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Professor Bridges and the Programmable Planet
“Something they never tell you about being a hero - it’s really just about being at the wrong place at the wrong time and living to tell the tale.”
Stuck in a dead-end job as an adjunct Professor of Psychology dispelling alien abduction stories, the alcoholic Nick Bridges is divorced, disinterested and defeated.
Stumbling home from a late-night bender, Nick is himself abducted by aliens - a secret police force that keeps the galaxy from falling into chaos. They tell him that only he - out of everyone in the universe - is being called by a cybernetic armor that is key to their mission. A mission that they now expect him to complete.
Now, to get home, he has to be the hero he never wanted to be and save the galaxy, and maybe even himself - as long as his demons don’t derail him along the way.
Join Nick Bridges as he discovers that we aren’t alone - and neither is he - in this first installment of the epic and hysterical PROFESSOR BRIDGES SAGA.
Stuck in a dead-end job as an adjunct Professor of Psychology dispelling alien abduction stories, the alcoholic Nick Bridges is divorced, disinterested and defeated.
Stumbling home from a late-night bender, Nick is himself abducted by aliens - a secret police force that keeps the galaxy from falling into chaos. They tell him that only he - out of everyone in the universe - is being called by a cybernetic armor that is key to their mission. A mission that they now expect him to complete.
Now, to get home, he has to be the hero he never wanted to be and save the galaxy, and maybe even himself - as long as his demons don’t derail him along the way.
Join Nick Bridges as he discovers that we aren’t alone - and neither is he - in this first installment of the epic and hysterical PROFESSOR BRIDGES SAGA.
- GenresScience Fiction
297 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 27, 2023
19 people are currently reading
1195 people want to read
About the author
Chris Hackett
10 books31 followersChris Hackett was born in Brooklyn, NY on April 13, 1990, but was raised in Union, NJ for most of his life where he attended the public schools. He attended Rutgers University in New Jersey where he received a M.S. in Biotechnology and Genomics. He is a mixed-race Dominican American. He currently lives with his wife and three children in Hunterdon County, NJ.
Chris is the author of the PROFESSOR BRIDGES Saga, a humorous crossover space opera, and other works over the years. His scientific background informs but does not limit his science fiction approach. His enjoys history, particularly the Antiquities, and writing books that make people "feel good" after reading them - that a book that inspires a positive imagination leaves a positive mark on the world.
Chris is the author of the PROFESSOR BRIDGES Saga, a humorous crossover space opera, and other works over the years. His scientific background informs but does not limit his science fiction approach. His enjoys history, particularly the Antiquities, and writing books that make people "feel good" after reading them - that a book that inspires a positive imagination leaves a positive mark on the world.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 7, 2022
Adjunct Professor Nick Bridges was off to his "little piece of heaven...the Whitewood, the local bar...". His first day of class, a social science class dispelling abduction myths, did not go well. In an inebriated state, "walking home on an Alabama summer night...alone, in the dark...with only the flickering lightning bugs to keep [him] company...A blinding light...a rhythmic rumbling from the ground...". A seat appeared, beckoning him inside a glass sphere...the floating taxi, attaining g-force speed, taking him to a faraway planet. Nick had been abducted!
Using a mental translator, an Air Pod of sorts, human-alien communication was established. Nanites, surgically implanted, were programmed to help Nick's body fight infection and/or promote healing from unknown microorganisms. No anal probe seemed forthcoming. What a relief!
Of all the Earth's humans, Nick Bridges alone had been summoned by an intergalactic multi-species police force. A troubling deviation had been detected. Measures were needed to prevent planetary chaos. Mission Impossible: Infiltrate Ceyron...figure out what happened to the agent serving as their protector, and reopen and ready the wormhole, the seamless portal to this alien planet." Upon completion, return to the space station and be transported back to Earth.
How could the universe depend upon Nick? He was always drunk or buzzed. Drink, and lack of follow through on anything, was responsible for the demise of his marriage and the reason for his dead end job. He was "divorced, disinterested and defeated." "I wasn't who these aliens needed me to be. I wasn't even close to what they needed...Why was I here?"
Assistance was provided by the aliens in two ways; a battle suit and a travel companion. A battle suit, carried in a metal backpack, could be activated delivering wrap around armor. When not in use, it could shrink down and be stored. Oh the joy of Nick's humanoid android companion, a robot designed specifically for him, as computed by the alien's algorithm. Meet ex-wife Laura! In Laura's words, "we got divorced because you are an asshole." "I'll call her Laurabot...This android even had the same snotty inflection in her voice."
"You mean to tell me that I am trapped on some alien planet, with a mission that's nearly impossible to complete, and a partner who is my ex-wife, and I can't get drunk? I need some thinking juice! Tune in and discover the fun-filled escapades in this first installment of Professor Bridges Saga. A delightful, humorous space opera! Highly recommended.
Thank you Tall Tales Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Using a mental translator, an Air Pod of sorts, human-alien communication was established. Nanites, surgically implanted, were programmed to help Nick's body fight infection and/or promote healing from unknown microorganisms. No anal probe seemed forthcoming. What a relief!
Of all the Earth's humans, Nick Bridges alone had been summoned by an intergalactic multi-species police force. A troubling deviation had been detected. Measures were needed to prevent planetary chaos. Mission Impossible: Infiltrate Ceyron...figure out what happened to the agent serving as their protector, and reopen and ready the wormhole, the seamless portal to this alien planet." Upon completion, return to the space station and be transported back to Earth.
How could the universe depend upon Nick? He was always drunk or buzzed. Drink, and lack of follow through on anything, was responsible for the demise of his marriage and the reason for his dead end job. He was "divorced, disinterested and defeated." "I wasn't who these aliens needed me to be. I wasn't even close to what they needed...Why was I here?"
Assistance was provided by the aliens in two ways; a battle suit and a travel companion. A battle suit, carried in a metal backpack, could be activated delivering wrap around armor. When not in use, it could shrink down and be stored. Oh the joy of Nick's humanoid android companion, a robot designed specifically for him, as computed by the alien's algorithm. Meet ex-wife Laura! In Laura's words, "we got divorced because you are an asshole." "I'll call her Laurabot...This android even had the same snotty inflection in her voice."
"You mean to tell me that I am trapped on some alien planet, with a mission that's nearly impossible to complete, and a partner who is my ex-wife, and I can't get drunk? I need some thinking juice! Tune in and discover the fun-filled escapades in this first installment of Professor Bridges Saga. A delightful, humorous space opera! Highly recommended.
Thank you Tall Tales Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
December 9, 2022
Professor Bridges and the Programmable Planet by Chris Hackett
No spoilers TLDR: 3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars. I truly enjoyed about 80% of this book and think the cover is absolutely fantastic. The comparisons between Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Men in Black are understandable; however, those titles set very high, if not unobtainable, bars to reach. Regardless, if you enjoyed those two, I believe you will enjoy this as well. Although, you absolutely need to be able to read from the perspective of an unlikable main character. Otherwise, this isn’t for you.
CW: alcoholism, death of a parent, abuse, cancer, misogyny, homophobia (specifically the use of the f-slur multiple times), bullying, and fatphobia.
Review containing spoilers.
Please bear in mind these are all my personal, subjective opinions. One of the things that makes reading so wonderful is that we all have vastly different experiences with books.
Nick starts out incredibly unlikable. The synopsis made it clear that he would though so when in the first paragraph of the first page Nick is internally dismissive towards a “large kid” in his class who threw “his chubby hand in the air” I continued on. Casual fatphobia be damned. Things continued to ruffle my feathers over the next few pages, but I shook it off. This is what I signed up for after all; I wouldn’t DNF even before hitting the second chapter.
Then I hit the second chapter and the first female character who was given a name was immediately sexualized upon her introduction.
