Rise, the Quantamancer

Quantamancy, Book 1

By: A.R. McNevin

Narrated by: Josh Heller

Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

On 13th October 2003, Science stopped.... Cars stopped. Phones went dead. Planes fell from the sky. In the years to come, the billions dependent on technology would die, leaving a people coming to terms with what came next. By the following day, the art of magick had already started to reassert itself.

Magick and myth and monsters, once confined to fairy tale, was loosed onto the world. The world of science and technology was a thing of the past; the realm of magick had taken its place. It is a dangerous place, no matter what path you take, no matter what side you’re on. For astrophysicist Edgar Cole, science was his world and his world of science was destroyed in just one day.

His path would lead him through the changing face of North America, encountering adventurers and monsters, all the way to an unexpected discovery. A thousand years ago, the wizard Thaddeus Gonne lost almost everything. Magick was stripped from the world, to be reduced to fodder for your Monday night Dungeons & Dragons game. A thousand years later, magick has returned, and while the why must be asked, the politics of wizards and warlocks is first to grab his attention. And after seeing visions of the world brought to its knees once more by the horrors created by technology, young witch of Providence, RI, Danika Netherton strikes out to ensure her world of mystery and magick and witches and wonder would not be so easily destroyed. Through these three very different perspectives, Rise, the Quantamancer begins the Quantamancy saga with aplomb!

©2019 A.R. McNevin (P)2021 A.R. McNevin

More like a documentary than Story

Was not very gripping, more like someone telling you about a story then the story itself. Found it difficult to stay with it a ND finally gave up before ending. Narrator does a good job with what he had to work with.

It was a book

Although the premise is intriguing its a long and winding road. I didn't see the result of the characters. They were there, searching, but not meeting. A bit confusing, convoluted. An interesting if confusing fantasy

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Chaotic Concoction in Need of Refinement.

In A.R. McNevin's "Rise, the Quantamancer," the grand idea of blending science and magick in a post-apocalyptic setting shines brightly, but unfortunately, the execution feels rushed, unpolished, and unfinished. While Josh Heller's narration brings life to the diverse cast of characters, the overall storytelling falls short of its potential. Though imperfect, this first book sets the stage for future improvement, leaving room for hope that book 2 will pull together the scattered threads and weave a more cohesive and captivating narrative.

The “idea” is too big

Spoilers - Free copy review






To start off, Over all not a bad story. There are some interesting moments. A favorite was the science books being blank, so they repurposed the pages. Neat idea on the follow up. However. I think that the biggest problem for me was the idea of “science being gone” is too much of an odd thing to be “gone”. The author knows this and references this fact and provides examples of it not really being gone.
My issue with they narrator was the lack of character difference. Multiple people sounded the same, so with the multiple transitions of perspective and story, I had to check myself to make sure who they were talking about.

Mid read, but a good length to the story. Keep up the good work author McNevin

An interesting if somewhat confusing fantasy

This is a difficult book to review. The initial publisher’s blurb was very interesting; however, the book struggled to deliver on that promise in several areas. Perhaps the most significant critique would the the overwhelming tendency to describe verse show that made it story something akin to reading an encyclopedia. There were long sections of data dumps that, while vaguely interesting, were also boring. The undifferentiated voices in the narration didn’t help with that as each chapter seemed to bleed into each other. There were for PoV hijinx as well where for some reason the storyline following the witch Danika was told by her bard companion where Edgar told his own story and Thaddeus had more of an anonymous narrator. Not a big deal … but when you title your chapters on the character PoV and then not tell it from their perspective … I found it to be a tad disorientating. Then there is the execution. The basic idea is that science stopped working, but the way that was actually done was extremely inconsistent and also confusing. It was not until the end that it started to makes sense and frankly my wife had already given up on the book by then. I did manage to stick it out until the end though and I found that the story does get better as it evolves.

The basic plot revolves around three (3) characters as they try to figure out their “post-science” world. Edgar is the science guy and has to totally reinvent himself after everything he knows no longer governs how the world works. For the most part, he drifts around the Washington DC area until he eventually aligns with the anti-magic (formerly known as science) faction and slowly corrects and adds nuance to the idea that science has failed. Along the way, we see a third faction that also seems to be opposed to the new world order … religion … and as expected, it was not portrayed in the best light. Danika is an earth witch in the Connecticut/NYC area and is basically on a quest (accompanied by her companion bard/narrator Jaskier wannabe) to make sure the evils of science don’t come back (as can be imagined, there is a lot of overly simplified pontificating by both sides). Thaddeus is the last character and arguable the most interesting … since he is over 1000 years old and a survivor from the original fall of magic to modernity. For this book, he adds a few interesting side quests but no real help in advances the plot … of which there is a minor resolution at the end as well as a huge epilogue and setup for the sequel. Over all it was a super light, if mildly entertaining, story that struggles to rise above the standard fantasy tropes.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#RiseTheQuantamancer #FreeAudiobookCodes

Challenge to finish

story had alot of potential but really never went any where. Wasted time and credit.

A little jumbled at first, but I really liked it

The voice acting was great, he really got into each character.
It took me a few tries to realize I was listening to a few points of view, so it threw me off for a short time to I could meet each character, but really well done, I had no issues.
Some people are just too picky on other reviews, I think it was great fantasy.