy area where the find Robert E. Lee. He has just signed the surrender at Appomattox. They have quite a conversation and a second class joins them before they walk back through the portal and into the high school. Before the day is over another class walks into the Triangle Fire scene in New York City in 1911. They see the young women on fire jumping from the windows and plunging to their deaths, and somehow wander into the morgue before walking back through the portal. The last class walks into the Oval Office and meets the President at the White House. He accompanies them back through the Portal while ordering someone to be at the high school to pick him up. Events accelerate after this. One security officer wants to eliminate Fritz. Fritz’s wife worries about him and the effect the Portal has had on him and the school. A wild tale of technology is concocted to explain what the students saw. The White House has the classroom and the Russel home bugged. They also use special electronics to examine the schoolroom and find ghostly images of all the events. Does this mean there is Time Travel, or is the past coming into the future, or even a parallel universe. No one knows and all search for the key to open the Portal again. They even use the Portal to rescue an ambassador’s wife and children, and then the Ambassador in a foreign country. All this time they are unsure of the actual Key that unlocks the Portal and its potential. The Key will be found, but how will it be used in the future? Will they discover it is really Time Travel or is the Past surging toward us? Perhaps a sequel will solve that question.
What would you do if you inadvertently opened a time portal, stepped through it with a number of other people and then tried to figure out how to tamp down the experience, hide it from reality? Those are a couple of the dilemmas facing our hero in this interesting and enjoyable read. Others arise. On his third trip the hero steps into the office of the President of the U.S., then faces the difficulty of dealing with bureaucracy and bureaucratic dinosaurs. All these dilemmas are well presented by both the characters and the writer in his story line. The scenario of time travel and what one could do with it, if it could be controlled, is fascinating stuff. Mr. Stern makes it fun as well. The characters are well drawn, the story line is woven through with the lives of the characters. There is some political discussion. How could there not be? In our time, in any time in our history, politics would have to be involved in the life of a history teacher and particularly one whose use of a time travel portal might be used to benefit mankind. All in all this was a very enjoyable read. Five stars are well warranted.
Michael R. Stern conveys an original take on the notion of time travel wrapped up in this entertaining, innovative tale.
The portal allows the protagonist, Fritz, Russell, to journey to significant times in America’s history and speak with influential people such as Robert E Lee and even the president of the United States. The tale is advanced by the characters’ hunt to discover how to replicate the technique for more journeying through time. The dilemma; Fritz must unravel the riddle quickly if he is to have even minor safety for his own life.
Author Michael R. Stern’s Storm Portal book 1 has terrific, relatable characters, is resolutely written, finely stridden, and highly creative. Past and present circumstances will engross you and keep you turning the pages.
If you like intrigue, action, mystery, authentic characters, and going into time portals, this book will be right up your alley.
Time Travel adventure with much time spent trying to figure out how the accidental time travel happened and the fallout from surprise time travel. The dark, paranoid side of time travel events that could be dangerous to National Security are explored. This is a character driven story and it is the first of a series. This story can be considered a stand alone as everything is neatly wrapped up by the end.