A Coin for the Ferryman: A Novel
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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 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. -- Megan Edwards
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Thank you to Edelweiss for providing an ARC copy of this novel.A Coin for the Ferryman has all the makings of what could be a fantastic novel. However, it needs a heavy-handed editor to make it into such a book. A Coin For the Ferryman is a novel about time-travel in the veins of [b:The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. 32075825 The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (D.O.D.O. #1) Neal Stephenson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486520624l/32075825.SX50.jpg 52724049]. There's a heavy scientific lean, though not much description is actually given of how anything works. (Which is fair bc time-travel isn't real!) But despite that, there could have been slightly more time spent on the mechanics, rather than describing all the women characters eight million times. BUT I DIGRESS. [b:The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. 32075825 The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (D.O.D.O. #1) Neal Stephenson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486520624l/32075825.SX50.jpg 52724049]'s faults were that too much of the novel was taken up working up TO the time-travel, and unfortunately, the same thing happens in A Coin for the Ferryman. I don't think anything really interesting happens until maybe 40% of the way into the novel. I actually debating DNF-ing the book a couple times. The first half of the book is basically spent setting up the characters, when it really, really didn't need to. The best parts of the book were when Caesar was on page. I had a hard time putting the book down at that point – I really, really wanted to find out if anything was going to go wrong with the mechanics there. I won't spoil, of course, but it is definitely worth reading. In the end, the book is decent, it just needs more polishing, in my personal opinion. In the first 40% of the book, the time jumps around and it is confusing as hell. It needs to be more obvious what's in the present and what's in the past. The ‘notes' at the end of the book are unnecessary as well. They didn't add anything to the novel.HAIL CAESAR.
I reviewed this book for the blog Nerds of a Feather:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/03/microreview-coin-for-ferryman-by-megan.html
