REVIEW: Transcendence by Shay Savage
C- ReviewsFirst-Person / Time-Travel39 Comments
It’s said that women and men are from two different planets when it comes to communication, but how can they overcome the obstacles of prehistoric times when one of them simply doesn’t have the ability to comprehend language?
Ehd’s a caveman living on his own in a harsh wilderness. He’s strong and intelligent, but completely alone. When he finds a beautiful young woman in his pit trap, it’s obvious to him that she is meant to be his mate. He doesn’t know where she came from, she’s wearing some pretty odd clothing, and she makes a lot of noises with her mouth that give him a headache. Still, he’s determined to fulfill his purpose in life – provide for her, protect her, and put a baby in her.
Elizabeth doesn’t know where she is or exactly how she got there. She’s confused and distressed by her predicament, and there’s a caveman hauling her back to his cavehome. She’s not at all interested in Ehd’s primitive advances, and she just can’t seem to get him to listen. No matter what she tries, getting her point across to this primitive but beautiful man is a constant – and often hilarious – struggle.
With only each other for company, they must rely on one another to fight the dangers of the wild and prepare for the winter months. As they struggle to coexist, theirs becomes a love story that transcends language and time.
Dear Ms. Savage,
I hadn’t heard of this book until either it or “Surviving Raine” (sorry, can’t remember which) was featured by Jane during our Daily Deals a few months ago. Any mention of it was immediately followed by an out pouring of “OMG you’ve got to read this!” comments. It certainly sounded unique so I took a chance and bought it then.
Okay. This was different. As you say – not a man acting like a caveman but an actual one. It’s funny in a “men still act this way” way even if maybe it wouldn’t be accurate but, WTH, we were in Artistic License Land here and due for a long stay.
Ehd is thrilled to have someone else living with him again and a young mate at that. Hooey! He’s not alone anymore. I know I’m dating myself but his reaction to her hair reminded me of the old shampoo “Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific.”
Poor Ehd doesn’t understand Beh at all. Does she like him? Does she realize he can provide for her? Will she gather plants and weave baskets like his mother used to? Even cavemen compare their mates to their mothers. So far Beh doesn’t seem impressed with Ehd at all and he’s truly worried. Plus he wants to give her babies. Typical man. In fact he’s pretty fixated on this.
He’s like a puppy. Eager, confused, eager, fascinated, eager, confused, confused, eager. He even touches noses. But he’s not enthused about the strange noises she keeps making. Noise, noise, noise. What’s the point? Then more noise. It’s nice when she doesn’t make noises even if one of them is his name sound. But she’s his mate and if he’s got to put up with it, he will. Sigh.
Even early in the story, it seemed an endless repeat of Ehd’s confusion over Beh and her responses to his every day experiences and life. He doesn’t understand things she does or why she doesn’t respond as he was used to seeing the females of his tribe act, he wants to put a baby in her, he doesn’t want to get her mad or hear the “no” sound she makes, in fact he doesn’t want to hear any sounds she makes because she makes them too often, he likes to make her smile, he wants to put a baby in her, sometimes he thinks she’s weird, or strange but he wants to put a baby in her, why won’t she let him put a baby in her, he wants to put a baby in her. Gah, enough! But since he doesn’t have access to a 24 hour sports channel or beer what’s left but baby putting? Still he’s willing to make Beh bleeding time nappies which is more than I can say for a lot of modern men.
It was getting old and I was not even to the half way point.
Beh was a bit of a tease. I’m sorry if that sounds anti-female but she kisses Ehd, a lot – something he decides he likes, a lot, she strokes his face, she lets him nuzzle her, etc but when he thinks he’s gotten the go ahead for baby putting – and in his defense he doesn’t try and be sly about what he thinks this is leading to, she makes the “no” sound, a lot. Once? Okay Ehd’s a good man to listen to his woman. Twice? We’re still getting our signals crossed. As many as depicted here? Honestly, what does Beh think this behavior is leading to? Really.
Has anyone else watched the MST3K take on “Eegah?” I couldn’t get this out of my mind as I continued to read.
