Transgression: A Novel
Author: Randall Ingermanson
Genre: Time-travel suspense
Publisher: Harvest House
Year: 2000
ISBN: 0736901957
Series Info: Book 1 of 3 in the City of God series. See also Premonition and Retribution.
Summary: A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.
Awards and Honors for Transgression:
- Christy Award winner in futuristic fiction
- Named to "Top Ten Christian Novels of 2000" by BookList Magazine
Sample Chapters: Click here for sample chapters
Synopsis of Transgression
Rivka Meyers is a Messianic Jewish archaeology student on her first dig in Israel. She has resolved to take a time-out from God for the summer, a break from her self-appointed role as Supreme Defender of the Faith and First Tiger. Just for this summer, she'll work hard, play hard, and not talk about her faith to people who don't care. Just for this summer, God will have to take care of the universe without her help.
In Jerusalem, Rivka meets Ari Kazan, an Israeli theoretical physicist at the Hebrew University. Ari has developed a clever but untested idea for building a wormhole -- a passage through spacetime. Raised in the stifling home of an ultra-orthodox step-father, Ari has no patience for religious fundamentalism of any stripe, Jewish, Muslim, or Christian. His God is the God of Einstein, a God of Truth, Beauty, and Logic.
Ari is immediately attracted to Rivka, though he's too shy to tell her. He invites her to visit the lab of his colleague, Damien West, an American experimental physicist with the skills to build the wormhole-generator which Ari has only theorized. But the device still lies in pieces after the last experiment fried some of the components. Damien has his own intensely personal reasons for his interest in wormholes.
Soon enough, Ari learns that Rivka is a Messianic Jew. He's infuriated, but she can't figure out why. What's the big deal, anyway?
Meanwhile, Damien finishes building the wormhole-generator and presses the button. If it successfully creates a wormhole, he plans to travel back to Jerusalem in the year 57 A.D. and kill the apostle Paul, thereby destroying Christianity and all of western civilization -- retroactively.
Damien is armed with a gun; Rivka with a knowledge of ancient Aramaic; Ari with a strange love/hate relationship with Rivka and her religion. But none of them is prepared for the Jerusalem on the other side of the wormhole. . .
Reviews of Transgression
Booklist (Starred Review): "Ingermanson's first novel, Transgression, is a clever thriller set in contemporary and first-century Jerusalem. Ingermanson, a physicist, creates a dreamy alter ego in Ari Kazan, an orthodox Jew of lapsed faith who has been working on a time machine. Ari finds himself falling in love with Rivka Meyers, a Messianic Jew. He dives through a wormhole to join her in the time of Paul, where Damien West, Ari's dishonest compatriot, has sent her as part of his mission to kill Paul. West has determined, with the aid of that great scholar, the Unabomber, that without Paul there would have been no Christianity, thus he wants to assassinate him. The novel's conclusion reflects the author's ambivalence over the question of whether history can be changed. In any case, Ingermanson is an amusing and original new voice, and his knowledge of the shadowy first century is amazing."
Amazon reader: "I was skeptical. Time-travel and wormholes, Jerusalem and an attempt to assassinate the Apostle Paul? Great concepts, but could this new author pull it off? Ingermanson not only pulls it off, he tells a story worth re-reading. I was impressed. "Transgression" works as a historical/futuristic suspense novel -- and, on top of that, offers theological insights. This story of Rivka, an archaeology student, and Ari, a physicist, is suspenseful and taut. The dialogue is crisp, with subtle depth and honesty."
Endorsements for Transgression
Kathy Tyers, New York Times bestselling author of Balance Point: "This technologically literate book is still a highly enjoyable page-turner. Ingermanson includes enough scientific, linguistic, and cultural detail to convince the reader that he knows much more about these subjects, but is holding back to keep the story moving. I loved the scene in which a twentieth-century physicist explains the physics equations on his '...and there was light' t-shirt to his new first-century friend! The story's premise is fascinating, the characters believable. Good stuff."
Jack Cavanaugh, two-time Christy award winning historical novelist: "What impressed me most as a writer of historical fiction about Transgression was Randy Ingermanson's re-creation of First Century Jerusalem. While I expected a high level of competence in the area of time travel from a writer who's also a physicist, the accuracy of his historical research was a delightful surprise. He developed a setting and characters that can have some wonderful spin-off stories as the cultures of two time periods collide."
Jim Denney, author of ANSWERS TO SATISFY THE SOUL and the TIMEBENDERS series: "Randy Ingermanson writes with the left brain of a scientist and the right brain of a poet. His stories have scope and depth, and his style is clear and polished, powerful and rhythmic. Ingermanson creates characters who are real, three-dimensional people, and his plots twist and turn right up to the final Big Surprise. Most important, he writes about real issues that affect us all: human relationships, human meaning, the reality of God, the immortality of the soul.
"Ingermanson's 'City of God' novels (TRANSGRESSION, RETRIBUTION, and PREMONITION) defy classification: Are they science fiction? Historical fiction? Suspense fiction? Spiritual journey? All of the above? Forget categories and genres. Just read and enjoy. Of course, the ideal way to experience the 'City of God' series is to read them in order, beginning with TRANSGRESSION. Yet each novel in the series is remarkably self-contained and can easily be read without having read the other two. If you've never read Randy Ingermanson before, you're in for a treat."
Rene Gutteridge, author of The Splitting Storm and Storm Gathering: "Transgression will continue to be one of my favorite novels by one of my favorite novelists. It was such a unique and amazing journey, with unforgettable characters and a plot I simply did not want to end."
