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Technomancer (Unspeakable Things #1)

3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 · rating details · 149 ratings · 30 reviews

A new kind of alien invasion…

When Quentin Draith wakes up in a private sanatorium, he has no memory of who he is or how he received the injuries riddling his body. All he knows is that he has to get out, away from the drugs being pumped into him and back to the real world to search for answers. His first question: How did his friend Tony’s internal organs fill with sand, k...more

Paperback, 1st Edition, 370 pages

Published July 24th 2012 by 47North

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Dec 28, 2012 Carly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Technomancer is you might get if you combined Jason Bourne and the TV show X-Files. The start of the plot is very Bourne Identity-ish: the main character, who goes by the rather romantic name of Quentin Draith, wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and a rather disturbing familiarity with the mechanics of violence. As he wanders around and irritates people, he discovers that something's going wrong in his hometown of LA: mysterious objects, each of which has a specific power, are appearing all ove...more Technomancer is you might get if you combined Jason Bourne and the TV show X-Files. The start of the plot is very Bourne Identity-ish: the main character, who goes by the rather romantic name of Quentin Draith, wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and a rather disturbing familiarity with the mechanics of violence. As he wanders around and irritates people, he discovers that something's going wrong in his hometown of LA: mysterious objects, each of which has a specific power, are appearing all over the place and creating chaos. They appear to be controlled by a powerful set of people known only as the Community. Bizarre deaths--disappearances, spontaneous combustions, choking on sand, and more--are becoming common. Draith discovers that he has one of these mysterious objects himself and sets out to unravel the mystery.

I didn't finish this, but not because I particularly disliked it--simply because it was due at the library and I didn't care enough about it to renew it. (My library charges $$ for renews/holds/requests.) Someday I'll see it again at the library and finish it...until then, here's my reaction to the portion I read (about the first two-thirds).

Draith reminds me a lot of Sandman Slim (Richard Kadrey)--his attitude feels too violent, heartless, and nihilistic to me. I also don't find his humour remotely entertaining, but people in his world definitely do and laugh sycophantically at his "jokes"--always a bad combination for me. I also found him one of the most arrogant, sexist jerks I've come across in a while--to the point that he actually hits on a recently bereaved bride and comments that he might have rescued her even if she were not attractive, etc. What ticked me off even more is that, when speaking with said bride who watched her husband disappear in something like an antimatter tornado, his main preoccupation is trying to determine whether the husband was able to consummate the wedding before he died because apparently if the groom had "tapped that ass" (gah I hate that expression) Quentin can feel a little better about his death. First, the groom is dead, so if it were me I'd be putting my empathy with the bride--the inability of the protagonist to even empathize with females is like male gaze to the max. Second, for me at least, that is one hell of a repulsive train of thought given the circumstances. Anyway, I can't find a character to attach my emotional interest in, and the death count, especially given its graphic nature, is already much higher than I usually take. And I know, I know, I'm judging prematurely...but the world just doesn't feel very real or well-thought out to me. All in all, it's not a bad book...just not a great fit for me. Definitely recommended for fans of Sandman Slim, though.(less)

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May 16, 2012 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Remember the TV show "Sliders"? The shimmery rips in a particular space and world that lead to countless other, different worlds in this book made me remember "Sliders" and smile.

This is a very likable book with interesting characters that are shrouded in mystery. Quentin Draith discovers after some searching that he is a rogue, meaning an individual who has at least one object (a thing that has some mystery power). He meets other rogues (a cop who works for the Community, covering up attacks b...more

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Mar 09, 2013 AmandaSOTP rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

Mystery, intrigue, likeable rogue, aliens, alternate realities, all this and more create a stunning first book in B.V. Larson's Unspeakable Things series. Quentin Draith awakes in a room with only a picture under his pillow. While he doesn't recall his past up to this point, he knows he needs to get out of this room. Escaping the sanatorium, submerge Quentin in a plot with many twists. He's followed and sought out by people who know more about him than he does, but rarely do they share this info...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Jim Bernheimer rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first novel from the author I've read, but I've heard good things about his Star Force series. It's got kind of a supernatural noir style to it that I enjoyed. The main character is relatable. I didn't like that he only made a half-hearted attempt to learn about his life before his memory loss and I felt his characterization suffered slightly for it. Most of the secondary characters get enough characterization to differentiate them, though I felt the author could have invested more i...more

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Feb 14, 2013 terpkristin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, audiobook, mystery-thriller, sci-fi

Audiobook from Brilliance Audio
Narrated by Christopher Lane
Length: 10.5 hours

This one had a lot of potential, but in the end didn't live up to it. Technomancer starts off strong with the main character, Quentin Draith, waking up in a hospital, not remembering any details about his life...not even his name. From there, the reader (listener, in my case) is taken on a bit of a "mystery-thriller" type book with science fiction/supernatural elements thrown in. The reader learns about Quentin as he le...more Audiobook from Brilliance Audio
Narrated by Christopher Lane
Length: 10.5 hours

This one had a lot of potential, but in the end didn't live up to it. Technomancer starts off strong with the main character, Quentin Draith, waking up in a hospital, not remembering any details about his life...not even his name. From there, the reader (listener, in my case) is taken on a bit of a "mystery-thriller" type book with science fiction/supernatural elements thrown in. The reader learns about Quentin as he learns about himself. That part of the story is actually kind of fun, the act of discovery. Unfortunately, the book breaks one of my cardinal rules for books in a series: it doesn't stand very well on its own and didn't wrap up the story line in any satisfying way. At the end of the book, I was left bored and annoyed that I'd read the entire thing, let down by what it was compared with what it could have been.

Quentin discovers that there have been a variety of bizarre deaths in Las Vegas, odd happenings. Through one of the people he meets, he finds that he's a blogger who writes about these strange things. As the story goes on, he meets a somewhat shady police officer who is the lead investigator for these events and comes to piece more of the story together. There are some people in the community who have special objects. These objects give them powers, or can be used against others. For example, one of the objects Quentin learns about early-on is a ring that makes the person wearing it lucky in games of chance (such as blackjack). Another power is used for a sort of mind control. Some of these powers have a limited range over which they can work; others can work anywhere. Some objects even allow the owner to create "rips" to other worlds or other places in this world, portals that can be used to travel around the Vegas area. These "rips" can lead to worlds, though, where other beings live, beings who can come through similar rips to our world. Quentin suspects that these beings (called "grey men") are responsible for all the odd events in Vegas. Through his travels, he also learns that there are two groups of users of these special objects: the "community," and the "rogues" or the "cultists." The "community" are people who, to some extent, have banded together to collect objects. The "cultists" have objects of their own, but seem generally more interested in using them for new study. They compare the objects to witchcraft in the 1600's: if you don't understand the science behind something, then it is seen as magical, no? Eventually, Quentin forms a plan to destroy the grey men, and the story ends more or less after his attempt to do so...

All of that sounds like it has the potential to be an interesting story. Sadly, the book, taken on its own, didn't form much of a complete story. Over 9 CD's (10.5 hours), the book spent the first 8 with Quentin wandering around, finding objects and meeting people. Only three of the people he met (out of many) ended up being truly relevant by the end of the book. The final "battle" as it were didn't start until the end of the 8th CD and was wrapped up 2/3 through the final CD; that is, the climax was only about 30 minutes long in total, and came right at the end. Instead of describing more of the how's and why's, Larson spent most of this book world- and character-building. Even the "battle" was rushed. It wasn't clear, at the end of the story, if the battle made any difference. Or why Quentin survived. Or what happened to the others who went to battle with him. Or why some of them mattered. A quick look on Amazon indicates that this is the first in the "Unspeakable Things" series. This book was unsatisfying enough to me that I won't go on to read the others. I kept holding out hope that the climax would come and the story would be resolved, but in the end, it wasn't. It just felt like a very long introduction to a short book.

As this was an audiobook, I should probably mention something about the narration. In short, it was a pretty average narration, nothing to write home about, but nothing particularly bad or unpleasant, either. Lane did a fine job with the voices; there was never a question of which character was speaking, and his female voices weren't as over-the-top as some male narrators do. In the end, when a narrator doesn't distract from the book, they're doing an alright job in my book, and that was the case here. I think it was probably better to listen to this book instead of reading the print version, so that I could do other things while reading.

I can't really recommend this book, but if you do read it and then read the others in the series, do let me know if it gets better. ;)(less)

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Apr 26, 2013 Kat Hooper rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook

Originally posted at FanLit.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

When Quentin Draith wakes up in a bed in a private hospital he has no idea how he got there or even who he is. He does realize, though, that he’s being drugged and, therefore, somebody must be trying to control him. After he manages to escape, he learns that he lives in Las Vegas and blogs about supernatural events. And there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in Las Vegas these days.

Quentin soon discovers that the world contains a...more Originally posted at FanLit.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

When Quentin Draith wakes up in a bed in a private hospital he has no idea how he got there or even who he is. He does realize, though, that he’s being drugged and, therefore, somebody must be trying to control him. After he manages to escape, he learns that he lives in Las Vegas and blogs about supernatural events. And there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in Las Vegas these days.

Quentin soon discovers that the world contains an assortment of powerful magical objects and that he’s a rogue member of a community of people who are trying to collect them. These objects have something to do with the mysterious Grey Men who keep popping out of rips in space and gruesomely killing Quentin’s new friends. When Quentin meets a pretty young bride whose husband has just disappeared into a rip, he feels protective and wants to save her from the Grey Men. Eventually he develops a plan that he hopes will destroy the bad guys where they live — inside the rips.

Technomancer started off well enough. In fact it began just like Roger Zelazny’s AMBER CHRONICLES (Corwin wakes up in a private sanitorium with amnesia after nearly dying in a car accident and he realizes he’s being kept drugged.) I wanted to know who Quentin Draith was and why he’s being sedated in a hospital bed. But in the end, Technomancer didn’t manage to fulfill any of my criteria for good entertainment.

One major problem was that nothing in the story felt real to me. This starts right away when Quentin gets out of the hospital. He doesn’t act like a man who has really lost his identity. He keeps mentioning how he doesn’t know anything about himself (though he tends to remember things that are convenient to the plot), but we never see him investigating himself, his friends, or his family. He knows his name and he knows he is a blogger, so why doesn’t he look for himself on Facebook or do a Google search? (How many Quentin Draiths can there be in Las Vegas?) He reads his own blog for information about supernatural happenings, but not for personal information. Similarly, B.V. Larson didn’t make me believe in his other characters, his world, or the plot.

Another problem was that the plot just wasn’t compelling. It evoked no tension, excitement, or any other emotion from me. I felt like I was reading a story in the newspaper. I got the facts, but no enjoyment out of them. I was bored with the story and I didn’t like any of the characters well enough to care what happened to them. The writing style offered nothing to make up for this — no beauty, no humor, nothing. In fact, I thought it was a little sloppy. For example, when Quentin is lying in his hospital bed with his eyes closed, a nurse walks in. He describes how sexy she is (every woman is sized up this way) before he even opens his eyes. In another part Quentin is questioning someone and he tell us “it turned out he knew plenty” but a couple of minutes later he tells us “he really didn’t know all that much.” These sorts of things are minor, but they add up.

For a novel with the name Technomancer, I was expecting something kind of cool. But there isn’t any technomancing going on. We’re given that line about unexplained technology looking like magic to someone who doesn’t understand the technology, but none of the magical objects are given any sort of technological explanation which makes them just seem like magical objects. If there is a distinction, it’s too subtle to make a difference to the reader, at least at this point in the series.

I listened to Christopher Lane narrate Brilliance Audio’s version of Technomancer. He’s really good, and perhaps the only reason I managed to finish the book. If Brilliance Audio sends me a review copy of the second book in the UNSPEAKABLE THINGS series, I may give it a try to see if the story gets better, but I won’t be seeking it out. I’m just not interested in Quentin Draith’s story. It’s hard to root for a protagonist who you know nothing about while you watch him stumble around doing stupid things and judging the women he meets only by how sexy they are.

By the way, this is another 47North book. I’m not having good luck with those.(less)

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Jul 30, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it 1 of 5 stars

Original review posted at Kirkus

Much of what we are exists in the mysterious realm called memory. Our identities reside there. Without memories, what are we? Virtually nothing. Since I had no memories, I decided to investigate my surroundings and build some new ones.

And just like that, Quentin Draith establishes himself as our intrepid hero, someone who is able to recover quickly and efficiently from the fact that he has just woken up alone in a strange room at a sanatorium, strongly sedated, ph...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Glen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'd put this at maybe a 2.5 if half-marks were allowed. I'm fairly certain this book's main premise was inspired by if not directly copied from the 2006 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries "The Lost Room", which featured Objects like those described here. I loved that show, and so I had high hopes for where this book would take the concept. Unfortunately, it got heavily bogged down in detective-story style mumbo-jumbo, flawed yet hot "dames", and obsessing over details of Las Vegas as though the city itse...more

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May 20, 2013 Clay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy

“Technomancer” (47North, $14.95, 366 pages) moves along really quickly, as B.V. Larson spins a noirish tale about a Las Vegas investigator of the occult who wakes up in a sanatorium with no memory.

Las Vegas, of course, is the perfect locale for a slightly unscrupulous protagonist with a taste for the ladies and no objection to violence – and the plot, which involves alternate worlds, Arthur C. Clarke’s definition of magic (it’s worth looking up if you don’t know it already) and plenty of plot tw...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Linzi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio

This was OK. I listened to the audio version. It had some really interesting and unusual ideas. Starting as it did, with the main character waking up with no memory it sucks you in very easily. It's set in Las Vegas which should have made it even more fascinating - but somehow didn't.

I think the reason it's getting 3 stars is that the characters were all a bit cardboard. The crooked cop (who's name I have no idea how to spell thanks to have listened not read) was one of the best characters and y...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Metalligazza rated it 4 of 5 stars

this is what the x files would have been if fox mulder had been replaced with Mike hammer with amnesia .
no doubt this is aims at the male reader as there is a lot in there that some women might find sexist .
as a first crack of the whip I thought it holds a lot of potential , and in the books to come hopefully we see a bit more depth .
I never judge the first book in a series too harshly because it is the introduction.

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Dec 08, 2012 John Dugaw rated it 3 of 5 stars

Great Kindle reading by which to fall asleep. It strikes me as a less sophisticated attempt to create the world China Mieville exposes in Kraken. It has some cool ideas, a reasonable main character, and some solid plot ideas. I enjoy a lot of B V Larson's writings as a way to unwind and lose myself for a while until I have to return the demands of the work-a-day world.

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Jan 25, 2013 Lucas Tillman rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought it was a good book. Was is the best thing to come along in years? No, but once it started to get going, I was eager to finish it. The one thing that I will say I didn't care for was that it ended so quickly. I think it could have had a better ending. Maybe it will play out in the books to come. Hopefully it will and it will all make sense. But overall I thought it was a good read.

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Nov 26, 2012 Nikki rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, 2012, science-fiction

I can't quite pin point why I did not like this book. Maybe it was all the "I'm a badass" going on or it could have been they way Draith just seemed to accept everything at face value. He starts seeing all this crazy stuff and doesn't think twice about it. It just all seemed a little ridiculous to me. It just wasn't a good book for me.