“Before I had time to really think, my brain began firing off impulses and suddenly I was picturing this beautiful alien standing in front of me naked. She had an odd attractiveness to her, despite being a different species. I couldn’t help but be drawn to her.”
My brain nearly exploded from rage. It’s nearly 2023 and we’re still doing this? Especially after the year women have had in 2022, not only in the US but globally? Yes, it’s explained away because the female alien emits pheromones that make the men go ooouugah, but that reasoning only intensifies how aggravating it is to see this in a modern Sci-Fi. At this point I very seriously considered DNF-ing and leaving a drastically different review.
Many deep breaths later I continued on. Female characters continued to only be fuckable, nags, bitches, or background noise. Until they weren’t. Nick as a character grew, had his Taylor Swift Anti-Hero moment, and was able to see beyond himself which in turn meant we were shown more than these one-dimensional characters. During this process I went from begrudgingly reading this book because I had requested it on NetGalley, to honestly enjoying the story despite some of the problems I had with it. It took quite a bit longer for me to get on board with Nick, but eventually, I didn’t despise him as much as I did on page one.
On whole, this was well written. The character growth/development, pacing, structure, and overarching story were all great. In the slower moments or flashbacks, I was never bored because the author plotted this so effectively. By the end of the book, I understood why the misogyny, fatphobia, homophobia, etc. were included in the beginning despite how much I still hated their inclusion.
If I am to be honest, I have to include that for me, the writing style felt inconsistent. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that in my personal opinion an editor should have taken another pass at this before publishing. Portions of this book had sentences with structures that were so simplistic they felt as if they could have been written by a Creative Writing student. In addition, the formatting, beyond what will be changed from the ARC to final copy, could have been tightened up. Descriptive words were used multiple times in the span of a short paragraph. Other words were used enough times throughout the book to break immersion. Specifically, the following:
Cacophony x6
Ponder/pondering x6
Sucked his/her teeth x4
Suck x8
Worry x10
Worried/worriedly x32
Will I continue on with the series? I think so. Obviously I found flaws with the book, but I ended up enjoying it enough to want to see what happens next. However, if Nick regresses into being sexist and misogynistic in the same way as he started book one, I will immediately DNF and not look back.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
No spoilers TLDR: 3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars. I truly enjoyed about 80% of this book and think the cover is absolutely fantastic. The comparisons between Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Men in Black are understandable; however, those titles set very high, if not unobtainable, bars to reach. Regardless, if you enjoyed those two, I believe you will enjoy this as well. Although, you absolutely need to be able to read from the perspective of an unlikable main character. Otherwise, this isn’t for you.
CW: alcoholism, death of a parent, abuse, cancer, misogyny, homophobia (specifically the use of the f-slur multiple times), bullying, and fatphobia.
Review containing spoilers.
Please bear in mind these are all my personal, subjective opinions. One of the things that makes reading so wonderful is that we all have vastly different experiences with books.
Nick starts out incredibly unlikable. The synopsis made it clear that he would though so when in the first paragraph of the first page Nick is internally dismissive towards a “large kid” in his class who threw “his chubby hand in the air” I continued on. Casual fatphobia be damned. Things continued to ruffle my feathers over the next few pages, but I shook it off. This is what I signed up for after all; I wouldn’t DNF even before hitting the second chapter.
Then I hit the second chapter and the first female character who was given a name was immediately sexualized upon her introduction.
“Before I had time to really think, my brain began firing off impulses and suddenly I was picturing this beautiful alien standing in front of me naked. She had an odd attractiveness to her, despite being a different species. I couldn’t help but be drawn to her.”
My brain nearly exploded from rage. It’s nearly 2023 and we’re still doing this? Especially after the year women have had in 2022, not only in the US but globally? Yes, it’s explained away because the female alien emits pheromones that make the men go ooouugah, but that reasoning only intensifies how aggravating it is to see this in a modern Sci-Fi. At this point I very seriously considered DNF-ing and leaving a drastically different review.
Many deep breaths later I continued on. Female characters continued to only be fuckable, nags, bitches, or background noise. Until they weren’t. Nick as a character grew, had his Taylor Swift Anti-Hero moment, and was able to see beyond himself which in turn meant we were shown more than these one-dimensional characters. During this process I went from begrudgingly reading this book because I had requested it on NetGalley, to honestly enjoying the story despite some of the problems I had with it. It took quite a bit longer for me to get on board with Nick, but eventually, I didn’t despise him as much as I did on page one.
On whole, this was well written. The character growth/development, pacing, structure, and overarching story were all great. In the slower moments or flashbacks, I was never bored because the author plotted this so effectively. By the end of the book, I understood why the misogyny, fatphobia, homophobia, etc. were included in the beginning despite how much I still hated their inclusion.
If I am to be honest, I have to include that for me, the writing style felt inconsistent. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that in my personal opinion an editor should have taken another pass at this before publishing. Portions of this book had sentences with structures that were so simplistic they felt as if they could have been written by a Creative Writing student. In addition, the formatting, beyond what will be changed from the ARC to final copy, could have been tightened up. Descriptive words were used multiple times in the span of a short paragraph. Other words were used enough times throughout the book to break immersion. Specifically, the following:
Cacophony x6
Ponder/pondering x6
Sucked his/her teeth x4
Suck x8
Worry x10
Worried/worriedly x32
Will I continue on with the series? I think so. Obviously I found flaws with the book, but I ended up enjoying it enough to want to see what happens next. However, if Nick regresses into being sexist and misogynistic in the same way as he started book one, I will immediately DNF and not look back.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 18, 2023
I really enjoyed Professor Bridges, to me it was a breath of fresh air. Bridges felt real, with real life issues and burdens he carries and put into an impossible situation. It was a blast to read and watching the Professor change and grow as a human was a journey I'd definitely take again.
The world Hackett created is flawed and real. Both on Earth and in the universe. It goes to show that imperfect situations require imperfect solutions...from an imperfect, abused, alcoholic professor. I can't wait for the second one!
The world Hackett created is flawed and real. Both on Earth and in the universe. It goes to show that imperfect situations require imperfect solutions...from an imperfect, abused, alcoholic professor. I can't wait for the second one!
August 20, 2024
I mostly enjoyed this book in the end. Its an enjoyable enough read, but the middle of the book was a bit difficult to get through. First 25% and the back 33% are really fun reading
January 20, 2023
I received an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.
Overall I feel as if Professor Bridges is a pretty fun and enjoyable sci-fi adventure. A lot of the story felt rehashed and the sci-fi elements seemed to be lifted from other my classic stories of aliens and space exploration.
I think the combination of humor and using known sci-fi elements makes this book perfect for the more beginner and entry level fan of science fiction.
Overall I feel as if Professor Bridges is a pretty fun and enjoyable sci-fi adventure. A lot of the story felt rehashed and the sci-fi elements seemed to be lifted from other my classic stories of aliens and space exploration.
I think the combination of humor and using known sci-fi elements makes this book perfect for the more beginner and entry level fan of science fiction.
February 28, 2023
Professor Bridges and the Programmable Planet is the first in a fun new sci-fi series. Professor Nick Bridges spends his days alternating between ridiculing uni students and alien abduction stories and drinking till he blacks out. Until one day he finds himself experiencing his own very real abduction story, thrown into a galactic fight for survival. No one believes in his ability to succeed, not even him, and especially not the android replica of his ex-wife. Yet, for reasons unknown, he continues to fight to the end. The periodic moments of backstory were originally unexpected, but definitely added to the understanding of the character. I would recommend this story for anyone who likes "Hitchhiker's Guide" style stories with sarcastic humans being let loose on the galaxy.
This was a NetGalley read.
This was a NetGalley read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews