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The Technologists

by Matthew Pearl (Goodreads Author)

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 1,535 ratings · 403 reviews

The first class at M.I.T. The last hope for a city in peril.

The acclaimed author of The Dante Club reinvigorates the historical thriller. Matthew Pearl’s spellbinding new novel transports readers to tumultuous nineteenth-century Boston, where the word “technology” represents a bold and frightening new concept. The fight for the future will hinge on . . .

THE TECHNOLOGIS...more The first class at M.I.T. The last hope for a city in peril.

The acclaimed author of The Dante Club reinvigorates the historical thriller. Matthew Pearl’s spellbinding new novel transports readers to tumultuous nineteenth-century Boston, where the word “technology” represents a bold and frightening new concept. The fight for the future will hinge on . . .

THE TECHNOLOGISTS

Boston, 1868. The Civil War may be over but a new war has begun, one between the past and the present, tradition and technology. On a former marshy wasteland, the daring Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising, its mission to harness science for the benefit of all and to open the doors of opportunity to everyone of merit. But in Boston Harbor a fiery cataclysm throws commerce into chaos, as ships’ instruments spin inexplicably out of control. Soon after, another mysterious catastrophe devastates the heart of the city. Is it sabotage by scientific means or Nature revolting against man’s attempt to control it?

The shocking disasters cast a pall over M.I.T. and provoke assaults from all sides—rival Harvard, labor unions, and a sensationalistic press. With their first graduation and the very survival of their groundbreaking college now in doubt, a band of the Institute’s best and brightest students secretly come together to save innocent lives and track down the truth, armed with ingenuity and their unique scientific training.

Led by “charity scholar” Marcus Mansfield, a quiet Civil War veteran and one-time machinist struggling to find his footing in rarefied Boston society, the group is rounded out by irrepressible Robert Richards, the bluest of Beacon Hill bluebloods; Edwin Hoyt, class genius; and brilliant freshman Ellen Swallow, the Institute’s lone, ostracized female student. Working against their small secret society, from within and without, are the arrayed forces of a stratified culture determined to resist change at all costs and a dark mastermind bent on the utter destruction of the city.

Studded with suspense and soaked in the rich historical atmosphere for which its author is renowned, The Technologists is a dazzling journey into a dangerous world not so very far from our own, as the America we know today begins to shimmer into being.(less)

Hardcover, 480 pages

Published February 21st 2012 by Random House (first published February 1st 2012)

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May 02, 2012 Clare Cannon rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Adults & Young Adults

Shelves: adults, young-adult

Quite a surprise on two accounts: first because it is a little slower to start than expected, but second because the characters, action, intrigue and all-round quality of the story increases exponentially from there to the end. I admit I am impatient with scene-setting and sorting out who's who, but perhaps a little more preparation in the reader would allow them to enjoy it sooner.

Boston in the 1860s, at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution, is still generally uneasy about scientific development. New 'technology' institutes - focusing on practical experimentation in science for the benefit of society - are struggling for recognition in an academic world prejudiced against anything outside the Harvard hierarchy. The 'Tech' students are the poor cousins of the 'collegy boys', and there is rivalry between them. Female students are an anomaly in a predominantly male student body. There is division among professors about whether technological developments should be privately managed (and 'protected'), or whether they are something that the general public should have a right to access.

Pearl's Technologists zooms in on a group of Tech students who must grapple with all of these issues. The public catastrophes orchestrated to bring their struggles to a head are fictional, but based on actual scientific developments of the time. And once the catastrophes begin, the pace quickens and it is increasingly difficult to put the book down.

