Transgression (City of God Series #1 [Paperback]

Randall Scott Ingermanson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2000

While playing a virtual reality game, Rivka Meyers, an American Messianic Jew visiting Israel for an archaeological dig, becomes trapped in ancient Jerusalem, involved in a plot to destroy the spread of Christianity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736901957
• ISBN-13: 978-0736901956
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #745,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randy Ingermanson was both the class nerd and the class clown. He is the award-winning author of six novels and has been teaching fiction for a number of years. He is known around the world as "the Snowflake Guy" in honor of his "Snowflake method" of designing a novel. Randy earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California at Berkeley and worked for many years in San Diego as a computational physicist. He teaches fiction at writing conferences across the country and sits on the Advisory Board of American Christian Fiction Writers. He also publishes the world's largest electronic magazine on how to write fiction, the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine. Randy's first two novels won Christy awards, and his second novel, Oxygen, earned a spot on the New York Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age" list.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely incredible, March 8, 2003

By 

Dave (Lexington, Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transgression (City of God Series #1 (Paperback)

Another of Randall Ingermanson's books, he uses his impressive scientific and Biblical knowledge to write an incredible story.

Rivka Myers finds herself used as an unwitting guinea pig and sent back in time to Ancient Israel! Fortunately, she is skilled in ancient linguistics, and manages to get around town pretty well...until she is mistaken for a prostitute. (Cut-off jeans, and no covered hair...shocking!) A "fellow" prostitute covers for Rivka until she can get her bearings and recover her modesty. She soon learns that the "mad" scientist who sent her back in the first place has followed her into his "wormhole" and into Ancient Times. Rivka must find out why, while also dealing with a new friend coming to her rescue...even after they had a fight.

I have it from a good source (the author) that his book is only the first of three (or was it five?) books in this series.

This book is incredibly well-written, entertaining, interesting, believable, and action-packed. There's twists and turns all along the way, and the fun's not over yet! Buy this book, and be on pins and needles for the next!

One question: It's never made clear why this book is called Transgression. Perhaps it will in future books, but for now, it's a mystery.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like it more . . ., September 10, 2004

By 

Krista Casada - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transgression (City of God Series #1 (Paperback)

Really, I did. I found this book by following up on recommendations from other books I'd liked, and I wanted to like it too. But it really doesn't deliver. It gets the third star solely because of Ingermanson's believable, sympathetic, and downright fascinating--though frustratingly brief--portrait of Paul. At the same time, it has three major problems.

First, don't look for much science here. The discussion of the theological implication of the arrangement of quarks is great, but only about two sentences long. Other than that, you mostly get high-sounding jargon.

Second, the theology is just plain weird. Ingermanson takes fiendish delight in trying to prove that most everything you ever learned about the early church is biased and wrong, and that obvious agenda gets REALLY ANNOYING after a while. Plus, he succumbs to the temptation, unfortunately pretty common in this subgenre, to present Jewish people as a sort of para-church group who retain something of their Old Covenant status as the chosen people of God under the New Covenant, without reference to a relationship to Christ as Redeemer. This is a pretty ironic weakness considering that Paul himself tried hard to correct this misconception. Maybe Ingermanson corrects this impression in his following books?

Third, unfortunately, Ingermanson's writing is weak. Character development in this story, when it happens at all, is oddly sporadic and has little connection to the events of the plot. Common sense is in woefully short supply among all the characters, from our hero who jaunts back into the past with an unbelievably small supply of his vital allergy medication, to our villain who was incredibly slipshod in his prep work, to our heroine with her remarkable cluelessness about gender norms in the period she should know so well. Some plot elements test your patience more than they should, too. Excuse me--even if you really could build a wormhole in your local physics lab, could you really use a cell phone while standing in it? In my building, cell phones won't even work in the elevators, folks! Also, assuming you build said wormhole, do you really think the Israeli government's immediately going to believe you can use it for time travel? (The whole government was apparently pretty blase here.) And even if they do believe you, do you really think their first concern is going to be whether your cool new technology should be shut down for the Sabbath? I wish!

Other minor gripes: this book is short on physical description of any kind. Also, the two and a half romances which meander along through its pages proceed so strangely that you'll occasionally feel you MUST have skipped fifty pages in there somewhere. Most everything is left hideously (NOT tantilizingly) unresolved at the end. And the sad fact is that if you don't speak a fair to middling amount of basic Hebrew, you will miss some detail. Exasperating.

So do what I did. Check this book out from the library, but don't buy it. If you can ignore a little strangeness for a big payoff, read (or re-read) A Man Called Blessed, instead.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time travel at its best!, May 16, 2004

By 

Jackie Tortorella - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Transgression (City of God Series #1 (Paperback)

I love hard science fiction (NOT fantasy) and time travel is my favorite theme--when it's done well. Transgression is truly a remarkable mix of science, adventure, history, religion, and even romance. The balance is perfect. This is the first book I've read by Ingermanson, but now I'll read the others for certain. I do highly recommend Transgression--reading it is like taking a vacation into the past. As a Catholic, I enjoyed the Christian slant to it. I really can think of no criticism--definitely 5 stars!