AS FOR THE AUDIOBOOK

The audiobook experience was enjoyable since the same narrator took charge of the whole thing. It makes you wonder why is it narrated by a masculine voice sisnce the story is written as if a woman (our main character, that is) is the one sharing the story, but by the end of the book you realize who is actually telling most of the story and that a plottwist on itself that you may only experience with the audiobook.

(same review as for the read book)
Earlier this year I read this novel and well it was a surprise.

I'm not specially attached to Greek or Roman mythos/history, so definetely the time travelling portion of the synopsis is what caught me. The plot involves Julius Caesar, time travelling, culture clash and a possible affair somewhere in the timeline that may lead to a continuation of this story.

In a once in a lifetime opportunity our main character starts working with a group of hella smart people super interested in proving that they've found THE way to time travel, as with anything in life, there are some conditions that need to be met so the course of life as we know it won't change after the completion of this challenge. Obviously many go wrong (or as wrong as they could) and some loose strings remain, what will happen with those? (not sure, but I don't think this'll lead to a sequel, to be honest).

This was entertaining to read and it may be a reason for me to start diving back into Greek/Roman mythos. We'll see.

An enviably creative premise with some fun moments, but ultimately misses its mark (unless said mark was a new take on Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, of course).

A title like A Coin for the Ferryman is in itself a draw, and sets some expectations. The idea is terrific - a Nobel Laurete with a heartbreaking childhood story dedicates his life to time-travel to make up for a good deed gone wrong as a child, and decides to use Julius Caesar as his coup d'etat. He assembles a team, spews Elon Musk-esque eccentricities, and away we go.

Unfortunately, the idea and an interesting modern prologue is where the greatness ends. From very early on, the characters perpetuate antiquated stereotypes, the science is lacking any semblance of accuracy, and the story never approaches believable. Of course time travel and everything around it are imaginary in this context, but the hallmark of successful sci-fi & fantasy is that you forget. In this case, the story does the opposite and constantly reminds you of it’s lack of realism.

The crux of the story begins as project leader Andrew Danicek is assembling his team, which at five people is laughably small for a team trying to prove time travel by nabbing Julius Caesar. At the same time, Cassandra is a young woman dreaming of a college education, happens to speak fluent Latin, and is about to take the leap from Vegas waitress to Vegas call girl. But in the first of many overly coincidental events, she never even has to slip off a shoe and has her future dreams handed to her. Eventually these two worlds collide, because college freshman Cassandra is decided by Andrew’s IDES team to be the foremost expert on spoken latin, though it’s pretty clear the underlying reason is that she is actually the most attractive Latin speaker they can find.

The rest of the book continues in this vein. Very large decisions, such as how to behave when Julius-freaking-Caesar lands in the 20th Century, are made by a committee of bickering scientists, one of whom intentionally dons neon lycra to shock and awe because she has been jilted by Danicek. Caesar displays no culture shock beyond some quizzical looks and antiquated behaviors towards women, until that script is flipped in such a way that knocks down all the strength Cassandra had managed to build. Illogical coincidences aside, she was the one strong character until her plotline crashed into the stereotypes of the others.

There are some fun moments to lift it to a second star, purely because there is just enough to keep you wondering how it’s going to end. Will it come around and undo some of the absurd misogyny? Will we finally get a taste of what it would really look like for an ancient figure to land in modern times? Or will all the flames just come together into an epic conflagration?

A Coin for the Ferryman is a fabulous idea that fell victim to overused and sometimes offensive tropes, simplified writing, and a lack of editing that allowed for at least three too many irrelevant storylines to distract.

*Note: review of narration by Mark Ashby has not been included intentionally, as the playback quality was extremely poor. My initial reaction is around three stars - he seemed to have the talent but almost felt as though he wasn’t sure how to play the material - but I can’t in good conscience judge without knowing what is due to his narration vs. the poor audio quality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Imbrifex Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

DNF at 35%.

I've been trying to read this book for months. I just keep not having any interest. The characters are boring, and the writing is not for me. The idea of bringing Caesar to the present is a great concept, so kudos, but Edwards just can't manage to make me care about anything happening. I won't review on Goodreads so I don't affect the rating, but yeah this wasn't for me.

I really liked the concept of this book! The tie in of the ancient and the present is something I was immediately drawn to.

Cassandra was my favorite character in the book. But I really enjoyed the look at ancient characters like Caesar.

This could just be a me thing, but I wish I read the book instead of listening to it on audio. The narration was very monotone and at times I thought very robotic. That took me out of the story. But the writing itself is engaging! I'd would recommend reading this book instead of listening, though!

This was an amazing book. I must admit it did take me a chapter or two to get into but when I did it had me hooked. This book was very different to the types of books that I normally read but I am so glad that I did get it because the journey it took me on was brilliant. I listened to the audiobook and loved the narrator he added enjoyment and great atmosphere to the story. I loved all the different characters the author created and I really started to will them on especially the main characters. There were plenty of times I ended up speaking out loud as I got emotional attached to the story. It was so full of unexpected twists and turns that I just couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to those who love time travel books. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this fantastic author. 

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such a unique and wonderful story that took me on a exciting journey that I could really lose myself in. 
The above review has already been placed on goodreads,waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/a-coin-for-the-ferryman-by-megan-edwards-imbrifex-books-4-star either under my name or ladyreading365 or lady Reading365 or ladyc reading

This one was hard for me to get into, but once it got going a few chapters in, I was hooked. Thoroughly confused as all get out, but hooked. It was a weird, delightful, tense, upsetting, entertaining, thought provoking ride and I'm definitely still digesting all of it!

This is a DNF for me. It started out okay but I got really bored in the middle. The characters were not strong or unique enough for me to invest in them.

I dont typically do audio, but I REALLY wanted to read this book, so now I have a new obsession - Megan Edwards delivers a GRAND novel, truly unique AND audio books! Thank you NetGalley!

Thank you, Megan Edwards, narrator Mark Ashby, Imbrifex Books, and Netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I want to start this off by saying that I will consume any and every form of media that features things relating to Ancient Greece and Rome! Historical knowledge about Rome or Julius Caesar is not really necessary to enjoy this book (but it may be beneficial).

A Coin for the Ferryman follows a team of researchers (and eventually Julius Caesar himself) as they plot to transport Caesar to their lab right before the dictator was set to be stabbed 23 times. While I was expecting the story to be more historically driven, I was pleasantly surprised to see that plot veer off into something different. I would categorize this book as more of a historian's guilty pleasure adventure novel.

Stories involving the use of time travel are always so interesting, as there are so many ways to go about explaining the science of it all. While I did wish that they touched upon the dynamics of time travel a bit more, its relevance to the plot eventually diminished until Caesar had to return. It does feel a bit as if some portions of the story were cut out or scrapped, as it seemed like there were hints that were dropped about the biological impact of time travel on the body (with Caesar's aching body and the dog's wide eyes/scared reaction).

Overall It was interesting watching the story unfold. At first, I was a bit worried, as it seemingly took very long for Julius Caesar to actually appear. However, the "pre-Caesar" portion of the novel served as a means to set the plot in motion and put all plot threads into place.

Another thing that stood out to me was that the female characters were often written and described in a more negative manner than the men. I had to double-check to make sure that this book was in fact written by a woman rather than a man. About halfway through the novel, I believe there is a line where one female character judges another female character for trying to compete with men in the STEM field. Even if the character is unlikeable, it's a bit of a low blow to criticize characters for the work that they are doing, and how they go about doing it. It was also odd how the appearances or beauty of a female character was constantly brought up, but the appearances of the men are never really mentioned.

Just as a final thought: I do wish that the romance between Julius Caesar and Cassandra would have been left out of the book, as I was quite enjoying the story up until the point when they got together. I do understand that it was needed in order to explain one of the final chapters, however, the relationship evolved so fast that it threw me for a loop. Up until this point, I sort of viewed Cassandra as Caesar's equal; a trusted guide of sorts. She is quite literally the only person that is able to understand him, so she is really the only person that he can truly rely on. While Cassandra is similar to her mythological namesake in that she has a story to tell that no one will believe, I viewed her more as a take on the titular Ferryman that is tasked with guiding Caesar through the adventure and joys of the modern world and eventually to his death.

This was... a journey. I honestly had a lot more expectations from this book and while I did enjoy it as an audiobook, some things were just ridiculous.
First of all, this book has too many characters, so it's quite difficult for the reader to keep track of each and every one. Secondly, the 'love story' is too much to bear, I couldn't digest it and thought the main female character was pretty weak and a little disoriented with regard to what she wanted to do with her life.
The rest of the characters were more or less cringey and even Julius Caesar himself was strange... I really don't think he would have reacted in the way the author chose to describe it if he were to have been transported from his time to ours (or the 90s, anyway). I don't necessarily think he would have been scared, but he definitely wouldn't have adapted so easily to the future as it is suggested in this book.
I'm pretty disappointed that this book could have been much better but just isn't.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

This audiobook was so good! Everything was well executed….the flow of the story, the details, the narrator and the plot. Very well written piece of historical fiction. I was concerned that i didn’t know much about Julius Caesar going into the story, turns out my worries were for nothing. The author tied in enough historical facts to keep me interested but not enough to bore me. Five stars. Very impressed!

The audiobook clocks in at over 13 hours, yet very little happens. This should have been the ideal book for me since it combined sci-fi and historical fiction but I struggled to finish it due to characters that I found difficult to like, negative stereotypes being heavily leaned into, and pacing issues. For a novel filled with so many supposedly smart people, the characters sure make a lot of stupid mistakes or completely fail to think through things/make any solid plan. Additionally, I got very tired of the author only noting the positive traits of women based on their beauty, ability to drive stick (which was constantly voiced as an amazing trait that this one woman somehow knew how to do… never mind her other more impressive skills), or fashion choices. She also portrays women against each other for petty reasons. Men are portrayed as easily manipulated or distracted by beauty. Throughout the book chapters make “revelations” that are more common sense than great lessons from the story. All in all, a novel that got caught up on the wrong details with a lot of wasted potential.

I was intrigued by the synopsis for this novel, but I was wholly unprepared for what exactly lays within this book.

The audiobook gives vibes like reading any nonfiction which adds to the scientific and historical themes of the story, I really liked that! It took itself seriously in a very fun way. I enjoyed the cast of characters, their differences, and the realistic interactions and relationships between them.

While I agree with others criticism that the beginning could be much more concise than it is, I really liked how the story explores both the scientific possibility and the ethics of what they are attempting to do with Julius Caesar.

Once the action gets going, I found this book unputdownable! I was totally enchanted with the action and exploring the mind of such a figure of history! I wanted to jump in and live it, I wanted to throw the book at the TV as if that would bring it to life as something I could watch before my eyes. It's definitely a visual book with its descriptions of the scenery, technology, clothing, and very natural observations of human behavior like body language that were all necessary for the storyline.

For me personally, this was also one of those books that just went the way I wanted it to. There's no other way to say it, lol. I enjoyed the turns of action and relationships, and I loved the ending.

On the one hand, this isn't going to be for everybody. But on the other, a book like this can appeal to those who like history, historical fiction, or science fiction. My taste and my husband's very rarely overlap, but this is one he could enjoy too.

The narration was easy to listen to and well done even with the large cast of characters.

Thank you net galley and publisher for an audio copy to read and review

"A Coin for the Ferryman" hooked me immediately with its new twist on time travel and I appreciated that at the beginning I could tell that the majority of the story was going to take place in the early 2000s/late 1990s which the author was very versed in bringing to life.

From the first half of the book, I got "Goldfinch" meets "Sleeping Giants" vibes and I really appreciated the delicate and intricate backstories that accompanied the introduction of each main character. Because the author was smart enough to have started with a mini-time jump, the energy of the first half was exciting, if a bit ominous, a feeling that made me keep reading to find out what could possibly have happened.

Unfortunately, as soon as the "big event" happened in the middle of the book, I feel like it lost all of its propulsion, and the character's intentions and dimension were lost, too. This was coupled with some truly bizarre character choices that felt all at once flummoxing and too convenient. Then pair that with the strangeness of breaking chapters in the middle of scenes with no reason. Because I read the audiobook, I found this particularly jarring and a few times had to check my phone to see if the book had paused because of a glitch, when in fact it was a chapter break.

If I could rate this book more accurately I would say the first half 5/5, the second half 1/5.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book has a very slow start, and a very rushed ending. I was hungry for a clear set of motivating questions or concerns that might keep me engaged even as nothing in particular is happening. I could not identify with the characters, who mostly seemed to embody tropes about class and gender without doing much to critique them or reveal their inherent contradictions. The basic concept is fascinating - what if time travel could only be done to another, as an object of transportation, rather than engaged in directly by the agent of travel? I would have imagined that a book on this topic that first detours through the personal lives of multiple POV characters would use that extensive character building to explore the themes of agency and objectification, but its treatment of these topics feels unsatisfying and perfunctory.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC.

Let me preface this review: I have read a lot of time travel books, and most of them drive me crazy. I still can't even talk about how much I disliked 'Timeline' by Michael Crichton...(shudder)...

Anyway, I make that point to emphasize how much I loved A Coin for the Ferryman. This was truly one of the best books I've read in a long time. I loved how the author dispensed with all the scientific pitfalls of time travel and focused on the characters and the story. And the characters and story were top-notch. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good story, especially if you hate time travel books.

I have to say, I caught the major spoiler about halfway through when I remembered that the first of the book spoke about someone's family in the current day. This book had an interesting enough premise, though there was a lot more exposition than was necessary.

I'm happy to finally report that the NetGalley audio app is improving! It's a tiny bit distorted as the speed increases but not like previous reads.

This novel starts with an appropriately vague framing narrative and inexplicably ends by going back to it. The premise is fun - move someone (dead) from a known moment in history, hang out for a few days, and send them back to their imminent death none the wiser. It's a historical heist set in modern times with a very exciting glimpse into Caesar's political strategy. Maybe it's just my cynicism, but a lot of the plot could have been avoided by involving someone with any knowledge of psychology in the Ides Lab. Instead, awkward circumstance after awkward circumstance led to misunderstandings and high speed chases. The book unraveled pleasantly, like an episode of Seinfeld, where Caesar is George Costanza. It was fun escape reading.

This book is the story of a group of classics researchers who manage to bring Julius Caesar to modern day just moments before he is meant to be killed on the Ides of March. In fact, they refer to it as the Ides Project. Anyway, they snatch him and he does not react well to it. He spits at the people he encounters on our end and passes out. Once he gets his feet under him, they all end up on an adventure together.

I really enjoyed this story. It was fun that they brought him here and he was unwilling to ask questions about what was going on. He just acted like cars were a normal thing for a while, which was charming, I thought. There was a lot of stuff here that would definitely appeal to someone who really enjoyed ancient Rome, Caesar, Cleopatra, even. There were a lot of interesting tidbits about the ancient times.

I did not like the narrator for the audiobook. He was a bit monotone and I didn't like that a male voice read parts that were written as a female character. That was odd at times. I would not recommend listening to this one.

I did enjoy this book. To start there were one or two points that threw me off the journey, but it is worth listening to.

Through Cassandra's interest in the Classics and her gift in linguistics, she leaves her childhood home and enters a world of power, money and living history. Whilst attempting to earn enough money to go through college she makes contacts that rocket her into a world of intellectual intrigue, science fiction and romance.

The book starts slowly with an interesting pre-story that introduces the motives of one of the main protagonists. The story wanders a little at the beginning introducing some of the other actors in the story but persevere because it becomes more interesting. Although the ending isn't completely unpredictable, the journey there is full of action and interesting historical facts.

Initially, the narration felt robotic but it grows on you.