Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

A Bridge To ...? is an urban fantasy novella written by James Huber. Tim Shell had a successful business making maps. As this story is set in the early 1970s, maps were still hand-drawn works of art designed by cartographers who used earlier maps and military topographies to assist them. Computers were not yet accessible at the personal level, and CAD software was yet to be perfected. Tim did have one big advantage over other cartographers -- his brother, Dan. Dan was the manager of a surveillance satellite company, and he frequently brought home satellite imagery for his brother to work from. As they were studying some images of a local area, Dan noticed something odd. There was a strange blur on one picture, but when they used the high-power magnification device in Dan’s office, they were able to see that the blur was actually a bridge.

The only thing was, Dan and Tim knew that area very well, and they had never seen a bridge at that location. They decided to hike there the next day and investigate the anomalous bridge for themselves. When they got there, they were stunned to see a bridge that looked as though it had been there for centuries; the fog that seemed to lie dormant on the far end of the bridge was equally puzzling -- their part of the Midwest didn’t do fog as a rule. Dan decided he’d go over the bridge and check it out. Tim wasn’t at all so sure it was the best idea. Tim waited around for a while, but finally gave up when Dan failed to reappear. Dan was a veteran and was prepared for the unexpected, but neither brother had any idea what they had fallen into.

James Huber’s urban fantasy novella, A Bridge To ...?, is an imaginative romp set at the dawn of the computer age. I had a marvelous time reading this story and loved the time-traveling adventures the two brothers experienced courtesy of their phantom bridge, especially Dan’s initial trip into London at the height of the WWII bombing raids. Huber’s imaginative tale makes one appreciate the light-year speed with which computers have become a part of our culture and wonder at those early days when it all seemed like science fiction. Dan and Tim are grand characters, and their adventures are quite entertaining. Huber’s tale is well-written and his plot inventive and original. Seen any strange bridges lately? A Bridge To ...? is most highly recommended.