Uncover the secrets of transmigration in this steampunk adventure like no other.
Mad Science? Obsession? Folly?
Telesensation agent Justin Bremer studies time — specifically the effects of journeying through it. His assignment, funded by a mysterious organization, ‘Les Charges de L’Affaires,’ is to observe the timeline of a young Victorian scientist who lived approximately 2000 years in the … observe the timeline of a young Victorian scientist who lived approximately 2000 years in the past.
Equipped with an AI neural-interface, Bremer carefully documents the experiments of Dr. Petronella Sage and her archeologist friend Erasmus Savant. The Doctor, while investigating the effects of electricity on human flesh, becomes obsessed by the curious and vivid shared hallucinations induced after she and Savant are accidentally electrocuted.
Each fantastical adventure (which they call a ‘transmigration’) takes the intrepid duo into the unimaginable lives of persons and places throughout history.
Justin Bremer observes and dutifully records it all.
Praise:
“From the first page, I was enchanted by Eddie Louise’s debut novel, Transmigrations. I was immediately immersed and wanting more, eagerly turning pages for I was captivated by the rich world-building and the futuristic science that combined to create a breathtaking, five-star Steampunk adventure.” — Merrie Destefano, author of Shade: The Re-Imagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
About the Author:
Eddie Louise has always been a yarn-spinner, dream-weaver, and a teller of tales. She lives in sunny Southern California where she makes a living as a ghostwriter and writes in a variety of genres including science fiction, young adult fiction, English-as-a-Second-Language textbooks, and the monthly speculative fiction audio-drama “The Tales of Sage and Savant.”
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Genius scientist Dr. Petronella Sage is obsessed with galvanization, or rather the ability to manipulate human flesh through electricity. When there is an accidental electrical overload, she and her good friend, Professor Erasmus Savant time travel into two bodies that, are well, recently deceased. Fascinated by the possibilities to learn more about the past and to perfect her discovery, she and Erasmus embark on adventures that often land them in rather unexpected bodies. While engrossed in their endeavors, they have no idea that a secret agency in the future is watching their every move.
Inspired by the audio play/podcast, Sage and Savant, this is a very tight and well-written debut novel that I found to be fun. The steampunk mad science aspect was a hoot and had just enough techno babble to make it interesting. I very much enjoyed the characters and thought they were well-developed. The author definitely had a knack for submerging the reader into the various locales our heroes were “transmigrating” too. However, I was a little disappointed in the ending. The story just stopped and nothing was resolved. (This was clearly an editorial decision. ) It was just a really odd way to end the book.
However, I found the novel to be a real page turner and had me wanting more.
*I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program in exchange for an unbiased review. Brief plot spoilers may follow.*
I don’t have words to express how much I enjoyed this book. When I first started reading it, it took me a few pages to really get into it and I worried if I was going to like it. But once I got into it, boy was I in. The three main elements of this book–futuristic sci-fi, Victorian/steampunk era sci-fi and time travel–are things I like separately, but never got to experience within the same book. In theory it sounds like it would either be too busy or just wouldn’t fit, but the author did it in such a way that gave both eras their moment in an authentic way and somehow tied the two together to create a firsthand, immersive experience for the reader. It was almost like creating small snippets of other books and combining them within the larger picture of the book, and I loved that entire experience.
I don’t have many, if any, complaints with the book. Sometimes the speech was so hurried, so rambly, that I’d get lost and have to reread it to make sure I absorbed what was going on, but I have to do that a lot with 1800-era books so I didn’t think too much of that. I’m a bit surprised that the ending (spoiler alert) didn’t irritate me by being a cliffhanger as I usually hate them–I saw one coming as there’s no way you can resolve that entire story in one book and not leave things out–but I think the way it was done threw me off and I found myself excited for the next book in the series instead. Speaking of which, when’s that coming? lol My complaints with the book were minor–I felt like this book was more of an introduction to the characters and the world they live in rather than a standalone so I wasn’t expecting a lot of character development–and aren’t in my full review because overall, I loved the book. I’m excited to see what comes next for Sage and Savant!