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eowyns_helmet's review
3.0
Interesting and timely. But the flow was jagged, and I kept losing the thread. The translation is good, but DNF.
linneaandspybat's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
avid_d's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
dacejav's review
4.0
Overall, I enjoyed it. Maybe I expected more action, but there was almost no action, almost everything was in reflection. Characters were developed very well, they felt too real, as well as the secret city and even the name neophyte - the same meaning as novichok.
braxwall's review against another edition
4.0
Bra thriller med listigt upplägg som inte skriver läsaren på näsan. Välgestaltad och spännande vävd historia med historiska tillbakablickar och en stark verklighetsanknytning till en viss säkerhetstjänsts fäbless för giftmord.
joecam79's review
4.0
Vyrin, a Russian defector, is discovered and fatally poisoned by secret service agents. Kalitin, a 70-year old chemist who also had escaped to the West after the collapse of the USSR and now lives a secluded life in the former GDR, is invited to join the investigative team. The choice is unsurprising: Kalitin was one of the Soviet Union’s top experimental scientists and the developer of Neophyte, an “untraceable” terribly lethal poison. But someone leaks information about Kalitin’s involvement in the Vyrin inquiry, and the Russian authorities, newly apprised of his whereabouts decide to silence him. Ruthless military officer Shershnev is dispatched with a colleague on a mission to kill Kalitin using the very same poison developed by the chemist in his USSR days.
Sergei Lebedev’s Untraceable has the trappings of a spy thriller and is not short of incident – there is a harrowing and exciting description of a hunt for lab monkeys after an experiment gone wrong, as well as a quasi-farcical account of the assassins’ trip to the sleepy village where Kalitin hides. However, the novel’s focus is on the psychological and moral make-up of the protagonists, both of them cynical, single-minded tools of the regime. On the one hand there is Kalitin, who defected out of disappointment at the fall of the USSR rather than out of any sense of guilt or moral duty, and who, now diagnosed with cancer, dreams of a return to his past in the lab. On the other hand there is Shershnev, a human killing machine, who has trained himself to subsume any feelings which can get in the way of a mission.
Untraceable largely shifts between the points of view of these two characters. Towards the end, however, Lebedev introduces another player in the dramatis personae: Travniček, a pastor who has had past brushes with the Soviet secret service, and who provides a ray of hope and redemption in an otherwise bleak worldview. By his own account, Travniček is neither hero nor saint, but in this moral swampland, his valiant attempts to do right by his parishioners – including Kalitin – makes of him a character worthy of a Graham Greene novel.
Lebedev’s novel, partly inspired by the Skripal case, is topical and engaging. The cover of the edition I read, portraying a shadowy figure shrouded in mist, seems to reflect the ethical ambiguity of the world in which the novel’s characters work and live. The exquisite English translation by Antonina W. Bouis is not only readable and idiomatic, whilst retaining a lyrical and poetic feel.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/03/untraceable-by-sergei-lebedev.html
Sergei Lebedev’s Untraceable has the trappings of a spy thriller and is not short of incident – there is a harrowing and exciting description of a hunt for lab monkeys after an experiment gone wrong, as well as a quasi-farcical account of the assassins’ trip to the sleepy village where Kalitin hides. However, the novel’s focus is on the psychological and moral make-up of the protagonists, both of them cynical, single-minded tools of the regime. On the one hand there is Kalitin, who defected out of disappointment at the fall of the USSR rather than out of any sense of guilt or moral duty, and who, now diagnosed with cancer, dreams of a return to his past in the lab. On the other hand there is Shershnev, a human killing machine, who has trained himself to subsume any feelings which can get in the way of a mission.
Untraceable largely shifts between the points of view of these two characters. Towards the end, however, Lebedev introduces another player in the dramatis personae: Travniček, a pastor who has had past brushes with the Soviet secret service, and who provides a ray of hope and redemption in an otherwise bleak worldview. By his own account, Travniček is neither hero nor saint, but in this moral swampland, his valiant attempts to do right by his parishioners – including Kalitin – makes of him a character worthy of a Graham Greene novel.
Lebedev’s novel, partly inspired by the Skripal case, is topical and engaging. The cover of the edition I read, portraying a shadowy figure shrouded in mist, seems to reflect the ethical ambiguity of the world in which the novel’s characters work and live. The exquisite English translation by Antonina W. Bouis is not only readable and idiomatic, whilst retaining a lyrical and poetic feel.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/03/untraceable-by-sergei-lebedev.html
mallorylocklear's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
emilyacres's review
4.0
A priest on the road. Bad omen.
Untraceable follows two characters in alternating chapters. Kalitin, a former USSR chemical weapons researcher who's greatest ambition was to create an untraceable poison, but has since defected and lives in hiding. The other, Shershnev, is the lieutenant colonel assigned with finding and executing the former.
Both are products of their careers and country and are consumed by them, unable to separate themselves from their roles. The secrecy, the callousness inherent to their work has festered in them and become, rather than a flaw, a badge one wears with honor. Their obedience and adherence a mark of patriotism, any wavering is to be suppressed. Despite dealing with characters like these the author manages to instill in the reader all the emotions the characters refuse to feel, mournful without mourning, and regretful without regrets.
This is as gripping as a thriller but fortunately for me, there's a lot more character focus than a traditional thriller. It's evident from the writing Sergei Lebedev comes from a literary background and I enjoyed reading it for the writing alone. The plot structure is loose in regards to time, jumping back into memory more often than it's ever in the present. I found it very helpful to read it in large chunks so as not to get lost in the time changes.
I really enjoyed Untraceable, though as you might imagine it is very dark. Reading it gave me the sensation of the grotesque and uncanny, like the secrets that permeate the Russian government, there is a veil that lays over this story that shadows it in half-truths and the unspoken. Firsthand you get to hear the internal reasoning and justifications of the characters that from the outside appear cruel and remorseless even at their breaking points. A very engaging and thoughtful read.
Thank you to New Vessel Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
missmesmerized's review
4.0
For many years, Kalitin has lived alone on the hill, in the house at the end of the road, isolated from his neighbours. He kept for himself, guarded the secrets of his former life, knowing that one day, they would catch up with him. Now, with the cancer in his body, there is not much time left anyway. His enemies are already on their way, two men, the ordinary set-up, to find and kill him. Agents who turn into angels of death because Kalitin not only knows too much, but because he was the man to develop Neophyte, a highly lethal substance which leaves no trace when applied, perfect to get rid of obnoxious people who know too much or who have fled the secure boundaries of their former home country. Such a behaviour against the code of honour is something Shershnev cannot accept. He has always been hard, hard against himself, hard against his son, hard against everybody. Two men who after a long life in the service of a country which does not exist anymore, have to fight their last battle.
“Kalitin knew that his inventions did not simply create specific weapons of death poured into ampoules. He also produced fear.”
Sergei Lebedev’s novel tells the story of two men who have seen everything in life and for whom life and death have been just states which a person can be in but nothing spiritual. Now, close to the end of their lives, they not only look back but also start to question what they have seen and done. “Untraceable” also tells the story of a lethal weapon we have heard of in the news more than once in the last couple of years. The time of shooting double agents, dissidents, whistle blowers and the like are gone, the strategies and means have become much more sophisticated, but one thing has remained the same: the human factor.
“In that world, most people did not yet see the dark side of science, its evil twin.”
For Kalitin, science, the discoveries and expansion of his knowledge about how nature works have always been paramount. However, he has come to understand that the leaders of the URRS for whom he worked had a different understanding and that, first and foremost, the individual scientist wasn’t worth much. He was only an obedient soldier on duty for the state. Surely, they gave him the opportunity to work in his lab, but at the end of his life, he also sees the price this came with and he can see the bigger picture. He wasn’t interested in politics, he has always seen himself just as a scientist, but eventually, he has to acknowledge that it isn’t so simple and that he cannot put the blame only on the others.
Shershnev, too, ruminates about his life which he has fully dedicated to the long gone state. He is one of the last still on duty who have lived in the USSR and who still, after all those decades, adheres to the old values. He has to admit having made mistakes. Big mistakes which haunt him now. Yet, he follows the assigned mission stubbornly, too weak to make a courageous decision himself.
The beginning was a bit slow, I didn’t get the connection between the different characters and chapter immediately. However, as soon as the main conflict was laid out, the novel was not only suspenseful but also morally challenging since it raises the big issue of science and the responsibility of the scientists. Additionally, it is no question that the former USSR was a rogue regime, yet, no system is flawless and to what extent each civil servant, soldier or simple citizen complies with given values and rules has to be answered individually.
A thrilling political thriller which also offers a lot of food for thought.
“Kalitin knew that his inventions did not simply create specific weapons of death poured into ampoules. He also produced fear.”
Sergei Lebedev’s novel tells the story of two men who have seen everything in life and for whom life and death have been just states which a person can be in but nothing spiritual. Now, close to the end of their lives, they not only look back but also start to question what they have seen and done. “Untraceable” also tells the story of a lethal weapon we have heard of in the news more than once in the last couple of years. The time of shooting double agents, dissidents, whistle blowers and the like are gone, the strategies and means have become much more sophisticated, but one thing has remained the same: the human factor.
“In that world, most people did not yet see the dark side of science, its evil twin.”
For Kalitin, science, the discoveries and expansion of his knowledge about how nature works have always been paramount. However, he has come to understand that the leaders of the URRS for whom he worked had a different understanding and that, first and foremost, the individual scientist wasn’t worth much. He was only an obedient soldier on duty for the state. Surely, they gave him the opportunity to work in his lab, but at the end of his life, he also sees the price this came with and he can see the bigger picture. He wasn’t interested in politics, he has always seen himself just as a scientist, but eventually, he has to acknowledge that it isn’t so simple and that he cannot put the blame only on the others.
Shershnev, too, ruminates about his life which he has fully dedicated to the long gone state. He is one of the last still on duty who have lived in the USSR and who still, after all those decades, adheres to the old values. He has to admit having made mistakes. Big mistakes which haunt him now. Yet, he follows the assigned mission stubbornly, too weak to make a courageous decision himself.
The beginning was a bit slow, I didn’t get the connection between the different characters and chapter immediately. However, as soon as the main conflict was laid out, the novel was not only suspenseful but also morally challenging since it raises the big issue of science and the responsibility of the scientists. Additionally, it is no question that the former USSR was a rogue regime, yet, no system is flawless and to what extent each civil servant, soldier or simple citizen complies with given values and rules has to be answered individually.
A thrilling political thriller which also offers a lot of food for thought.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
4.0
Disclaimer: I received an ARC via a giveaway on Librarything.
Undoubtedly one of the reason for the popularity of Law & Order (at least the original an SVU)) is the predictably of how the episodes unfold. You can set a watch to it. The other is most likely the ripped from the headlines stories that appears. Of course, as the advert says, there is a Law & Order twist. In some ways, Untraceable is like Law & Order.
Lebedev’s thriller takes the poisoning headlines from the UK and uses the idea of a mysterious poison. Instead of however focusing investigators or the international manhunt, he focuses on the chemist and special operative connected to the case. It isn’t so much about trying to escape the authorities or get the bad guy. It is more of a examination of what a life of secrets can do to a person.
The focus of the novel is on two men - Kalitin and Shershnev. The pressure and driving force of the novel is the oncoming intersection of the two men. The reader knowns that is coming and that it will change everything.
The book’s setting and time are somewhat nebulous -Germany, Poland, perhaps. But the setting and time are incidental. The book is character driven and the mystery is what drives the two men. It is interesting to not that the sympathy for the characters changes as more of the past is unfolds. In some ways, the only investigator in the story is the reader. This makes the novel more compelling. The clear prose helps to make the book difficult to put down.
Undoubtedly one of the reason for the popularity of Law & Order (at least the original an SVU)) is the predictably of how the episodes unfold. You can set a watch to it. The other is most likely the ripped from the headlines stories that appears. Of course, as the advert says, there is a Law & Order twist. In some ways, Untraceable is like Law & Order.
Lebedev’s thriller takes the poisoning headlines from the UK and uses the idea of a mysterious poison. Instead of however focusing investigators or the international manhunt, he focuses on the chemist and special operative connected to the case. It isn’t so much about trying to escape the authorities or get the bad guy. It is more of a examination of what a life of secrets can do to a person.
The focus of the novel is on two men - Kalitin and Shershnev. The pressure and driving force of the novel is the oncoming intersection of the two men. The reader knowns that is coming and that it will change everything.
The book’s setting and time are somewhat nebulous -Germany, Poland, perhaps. But the setting and time are incidental. The book is character driven and the mystery is what drives the two men. It is interesting to not that the sympathy for the characters changes as more of the past is unfolds. In some ways, the only investigator in the story is the reader. This makes the novel more compelling. The clear prose helps to make the book difficult to put down.