Technomancer

Unspeakable Things, Book 1

By: B. V. Larson

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

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, killing him in a Las Vegas car crash?

After a narrow escape, he tracks down the basic facts: He is an investigator and blogger specializing in the supernatural - which is a good thing, because Quentin’s life is getting stranger by the minute. It seems he is one of a special breed, a person with unusual powers. He’s also the prime suspect in a string of murders linked by a series of seemingly mundane objects. The deeper he digs and the harder he works to clear his name, the more Quentin realizes that some truths are better off staying buried….

©2012 B. V. Larson (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Good noir sci-fi/ fantasy series with a warning

I have been trying out new series to find ones I like while waiting for those I am currently reading. I decided to give this one a try and I am glad that I did.

I was pretty concerned at first as the first few chapters are almost directly lifted from Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. It was well written though and gets into more unique territory quickly after that. The premise of the series is very cool and is similar to the lost room series on sci-fi years ago.

The main character has amnesia and I hate that trope. Other than that the character development is good, the story is very interesting and the world makes sense. You really can like the main character and root for him. The meta-story is good enough you want to find out what happens not only in this book, but in the ones that follow. There is a lot of action and it is well written and fun.

This is technically a Sci-fi novel, but it reads very urban fantasy as well. it reminds me of the Harry Connoly 20 palaces series, and in a good way. It is a very dark and dangerous world.
I really loved the narrarator. If I had to pick a person to do a film noir, detective voice Mr. Lane is the go to guy. He has a great range and I can't imagine anyone else doing a better job reading this book.

The warning is the second book. I finished this one and was anxious to move onto the next one. I read the reviews and they all talked about how bad the new narrarator was. I thought it might be because the one for this book was so good. So I bought it and started to listen.

My first impulse was, oh hell no! I stopped the book after about two minutes. The guy sounds like Kirby Heyworth with a sinus infection and I am not overly fond of Kirby Heyword WITHOUT a sinus infection. I will try again in the future, but I am not sure I will be able to listen to it. Be aware you might not like listening to the second book and may have to read it to enjoy it rather than listen on audible format.

Other than that, Technomancer is an excellent book, great voice acting and although it leaves a lot of questions it stands well on its own.

More good than bad

What other book might you compare Technomancer to and why?

The base them is pretty similar to Sci-Fi channel's mini-series, The Lost Room, as another customer mentioned.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I really enjoyed the way the narrator read the book up until I heard him do his first accent. It got worse when I heard is second accent. Whether he's doing an Oriental accent or a Hispanic accent, they all sound like they're from India. It was really bugging me, so I just pretended like all of the accented characters were actually Indian and it wasn't so bad after that. The rest of the narration was gold.

Was Technomancer worth the listening time?

Yes. Once I got past the bad accents, the story was quite fun. B.V.Larson is really good at making you feel the details with his descriptions. There's also a lot of both contemporary fantasy and horror in it. Fans of both genres will likely get a kick out of it.

Great beginning, let's see what will be next!

What made the experience of listening to Technomancer the most enjoyable?

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 !

Who was your favorite character and why?

The main character is fine

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

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/

In a world similar to Peter Clines "14."

I really enjoyed this book once it got going. For me,i had to get about 3 hours into it before the story really picked up. I honestly feel like this could be a character and story line form Peter Clines book "14," it had some of the odd creepy things going on that could be linked to 14.

Everyday objects having magical qualities,very creepy aliens,cultists,dirty cops and russian gangsters.

Cool idea,fun listen,great narrator. The only complain was its slow start.

The title is misleading

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, the motivation of the various characters and the plot itself are not clear and sometimes is contradictory: Why was Quentin memory erased? Why was Quentin "released" to investigate the murders? Doesn't the powerful members of "The community" already know who was behind the attacks? Why does Quentin not take time to investigate himself?
Also the fact that Quentin being a Blogger is very weird. He became a competent magic user is a matter of days. Why was not Quentin able to do this before?
The worldbuilding is also a little inconsistent: "Why some people are unable to left their "domains"? Why "The Community" allow the attack on the gray man and why wat that done is such an amateur way?
And after all that, the plot reminded me a lot of "The Lost Room", a TV show about mundane magic objects and group of people that seek them and "Warehouse 13", that is also about magical objects.
In the end, the idea was interesting, but not very well developed, with uninteresting characters and an unconvincing plot.

parental warning

this book contains some words that are not appropriate i got it for my 13 year old son and he liked it expet for the cuss words

Hardboiled PI meets SciFi Aliens - fun read

If you could sum up Technomancer in three words, what would they be?

Interesting collusion of worlds

What did you like best about this story?

Technomacer takes the best of conspiracy theory, parallel existences, aliens and the shady world of private detectives and melds an interesting narrative and cast of characters.The characters are really fabulous.

What does Christopher Lane bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

If Sam Spade read a book, he would sound like Christopher Lane. The amazing part of Lane's reading isn't just that he can out Bogey Bogart, but that he has a terrific range for all of the characters. This is my first book with Lane as a narrator. It won't be my last. He is one of the few readers that make the book better.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If only I could listen at one time. :)

Unspeakably slow

Any additional comments?

Technomancer is attempting to blend noir with urban fantasy. While the premise is intriguing the end result is somewhat dull. Alternate universes, alien assassins and individuals wielding magic via an artifact (a focus with magical power unique to the item) sounded interesting, but it turned out to be a slog to get through.

The first 3/4 of the book is slow going. It opens with the MC, Quentin Draith, having amnesia. Draith bumbles and stumbles his way through murder scenes, assasination attempts and dangerous complex relationships with the powers that be in Sin City, trying not to let on he's a blank slate.

Unfortunately B V Larson forgot (no pun intended) that lack of memory doesn't negate innate intelligence. Larson has Draith spending most of the book being a blank slate, unable to put clues together and trying to trick people into telling him what's going on or what the artifacts do, rather than figuring things out for himself. Draith doesn't even realize he has multiple artifacts on himself till someone tells him he does, and he's all... blink blink Really?!

I almost stopped listening at this point, but the last 1/4 of the book Larson stops hamstringing Draith and more of his savvy streetwise personality comes out, which made it a much more enjoyable listen. I'm hopeful the second book continues along this vein, but I'm also reluctant to spend a credit and find out.

Another strike against this book is the narrator. Christopher Lane was cringeworthy at times and I'll avoid other books narrated by him. Hopefully he'll realize making L's sound like R's isn't a viable Chinese accent, a British accent doesn't sound like a thin voiced American one, and (I'm saving the worst for last) a Hispanic character doesn't sound like an Indian from Mumbai.

If you want a great magical noir crime thriller to listen to with a fantastic narrator, check out Hard Magic (Grimnoir Chronicles #1) by Larry Correia. That's well worth the credit and relistening to again and again. Technomancer is not. It's being returned.

Just don't......

Mostly slow. Story is under developed, lacking in detail, characters are shallow and uninteresting. I'm glad I didn't pay full price or use a credit.

Not my kind of Read

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not time well spent. A little to bizarre for me.

What does Christopher Lane bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The person that read the book did a great job with all the characters.

Did Technomancer inspire you to do anything?

To avoid this kind of book.

Any additional comments?

I was some where it needed a book. There was no way to down load another book so I suffered through this one.

B.V. Larson goes up against Jim Butcher

This is Larson's take on the Paranormal Detective Noir Genre. Larson seems to be quite inspired by Jim Butcher's Dresden Files!

This is a review particularly for Jim Butcher Fans who no doubt will be drawn to this series. Butcher's detective Harry Dresden's city is Chicago, Quentin Draith's is Los Angeles and they are pretty much going head to head.

Being a Harry Dresden fan already, and also having read a few of Larson's books, I was interested how Larson would fare outside his usual military sci-fi novels. It's not bad, but not necessarily mind-blowingly good either. I'm going to interested to read the next book (it took Jim Butcher three books to get the Dresden Files to be totally gripping and addictive). For me it'll take another book or two to see if Larson is successful in developing a cast of strong characters you really care about and keep coming back to. Also, perhaps an little more humour wouldn't go amiss. So far though, Larson's contribution to the genre seems promising.

The main thing missing is the perfect narrator - James Marsters (the narrator of the Dresden Files) has taken on the mantel of "Harry" and he produces absolutely superb performances - for fans Marsters "is" Harry Dresden. For me neither narrator for Quentin Draith quite hits the mark yet (although I much prefer Darcie than Lane. Darcie (book 2) is much better at the character voices and seems more appropriate casting).

Larson's supernatural offering has a bit more of a sci-fi feel than Butcher's world which is more magical. Books 1 & 2 could easily have been a single book story-wise. Book 1 is a bit slow and it's only in Book 2 where the story properly gets going.

Here's a quick summary of the first two books - Draith wakes up missing memories of his past in a world where there exists ordinary-looking objects that have special powers e.g. sunglasses that open locks, other objects that give the owner rapid healing powers, control other people's minds or give access to other worlds/realities etc. Draith ends up acquiring several of these objects that give him "powers" and of course, Draith has use these and team up with other object-owning characters to save his city and uncover his past.

There are several things that are similar to Butcher stories e.g. travel to other "realms", a governing group that keep the supernatural world in check, a wicked witch character that is helpful but not necessarily on the side of "good", monsters, unravelling a mystery to save the city. I laughed at the book cover as it's got a very a similar looking guy to the Dresden Files, i.e. a non- descript detective type wearing a panama hat - the only difference is Larson's Draith has a gun and Butcher's Dresden has a leather duster and staff. Maybe Quentin is Harry's long lost brother or something?

I'm awaiting the next book to see if I'm hooked to the series.