I was given a free galley of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, so I wasn't thrilled with this book at first. The first story was this interesting book about a girl being raised by wolves. It was good, but not great. The second book, however, tied in all of the elements from the first and went only up from there. I really, really enjoyed this read. It leaves the reader with a great deal to think about and a world of possibilities. ( )

Pat Murphy has conducted an experiment. She has written a science fiction novel, loosely influenced by Tolkien's The Hobbit, There and Back Again as Max Merriwell, and a historical fantasy novel, loosely influenced by Tarzan, called Wild Angel as Max Merriwell writing as Mary Maxwell. She's also written Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell as herself, a book which brings these pseudonyms together, along with herself, on a cruise ship where realities bleed into one another. Does this sound confusing? It is, at first, but by the end of reading all three books, it makes such synergistic sense you want it never to end. All three novels are fascinating in their own right, although I wouldn't recommend reading Adventures in Time and Space... without having read the other two. This may be difficult because Tolkien's estate has caused them to stop printing There and Back Again. A real travesty. I don't find it derivative or infringing at all.
Anyway, all three books are wildly imaginative with suspenseful plotting, realistic character development, and scientific notions which challenge the reader's view of the world.
Extremely well-written. Pat Murphy is my new favorite author, and I'm going on an adventurous quest to track down all her other work. ( )

I've read a book by Pat Murphy before and liked it so when I was invited to read this omnibus of two of her books (Wild Angel and Adventures in Space and Time With Max Merriwell) I jumped at the chance. These two books work well as a collection (even though they are different genres) and while I was reading Adventures I found myself wishing that Pat Murphy's book There and Back Again would have been included as well. I understood why it was not included when I read the afterword and saw that it is no longer in print. This omnibus is still quite enjoyable without There and Back Again and I would recommend this to someone looking for some great adventure stories.

Here are my reviews for each book:

Wild Angel

What a completely unexpected breath of fresh air. I have to admit that before I started reading Wild Angel I was a bit wary about it. I just didn't think I'd end up liking a story about a girl raised by wolves. I needn't have worried though because once I started reading it, it was extremely hard to put down.

Sarah was one of the most fascinating characters that I have read about in a while. To go from such sorrow at a young age to joining a wolf pack and learning the ways of a wolf made me grow to really like her. At times she could be frustrating and it felt like she developed wolf-like senses way too fast but I loved how strong she became once she was adopted by the pack. I mostly liked the secondary characters (I loved Max) but Sarah was the character that really shined in this.

I absolutely loved that this took place during the gold rush. This allowed the story to alternate between focusing on Sarah and showing what life was like back then. After reading this I really look forward to reading more books that take place during that time period.

Adventures in Space and Time with Max Merriwell

After reading Wild Angel and liking it I was excited to start this book. While I did enjoy it overall, this one definitely did not have the same magic as Wild Angel. This takes place on a cruise ship in which Max Merriwell's pen names show up and start to cause trouble. Ironically enough Max Merriwell and his pen names are pen names of the author, Pat Murphy.

Sometimes it was a little hard to keep my attention in this book. I ended up liking the characters who weren't the '"pen names" more than those who were and was a bit annoyed at all the appearances of the pen names. All the talk of physics in the 'Bad Grrlz' parts of this book could at times be a bit over my head and ended up lessening my enjoyment. I understand how important those parts were to the book but they weren't my favorite parts.

I wasn't really big on the ending. It really connects back to all the physics and pataphysics stuff discussed (which I already wasn't fond of) and it just seemed like it went out with a fizzle. I would recommend this to people who have read Wild Angel or another of Pat Murphy's books There and Back Again. ( )