What do you think?
Rate this book
The Formation Saga #2
Transmentation | Transgression: Or, a Spark on the Eve of the Five Hundred Year Burn
From bestselling authors Darkly Lem comes
Transmentation | Transgression
, the second installment in the Formation Saga, a sweeping epic of adventure, mystery, and intrigue.
In this vast multiverse in which people can travel between universes—entering new bodies with entire in-universe identities gifted to them by a mysterious entity known as the Simulacrum—universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen over thousands of years. Some travel to make the universe a better place for all, some seek power and glory, some covet knowledge, some simply want to create wonderful stories.
But this unchecked expansion has been curtailed in recent centuries as these societies encounter each other with greater frequency … and friction. Now they vie for power, knowledge, wealth, and control within their many worlds while the ever-expanding multiverse faces threats of destruction.
In this vast multiverse in which people can travel between universes—entering new bodies with entire in-universe identities gifted to them by a mysterious entity known as the Simulacrum—universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen over thousands of years. Some travel to make the universe a better place for all, some seek power and glory, some covet knowledge, some simply want to create wonderful stories.
But this unchecked expansion has been curtailed in recent centuries as these societies encounter each other with greater frequency … and friction. Now they vie for power, knowledge, wealth, and control within their many worlds while the ever-expanding multiverse faces threats of destruction.
404 pages, Hardcover
Published March 17, 2026
3 people are currently reading
4081 people want to read
About the author
Darkly Lem
3 books35 followersDarkly Lem is five authors in an impeccably-tailored trenchcoat, namely Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and M. Darusha Wehm. They live in an Earth-type locality in the Central Cluster with their seven kids, several spouses, and a modest menagerie.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 23, 2026
Transmentation | Transgression is the second installment of The Formation Saga. The book again is penned by five collaborating authors going by the name Darkly Lem. Like the previous installment, this style of writing is impressive in the way the authors were able to create a cohesive novel composed by so many voices. I fear that my own limitations have gotten in the way of me fully enjoying or understanding the text. As a result it is a bit difficult to review on its own merits.
This series includes a large quantity of characters from a variety of different locales who are sometimes hopping from body to body across multiverses. This is of course difficult to track, but like the first installment a list of characters is thankfully provided in the beginning of the text. I am not sure if it is just my ARC, but some of the characters were missing from the list in this installment. This made referencing back during this and to people from the previous text difficult at times. My memory is absolutely terrible and I wish I had taken notes while reading the first book and this one.
When I read NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy for instance, I waited for all of them to come out and read them back to back. I took notes on each character so when they were changing names and so on I could keep track of who they were and some of their history. I really should have done this with this series rather than relying on the character list as I felt quite lost at times. Each book is around 400 pages give or take and I found myself struggling to recall how the two books stitched together. I don't think this is the fault of the editors or authors as it is common for sequential books to pick up where one left off without much summary. It is more me learning again that when delving into a series like this, I may need to wait for all installments or to take better notes.
With that out of the way I found this project to continue to be impressive in its composition style. This is still the only book or series that I've read with more than one or two authors. I found the writing to be stylistically good across the book even if the story sometimes felt disjointed or confusing due to my own limits. I enjoyed the diversity of character traits and cultures all of which felt seamlessly intertwined across chapters.
I think that since this book continues to veer in the direction of fantasy more so than science fiction, that there is also a purely taste issue for me independent of writing quality. There are moments where the reader must suspend disbelief in ways that I'm not super capable of regarding travel between bodies and how and why that works in each area. There were also a few odd chapters where weird biblical or other fantastical monsters showed up- and promptly left at chapter's end- that felt out of place. I understand that when you're dealing with multiple dimensions that anything an happen. But, these chapters weren't cohesive enough with the rest of the book. This was frustrating because the ideas were really compelling and interesting and I could not tell if these chapters were just added in to show the idea of multiverses, or if we are going to learn more about these creatures and histories in the future.
Like the first book, some of my favorite parts were the characters conversing and interacting an intimate ways. I found myself falling into their conversations as I read them and the characters feeling quite real in those ways. This makes up much of the length of the book and I think this is generally a good thing when I can keep track of what's going on. I will likely go back and reread the entire series sequentially once all of the books are out in order to fully grasp the story.
If not already clear, this review is more based on my own taste rather than an objective assessment of the quality of the writing. Due to my own faulty memory and attention I needed to approach these books in a different way than I have so far. If you're anything like me I recommend jotting down a few notes next to each character or recording major plot points in order to keep up with the texts as they are published.
This was also posted to my storygraph and blog.
This series includes a large quantity of characters from a variety of different locales who are sometimes hopping from body to body across multiverses. This is of course difficult to track, but like the first installment a list of characters is thankfully provided in the beginning of the text. I am not sure if it is just my ARC, but some of the characters were missing from the list in this installment. This made referencing back during this and to people from the previous text difficult at times. My memory is absolutely terrible and I wish I had taken notes while reading the first book and this one.
When I read NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy for instance, I waited for all of them to come out and read them back to back. I took notes on each character so when they were changing names and so on I could keep track of who they were and some of their history. I really should have done this with this series rather than relying on the character list as I felt quite lost at times. Each book is around 400 pages give or take and I found myself struggling to recall how the two books stitched together. I don't think this is the fault of the editors or authors as it is common for sequential books to pick up where one left off without much summary. It is more me learning again that when delving into a series like this, I may need to wait for all installments or to take better notes.
With that out of the way I found this project to continue to be impressive in its composition style. This is still the only book or series that I've read with more than one or two authors. I found the writing to be stylistically good across the book even if the story sometimes felt disjointed or confusing due to my own limits. I enjoyed the diversity of character traits and cultures all of which felt seamlessly intertwined across chapters.
I think that since this book continues to veer in the direction of fantasy more so than science fiction, that there is also a purely taste issue for me independent of writing quality. There are moments where the reader must suspend disbelief in ways that I'm not super capable of regarding travel between bodies and how and why that works in each area. There were also a few odd chapters where weird biblical or other fantastical monsters showed up- and promptly left at chapter's end- that felt out of place. I understand that when you're dealing with multiple dimensions that anything an happen. But, these chapters weren't cohesive enough with the rest of the book. This was frustrating because the ideas were really compelling and interesting and I could not tell if these chapters were just added in to show the idea of multiverses, or if we are going to learn more about these creatures and histories in the future.
Like the first book, some of my favorite parts were the characters conversing and interacting an intimate ways. I found myself falling into their conversations as I read them and the characters feeling quite real in those ways. This makes up much of the length of the book and I think this is generally a good thing when I can keep track of what's going on. I will likely go back and reread the entire series sequentially once all of the books are out in order to fully grasp the story.
If not already clear, this review is more based on my own taste rather than an objective assessment of the quality of the writing. Due to my own faulty memory and attention I needed to approach these books in a different way than I have so far. If you're anything like me I recommend jotting down a few notes next to each character or recording major plot points in order to keep up with the texts as they are published.
This was also posted to my storygraph and blog.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Another terrific installment in this book series. Reading this book is like eating a most delicious, rich, dense, multi-layered science fictional chocolate cake. It's action-packed, it has a sense of humour, and it is dense with ideas and technology and deep thoughts on society, human relationships, multiverse travel, and the nature of the universe. It is also absolutely brilliant.
December 3, 2025
Review coming in Locus. Short version: you must read the book before this to have any hope of understanding this one; if you like space opera and shenanigans and not being entirely sure what's going on, you'll want to read this. SO GOOD.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews