A Dream of Stewards by Yohann Martin

I Want More was the first phrase that sprung into my head after finishing Yohann Martin’s A Dream of Stewards. Every genre was represented in this book, including mystery, time travel, romance, and family. Martin’s ability to make this story seem so genuine was one of the aspects of reading that I really appreciated.

He provided the AIC (Archive Initiative Center) employees authentic backstories and families. I didn’t find the characters to as superhuman as I had anticipated. Instead, the AIC carefully selected them based on qualities that could not be acquired, such as leadership, effort, and openness to learning.

You can learn to fight, navigate, and use weapons. The earlier listed abilities can’t. The characters’ gradual acceptance of not wanting to know everything was another aspect of the book that caught my attention as I read it. The Stewards’ explanations were sporadic or evasive in a number of cases.

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The characters were left with additional unanswered questions and the hope that they would ultimately learn the truth because they were never given the complete story. Last but not least, I learned a valuable lesson about the impact that power can have on an individual. Many of the characters in the book were given the ability to alter crucial moments in their lives, travel back in time to correct errors, end wars, and avert misery and catastrophe.

These characters fight both internally and outside as they make their decisions. It begs the question, “What would you do with the same opportunity?” from the reader. Would you try to alter things? Would you be consumed by that power if you did? Could you control the abuse of knowledge and the power of change in yourself?

I only gave four instead of five stars because of the storytelling. I wish there had been a little more explanation because there are so many side stories that are entwined with the main plot. Some of the chapters began by using “she” or “he” to describe a scene. Sometimes the name of the character didn’t appear until a few paragraphs later or on the following page.

Some of the chapters also skipped ahead in time or were memories. I recognise that some of those passages were intended to illustrate the bewilderment the character was experiencing as well, but I occasionally thought they went a little far. With the exception of one minor problem, I really liked Yohann Martin’s A Dream of Stewards and would strongly suggest reading it.

About The Book

It’s been ten years since Reuben Greyson’s father disappeared, leaving this discharged Army veteran drifting in a sea of unemployment and alcohol. That is until an attempt on his life drives Reuben into the grips of the secretive Archive Initiative Center (AIC), where he learns of his father’s murder and the elusive fugitive plotting to take the reins of their most guarded asset: Chronos.

Now, Reuben must unlock the mysteries behind the former order of time travelers, known as the Stewards, as he hunts down his father’s killer through the vast spacetime maze of the Chronos Project. The past cannot be altered and the future is seemingly fixed, though the dreamlike groanings of the machine and the players competing over its power appear to say otherwise.

Caught in a vortex of hidden agendas, prophetic dreams, and tantalizing artifacts, Reuben and his team of travelers unlock clues that lead to the gut-wrenching truth at the heart of the cryptic project. Equations and gadgetry may bind the pillars of the beastly Chronos, but human dilemmas will test all those who pass through its arches.