Once Beh allows Ehd to start putting a baby in her, they go to town. Now how is it that he can figure out “the spot” while modern men need a road map and neon arrows? Got to hand it to Ehd, he’s a happy soul and just wants for Beh to be happy too. And put a baby in her.
However by this stage in the game, I was getting bored. Sorry but I need more than this in a story. And even though I acknowledge artistic license, there is a strange and jarring dichotomy in Ehd’s mental vocabulary. He thinks about lying down beside an injured Beh until he doesn’t wake up again then later calls it death, then casually thinks about the color pink, pre-ejaculate, a placenta, the boar’s carotid artery and knows a word for the clay vessel that Beh makes in which to cook soup though he’s never seen one before. Yet he can only repeatedly call Beh’s shoes something like “those things on her feet.”
Then suddenly near the end of the book, their first baby gets sick and WTH?? I’m as confused as Ehd is. From the epilogue, I get an idea of who this new character is but how does he get there, why is Lah gone so long and what is this black object he leaves? Is it an Ipad, a laptop, or something else and how will these work with no electricity? The epilogue – or is it a prologue? – explains a bit about this section but not all of it.
I have to admire the bold choice of hero and the “way the fuck back” time travel. Telling the story from a non-speaking character’s POV is not something I thought could be pulled off yet it was. But the repetition, repetition, repetition followed by the endless “baby putting” – see more repetition, concluded by a bizarre “WTF just happened here” ending had me skimming by the half way point just to get through to the end. C-
~Jayne
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What? What! *sputtering* C-?
Okay, I loved this book much more than you did. I see everything you say, and I raise you five chips for originality. As you said, this book has a caveman hero, his pov the whole entire time and almost no dialogue – and it works! You’ve gotta give the author props for that alone.
I thought Ehd was darling. I enjoyed all the parts where he was trying to figure her out, but we knew what she was doing. And I didn’t think the heroine was a tease. Wasn’t she a teenager when she was lost back in time with him? A teenager and a virgin, without birth control. I’m sure she thought at any minute she would be rescued. Having sex with him and possibly getting pregnant would have been disaster. Her saying no to sex with him was saying no, I’m not staying. The moment she said yes, it meant she loved him and wanted to stay. And when they were finally having sex – it was hot. Yowza.
I wasn’t confused by any part of the book. It all made sense to me. Any parts that were vague, I understood were meant to be vague. You’re in his pov and you’re supposed to be a little befuddled like Ehd is. But I still got the jist of it to my satisfaction. I thought the epilogue was beautiful. A different, sweet HEA.
To me this book is the whole reason why self pub rocks. This book would NEVER have been published traditionally or probably even by a digital first publisher. A caveman hero? Almost no dialogue? They wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole. But I was blown away by how brave the author was to write something so different, so original. I bow to her.
And the best part? This book stuck with me. I still ponder over the ramifications of her choosing to live back in time, with a non speaking caveman, vs living in the modern world. Did she make the right choice? Is the simple life she chose with a man who adored her better than the life we live now? Lots of food for thought.
Gotta agree with Michelle on this – I thought this was a really interesting project that was well executed overall. I was actually impressed at how the author used the cycles of repetition in the story to move things along in their emotional connection. I’ll grant the inconsistencies at times on what kind of internal dialogue Ehd is capable of, but a tease? Really? She’s a virgin teen: if being unsure about what you do or don’t want from your potential sexual partner (and in this case, unable to verbally communicate your feelings beyond “No”) when you’re young and inexperienced is being a tease, then I guess she is. That’s not how it came off to me at all, though.
@Mara: She’s a virgin. Yep I got that. And if she hadn’t spent an entire chapter teaching him how to kiss, I would have given you that point. But she’s a modern teenager, thoroughly exposed to modern sexuality, sex in ads, sex in movies, sex on the internet, sex on every darn type of social media today … she keeps kissing him and cuddling and what does she expect?
@Michele Mills: That’s a good point about self publishing. I might not have agreed with the majority of readers on this book but I am glad it was published.
I liked this one a lot and totally disagree about the teasing. Are you really suggesting that a virginal teenage girl shouldn’t kiss a boy (especially not more than once) unless she intends to have sex with him? She owes him sex, at a certain point? This is dangerously close to “she deserved it.” Maybe you haven’t heard that women can and should be able to stop at any time. I don’t like the word tease and I just don’t think it applies here. Beh isn’t toying with Ehd for fun or out of cruelty.
You’re right about one thing: this commentary DOES sound anti-female.
Ehd’s sweetness and patience made the story for me. This story is original and well done in part because he listens when Bey says no. He’s a caveman who shows more sensitivity and respect than many modern heroes.
I agree with you about the ending and some inconsistencies. I’d give it a B.
@Jill Sorenson: Okay maybe tease isn’t the correct word. Perhaps Beh is just incredibly clueless. But I stick to what I said about what did she think he would think? She’s got a modern viewpoint on “no means no” but would Ehd? That he does back off and respect her wishes is fantastic but hardly something I would have counted on in her place.
Great review, Jayne. I’ve seen this around, but I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a joke book, like the were-orca books or whatever.
It seems like a lot of people liked this book…and I guess I am intrigued enough to read it. Just one thing: is the caveman of the book an actual human? Or is he a different sub-species, I guess you would call it?
@Diana: He is supposed to be a slightly different sub-species. As the author describes in her forward – “Located in the left hemisphere, Broca’s Area is the part of the brain associated with the comprehension of both verbal and non-verbal language. It’s what allows you to understand English, learn to speak Chinese, use sign language to communicate across the room, or even to play Pictionary.
Yeah, Pictionary.
Reading the words on this page also uses Broca’s area to take symbols and transform them into words your mind recognizes and comprehends. This part of the brain is completely responsible for how Homo sapiens communicate.
So what if someone has no Broca’s Area in their brain?
Meet Ehd, the caveman. Ehd is a completely fictitious form of a human-like primate (we’ll call him Homo savage, m’kay?), who is pretty much exactly like modern humans except he lacks Broca’s Area in his brain.
What does that mean?
What it means is Ehd CAN’T learn to speak. He just doesn’t have the ability.”
As P2P Twilight fan fic, Ehd and Beh are caveman names for Edward and Bella? Did they end up sparkling in their cave at one point? No Jacob caveman lurking around to steal Beh?
On the strength of all the, “You must read this book yesterday!!1!bbq!! It is so great!” comments, I bought Transcendence during that deals post. I started it last week, mostly having forgotten the premise but remembering the outpouring of love for the title. Well. I’m about 10% of the way into the book, and I don’t like it at all. I’ve had some success with starting over again a few months later with books that didn’t initially grab me, so I’ve not completely given up, but so far, I do not get the love for Transcendence. I find both characters majorly annoying, and the fact that I got this book on the cheap makes it even easier for me not to care about finishing this novel.
I’ll see how I feel about it come late spring or summer.
@KT Grant: I’ve never read any of the Twilight books or fanfic so I’ll yield to what those who have done so say about it. Ehd and Beh sparkled with love for each other. There is a brief scene of a caveman who does try to steal Beh but he’s a garden variety thug and Ehd soon deals with him.
I picked this one up when the buzz about it first hit online. It sounded like such a cool premise. But, like you Jayne, it didn’t hold my attention because of what felt like a lot of repetition and slow pacing. I’d probably give it another try again at some point, though. maybe.
@KT Grant: I’ve heard that before – that this book started out as fan fic. It surprises me because I don’t see any similarities between this book and Twilight beyond he’s male, she’s female and they’re both young.
I should add, the general feeling of repetition/slow pacing I remember wasn’t tied to the push/stall of sexual development of the relationship, I remember his attraction to her/her hair, but don’t remember her kissing him, so I opted out before the story even got that far.
@Jill Sorenson: Seriously? You decided that Jayne equated “tease” with “she owes him sex?” First of all, in the part of the world I live in, being a virgin does not mean “understands nothing about sexual desire or the effects thereof.” It means “has not had intercourse, i.e., PIV sex.” You can know a hell of a lot about desire, sensual experience, and how your partner might react to what you do and still be a virgin.
This is a time-travel story. She’s in a pre-primitive society and is dealing with someone who has no capacity to understand or use language. Me, I’d err on the side of safety. If she didn’t, that doesn’t mean she’s a bad person, but she’s clearly not using the IQ points and societal conditioning the 21stC gave her. It seems totally fair to call her on that.
Not being able to process or produce language doesn’t necessarily mean a person can’t communicate. Anyone who has dealt with people that don’t share a language, or aren’t able to speak (or hear, or see) knows that there are many, many ways to work around that problem.
Then again, I was pretty much out at “baby putting,” so I’m clearly not the target audience.
I’m also one who truly enjoyed Transcendence; it’s a book that left me pondering about how I would feel in Beh’s “those things on her feet.” It also made me wonder about genetics (SPOILER) since clearly three of their four children have the capacity for speech. Yes, I too wondered about what that black thing was. In fact, this is the rare time I’d really enjoy a follow up book written from the heroine’s point of view.
I really wanted to like this book but couldn’t because of all the reasons Jayne listed in her review. That being said, the author’s voice intrigued me so I’m going to try another book. Does anyone have other recs for books written by Savage?
Re: self publishing. Like another commenter, I’m super glad that that this book was published because it’s unlikely that this type of book would’ve been traditionally published. I loved the concept even though the execution didn’t work for me.
I absolutely adored this one Jayne! I definitely understand your criticisms, but I was so taken by the premise that I was able to overlook many o things I normally wouldn’t. Like you said, the story is primarily in “Artistic License Land” and I was impressed the Author was able to pull this off. Told from the male caveman’s perspective when he doesn’t even understand language was a gargantuan task.
I also enjoyed the humor in it. Actually that was my favorite thing about Transcendence–the LOLs :)
Hoh!
@Sunita: Since you asked, yes, my comment was serious. But I wrote the “maybe you haven’t heard” part in a snarky voice and that was unnecessary. I didn’t enjoy having that tone directed back to me, so thank you for the demonstration.
My apologies, Jayne.
Thanks, Jayne! I appreciate the info. I did start to read it; I thought I would probably check out like 5 pages in, but the writing is strangely compelling. I’m curious to see if I run into the same pacing issues experienced by you and others, but I’m kind of enjoying the book right now.
I’m still pretty early into this, but so far it’s giving me a “Greystoke, the Legend of Ehdward” vibe, so I’m not really sold on the originality. But I’m very curious to see how the noble savage trope is dealt with over the course of the novel.
As for the sexual chemistry between Ehd and Beh, it reminds me a lot of Twilight, actually, where the sexually inexperienced Bella wanted intimacy with Edward, even though she didn’t understand the consequences of that in terms of a fully sexual relationship, while Edward continued to hold himself back, even as he wanted and wanted and wanted Bella. Very much a fantasy scenario around how the sexual relationship moves back and forth. Which is how I read Jayne’s description, too.
I will admit that I’m having a hard time with the language issue in part because Ehd likes to use phrases like “In the back of my head” and words like “leather” and “flask.” And because the narrative is from his perspective, for me the modernity of his voice continues to cut against the complexity of what the author seems to be trying to accomplish with his language expression issues.
I also found it interesting that Ehd was so turned on by Beh’s powerlessness at first. Although he fixates on her hair in much the same way Edward did Bella’s, IIRC, and her hair is described in ways that seem very similar to Bella’s. Definitely curious to see how she holds to and diverges from the original Twilight narrative.
I really appreciate Jayne’s review and Robin’s comments because I too wondered about it when it was on the daily deals and now I think it’s almost certainly not my thing. Am I right to assume Beh gets permanently stranded far back in the mists of prehistory with Ehd, with no antibiotics, no one to ever have an actual conversation with, and a 30 year life expectancy?
