Title:  And Now for Something Completely Different (The Chronicles of St. Mary’s #9.7) 

Author: Jodi Taylor

Publisher: Accent Press 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 78

Stars: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series

Here's a question for you. What's the most exciting thing ever found in a fire bucket? And don't say 'fire' because you'll be wrong.

Suppose - just suppose - it was the technology to take a pod to Mars? Yeah, now we're talking!

Every Christmas, for reasons which seem good at the time - especially after an eggnog or two - Max and the others leap into the nearest pod and indulge in their illegal Christmas jump. It's a tradition. This year, however, just to be different, they find themselves part of someone else's illegal Christmas jump. It's time to don a spacesuit and bring your own urine!

This short story was definitely different. We get a story told not from Max’s perspective, but from the Time Police. I liked the shift even if Max is still my character. Plus we get an amazing new setting: Mars!!! It seems unlikely, but I would love a follow up story dealing with subsequent Mars settlements.

The Chronicles of St. Mary’s:

• #0.5 The Very First Damned Thing

• #1 Just One Damned Thing After Another

• #2 A Symphony of Echoes

• #2.5 When A Child is Born

• #3 A Second Chance

• #3.5 Roman Holiday

• #4 A Trail Through Time

• #4.5 Christmas Present

• #5 No Time Like the Past

• #6 What Could Possibly Go Wrong

• #6.5 Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings

• #7 Lies, Damned Lies, and History

• #7.5 The Great St. Mary’s Day Out

• #7.6 My Name is Markham

• #8 And the Rest is History

• #8.5 A Perfect Storm

• #8.6 Christmas Past

• #9 An Argumentation of Historians

• #9.5 Battersea Barricades

• #9.6 The Steam-Pump Jump

• #9.7 And Now For Something Completely Different

• #10 Hope is for the Best

Next up on the TBR pile: