What do you think?
Rate this book
Never Been to Mars
"Never Been to Mars," the first novel by up-and-coming Canadian author Larry Gent, features the return of telepathic cowboy Benedict Thompson as he tries to discover the truth behind a world filled with espionage, mystery, suspense, and murderous celebrities! Told with wit as only Gent can, "Never Been to Mars" will keep you on the edge of your seat... then make you fall off it laughing.
Benedict Thompson is a psychic. He can touch an item and see its past. If he touches a pen he sees everybody who used it. If he touches a shoe he sees everything that went into making that shoe. If he touches a motel bed he sees --- well not all things are meant to be seen.
But when Ben's nephew goes missing, kidnapped outside his own school, Ben calls upon the powers he loathes to locate him and falls hat-first into the dark underbelly of the world we all thought we knew.
Benedict Thompson is a psychic. He can touch an item and see its past. If he touches a pen he sees everybody who used it. If he touches a shoe he sees everything that went into making that shoe. If he touches a motel bed he sees --- well not all things are meant to be seen.
But when Ben's nephew goes missing, kidnapped outside his own school, Ben calls upon the powers he loathes to locate him and falls hat-first into the dark underbelly of the world we all thought we knew.
282 pages, Paperback
First published November 8, 2013
4 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Larry Gent
19 books17 followersLarry Gent is a bottomless well of historical conflicts, being able to name every battle and every major combatant, whose knowledge is sadly limited to numerous fictional worlds. He took to writing in order to give back to the worlds he’d enjoyed as an avid reader.
Larry is an enthusiastic gamer and enjoys all forms of geek entertainment be they games, Sci-fi, fantasy, movies, television, or any other medium he can get a fix from. He is a member of the Kirkman army (the non-zombie divisions), the Brian K. Vaughn brigade, the N7 Spectres, and the TARDIS repair-men (it's like a VCR repair man you just see the ending of the movie first), all while trying to get a passport for Faerun and re-negotiating with George Lucas to get use of the soul he sold him many years back (or at least the merchandising rights).
A native of Perth, Ontario he moved out east to Halifax as a sailor after being politely asked by the Canadian Navy. There he studied Math and Computer science at Mount Saint Vincent University. When Larry isn’t in numerous government offices, fighting for his back-pay for his years as Batman, he is either performing on stage in the comedy-debate show Geeks versus Nerds, volunteering with the planning committee for Hal-Con Science-Fiction and Fantasy organization and editing the GvN: Online magazine.
Larry lives in Halifax with his author-wife Valérie Gent and was recently adopted by an evil cat Zid. He created his personal blog 42webs.com so that the hundreds of hours he spends watching TV, playing games, reading books and comics, and surfing the web don’t go to waste.
Larry is an enthusiastic gamer and enjoys all forms of geek entertainment be they games, Sci-fi, fantasy, movies, television, or any other medium he can get a fix from. He is a member of the Kirkman army (the non-zombie divisions), the Brian K. Vaughn brigade, the N7 Spectres, and the TARDIS repair-men (it's like a VCR repair man you just see the ending of the movie first), all while trying to get a passport for Faerun and re-negotiating with George Lucas to get use of the soul he sold him many years back (or at least the merchandising rights).
A native of Perth, Ontario he moved out east to Halifax as a sailor after being politely asked by the Canadian Navy. There he studied Math and Computer science at Mount Saint Vincent University. When Larry isn’t in numerous government offices, fighting for his back-pay for his years as Batman, he is either performing on stage in the comedy-debate show Geeks versus Nerds, volunteering with the planning committee for Hal-Con Science-Fiction and Fantasy organization and editing the GvN: Online magazine.
Larry lives in Halifax with his author-wife Valérie Gent and was recently adopted by an evil cat Zid. He created his personal blog 42webs.com so that the hundreds of hours he spends watching TV, playing games, reading books and comics, and surfing the web don’t go to waste.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 21, 2014
Been going to Hal-Con for a few years now, and have made it my mission to pick up as many Indie books as I can. I'm a huge comics and Batman fan, but beyond that I haven't read a lot of books, aside from what I was forced to in high school or University. But I'm finding things I like in these indie titles.
Of all the indie books I've gotten at Hal-Con over the years, this one is my favorite. Larry Gent is a Hal-Con organizer and I feel like he's been reading all these little books with me and has learned the mistakes of all the others and managed to bypass them.
He's got a great nose for dialog, which is good, because the whole book is told from the first person with the main character, Ben, talking to you. Ben is a fun guy to go through a novel with.
"Mars" is full of surreal twists and fun plot turns that make it hard to put down. It's fun and witty and sexy -- the perfect spy novel for the new millennium. Very self-aware.
Of all the indie books I've gotten at Hal-Con over the years, this one is my favorite. Larry Gent is a Hal-Con organizer and I feel like he's been reading all these little books with me and has learned the mistakes of all the others and managed to bypass them.
He's got a great nose for dialog, which is good, because the whole book is told from the first person with the main character, Ben, talking to you. Ben is a fun guy to go through a novel with.
"Mars" is full of surreal twists and fun plot turns that make it hard to put down. It's fun and witty and sexy -- the perfect spy novel for the new millennium. Very self-aware.
October 21, 2014
I think it’s easier to write a review when you don’t know the person, but I can’t un-know Larry (can I?). It’s also easier if you know how to review books properly (which I don’t – I mean, I just slammed the author in my first sentence – sorry!).
I really enjoyed this book. Benedict’s an interesting character (to say the least), and the story zooms along. There are enough movie/television/comic references that you can’t feel bad if you don’t get them all (after all, you haven’t spent months in front of your television, have you?). There’s humour, intrigue, action, psychic powers, and hobbling.
There’s other stuff that I want to mention (I can think of 4 things right now), but they’re all spoilers and I don’t want to give anything away.
Plus, you don’t need to know the Engen universe to read this book (although you may want to read more afterwards).
Benedict Thompson, you had me at “meat tears”.
--
[The nit-picker in me would like to mention that there are a couple spelling/grammatical errors, but she is hard person to please. Just ask her about that spelling error she spotted in Obsidian Butterfly six years ago that still bothers her – or maybe not…]
I really enjoyed this book. Benedict’s an interesting character (to say the least), and the story zooms along. There are enough movie/television/comic references that you can’t feel bad if you don’t get them all (after all, you haven’t spent months in front of your television, have you?). There’s humour, intrigue, action, psychic powers, and hobbling.
There’s other stuff that I want to mention (I can think of 4 things right now), but they’re all spoilers and I don’t want to give anything away.
Plus, you don’t need to know the Engen universe to read this book (although you may want to read more afterwards).
Benedict Thompson, you had me at “meat tears”.
--
[The nit-picker in me would like to mention that there are a couple spelling/grammatical errors, but she is hard person to please. Just ask her about that spelling error she spotted in Obsidian Butterfly six years ago that still bothers her – or maybe not…]
January 16, 2015
This is the first book in a while that really engaged me and I didn't want to put down, though a toddler prevented me from fulfilling my desire on occasion.
There is wit and heart, twists and fun. Definitely a book that can appeal to many audiences and certainly a must read.
When is the next one due out?!
There is wit and heart, twists and fun. Definitely a book that can appeal to many audiences and certainly a must read.
When is the next one due out?!
December 19, 2020
The three is me trying to be diplomatic. I was %100 not the target audience for this. Here's the thing. I picked this up at a comic convention many years ago out of that weird sense of guilt you feel when you're talking to a vendor and they're really, really trying to make a sale and you feel bad for them, because, hey, it's a hard way to make a living and it sucks when people just keep walking by, and well, this one doesn't look too bad... So, I bought it. And it sat on my shelf, unread, ever since.
Today, in an effort to keep up with my new years reading resolution, I picked it back up. And I'm glad it was only 260 some pages, because I found it grating.
The writing was ok, but not good, it definitely needed another edit, because my copy had some awkward typos and errors, the characters were caricatures, and the mystery... had potential, actually. I liked the idea, but not so much the execution.
It was written in the first person, which was annoying because he was annoying. An elite former marine with a bum leg and an onnoxious and overpowering love of pop culture references. He was a sexy nerd bro and of my gosh, was it awkward. I can't. It read like a wish fulfillment fantasy. But with Boogie Nights references!
Yeah. This was definitely not for me.
Today, in an effort to keep up with my new years reading resolution, I picked it back up. And I'm glad it was only 260 some pages, because I found it grating.
The writing was ok, but not good, it definitely needed another edit, because my copy had some awkward typos and errors, the characters were caricatures, and the mystery... had potential, actually. I liked the idea, but not so much the execution.
It was written in the first person, which was annoying because he was annoying. An elite former marine with a bum leg and an onnoxious and overpowering love of pop culture references. He was a sexy nerd bro and of my gosh, was it awkward. I can't. It read like a wish fulfillment fantasy. But with Boogie Nights references!
Yeah. This was definitely not for me.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews