Megan Edwards (1)

Real Rating: 3.9* of five

The Publisher Says: The story can now be told.

In 1999, an elite interdisciplinary team headed by Nobel laureate Andrew Danicek gathered in California to carry out a ground-breaking time-travel experiment. While the rest of the world remained unaware, Julius Caesar was successfully transported from the last day of his life to a specially-constructed covert facility. Four days of conversation with historians and Latin scholars were planned, followed by Caesar’s show more return to the moment from which he was extracted. But despite the team’s meticulous efforts to maintain secrecy and plan for all possible exigencies, a kidnap attempt plunges Caesar into peril. Fully aware that the future of civilization may hang in the balance, one team member must summon strength she didn’t know she possessed to return Caesar to the Ides of March.

The shocking details of Caesar's visit and its effect on subsequent events have been protected by draconian nondisclosure agreements....until now.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I'd wondered, as I set out to read this time-travel/alternate history story, if I was instead going to get an academia/tech sector skulduggery thriller-lite. In a way I did; but that's how the author seduced me into investing in the characters. Sneaky sneaky, you storytelling devil you...but also very clever.

I got invested in the people, their desires and foibles, before I was confronted with the disbelief hurdle of physical time travel. (It's not possible until our energy budget expands multiple times current (!) limitations.) I might've never finished this quite enjoyable book had that not been the order of operations. I'm willing to go into fantasyland if I'm following people I've become interested in.The infighting and interpersonal politicking kept me invested and ready for more.

Then Caesar, a man born into pinnacles of privilege the Proud Boys can only dream of, arrives on the scene.

Never mind the technology is unrealistic...this is fiction. I was clangingly dropped to the decking by the man's apparent mental flexibility, of which there was no sign in history. See Commentarii de Bello Gallico if you doubt this. His own words, admittedly written for an audience, condemn him for a chauvinist Roman-centric genocidal maniac...out-Hitlers Hitler all day every day. Trump and his clown-car of cynical sycophants are the rankest...term used advisedly...of amateurs (kidnapping the sitting president of another country?! what could possibly go wrong?) in comparison.

Yet this era-defining man of destiny accepts the technology and the social reality...conversing with a woman he's neither related to, nor married to, nor a common whore without a blink!...of this century with apparent ease.

I don't buy it.

It caused a long hiatus in my reading. I was not best pleased by the very detailed and slightly overdone explanatory elements of the storytelling signally failing to reveal the massive cognitive shock anyone would experience in these circumstances not being addressed at all; I can certainly see not foregrounding it given the story the author wants to tell.

Hubris and overweening self-regard are blatantly on display in every era's politics and technology sectors. No progress ever made has been free of them; no disaster ever inflicted on the world and her people has ever not stemmed from them. They are present in, are central to, this narrative. It's what ultimately drew me back to finish the read in 2025. I can't say I'm over the moon or ecstatic with the read, but I liked a lot about it...Cassandra being a classicist, really, was both sticking point and advantage as the Latin bits being translated went from implausibility trap to logical extension of the character's expertise. But it was a knife's edge. That pretty much sums up my experience of the read: always on a knife's edge between a low three stars and touching the ragged edge of four stars.

You see where I settled. You'll do your own thinking about what it means, decide whether or not to include this tale of hubris and arrogance through time on your own TBR. show less

What a fun read this turned out to be! Be aware this is not high literary art here just an enjoyable if implausible ride!
It is 1999 and Andrew Danicek, Nobel Prize winning physicist, leads a team of scientists researching time travel. He has built Tessa a machine capable of transporting an object from the past into the present. Phase one is successfully completed-the transmission of an inanimate object, a coin, to the present day and returning it back to the same spot and time in the past. show more Phase two just ended with the successful transport of a dog round trip. Now the hard part doing the same with a human. To maintain a high ethical standard the subject must be within minutes of death in case something goes wrong. The exact time and place of subject must be known to history. Andrew decides on Julius Caesar and the story takes off. Expect a lot of action from a car chase to a romance!
I really liked that the novel doesn’t attempt to explain the science too deeply. No in-depth understanding of physics is needed here! Each team member is introduced in their own section. This leads to fully fleshed out characters and gives the reader an understanding of motivations throughout. Some may find all the detail given excessive and unnecessary but I found the side stories interesting so I enjoyed them. This novel is not just an enjoyable read there is some explorations about the ethics involved in disrupting a life, even if just moments from death. No answers are given but it does make one pause to think.
My only complaint is not regarding the book itself rather the audiobook. I really did not like the narrator. I found much of his performance was flat and monotone. This became an issue as the action began, there was no use of his voice to help build tension and a sense of urgency. I also prefer female narrators. They tend to do a better job differentiating gender. This narrator kinda sounded creepy when he was doing a female voice.
Recommended for those who want an interesting take on the SciFi-time travel genre. 3.5 stars.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, Imbrifex Books and NetGalley. This fact in no way influenced my review. show less

I won't say this is the most literary book I've read, or that the front end couldn't have used some editing, or the second half couldn't have been expanded more - or slowed down a bit so we could enjoy the meat of the story more - but I've rarely had a more FUN with a novel. I might quibble with a bit of the history, (sorry, Brutus was not Caesar's son), but I understood even that particular one was a plot device, so I could let it go. I thought the author's depiction of Caesar was spot on, show more and it was just so enjoyable to share that moment with my geeky historian daydreams of what it would be like to drag him into my world. The ethical issues, the unexpected emotional connections which then heightened those ethical issues, just added a bit more depth to what was essentially an improbable romp. I don't know when I've given 5 stars to a book that is a bit awkward, a bit clunky - not perfect - but this novel is what a good book should be: a great trip into an unforgettable experience. show less

What would Julius Caesar, one of the most famous ancient Romans, think about modern society? A Coin for the Ferryman is a creative and entertaining mingle of Greco-Roman History and science fiction that will delight any fan of both. Pinky swear. But, don’t worry, I will explain further.

The narrative involves nearly a dozen characters whose lives intersect because of the dream and will of one determined scientist. Nobel laureate Andrew Danicek hires an elite team of academics, plus show more Cassandra, a young woman who can speak Latin, to work on a time travel experiment. But he doesn’t want to just bring anyone into the present from the past. He would like to meet Julius Caesar right before his death in the Ides of March.

The start was slow-paced but enjoyable, with fleshed-out characters and interesting backstories. One of the introductory chapters might feel unnecessary, but everything will make sense in the end. We just have to wait for the bigger picture. And, personally, I really liked to see all the little pieces getting together as the story progressed.

When things were established, it read like an action movie, with plenty of suspense and, more or less after 60% of the book, even the blossom of a romance. Most of the story takes place in 1999 and is set between California and Las Vegas. There’s a lot of different POVs, which I thought it was cool and well-executed. I didn’t dislike any character in particular; Faith seemed insufferable for most of the book, but there are actually a lot of good reasons for it. My favourite chapters were probably the ones that focused on Cassandra and Julius Caesar, especially when they got on an adventure of their own. And, I really have to say it, Caesar was endearing as hell. I loved his cunning side.

About the sci-fi part, I didn’t expect the author to show us all the intricacies of a time travel experiment, but I would have liked to know more about the science behind the project. Despite that, the characters were vividly drawn, as I already have highlighted, and it was a fun adventure. There were enough twists, double-crosses and secret agendas (though I would have liked to know more about Hank Morgan's intentions).

The conundrum about the moral and ethical problems involved in disrupting a life was probably one of the key themes of the story. And I think Caesar's last scenes with Cassandra and the rest of the IDES team give us a lot of food for thought on that matter. But I was also expecting a lot more focus on it. I really wouldn’t mind if Megan Edwards wrote another hundred or two hundred pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and Imbrifex Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. show less