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Technomancer

(Unspeakable Things #1)

B.V. Larson

3.40 · Rating details · 1,976 ratings · 146 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

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Paperback, 1st Edition, 370 pages

Published July 24th 2012 by 47North (first published March 21st 2012)

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3.40 ·

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· 1,976 ratings · 146 reviews

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Jul 09, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it did not like it

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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Apr 06, 2013 Kat Hooper rated it it was ok

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 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. ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Carly marked it as dnf

Shelves: urban-fantasy, muf, masquerade-world

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 Las Vegas: mysterious objects, each of which has a specific power, are appearing 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 Las Vegas: 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. ...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Glen rated it it was ok

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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Feb 05, 2014 Cameron rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, did-not-finish

I can't finish this book, due to these two problems.

1) The first chapter is a direct rip-off of Nine Princes in Amber. I don't know how the author got away with this one, as the plot is identical. He just changed the names and redid it in his writing style.
2) Writing style: I am not a fan of first person novels because most of them end up written so poorly that they end up sounding like a journal instead of a novel. Too much "I, I, I" and not enough focus on the environment he is in. I can't get ...more

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May 01, 2013 Scorchy Barrington rated it really liked it

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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Aug 29, 2015 Alan Mills rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Alternate reality quasi-science fiction. Highly recommended.

Set in modern day Vegas, a man awakens in a hospital, with no memory of who he is or where he is, but with a well honed capacity for violence. His only clue is what seems to be a family picture he finds under his pillow. The set up is exactly like Jason Borne, and one may be tempted to quit, yelling, "rip-off." But after the first couple of pages, Larson takes us in a completely different direction.

As our hero (and narrator) seeks to ef ...more

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Feb 14, 2014 Pris rated it really liked it

This book reminds me of several movies/TV shows--Sliders, Voyagers, Paycheck--minus the objects that gave the owners some minor power. Great concept and characters, fast-paced narration, so it was a fast unputdownable read. There was no technical jargon or deep scientific words. In some places I did notice some minor science-related flaws that should've made some things/events impossible, both in theory and reality and on this world or a parallel one, but then this is sci-fi so anything is possi ...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Metalligazza rated it really liked it

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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Apr 26, 2012 Katy rated it liked it

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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May 29, 2015 Al rated it did not like it

Shelves: awful, clearly-derivative, could-not-be-bothered-to-finish

I particularly enjoyed how the beginning of this novel was directly ripped off from Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber, except not as well written. The rest of this book, until I gave up on it, also felt horribly familiar.

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Aug 07, 2012 Celine rated it did not like it

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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Oct 09, 2014 Fsanjuan rated it did not like it

What did I just read?

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Jun 15, 2014 Nat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

It's like a mash-up between CSI, Fringe and Warehouse 13, (I don't watch too much TV). Absolute page turner.

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Feb 13, 2017 Frank rated it liked it · review of another edition

Not mind-blowing, but not horrible, either. If we could give half-stars, I'd put this one at 2.5, but since we can't it gets rounded up as a bonus. At first glance, one might think the title would generally allude to the concept of someone creating advanced technology that was indistinguishable from magic, or possibly mixing the arcane with the technological to generate a hybrid of the two. Unfortunately, the book delivers neither.

Instead, we're given an amnesiac blogger of supernatural things, Not mind-blowing, but not horrible, either. If we could give half-stars, I'd put this one at 2.5, but since we can't it gets rounded up as a bonus. At first glance, one might think the title would generally allude to the concept of someone creating advanced technology that was indistinguishable from magic, or possibly mixing the arcane with the technological to generate a hybrid of the two. Unfortunately, the book delivers neither.

Instead, we're given an amnesiac blogger of supernatural things, who wakes up in an asylum following an accident he can't remember, and is hounded by people he has no memory of previously offending. Our hero has apparently has gained access to objects of power that allow him to perform small acts of improbability, such as turning the mechanism of a lock into mush in order to break in to or out of buildings, or generating a localized field of luck to allow for racking up big wins at a casino. Nobody knows how to create these objects, as they are almost always found, and the titular "technomancy" isn't even name-checked until almost halfway through the book, when another wielder of objects uses it in explanation of a theory of how the objects work. Even then, they still have no clue, and fall back on the "it must be super-advanced technology, because magic doesn't exist" trope.

The book bounces from place to place around Las Vegas as the protagonist stumbles through trying to figure out who he is and keep from getting killed, by threats from both our world and other dimensions. Dealing with these threats comes to a head very quickly at the end of the book, making the climax of the action feel rushed, and leaves more plot points unanswered than it resolves - which is obviously setting the book up to be the beginning of a series.

I bought this book on a discount as a Kindle recommendation from Amazon. Quite honestly, I feel that the reduced cost I paid for both this book and its first sequel was an over-charge, and I highly doubt I'll even bother reading the second one. ...more

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Nov 29, 2017 Renato Lellis rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For a novel that is titled technomancer, there is not much tech in the plot.

The story turns around mundane objects that have magic powers and the people that use them. One of the characters describes something about the magic as yet unknown technology, but I think is only an attempt to make a cool title.

The protagonist awakes without memory in a sanatorium and has to discover his past and the truth about a series of violent murders that are taking place in his hometown of Las Vegas.

In the end, t ...more

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Sep 04, 2018 John Perkins rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This story had promise, but what really turned me off was just how sexist the book is. This really seems to be a theme for BV Larson, but at least in the Undying Mercenaries series some of the women exist as more than just sexual conquests for James McGill. Almost all of the women in this book are defined by their looks, and do nothing outside of being someone for the main character (Draith) to ogle at or to rescue from some misfortune and eventually have sex with.

The sexism on its own probably ...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Drew Hayes rated it liked it

Unreliable narrators are not my thing at all.
Sexist unreliable narrators in a story with undeveloped female characters whose only value appears to provide victims and sex appeal is not my thing.

The story had interesting elements and a lot of promise. Unfortunately the story fails to deliver and the narrative continued to be unreliable.

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Sep 14, 2018 Kevin rated it it was ok

This is not what I expected at all. I thought this was going to be about someone using technology like magic (like the witch in the Demon Accord Series). Instead what I got was a bunch of Greys and portal technology. Not liking this one bit.

Well... I completed this book and have no interest of continuing the series.

2/5 Stars

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Apr 02, 2018 Dr. Chris Davis rated it liked it

I finished it so it was not the worst. Having said that, I was left with a bitter aftertaste after finishing it. There were too many holes and inconsistencies. Too many violent swings in characters at odds to being allies. The kernel is interesting. I seem to have been on an alternate universes theme lately. This was not the best by far and I won't be continuing the story in the sequel.

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Jul 26, 2018 Tommy Mills rated it liked it · review of another edition

Good, solid read

The plot was a classic hero's journey. The characters were interesting and fully formed. I enjoyed that the story straddled across science fiction (multiverse, aliens) and the supernatural (magical objects).

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Nov 29, 2017 D.K. rated it really liked it

Enjoyed this.

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Jul 16, 2018 Sally rated it really liked it

Pretty interesting concept. A little hard to follow in spots and the objects were.... trying at times. 3.5 stars.

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Aug 20, 2018 Stephen Lee rated it it was amazing

Great Book. Reminds me a little of Dresden files

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Dec 31, 2016 david schmid rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Good science-fantasy read

My first foray in to this genre. I really enjoyed it and would read more from this author. I recommend this one.

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Jul 21, 2018 Nato rated it did not like it

this book is bad and author should feel bad for writing this. I wish i had something else in my mobile phone to read during lunchtimes.

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Jan 19, 2018 Nicole rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, owned, start-of-a-series, 2018read, fantasy, fiction, scifi, urban-fantasy, gave-up-on

Could not get into this story or the world. MC was very bland, I think I went in hoping for something like Dresden Files and was severely disappointed.

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Sep 16, 2018 Mojoey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, fantasy, kindle, series

Interesting, but not thrilling. I'm unsure if I will follow the series at this point. The protagonist did not engage my imagination, he instead cause me question what was going on.

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Jun 17, 2017 Frederic rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fict-scifi-fantasy

The writing style took a bit for me to get used to, but I liked the world created and was gradually drawn into it and the characters -- enough to continue on to the second book, and hope for a third.

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Jan 27, 2013 terpkristin rated it it was ok

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

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 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. ;) ...more

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