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Neither Here nor There

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This is a stand alone story unrelated to any of my other books or shorts. So many scientific discoveries have been serendipity rather than a goal to which someone worked as a logical progression. Instead, it was a spill or a misplaced item. An ingredient measured out in error or from the wrong bottle. Often, a mistake over which someone was bright enough or curious enough to “Oops, but that’s interesting, isn’t it?” Uranium ore left next to photo plates, adhesive that wasn’t as permanent as hoped for, but still usefully tacky, or foreign growths in a Petri dish acting strangely… A major revelation could be a blessing indeed, or if it was big enough to be a life changing development, one might have a tiger by the tail. Wouldn’t that be interesting?

430 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 31, 2018

155 people are currently reading
26 people want to read

About the author

Mackey Chandler

35 books221 followers
Mackey (Mac') Chandler is retired to Rochester Michigan from a working life that spanned a large number of occupations. Mold maker, aerospace machinist, plumber, mechanic and dozen more as well as owning several businesses. This life experience and travel show in the depth and variety of his writing.
A life long time reader of Science Fiction, the authors at Baen's Bar and their evening chat room motivated him to try his own hand at writing. His first effort was a short story titled "Common Ground" which sold to the short-lived Jim Baen's Universe.
His personal favorite book is "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Other favorite authors include Michael Z. Williamson and C.J.Cherryh.

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5 stars
273 (59%)
4 stars
148 (32%)
3 stars
29 (6%)
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8 (1%)
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Pat Patterson.
353 reviews7 followers
July 18, 2018
A smart and ethical regular guy on one side; Those who would seek to control us on the other.

"Like most other people in the world, who were not famous stand up comedians, Jay always thought of the best response a few hours or days after the golden moment in which to deliver the perfect repartee."

It's this sort of throw-away repartee, popping up unexpectedly, that makes "Neither Here Nor There" a greatly amusing book to read, in addition to the "science fiction/action/persecuted innocent" themes. Think of them as the collections of brown sugar in your morning oatmeal.

Which is not to imply that the rest of the book is oatmeal, unless you especially like oatmeal. If so, then the book is NOT the stuff that you get out of a paper packet; it's REAL oatmeal, with butter, brown sugar, and maybe raisins or a little milk. Umm...I just realized it's past lunchtime. Sorry.

In the not-too-distant future, protagonist Jay is not a super-hero. He's a low-status college professor and part-time hobby researcher. He isn't fabulously wealthy; in fact, he drives a ratty old truck that isn't as reliable as it might be. He's not a former Black Operative, not a secret master of kung-fu, and he doesn't have a hidden stash of firearms. He's just this guy, see?

And then, his private research gets LUCKY! A program (and hardware) he has been toying with for a remote viewing application comes together, and has the unexpected property of allowing him to move matter through a 'window' produced by the system. SHAZAM! A portal into...the same dimension.

Except, it might not be so lucky after all.

In this future, Big Brother is DEFINITELY watching you, although he's not as brutal about it as in '1984.' In fact, there is no ONE big brother; there are different agencies, with different missions, and they compete with each other for status. However, they are all on the look-out for the next killer app, and Jay's little device is just that. With it, an operator can view ANYPLACE they can locate, and move things (including people) through the portal. Privacy, which is already severely compromised, would be ended; there would LITERALLY be no place that you could go where you couldn't be watched, and physical distance would no longer be a limit to the long arm of the law.

What I found to be the most engrossing aspect of the story is the problem-solving that Jay (and some few semi-accomplices) use in the development of the portal device. At each step, the technology isn't the key; it's the THINKING that's the key. How do I fix it so I can reach a hand through? How do I hide it? What are the limits? Yes, I suppose there IS a certain amount off unobtanium employed in the process, but that's entirely acceptable. Chandler does NOT ask us to suspend ALL the laws of physics, nor does he ask us to suspend logic AT ALL. It is a perfectly constructed story; it does not require us to have the time-tables of all the trains in London memorized, or different varieties of cigar ash. Jay and his pals are smart, but not beyond the realm of reality; one of his new friends DOES have a background as a Shadow Warrior, but I have more than one friend like that myself. When a puzzle needs to be solved, Jay doesn't quickly whip up a new sooper-dooper ray gun shamulixer to defranistan the whichawhen; he hires a lawyer, or a security company.

Therefore, we are ONLY required to make two suspensions of reality: first, we must believe that current surveillance technology and government policy will slide toward more invasion of personal privacy over the next few decades, and THAT'S not a hard stretch; second, we have to accept the discovery of a single new property of energy interacting with matter. Happens all the time, by the way.

I suppose we are then left with this question: Do we have any other alternative to escaping a growing intrusion into our private lives, other than having a fantastic new technology developed by a highly ethical hobbyist?
I leave the solution to the reader.
Profile Image for Shane.
631 reviews19 followers
February 12, 2018
Three and half stars. This is a stand alone book that is quite different from the author's popular series. Chandler creates a scary world full of surveillance. While the technology is a bit more advanced than our own, the world he creates isn't too far away from our own.

The story starts out as an interesting exploration of the potential disruption of a new technology (similar in scope to the Donsaii series from Lawrence Dahners.) About half way through the story dramatically escalates and then spirals out of control. There is a strong cast of characters but only a few are even moderately developed. Towards the finish the book picks up elements like "A Learning Experience" by Christopher Nuttall but before it can develop this change of focus it sort of just fizzles out.

There are some good characters and many interesting elements but they just seem tossed together instead of blended like Chandler has done so well in his other works.
Profile Image for Thomas.
2,706 reviews
August 7, 2021
Chandler, Mackey. Neither Here nor There. Kindle, 2018.
Mackey Chandler’s Neither Here nor There is set in a near future in America in which employers and government agencies routinely use technology to spy on their employees and citizens. Jay is a junior faculty member at a small college. He is really a physicist, but he teaches freshman chemistry because the university does not have a research program. In his spare time, he tinkers with a gadget he thinks will allow remote viewing but turns out to be a cheap and easy teleportation device. When a colleague and fishing buddy is arrested for spoofing security, Jay uses his device to launch a campaign to rescue him. It gets out of hand. The novel begins as a hard science speculation but morphs into a revenge caper and escapist fantasy. I wish the technology of teleportation were described in more detail, and I don’t find Jay’s character transformation creditable. On the positive end, the narrative is clear and well-paced. 3.5 stars.
9 reviews
July 1, 2019
Great read

I enjoyed this book so much I wish it continued. A sequel would be a thing worth reading. Maybe with extended and new characters.
31 reviews
January 25, 2019
Another good read by Chandler

Has aspects of the April series.I would like to see him incorporate studies of human behavior to stop big government institutions from acting badly. Perhaps develop a religion that incorporates our current understanding of science and sociology. How we act as populations increase is a big theme with this author. Any ideas for your next novel about how we stop the cycle of corruption and abuse in the long term? How will the grandchildren of your protagonist avoid becoming the bad guys? Anyway, another great read from Chandler. I have enjoyed this book enough for a second read, just like the April series, and hoping for more installments in both.
Profile Image for Sean Randall.
2,134 reviews54 followers
May 29, 2018

I actually really got into this. It had that slightly fanfic feel about it, but also reminded me a little of EFR's Wasp, which is a great book. Just how much of a pain one man can make of himself with a technological advantage explored well here. Some odd outliers - dudes and a very draconian future USA, but an intriguing story.
1,419 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2018
Could have been interesting

The premise is that an important engineering discovery is made by an underpaid chemistry professor whose only friend is an engineering professor at the same school. It's odd that a chemistry professor dabbled in physics but not unbelievable. There really seemed to be the beginning of a story with interesting characters but they never change/grow. The same is true for all the other characters, whether good guys or bad. The characters all have one thing in common, they are loners for whom the rest of the world only exists to help them pay the rent. It's weird.

The group comes together courtesy of lots of money. First stolen by way of the invention from drug organizations with an unspecified number of murders resulting and of no consequence, then from gold discovered and mined. The plot (?) doesn't work without the miraculous influx of loads of cash with little effort. Because the group members have no depth, there's little by way of dialogue to move the action along. We're told not shown how the story unfolds.

The group doesn't like their society but don't seek to change it, (admittedly dangerous) but only to escape. Their fellow citizens seem to be clueless, unaffected by the governmental intrusion in their private lives or numb to the lack of privacy. The world they inhabit is dark, quietly totalitarian and a good depiction of the current U.S.

The President and vice President are assassinated, yet there is no popular upheaval. The writer treats that a minor event. The characters don't even mention the change In administration for more than two years of story time.

The use of forfeiture (where your goods, property or cash are "arrested", while you are charged with nothing) is current common practice and is not new. It's been used against non-whites in this country for decades. The lack of accountability for law enforcement has also been a fact of life for poor whites and all non-whites since NYC first created their copper badged city servants. These things are being reported now that these practices have become public policy and are being applied to the middle classes. All true and good as far as it goes.

On it's present path though, within possibly ten and probably twenty years, the country can't be the same one he writes about. In one recent poll, a majority of self identified Republicans favor a coup. In a second poll, the majority of whites say they don't support White supremacist groups yet the majority agree with white supremacy talking points.

The Republican Party openly courts white supremacist groups and implements openly racist policies in order to court white voters. The Democratic Party is self-destructing to court the same voters. The two party two-step is falling apart. No attempt is made to portray individuals or the parties as different from each other.

People who are environmental, education, pro-woman, anti-racism activists and others are coalescing, coordinating and combining in response to the trend towards fascism.

The stage is set for violent clashes to return the society to the previous model of democracy, a more European pro-human model of democracy or a socialist restructuring of a failing system versus establishment of a dictatorship and outright fascism. There might be a several sided civil war. Far different from the world the writer envisions, in which the present system continues unchanged.

So characters and dialogue are flat and unappealing. Plot is reducible to rich self-made men save themselves from repression by moving to their own community of like minded souls. Sounds remarkably similar to "Atlas Shrugged".

I think this is the start of a series but I won't read it. Too simplistic, too libertarian.
Profile Image for Terry Gero.
133 reviews5 followers
October 9, 2019
I'm finding Mr.Chandler must have had serious issues with either or both military or gov authorities in his past. Or, this is how he portends our future becoming, which I can personally empathize with thanks to current potus post-2016 via text and media. On the editing of this book as with all Chandlers', it's a challenge coming across misspelled words that I label in notes as (?) but having to pause, and reread the statement to see if it didn't make sense is challenging. I would have rather not have to but like the main in this story, I have a bit of OCD about spelling having been raised by teachers.
Spies, spies everywhere. I had hopes I may find a clue to tie this to either of the series characters. I'll leave that hanging for you...
893 reviews5 followers
May 29, 2021
Good characters and good action

The story moved right along among sorta predictable lines. But of course if you stray to far from them you have something that nobody wants to read. How about a story like this:: Somewhere/sometime around the1880s ,here in America, someone invented a device that made you want to do your honest best. And then it was made mandatory for all government workers, elected or employees. Now, that would be real science fiction, to have an honest government.
206 reviews11 followers
April 14, 2021
Or maybe it’s “Here, There, or Anywhere!

