The premise of this book really intrigued me - a time traveler working for the Smithsonian, who goes back through history to recover artifacts before they are lost.

Rabbit is one of those time travelers, and he's still reeling from losing his young partner Aaron on a previous trip to find the great Menorah, a trip that failed. During a recent trip he ran across a fellow time traveler Helen, who is working for a rival, and who is determined to prevent him returning with his finds.

After a few failed missions, he expects to be sidelined, before a benefactor offer to fund another trip to find the menorah. This trip is the focus of the book, as he and Helen form an unlikely partnership to try and retrieve the artifact while others are willing to kill for it. As neither trusts the other, they constantly try to outmaneuver each other.

There are a lot of characters, and a fair bit of action in the book. Lots of historical facts and figures are shared, which to be honest I found distracting. I started to struggle to keep everyone straight and sort out which information was important to the plot.

I loved the premise, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

A time traveling thriller about Rabbit who’s sent back in time to find a piece of history and bring it to the present. Meeting a rival time traveler, the two come across issue after issue in their journey to secure the artifact.

Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington is an ARC I was able to read immersively. I need to thank Net Galley, MacMillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press (Minotaur Books) for my advance copies. The narration on the audio book is by Roger Wayne - and it is really well done. This is time travel and historical fiction. Rabbit Ward, our main male character, is saddled with a desperately terrible name. He is an archeologist and a time traveler. He travels back in time to ancient lands and times to retrieve artifacts that have been lost to time. Here is the key - he can't bring the artifact back with him - everything in the past must stay in the past - he has to hide the artifact in a location they can find and when Rabbit returns to the present, he lets them know the location and they dig and find the artifact. That's all well and good, but something terrible happened on one of his trips to ancient Rome, and, for his last few jumps, someone has known what he was going back to retrieve, and stolen the artifact from him. Now his funding is drying up and he needs to figure out how to turn this situation around. There is a lot of history in this story - traveling to save scrolls from the Library at Alexandria and a menorrah from Constantinople. It's a blend of historical fiction and science fiction, and I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

This book releases March 18, 2025

Splinter Effect is a time-traveling science fiction story. It reminded me of the short-lived (but great) TV show Timeless (after reading this book, I want to rewatch the show).

I was intrigued by the premise: an archeologist who can travel back in time. I'm sure there are archeology finds that we have gotten wrong as to its function or relevance (e,g, a priceless piece of pottery to us was the equivalent of Tupperware in its time). So it would be really cool to go back in time to understand the period. However, Rabbit Ward isn't just going back in time to understand the items found. No, he is going back in order to find the artifact.

If you are looking for an action-adventure story, then this is definitely a book to read.

I enjoyed the world-building in the story. There were enough details to understand it without feeling overwhelmed. Details are also sprinkled through and not just dumped all at once so that helps with the understanding. Ludington relied on some already known time travel rules that will be familiar to readers (I'm pretty sure Ludington watched Timeless too or at least the same materials in building his world). I liked how he handled changing to the future (or not) by traveling to the past.

There are two adventures in this book. One is the search for a menorah. Ancient history is not really my time period but I still enjoyed the story. I won't tell you about the second adventure as that is a bit of a surprise.

I enjoyed the narrator Roger Wayne. I did have some trouble with following the story. There are a lot of characters to meet both in present day and in the past so while it took me a bit to keep the characters straight it wasn't because of the narrator. He did a great job with all the voices. Listening to this book took a good bit of concentration.

I'm not sure if this is the start of a series. Everything is wrapped up in the end but there is some wiggle room at the end for a new adventure. I know if there is a sequel, I would read it as I think there is a lot more that can be explored with the characters.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Saturday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2025/03/splinter-effect-by-andrew-ludington.html

Robert “Rabbit” Ward is a time traveling rescuer of ancient artifacts. However, he has hit a streak of back luck - from losing his partner to being thwarted by a mysterious woman, Rabbit needs a break. And that break is in the form of a lost menorah. Can this be the job that helps him get his life back on the right track?

This was a fun novel with an interesting premise. Along with the adventure and thwarting of danger, the structure of time travel and how that works is pretty interesting. Ultimately though this is a story about Rabbit and him coming to terms with a new phase in his life. 3 stars.

Based on a digital Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you!

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for my complimentary eARC of Splinter Effect. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was an interesting time travel/science fiction book based in Constantinople 535 CE.
I can honestly say it's my first historical fiction based in that time period.
There is minimal jumping back and forth between time lines, and they are clearly noted.

I enjoyed learning about this ancient civilization. It took me a bit to get into all the history, so the first part was not as exciting. But thankfully all that action during the last 1/3 of the book really kept me engaged.

After that ending I am so glad to see this is noted as Book #1.

*3-3.5 stars for a debut time-travel thriller that takes us to the ancient world. Robert 'Rabbit' Ward
is 'an extremely accomplished chrono-archaeologist headquartered with the Smithsonian Institution. Specializing in the ancient Hellenic and classical Mediterranean, he has participated in over eighty expeditions in his twenty-year career.' Time travel was legally sanctioned twenty-seven years ago and has heavily favored reclamation of artifacts over research. Private sponsorship has paid for virtually all time travel in the United States. The Splinter Effect states that history cannot be materially altered or reality splinters, creating a parallel reality.

Rabbit Ward's one great failure was while trying to procure a menorah in ancient Rome. Not only was the mission a failure but his young partner was killed. The rules of time travel do not allow a traveller to return to the same moment in time to try again, but now the menorah has shown up in merchant records in Constantinople and his boss, collections curator at the National History Museum in Washington DC, wants him to try again. Only this time he will have competition.

Exciting action and interesting setting make for a fun read. Rabbit is a brave and clever time traveler with his own moral code, carrying a load of guilt over his failures. If there was a flaw in this adventure novel, I'd say it was in not trying hard enough to make the dialog match the historic time. I believe one character actually says, 'Give me a break!' And maybe piling on the adventures when there had already been enough. As an artist once said, The trick is knowing when to stop, when a work is done. Great action-movie material here though!

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new thriller via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

You say Constantinople, I'm there. You can take a girl out of Istanbul, but cannot take Istanbul out of a girl. When I see my beloved city, the capital of 3 empires, as a main character in a story, I'll wistfully sigh first (for not being there now) and then start flipping those pages like it's my job.

Splinter Effect is the sci-fi version of Indiana Jones. Rabbit Ward is the archeologist hopping from time to time to look for long lost wonders of the world and bring them to our time. He seems to have less capitalistic ideology in his search for these artifacts, but not everyone who could do the time hopping shares his objectives. His presence did not appear to tweak the history at first, but it sure impacts his own history and relationships. He lost a mentee in his search for the menorah, but he didn't know whether people really die or get lost in other times. This question and many other like this initiate a new series of events Rabbit might or not like.

I can see this book turning into 4-5 book series (or maybe more, who am I to say?) with so many missing magical and mystical artifacts got lost in the history. I'm sure Rabbit Ward would love to continue playing Indiana Jones in Dan Brown like settings and I would be interested in to see where he will go next.

An archeological time travel adventure featuring a harder Indiana Jones type MC and a mysterious female antagonist as they compete on their hunts for historical objects. The story isn’t bad, full of interesting but suspect pseudo science on paradoxes and ethical quandaries, but I felt like it had been done better a few times over. You can still enjoy it for its historical tidbits and action sequences but if you’re looking for something really entertaining, try Jodi Taylor.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy. These opinions are my own.

Splinter Effect: if a significant change is made by a time traveler, another universe is created, one that splinters off our own timeline.

I like a really good time travel story and this one sounded like a good one. The summary made it kind of sound like a time traveling Indiana Jones, which is a pretty good description. Rabbit definitely has that whole Indiana Jones vibe going on. The book summary pretty much lays out the whole premise for the primary storyline. What it doesn’t say much about is the secondary storyline where 20yrs ago, Aaron, a newbie time traveler, got left behind and stuck in 455 Rome.

In an alternate universe, there are now laws that allow time travel under certain circumstances. However, because of the tremendous expense, the only people who can afford it are groups of extremely rich people who only fund expeditions that will benefit them in some way and almost none of the time travel that is done is for research purposes; Aaron’s parents are among this group. Rabbit’s reputation as a successful time traveler (he has experienced yet another failure) is basically over until an anonymous benefactor has agreed to finance another trip to obtain a renown Jewish artifact, the same one that Rabbit and Aaron tried to obtain 20yrs ago. It’s here that my armchair detective pretty much narrows in on two potential suspects.

Most of the story has Rabbit traveling back to 535 Rome to try and obtain this Jewish artifact – again. There are obstacles everywhere and those who are determined to see Rabbit fail – again. One of those would be Helen, who foiled Rabbit on his last unsuccessful trip. They form a tenuous alliance to obtain the artifact, but there is absolutely no trust whatsoever so they are trying to outmaneuver each other the whole time they’re working together, which is pretty much the whole second half. I was so far off the mark!

There is so much going on from the war between the Christians and Jews, and the tenuous alliance between Rome and Constantinople and the search for the Jewish artifact as well as the hunt for Rabbit by a gang of Christian defenders. Throughout the story, Rabbit is constantly reciting a boatload of obscure historical facts about the locales, people and time period that would probably be unknown to anyone but a historian. History buffs would probably love this kind of story. I found the constant info dumps kind of interrupted the flow of the story and the characters activities at those moments. Then again, I’m not a historian or much of a Greek/Roman history buff.

The character development for Rabbit was pretty good, and ok for a few other characters, but really thin for the rest making most of them nothing more than talking heads. The pacing was steady to fast and the storyline intriguing. The writing was ok, I guess, not terrible. Although, I did really enjoy the ending, which left an overall good feeling and a smile on my face. I’m looking at an overall rate 3.8 that I will be rounding up to a 4star review. I want to thank NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #MacmillanAudio #SplinterEffect

I enjoyed this time travel sci-fi debut, and I look forward to further adventures with Rabbit Ward in the future.

This has a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe with our lead character being a treasure-hunting archaeologist with competition dogging his trail and a bit of possible romance thrown into the mix. There’s also good historical world building and research that adds to flavoring the story with vivid imagery.

I did (occasionally) have some confusion grasping this particular alliteration of time travel specifics, but not enough to detract from the story as a whole. I also hoped for more in-depth exploration of Rabbit’s character/past, but I’ll assume since this is the start of his story, we’ll get that as we go along.

Well done, especially as a freshman effort.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books for providing the free early arc of Splinter Effect for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Dr. Robert “Rabbit” Ward’s sterling reputation has been taking a hit as of late. His work as a chrono archeologist for the Smithsonian may be coming to an end as his rich sponsors withdraw their support. He’s got to do something to keep his rival from stealing his glory. Now, on what may very well be his final mission, he’s being sent way back in time to retrieve an ancient artifact.
This is one snappy historical sci fi thriller. With an engaging plot and likable characters it really drew me in. I also liked the little bit of history I got while reading this propulsive story. Constantinople during the reign of Justinian came to life right before my eyes. It must have been a real marvel during its heyday. An entertaining tale from a debut novelist. 4.25 stars

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook and reader copy of Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington in exchange for an honest review. This book had all the making of a great book, time travel, adventure, light romance, humor, history, but I found it hard for me to get into. For me it was just a good book, but I might pick it up in the future and try again, sometimes I'm just in the wrong place to enjoy a book.

I love the premise of this book! A time traveling archeologist who retrieves lost objects from the past. What a fun idea.

I liked the premises of the book: time travelling in search of artifacts. As a lover of history I found it intriguing and I imagined lots of time-travelling adventures Indiana Jones-style, but instead, most of the story happens in one place in the in 6th century, and while the pace is good and there is some good action, there also too many descriptions and the story didn’t entirely grab me.

This was a fascinating book. I enjoyed the premise of the time travel, and the goals to reclaim things lost to ancient history. There is plenty of intrigue to keep your guessing and wanting to keep reading. I think there is plenty of opportunity to expand the series, which I would be one of the bigger supporters of that idea. I'm very glad I picked this up, and here's to hoping there's another in the series in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Rabbit Ward is a time traveling archaeologist who is still reeling from the grief over a young mentee. Hoping to overcome the whispers that surround him, Rabbit once more sets out to recover the menorah of the second temple. His quest leads him to Constantinople in the 6th century. But will he make it out alive?


This was a good story. It happens to be Andrew Ludington's debut novel. Based on the descriptions in the novel, the author was very well versed in the time that he had transported his main protagonist. I feel that readers might see more of Rabbit in the future. Personally, it wasn't a book that moved me. I was expecting a bit more action and I felt restless the longer we stuck around Constantinople.

I am certain that this book will win over a great number of readers. But I just lacked interest.

Love that cover though!


Expected publication 18/03/25
Goodreads Review 06/03/25

I love a good time travel book, but too often, they get bogged down in lengthy explanations of how time travel works, leading to a slow start. Splinter Effect avoids that trap completely—this one is a rocket ride from page one.

We follow Rabbit Ward, an adventurer on the hunt for his personal "holy grail"—a menorah. With a fantastic concept, characters you’ll really enjoy, and top-notch storytelling, this book delivers an Indiana Jones-style thrill set against the backdrop of time travel. It’s a spectacular start to what promises to be an exciting series.

That said, I do have one gripe—the cover. It leans too much into a horror aesthetic, which I think might turn off potential readers who would otherwise love this adventure. Also, be prepared for a deep dive into 6th-century history—you might learn more than you expected!

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to more of Rabbit’s adventures. If you love fast-paced, historical time travel with an action-packed edge, this is one to check out.

A fast and entertaining read. Rabbit is a time traveller who goes after antiquities - in this case a menorah which has caused him problems in the past notably the loss of his associate Aaron, Yes its light on history but hey-it's not the story of Constantinople it's an action/adventure tale. It's atmospheric and then there's that mysterious woman. No spoilers from me but know that you might not get all the answers you want, which means we should (hopefully) see another outing. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Good characters and storytelling make this a good read.

3.5 stars. Splinter Effect is a fun, fast-paced romp featuring an archaeologist who travels through time to recover lost artifacts for the Smithsonian as well as private collectors. I enjoyed the story, but the historical sections felt very light and there were a lot of words and references that felt jarringly anachronistic to me. I will definitely read the next book in this series when it comes out, and I do recommend this for fans of Indiana Jones-type stories, but don't turn to this for any real historical fiction. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for a digital review copy.