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Aug 09, 2012 Celine rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-book, fantasy-scifi, didn-t-bother-finishing-it

oh boy this was bad.
i didn't made it past page 53.... goes to say... it was really really bad.

first time i hated a book written in the first person. I I I I every sentence started with I.... ugh

thanks but no thanks

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Aug 16, 2012 Terry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lots of fun. Seems to lift much from other stories. (The Lost Room mini-series 2006 on SyFy channel.)
But it stands as its own good story. Lots of story and character potential for future books.

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Jul 25, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

It has a very good plot, in fact it is so good that i still can't decide about the genre.
I'm not sure whether it is Urban fantasy or Science fiction !
The idea for this plot is very similar to a tv show " The Lost Room"
at least part of the concept was taken directly from the show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830361/
Great beginning, let's see what will be next!

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May 02, 2013 Al Billings rated it 3 of 5 stars

While an enjoyable enough read, I found the plot a bit dull. The way magic works is interesting but it feels like a bit too much of a setup for a series.

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Jan 14, 2013 John Eich rated it 2 of 5 stars

Mashup of X-files and detective fiction. Interesting concept, somewhat unsophisticated writing style. Fun story, likable characters.

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Apr 10, 2013 Space rated it 4 of 5 stars

Starts out like noir X Files, and by the end feels like X-Men. Fun supernatural/sci-fi detective... thing.

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May 08, 2013 Scorchy Barrington rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm mot much for your standard whodunit fare, but add some aliens and the ability to travel between worlds and I'm in. It was fun. I'm going to read more.

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Oct 23, 2012 Julian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Fun quick read. No great depth or originality to the story really but the book kept me entertained throughout. It is a standard "I have lost memory" story whereby the main character spends the book trying to fill the gaps and find the cause of the lost memory. Not sure how the series will progress because most mystery about the world seems to have been discovered already. However I will still be keenly looking out for the next book. This is a strong writer and with this book, he has proven he ca...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Kaethe marked it as stricken

Sexist protagonist is sexist according to Book Smugglers

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Feb 05, 2013 Steve rated it 2 of 5 stars

I loved the concept, but the writing was in dire need of an editor - cliched at best, slogging at worst. I wanted to enjoy this book, but really just couldn't...

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Sep 22, 2012 Bulwor rated it 2 of 5 stars

Very boring attempt to modernize Noir. Please see Jim Butcher for details on how that is done.

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Jan 09, 2013 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

A good start, but weak resolve

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Sep 12, 2012 Matt Berube added it

Pretty good once you get past the fact that almost every sentence has "I" in it. It is told in the first person and lazily written so you are reading "I did this" then "I did that".

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Jan 05, 2013 Joanna rated it 1 of 5 stars

Alice in Wonderland meets the 21st century. Unfortunately, I never liked Alice in Wonderland nor Through the Looking Glass, and I am afraid to say that I did not enjoy this book. I gave it a chance - a whole 7 chapters of a chance - but alas, it was unable to keep my interest. This is sad indeed, as it started off so well, but immediately fell face first into the mud.

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Jul 04, 2012 Katy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: someone who doesn't care if the characters have no depth

Recommended to Katy by: Amazon Vine

Shelves: vine-book, galley-for-review

Due to Terms of Service with the Amazon.com Vine program, I cannot post my review here. So, go to my blog - that's where all the cool pictures are - and read it there. A link to the book is included there. For explanation as to change in rating, please see full review at my blog: http://katysozaeva.blogspot.com/2012/...

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Dec 13, 2012 Rafael rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was a pretty interesting concept, although nothing new. The feeling I got was the author wanted to make this kind of a noir story, but ended up with kind of a weird mix between multiple genres. My main issue is that the characters weren't really likeable, so I wasn't too much into it throughout the book.

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