@Janine:
That’s what I was thinking the entire time reading the review and the comments section-that by the time you are a 20-25 year old cave person you are definitely middle-aged/old, and hitting 30 was super rare! Also the chances of a modern woman surviving childhood in prehistoric times…not good. Neandertals and over “cave people” had, as I recall, had okayish rates due to differences in anatomy, but a normal 21st century teenage girl would probably not survive childbirth…
Okay, I get that there is a lot of artistic license and it’s fiction, and maybe I can give the childbirth thing a pass, but the life expectancy gets to me. Then again, I’m not one for time travel romance because the fantasy of it just doesn’t work for me. I get caught up in all the logistics and listing off things that don’t exist yet…not just modern conveniences but life saving medicine/decent medical knowledge, feminism, my family and friends…
So yeah, I am definitely not interested in this based on the topic, like so many were.
I almost wish I better tolerated the time travel trope, because otherwise this sounds like my sort of crazy sauce.
@Janine: Yes, Beh ends up in prehistory. I think (read my penultimate paragraph) that Beh has an opportunity to travel back to modern times but chooses to stay with Ehd.
Massive kudos to the author for tackling the challenge. But the repetitious writing and Ehd’s insanely sophisticated mental vocabulary made it clear that the challenge was too much. It sounds like the author speaking much of the time, not a human from a different branch of the tree. I liked the idea of a caveman fantasy, but this lands far over on the “fantasy” side and less on the “seeing the world through a prehistoric lens” side. And the repetition. There was repetition. Repetition. But that’s my take. So many people love this book and the setting, they surely see good things in it that outweigh what I see as insurmountable problems.
I didn’t mind the timey-wimey ending. It wasn’t super original, but I got it and it worked well enough. Ehd’s baby-making obsession got silly, but I was willing to roll with that being his obsessiveness (from being all alone in the world and not having anything useful to do with an overdeveloped brain in a limited environment) rather than a problem in the writing.
I think it’s just going to be a roll of the dice for readers. I don’t hate it–to me it’s just a failed attempt at a difficult idea, but one that still seems to work for some folks for the opposites-attract, clean-up-a-sexy-caring-caveman concepts.
@Mary: you and Janine point out aspects of time travel romances that make me shy away from those books. (Plus, the temporal Prime Directive!) I picked this up when it was a daily deal, but I should have stuck to my usual stance because it really wasn’t the story for me.
@Divya: I haven’t read it but “Surviving Raine” got a lot of positive comments in the original daily deals post. That’s when I bought both books.
@Jayne:
While I’m glad she has a choice, I can’t say her decision is one I relate to.
I rated this book more of a C+/B- because it kept me entertained, but everything you mention about its flaws and quirks were true for me, too. What was most difficult for me was to accept that a young woman (probably around 20) would stay and raise children in a world where hyaenodons still roam the plains and home is dark, dank cave. Those factors alone would have had me jumping back into the first time machine available – and I like camping. I was also confused about the events with their baby daughter and the best I could do was chalk it up the fact we don’t have Beh’s side of the story. Maybe this was not the first time (SPOILER ALERT) her father came to her from the future? I could suspend disbelief with the language contradictions going on with Ehd, but not Beh’s choice to stay in such primitive, deadly world and start a family. And yeah, and what the heck was that device she started consulting towards the second half of the book. An iPhone with prehistoric wifi? I’m not buying it.
@Sunita: ” She’s in a pre-primitive society and is dealing with someone who has no capacity to understand or use language. Me, I’d err on the side of safety. ”
Totally agree. Ehd isn’t even the same subspecies, and the idea that someone who doesn’t come from remotely the same background, let alone speak her language or any language, will automatically understand very modern concepts of consent is a fairly dangerous assumption. (The fact he apparently does is an eyeroller, considering that in the 21st century, rape culture is alive and kicking. If it was so innate that a ‘caveman’ would accept it, life wouldn’t suck to be female so much!)
I don’t know how much research the author did. I only know what the Broca’s area does from Wikipedia, although I know a fair bit about non-human communication and ‘language’. “This part of the brain is completely responsible for how Homo sapiens communicate.” Is not true according to Wiki, since people with damaged or missing Broca’s areas can communicate surprisingly well.
