Megan Edwards

When a secret experiment transports Julius Caesar from his last Ides of March to a covert California lab in the year 1999, things do not unfold as planned.

A Novel

A Coin for the Ferryman

This is one of those books that I just stumbled across on NetGalley. I’ve heard nothing about this 

, even though it was published in March of this year. I was intrigued by the title and the premise and requested the audiobook earlier this month, and started listening as soon as I was approved. While not a perfect book, it was a lot of fun!

The premise here is kind of wacky: time travel has been privately discovered, and a tentative plan to build a team and “borrow” Julius Caesar from the moments before his death on this Ides of March. Because of the distance from the event, they’ll be able to host and interview Caesar over the course of 4 days before returning him to the exact moment from which he was extracted. The dream team to be compiled must include: a couple of engineers to run the technology, a doctor to ensure that Caesar doesn’t croak before his historically appointed death, and a couple of classicists with whom Caesar can actually converse. Because, you know, Latin. As luck would have it, the person best at conversational Latin happens to be a young, beautiful college student named Cassandra. In hopes that her beauty will draw Caesar in and that her grasp of the language will make him more compliant, she is drafted to become the final member of the team.

I really like the story itself. However, the first half, over 250 pages of this book, is just the preparation for Caesar’s arrival. This felt like an excessive amount of build-up. The book is 540 pages, and I feel like it would have been a much stronger, tighter story if edited down to under 400 pages. It just felt unnecessarily bloated. Secondly, I feel like with a book of this length, the characters should have been more multifaceted. While I liked our main perspective character, Cassandra, she came across as almost flawless. The rest of the characters could almost seem like caricatures in various portions of the story. I didn’t find them unlikeable, per se, but they felt oddly flat for how long was spent laying out the details of each. I also found some of the interpersonal relationships unbelievable. Chemistry that was implied between various members of the cast felt a bit forced and unlikely. 

But again, the story itself was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the concept, and the appearance of Julius Caesar really spiced everything up. He was definitely the star of the show, along with Cassandra. There were some truly funny moments, and quite a few madcap scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat. Even if there were a few things I didn’t love about the execution, I found the idea so wonderfully original that I would absolutely recommend it to others.

Celeste Richardson

This is one of those books that I just stumbled across on NetGalley. I’ve heard nothing about this A Coin for the Ferryman, even though it was published in March of this year. I was intrigued by the title and the premise and requested the audiobook earlier this month, and started listening as soon as I was approved. While not a perfect book, it was a lot of fun!

The premise here is kind of wacky: time travel has been privately discovered, and a tentative plan to build a team and “borrow” Julius Caesar from the moments before his death on this Ides of March. Because of the distance from the event, they’ll be able to host and interview Caesar over the course of 4 days before returning him to the exact moment from which he was extracted. The dream team to be compiled must include: a couple of engineers to run the technology, a doctor to ensure that Caesar doesn’t croak before his historically appointed death, and a couple of classicists with whom Caesar can actually converse. Because, you know, Latin. As luck would have it, the person best at conversational Latin happens to be a young, beautiful college student named Cassandra. In hopes that her beauty will draw Caesar in and that her grasp of the language will make him more compliant, she is drafted to become the final member of the team.

I really like the story itself. However, the first half, over 250 pages of this book, is just the preparation for Caesar’s arrival. This felt like an excessive amount of build-up. The book is 540 pages, and I feel like it would have been a much stronger, tighter story if edited down to under 400 pages. It just felt unnecessarily bloated. Secondly, I feel like with a book of this length, the characters should have been more multifaceted. While I liked our main perspective character, Cassandra, she came across as almost flawless. The rest of the characters could almost seem like caricatures in various portions of the story. I didn’t find them unlikeable, per se, but they felt oddly flat for how long was spent laying out the details of each. I also found some of the interpersonal relationships unbelievable. Chemistry that was implied between various members of the cast felt a bit forced and unlikely. 

But again, the story itself was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the concept, and the appearance of Julius Caesar really spiced everything up. He was definitely the star of the show, along with Cassandra. There were some truly funny moments, and quite a few madcap scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat. Even if there were a few things I didn’t love about the execution, I found the idea so wonderfully original that I would absolutely recommend it to others.

Nash

I had very high expectations for this book. From the title and the premise that I read, it really sounded like it was going to grab your attention and never let go. Sadly, for me, this was not the case. Even when the essence of the plot has a lot of potential, I felt like it fell short for me. I did not enjoy myself while reading this. Once again, I thank Netgalley and Imbrifec Books for the opportunity.

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

Elizabeth Neill

I really didn't like the narrator, he was very slow even on high speed. I will stick with just reading the ebook.

Cheryl Hedlund

Thank you to NetGalley and Imbrifex books for giving me a digital arc of this book to read in exchange for an honest review. 

This started slow and really developed characters with interesting back stories. I enjoyed that academia atmosphere and the top-secret, sketchy research vibe. Then when things were established and started to ramp up, it read like an academic thriller/suspense movie. The drama within the IDES project team kept me turning pages. There were a couple of action set pieces that added to that movie feel. I enjoyed the author's use of Las Vegas as a setting. It is clear that the author lives there and you feel the difference between the strip and off the strip. When they are on the strip, she used the extreme luxury and theatricality of the setting well. There is the time travel element and those issues and paradoxes were addressed. Still, this did not feel strongly sci-fi forward to me. It is a well told and entertaining story with vividly drawn characters.

A Coin for the Ferryman A Novel

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