I really enjoyed this story. The concept of accidentally discovering a cheap, low powered, teleportation device and what you might do with it was very well developed. Character development was also excellent. I found myself really caring about the main characters. I would really, really love to see a sequel (or more!) to this book! Read it, you WILL be glad you did!!
Profile Image for Kevin.
218 reviews11 followers
May 20, 2022
Fascinating tale of the trials of a man with limited insight, and infinite vision. If you did the one thing you loved, and well enough, what would happen if you were able to take that critical technological leap forward.
How would you react, your friends, and how would that affect your convictions? Do you really know the difference between right and wrong, and where would the line be between the two extremes for you?
70 reviews
July 15, 2021
Lots of good action

Not too much violence, plenty of mordant observations about how this country is run.
Once you get past the single physical improbability things hang together pretty well. My spouse asked me what I was reading and I said "A libertarians revenge fantasy". Lots of fun! !!
Profile Image for Tracy Crabtree.
149 reviews
September 17, 2022
I love this story

I see its standalone from 2018 but this really deserves at least a followup. Great people working together to build better, safer lives. Earth looks a political crash to happen (yes, the book despite similarity to current chaos, and would enjoy seeing followup from moon base. Thanks for the enjoyment.
19 reviews1 follower
July 16, 2025
A great story as always

I thank you for your work and all the stories that so far put out I laughed half way to free trader it was a wonderful story and neither here nor there is also a wonderful story I almost wish to find out how the E. drive worked out Brians me so much of Jeff in the April series and family law series thank you for your work
Profile Image for Te Kee.
79 reviews
February 14, 2018
Another jewel

Works from this author are like small fine jewels. Something to look forward to, ponder over and then moan because it just needed to be longer. Always look forward to the next adventure. l thank you😺
Profile Image for Curtis.
776 reviews20 followers
February 16, 2018
An Interesting Romp

A well-written, excellently edited, delightfully lengthy romp in an unfortunately not-far future that is quite the nice read. A real value, polished well. Definitely recommended.
Profile Image for Aleea J. Brewer.
180 reviews3 followers
February 22, 2018
Interesting Ideas

This began a bit slowly for me, but I am glad I stayed with it. This story moves along quite well after a couple chapters. The main character is entirely too trusting, quickly becomes disillusioned and takes matters into his own very lucky hands. A good read.
78 reviews
March 1, 2018
Creative Plot!

Loved the book! Plenty of reading adventure time packed in this book. Good editing and decent character development. If you like Laurence Dahners "Elle Series", then you will enjoy this story. I couldn't put it down.
649 reviews4 followers
October 11, 2020
Way too violent

This actually starts out very well. But the decent into testosterone soaked violence gets to be over whelming before even halfway through the book. Too bad because the author seems quite talented.
Profile Image for Thomas James.
578 reviews12 followers
July 27, 2021
I'm hooked

Well, I'm ready for more! This is original and fun. We could argue about Jay's solution to problem people by shooting them. Could he not have found another way? In any event its fiction and a fun read.
Profile Image for Gary Learned.
12 reviews
August 8, 2021
A nice divergence from April

I’ve read the April and family law series prior to this. I stumbled across this book as a standalone and said why not. It’s an interesting story and I wouldn’t mind seeing it turned into a series.
21 reviews1 follower
December 24, 2021
Didn’t want the book to end

So well thought out and lots of emotion and action. A lot of new ideas and smart people. Perfect without all the unnecessary banter and smartalic comments in a lot of other books
Profile Image for Jim.
762 reviews
October 20, 2025
A college professor has an idea

Jay teaches chemistry and likes to work on pet projects. Most of the projects don’t work out but one of them does and it becomes a game changer. A great story.
4 reviews
February 12, 2018
Nice

I loved it
It seems i like this author alot as i have read all i can find on amazon
32 reviews
October 23, 2018
Very entertaining!

A page-turner. This begs to be a series and I look forward to the sequel and more! I really like the April and Family Law series and think this would be as good!
718 reviews6 followers
March 6, 2020
Marvelous story!!

Writing about this form of government scares me a lot. All of us need to be watchful that it doesn't happen here. Or has it already??
Profile Image for Scott Shjefte.
2,234 reviews76 followers
July 27, 2024
The explicit horrors of FBI and CIA techniques of the future against inoffensive citizens. Borrowed this edition on July 16, 2024. Kindle Unlimited Books. Jay invents things including a portal transported thingy with interesting implications but he lives in an intrusively controlled society.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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