I don’t know why she decided to make Ehd a different subspecies, which sets off my ‘consent issues’ red flags (we don’t think sex with chimps is okay) for a start, and makes the whole accepting the no word thing even more ridiculously implausible. Stupid science is a real turn off for me, so this (and the author’s pen name) is enough to make me give this a miss.
Shame because how people come to communicate and form bonds despite language barriers is a big kink for me and a recurring theme in my own writing.
Haven’t read the book because it does scream “Twilight Fanfic” at me, plus I’m pretty sure the dubious science would be like nails on a chalkboard.
FWIW, there’s some dubious scientific assumptions in the comments as well. The extremely low life expectancies of pre-modern societies are so low because they are *averages*, brought down by a high rate of infant mortality (and, to a lesser degree, by death in pregnancy and childbirth, especially first pregnancies). Survive those, and it’s likely that a pre-modern human would live …. well, eighties and nineties would be unusual, but sixties and seventies weren’t uncommon.
Length of life doesn’t necessarily equate to quality of life, though. Personally, I can’t think of anything sexier in a man than his words; without those, no hot body or even sweet personality is likely to win me over, even in fiction.
@hapax: It screams “Twilight fanfic” to me as well – basically I checked out as a book audience the moment I saw the characters names.
Having not read the book, Beh does not sound smart to me either (basically I agree with Sunita).
I absolutely ADORED this book, read it back to back to back four times before I could move onto the next book. But even as I was reading and sobbing almost uncontrolably at the end, the more rational part of me could see why this book also got many low grades too. Much of it was unrealistic and unbelievable.
As to why she didn’t go back to her own time, I’ve pondered that and realized she simply couldn’t do it and continue to live with herself. By this time she loves Ehd and to leave him would result in his death and I think she was aware of this because of what happened when she was unconscious for that time. And what about their children? If she took them to, as if just leaving on her on wouldn’t kill him, taking them away would ensure it. And how cruel would it be? He was a wonderful father and loved them dearly. Look at how he mourned when he thought hed lost Lah.
And he certainly couldn’t go forward!! He would be a freak with no purpose. He was so proud of just having wood and catching fish. He would have no way of communicating. Again, he would simply die of a broken heart.
So by returning to her own time, she would be robbing her children of a loving father and knowing a dear, kind, loving man who she loved would die. She simply couldn’t do it.
@Michele Mills:
What you say. *grin*. This book has ‘stuck’ with me too and it hasn’t left. I haven’t been this blown away by a story in a number of years now
@Kristie(J): That was the reason I felt she decided to stay with Ehd, too. He was obviously devoted to his family and willing to do anything to protect them.
I adored this book. Is it flawed? Yes. Was it at times repetitive? Yes. It’s not a book I recommend to everyone, but it is one I will read again and again.
Because it hit my sweet spot. See, I’m all about the hero. He’s my favorite character in a romance, and nine times out of ten I don’t give two figs about her. This book gave me everything I was dying to have in a romance. I cried several times over the beauty of his devotion to Beh, and the end had me in the best kind of tears. I was so satisfied and happy when I finished it and I enjoyed the heck out of the afterglow.
Ehd is hands-down one of my favorite romance heroes of all time. I found him to be everything I believe a romance hero should be. It was beautiful.
@Rachel Leigh Smith: “He’s my favorite character in a romance, and nine times out of ten I don’t give two figs about her.”
:( Making the point I raised in my comment on Robin’s new article on romance not being a feminist genre
I always thought that the black thing she consulted was a book. A plain, everday, page turning book (no electricity required); a field guide to prehistoric plants to help her find more things to eat and maybe make medicine. What I didn’t understand was, what was the red and black thing she shot herself with so she wouldn’t get pregnant again?
I enjoyed this book. The ‘baby putting’ didn’t bother me because the survival of the species was a daily factor – need more people to gather food, hunt, and take care of each other. A lot of individuals didn’t survive long so more babies were always needed. I would think that would be a natural urge right up there with eating and drinking.