As historical fiction it is impeccably crafted, with every detail, piece of machinery, article of clothing, character trait, vocal expression, indeed every breath of wind seeming to be a direct channel to life in the 1860s. But the characters hold the show, and it is their interactions that draw you into the story. By the end one feels one belongs in the 1860s Boston college scene, and that the Technologists' fight for their place in the academic world is an essential part of your life's purpose. And most extraordinary (for me, at least) was that chemistry should prove to be of such fascinating importance to life as we know it. I'll never look at the periodic table in the same way again. www.GoodReadingGuide.com (less)

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Mar 20, 2012 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: pearl-ruled

Rating: one ill-tempered star (p54)

I gave up on this boring, clanking, juddering steampunk-lite edifice of rusty cogs and leaking pipes when I read one character from MIT's first graduating class saying to another that their technological age had an engine but no engineer. (A quote from Emerson.)

Ugh.

I started the book with serious interest, based on some good reviews of people whose taste I trust, and on my great desire to see technology applied to problem-solving in extreme situations (the reas...more

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Feb 29, 2012 James Schmidt rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Rich Man's War and a Poor Man's Fight...

While "The Last Dickens" is my favorite still in terms of showcasing Matthew Pearl's writing and genius, The Technologists comes very close. Here's his special talent: "intelligent thrillers" might describe his books...the fact is when you are done reading, you really *are* smarter!

The main characters were terrific, and all the more so because they are based on real people or combinations of real people. But he also graces the pages with seemingly minor...more A Rich Man's War and a Poor Man's Fight...

While "The Last Dickens" is my favorite still in terms of showcasing Matthew Pearl's writing and genius, The Technologists comes very close. Here's his special talent: "intelligent thrillers" might describe his books...the fact is when you are done reading, you really *are* smarter!

The main characters were terrific, and all the more so because they are based on real people or combinations of real people. But he also graces the pages with seemingly minor but incredibly memorable minor characters.

I am an avid Civil War enthusiast and I think this is where the book really shines...it is set in 1868 but the shadows of the war are still present. He excellently portrays both the resentment, guilt, and opportunity from the rich man's war/poor man's fight. Characters include "substitutes" paid by the rich to take the place of favored sons in the ranks. One of the most touching moments in the book though is when of the characters who didn't fight in the war relates how he watched the wounded coming off the trains. While the prisoner commandant is perhaps too-reminiscent of Henry Wirz of Andersonville infamy, Matthew Pearl's choice of Smith Factory Prison - a real POW camp in Richmond - was a stroke of genius, not only for being novel and not well-worn but also because it allowed him the plot device of the factory machinery.

The disasters are not based in fact, but this is a thriller and Pearl is granted license to invent them...it is true though that shipwrecks, train accidents, and boiler explosions were common industrial accidents in the 19th century...I only wish he would have expressed better how horrible they could be, esp. boiler explosions...the real horror seemed placed in the "glass disaster," which seemed the least credible of the maniacal plots.

I would happily give this 4 1/2 stars and the only reason I am not giving it 5 is that I think the primary place of MIT in the education of scientists and engineers in the early history of the United States, and their place in putting scientific and engineering apparatus in the hands of students (rather than dry demonstrations in lecture rooms) is a bit overstated...From my own research and writing, I think West Point (United States Military Academy) has at least least some claim to this...the thought of chemistry and physics as the "new sciences" also seems a little out of place...still, the role of MIT in American history is solid, indeed.

I highly encourage people to also read his novella "The Professor's Assassin" as it gives clues to the progressive nature of Professor Rogers so that the female student and the African American building superintendent are in his nature.

And - to close this review - I quote my favorite retort from the film "Good Will Hunting" : "How Do You Like Them Apples?" It seems fitting enough because like GWH, this book often pits underdogs from MIT with Boston Brahmins and Matthew Pearl cleverly shows that Harvard has been training a$$-nozzles for centuries...but they get it in the end...and the beginning...and once or twice in the middle.

Well done AGAIN, Mr. Pearl! And we are left to wait for what comes next! (less)

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Apr 17, 2013 A.R. Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an entertaining book with the plot based on real science. Since the science was circa 1868, and since I am currently rereading my old college physics book, I was able to appreciate the finer points of that part of the story. However, there were two aspects of the book that bothered me. The first is the genre. Even though I write about parallel universes, writing something so historical and well described and then changing the past without any apology ... well. I mean, isn’t there a cont...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Mark Aldridge rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has a wonderful setting in Boston at the time of the founding of MIT. The central characters are the first students there, including (gasp!) a female student, and charity (scholarship) students. Learning about the difficulties in technical education in general, women's issues in attending college at all, and prejudice against merit / scholarship students adds a nice bonus to this story. Unfortunately, it seems to me that a lot of story is left out. For example, I think a parallel plot...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really attracted to the premise of this book, that members of MIT's first graduating class use their intelligence and training to solve a series of scientific mysteries. The novel's themes appealed to me as well: the fear and mistrust of technology by societal, religious and unionist factions, Harvard's disdain for the upstart MIT, the advent of practical education, 19th century gender and class distinctions, among others.

In spite of the fact that I read The Dante Club when first published...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Jill rated it 2 of 5 stars

On a foggy night in 1868, all the ships in the Boston Harbor find that their compasses and other instruments inexplicably spin out of control, and because of the poor visibility, several ships collide. Shortly thereafter, the glass in the windows of the businesses in the central city begins to melt! The glass windows become liquid, but then as they drain out of their frames they reconstitute into glass and shatter as they hit the ground, causing some death and a fair amount of destruction. In an...more On a foggy night in 1868, all the ships in the Boston Harbor find that their compasses and other instruments inexplicably spin out of control, and because of the poor visibility, several ships collide. Shortly thereafter, the glass in the windows of the businesses in the central city begins to melt! The glass windows become liquid, but then as they drain out of their frames they reconstitute into glass and shatter as they hit the ground, causing some death and a fair amount of destruction. In an effort to identify the cause of the disasters, the city fathers contact Harvard’s leading scientist, Professor Agassiz, a biologist who has not yet bought into that new absurdity, Darwin’s theory of evolution. Fat chance that this guy will solve the problem. [In real life, Agassiz even once defined a species as “a thought of God,” declaring that “Natural History must in good time become the analysis of the thoughts of the Creator of the Universe.” Darwin’s Origin of Species, he insisted, “contributed nothing new to the understanding of nature.”]

It so transpires that there is another academic institution of higher learning in Boston, M.I.T., but it is only four years old in 1868 and is not held in the same high regard as Harvard. In fact, Harvard students openly distain the technocrats, whom they consider less cultured. The boys from M.I.T. are eager to show the police their scientific knowledge, but police aren’t interested, and in fact, they warn the young scientists to stay away from the case. So the boys (and one woman - also a real historical character) have to do their investigating secretly so as not to be discovered by the very people they are trying to help.

The story takes some fairly interesting twists and turns, but the whole premise is highly implausible and the science isn’t even good science fiction. The author, Matthew Pearl, seeks to recreate the atmosphere of 19th century Boston by having the characters speak in a very stilted, fustian manner. For example, much of the writing is like this:

"Hammie had unleashed his wrath before Marcus could reach him. ‘Take your rocks and rioting elsewhere, you ruffians! All the scum of the trades with their bluster won’t frighten a Tech man.’’’

And pity Ellen Swallow, in real life MIT’s first woman student, whose memory has been defiled with bad dialogue:

"When I was at Vassar, the girls were as full of slang as any boy I ever heard. Every sentence began with ‘I vow!’ until I could only dream of cotton in my ears and solitude.”

My heavens, Miss Swallow, I too would only dream of cotton in my ears and solitude.

Evaluation: Pearl’s earlier book, The Dante Club, was more successful in evoking the historical aura, and featured a much more plausible and interesting plot. I finished this book, but it was not a fascinating read.
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Sep 02, 2012 Peter Boysen rated it 4 of 5 stars

It would take a vivid imagination to conjure up a way to dump enough iron in Boston Harbor to interfere with the compass of every ship that comes in -- and spook thousands of superstitious sailors. Even more so to find a way to rig all of the fire hydrants on a city block so that they release a noxious gas that turns all of the glass on that block to liquid. And then to use the railway system to...well, I can't tell you everything.

I can tell you that this latest offering from the author of The D...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Susan added it

I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book and I really liked it. I will admit it was a little methodical to begin with but if you sit back and enjoy the ride back in time - it is worth it. I found it fascinating to view the fear and suspicion that people felt toward technological advances in this time period and compared it with the current outcries against stem cells, (evolution), etc. that are happening today.

I enjoyed listening to this book and would recommend it. I will defini...more

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May 10, 2012 DWGibb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This time Pearl turned his back on his historical literary friends and opted for the first class of would-be engineers at MIT, known only in the book as the Institute of Technology. He returns to what apparently is his first love geographically, Boston, although this time I sense a certain disdain for Harvard. Perhaps that's necessary because the academic tradition of Harvard has been thoroughly disrupted by this upstart school of science and engineering out on the marshy flats.

But after a serie...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great historical fiction. I was captivated from the beginning, and couldn't do anything else until I finished. I will admit, as some negative reviews may point out, that the last 1/3 or so of the book slowed down considerably from the beginning. It was also a bit confusing. Nonetheless, this book does everything it set out to do. It provided a great, engrossing mystery with enough action to make sure that it is more than just a historical fiction. (There are some plot holes for pure mystery/thri...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Ellen Dark added it

This week I read a galley of The Technologists, by Matthew Pearl. The book is about a group of students at the fledgling Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, who must solve the mystery of who is behind several catastrophic events in the city. The story opens in the Boston harbour where the ships' compasses suddenly stop working. To make matters worse, this happens when there is dense fog. Ships run into each other, and several piers catch fire. The police begin to investigate,...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Susan Tunis rated it 3 of 5 stars

My long-awaited intro to Pearl is a mixed bag

I’ve had a galley of Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club sitting on my bookshelf since before it was published. How long ago was that? That’s how long I’ve been meaning to get around to reading the man. Story of my life. Hurrah! I have finally met this goal!

Set in 1868, this period thriller opens with an act of terrorism. Early one Boston morning, several ships’ compasses and other instruments fail. In the fog, they crash into each other and the wharves. T...more My long-awaited intro to Pearl is a mixed bag

I’ve had a galley of Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club sitting on my bookshelf since before it was published. How long ago was that? That’s how long I’ve been meaning to get around to reading the man. Story of my life. Hurrah! I have finally met this goal!

Set in 1868, this period thriller opens with an act of terrorism. Early one Boston morning, several ships’ compasses and other instruments fail. In the fog, they crash into each other and the wharves. There is pandemonium, destruction, and loss of life. The cause and perpetrator of this mayhem is unknown. This is the first of several incidents that virtually bring the city to its knees. All the attacks seem to involve science, and this is at a time when there’s a great distrust of science in general.

1868 also happens to be the year of the first graduating class of MIT. Pearl’s protagonists, who are determined to secretly solve the mystery and save the city, are several members of the small student body, most of whom are underdogs in one way or another. At the very heart of the tale is working-class charity student Marcus Mansfield. Mr. Pearl has created a mostly appealing ensemble, but I don’t honestly think that character development is his greatest strength. It is clear that historical accuracy and research is. I’m not enough of a history buff to tell you if every single aspect of this novel is accurate, but I was doing a lot of Googling as I read, and there was a tremendous amount of real history worked very effectively into the plot. And the time and place was fascinating—especially to me, having lived in Boston for a number of years. Thank you, Mr. Pearl, for the time machine. Additionally, the science used in the plot was clever and inventive.

About the novel’s plot… Well, it’s complex and convoluted—perhaps a bit excessively so. I found my credulity becoming increasingly strained as the novel proceeded. There were some coincidences late in the game that I found annoying as well. Elements of the story were overly melodramatic. And the dénouement, when it came, was satisfyingly full of surprises and reversals, but I wonder if Mr. Pearl took things just a step too far. There were so many surprises and reversals that it felt like it took forever to finally get the truth!

Did I enjoy reading this novel? Yes I did, unquestionably. But I do feel it had flaws, and overall, after looking forward to reading this author for so long, I was just the slightest bit disappointed. Since this is my only experience of his work, it’s possible this wasn’t the best book with which to start, and I look forward to reading more of him in the future.(less)

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Mar 13, 2012 Mary Shyne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book suffers from a marketing problem. The blurbs call it a thriller, but it's written like a straight historical fiction. Pearl does his damndest to end every chapter -- and sometimes every section! -- dangling off a ledge, but somehow the adrenaline just doesn't kick in. The lush writing style defuses the urgency and the pacing's slow (it's 500+ pages but it seems like 200 pages could've been removed; editors? editors?). All the technobabble, while thorough, makes the mind glaze over. Als...more This book suffers from a marketing problem. The blurbs call it a thriller, but it's written like a straight historical fiction. Pearl does his damndest to end every chapter -- and sometimes every section! -- dangling off a ledge, but somehow the adrenaline just doesn't kick in. The lush writing style defuses the urgency and the pacing's slow (it's 500+ pages but it seems like 200 pages could've been removed; editors? editors?). All the technobabble, while thorough, makes the mind glaze over. Also, it's tough to care about MIT's future when we know they go on to become a world-renowned institution, and it's REALLY tough to care about MIT vs. Harvard (especially to the extent that Pearl cares about MIT vs. Harvard) when you're outside Boston or Cambridge.

That said, it's a hell of a historical fiction. The depth of Pearl's research is mind-boggling, and it can be enjoyed as a window into a long-past era at the very worst. (Writers, even American writers, tend to explore the nineteenth century from a British lens, and good God it's refreshing to see that time period in America. And this book is so American it made me want to chant "U-S-A! U-S-A!") Pearl makes Boston into a character the same way Algren treated Chicago. In fact, the anthropomorphizing of Boston is what enables the reader to invest in the book, even if you could care less about Ivy leagues.

Speaking of characters, that's what'll make you stay with the book. Although it's easy to roll the eyes at Righteous Marcus Mansfield, and even easier to cringe at Agnes "I'm Just Here to Give Marcus Depth" Turner, Marcus' cohorts are FLAWLESS. Bob Roberts is a charming rake, Ellen Swallow's grit (and surprising tenderness) makes up for the archetyping sins of Agnes and Chauncy Hammond Junior ... let's just say historical fiction needs less All-American geniuses ala Marcus and more Asperger's-y geniuses ala Hammie.

Summary -- it takes patience to get into, but the pay off isn't in the plot -- it's in the characters and historical Boston.(less)

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Mar 12, 2012 Verena rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Technologist has the earmarks of a swashbuckling page-turner; there are heros and heroines, villains, cliffhangers, and romance. What I enjoyed most is the historical context. This story of the beginning years of the M.I.T. incorporates the controversies and conflicts of the mid-19th century: classical education vs. technology, education for males only vs. female aspirations, business interests vs. rights of laborers, religion vs. Darwinism, inheritance and privilege vs. self-made success. A...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Felice rated it 2 of 5 stars

Matthew Pearl has made a career out of capitalizing on authors we love. He’s the ultimate success story in fan fiction. In his novels: The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow and The Last Dickens Pearl build on our general knowledge of the lives of Dante, Poe and Dickens to become enjoyable What If mysteries that allow us to visit a favorite writer. However Pearl’s latest novel, The Technologists doesn’t have that classics author hook that has served him so well. I guess in that regard it is his first st...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Everyday eBook rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Draw of 19th Century America, by 'The Technologists' Author Matthew Pearl

The Technologists is a thriller revolving around the very first class at M.I.T. It is my fourth novel and my third set in Boston of the nineteenth century. I’m sometimes asked what it is about that time and place that appeals to me. I might need some psychoanalysis to answer. Like many other things in the creative process, I was drawn to the setting as much by accident and instinct as by a deliberate process. The first...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thrillers

THE TECHNOLOGISTS. (2012). Matthew Pearl. **.
I admit right up front that this latest novel from Mr. Pearl did not pass my one-hundred-page sniff test – which in a novel of almost five-hundred pages is likely a minimal sniff. It’s a novel that is hard to classify: historical fiction (?), science fiction (?), thriller (?), historical science fiction (?). I made up the last genre, but it seems to fit the best. From what I read, it is the story of the conflict of science, as it was then in 1868 whe...more THE TECHNOLOGISTS. (2012). Matthew Pearl. **.
I admit right up front that this latest novel from Mr. Pearl did not pass my one-hundred-page sniff test – which in a novel of almost five-hundred pages is likely a minimal sniff. It’s a novel that is hard to classify: historical fiction (?), science fiction (?), thriller (?), historical science fiction (?). I made up the last genre, but it seems to fit the best. From what I read, it is the story of the conflict of science, as it was then in 1868 when MIT was being established, and religion, as represented by the forces of Harvard’s staff and pupil enrollment. To bring this conflict to the surface, we are introduced to Boston of the time, where two amazing events occur back-to-back. The first was when a fog, cum miasma, envelopes Boston Harbor, and all of the ships waiting to be led to their berths by harbor pilots find that their navigation gear has gone haywire. The resulting confusion causes a large number of collissions and subsequent wrecks. The second event is also accompanied by a cloud of vapor that leads to all of the glass in a given area – window glass, spectacle glass, lamp glass – to soften and ultimately liquify. The local population is up in arms, and wants to lay the blame against the teachings of the MIT faculty and the practices of their student body. We meet a cast of characters worthy of a deMille epic – a cast of thousands. Students from both institutions, Harvard and MIT, and their respective faculties get involved, along with members of the Boston Police department. The dialog from all involved is truly puerile, in spite of the fact that these are supposed to be people of some intellectual talent. All of this aside, I am sure that this novel will be a best-seller. My record shows that the lower I rate a book, the more copies of the book that will be sold. I had great hopes years ago after reading Mr. Pearl’s first book, “The Dante Club,” that we were in the presence of a new and talented writer, but conclude that Mr. Pearl may be very much like Peter Lorre, who made his first movie his greatest movie. I hope I’m wrong.
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Feb 22, 2012 Alla rated it 5 of 5 stars

“The technologists” by Matthew Pearl follows the adventures of MIT senior Marcus Mansfield and his friends and fellow students, to solve the mystery of who is to blame for terrors inflicted on 19th century Boston. The terrors include ships going out of control and towards each other, as their instruments stop working properly because strange fog covers the area, glasses that turn into liquid, making windows melt, and killing an actress on the Boston streets.

In the midst of everything, Marcus tr...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Jason Golomb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, mystery

Matthew Pearl’s “The Technologists” is a historical mystery set in post-Civil War Boston. Pearl does a magnificent job of recreating a 19th century Boston that I can only compare to the New York City of Caleb Carr’s “The Alienist”. The book is sort of a CSI-Boston (1800’s)…a cast of strong characters sleuth a series of attacks on the city and use science to uncover a growing plot.

Pearl centers his mystery on a few members of the first-ever graduating class of the Massachusetts Institute of Techn...more Matthew Pearl’s “The Technologists” is a historical mystery set in post-Civil War Boston. Pearl does a magnificent job of recreating a 19th century Boston that I can only compare to the New York City of Caleb Carr’s “The Alienist”. The book is sort of a CSI-Boston (1800’s)…a cast of strong characters sleuth a series of attacks on the city and use science to uncover a growing plot.

Pearl centers his mystery on a few members of the first-ever graduating class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT’s creation comes at a time when the country is feeling the impact of the Industrial Age. Factories and their smokestacks dot the Boston landscape. Heavy machinery is being operated by the uneducated masses. A generalized fear creeps across the city – the fear of technology, of what it can do, of what it means.

In this context reside two schools: the well-established, respected, and religiously-based institution that is Harvard; across the river in a partially filled building is the upstart and technology-focused MIT. Not only does this new school focus exclusively on the scientific arts, but they provide scholarships to the underprivileged, and they have a female student on their rolls.

And so the themes of technological emergence, and class and gender equality combine with a wonderfully evocative 19th century Boston to provide the backdrop of this terrific piece of historical fiction. The core plot revolves around two inexplicable attacks on the city itself. The first occurs in the Boston harbor one foggy evening. Navigational compasses go awry on dozens of ships which leads to mayhem and destruction. The next week, all of the windows on the buildings in the financial district of the city literally melt away.

The people of Boston are frightened. In a world where science and magic are virtually indistinguishable, MIT staff and students worry that the finger of blame will be pointed in their direction. Four students band together to uncover the cause of these accidents and prevent any further attacks. Modeling themselves after Harvard’s secret student society, they call themselves The Technologists.

The story hums along at a pretty good pace, despite the character and relationship-heavy middle third of the book. Pearl has developed a very good piece of fiction, with enough depth to push this above standard fictional fare.

I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine program.
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Jun 09, 2012 Frances rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Technologists is a science mystery set in 19th century Boston. It centres around students at the newly formed MIT who undertake to find the perpetrator of a series of disasters which someone has unleashed on Boston. The students, including one charity scholar and the sole female student (who has been accepted but who must study on her own in a separate laboratory) must deal with the public's distrust of the Science Institute and of science in general, as well as derision from the classical s...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fiction, historic-fiction, mystery, suspense

Frankly, if it wasn't for one nagging thing, I'd give The Technologists by Matthew Pearl a full-on five star review. It was (nearly) everything I look for in a mystery/suspense book - fascinating, documented historical happenings, lively characters, strange and unusual events, unsympathetic treatment of the "bad guy," twists and turns, and a push against the stereotypical treatment of women of the times.

So what is that one nagging thing keeping me back from full-on ranting and raving? Well - it'...more Frankly, if it wasn't for one nagging thing, I'd give The Technologists by Matthew Pearl a full-on five star review. It was (nearly) everything I look for in a mystery/suspense book - fascinating, documented historical happenings, lively characters, strange and unusual events, unsympathetic treatment of the "bad guy," twists and turns, and a push against the stereotypical treatment of women of the times.

So what is that one nagging thing keeping me back from full-on ranting and raving? Well - it's a simple thing really...

The story took forever to gain momentum. Seriously, 150 pages in and I was wondering when something, anything, was going to start to pull together. I understand that a good mystery needs a solid foundation, for all the bare bones to be put together in a way that will make for an explosive ending, but I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on until the Technologists club was formed.

Now, once that club was formed things began to make sense. Marcus Mansfield was a fantastic lead character. He had a sympathetic background story, set in the Civil War (which makes it doubly interesting). He wasn't a "rich boy," rather a guy that was making it on his own. He was inquisitive, insightful, and an all around great character.

Hammie, the clueless rich kid was also great - I never knew where I, as the reader, was supposed to stand with regard to his placement in the group until the end of the story. Bob Richards showed remarkable growth in character, Edwin Hoyt fulfilled his role perfectly, and then there was Ellen Swallow.

Oh people, how I loved this character. A chemist, Ellen Swallow attends MIT in the company of a school filled with men, and she keeps to her own for very good reasons. However, she might just be the smartest one in the group and how I loved the wit and wisdom she brought to the group.

I do recommend this one, but understand that good things take time to mature. The end result is worthwhile (it surprised me, I didn't see it coming!), and most of all, the afterward by the author about the history of MIT is worth the read in and of itself.(less)

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May 04, 2012 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars

“The Technologists” by Matthew Pearl, published by Random House.

Category – Mystery/Thriller

If you have read any of the previous books of Matthew Pearl you know that his books are based on actual events in history that he adds fiction and mystery to the story.

In “The Technologists” Pearl goes back to Boston in 1868 and traces the beginning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Technologists are formed of four members of the student body, but only after Boston has been struck by severa...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Wayne rated it 3 of 5 stars

While the description of this novel sounded very good, in reality it was not. I cannot decide whether the narrator brought it down, or it was just a bit too long winded and meandering for what was, basically, a fairly action packed story and finale. It started out with a bang, and had some decent pseudo-sci-fi elements, but needed to be about a third shorter through judicious editing. In theory, it reminded me of Quicksilver, which was not a favorite of mine either, but was infinitely better at...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Sdluvingit rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think I've found a new author to add to my favorite list, Matthew Pearl. I started with his most recent, The Technologists, requiring now, that I read all the rest. Set in Boston in 1868, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is set to graduate its first class. The first school of its kind, devoted to science and technology, the Institute has not received the most favorable view from the population. Science and technology and their emergence as a major force are clashing with tradition, cl...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Carolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

What an interesting revelation. The 1868 beginning of MIT as a science-only based college, versus Harvard as a college based on classic studies and religious principles. My, how things change!

This was an intriguing story of mysteries and destruction in Boston brought about by diabolical scientific plotting. While the city lived in fear because of several large disasters, a small group of 'Techies' decide to investigate these terrible happenings and find out how they were initiated. They put them...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars

April 4, 1868 and Boston harbor is shut down with a heavy fog when shipping entering or leaving the port experience all the compasses going wild causing many crashes between ships and with docks.
This is the beginning of a book about the compass disaster and several others causing damage and loss of life in the city, The first graduating class of a new technological institute (MIT) and the lack of acceptance and fear of the “New Science”. Several of the soon to be graduates decide to investigate...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, alternative-history, historical-fiction, mystery-thriller, netgalley, politics, religion-philosophy, science, steampunk, science-fiction

The only way for me to really talk about The Technologists is to pull it apart into its different layers. At its most basic, Pearl's The Technologists is a mystery, a thriller. It is also a novel with a profound sense of place - not only of the where but also when. Pearl takes his setting very seriously, and in it is entirely convincing - in fact, it is primarily in the steampunkish technology that we wander outside of historical fiction into alternative history. Finally, The Technologists reads...more

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May 01, 2012 Lorin Cary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Pearl's The Technolgist is a model historical novel. The focus here is on MIT's graduating class of 1868, its first, and Pearl has dug into the archives and blended the facts of that class with an imaginative series of contrived disasters in Boston---all of them rooted in the technology of the era. And that is one of Pearl's strengths and why his historical forays are so strong; they capture and are true to the possibilities of the age he's writing about. The plot centers on how a group within t...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Althea Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've been intrigued by Matthew Pearl for a while - I actually own both 'The Dante Club' and 'The Poe Shadow' and have been planning on reading them - but I got an ARC of his latest, so it went to the top of the list. Well, eh, I might have been a little overexcited.
This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't really what I expected. I'd read things comparing it to 'The Alienist' so I was expecting a serious, realistic thriller set in the 19th century. It wasn't. Although the author did his research on...more

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About Matthew Pearl

Matthew Pearl is the author of the novels The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow and his newest work, The Last Dickens. His books have been New York Times bestsellers and international bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and Slate.com. He has been heard on shows including NPR's "All Things...more

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Quotes from The Technologists

“Money is good, but it is not all about a man. You will have successes and reversals, but remember it is your reaction to each of them that counts for your character.” — 2 people liked it

“Only a few pages into "The Technologists" and Matthew Pearl already has written a gem about Boston:

"Then would come the view of the stretches of docks and piers...then beyond that the State House’s gold dome capping the horizon—the glittering cranium of the world’s smartest city.” — 2 people liked it

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