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cheezh8er's review
adventurous
fast-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
3.5
bmacenlightened's review
5.0
This was a trip. Satire is rather effective when it both mirrors reality but also expands on it and that's certainly where this lives Our main character is a City Commissioner attempting to just keep his city together. He has to fight a rising xenophobic regime as well as a new hallucinogen sweeping the city.
The characters are interesting with different tidbits that make them real, like Brett (the commissioner's) love of music or his cop colleague being a famous poet. In the end this is much less about where things go and much more about what's discovered on the way there.
The characters are interesting with different tidbits that make them real, like Brett (the commissioner's) love of music or his cop colleague being a famous poet. In the end this is much less about where things go and much more about what's discovered on the way there.
literarygadd's review
4.0
Just last week I commented that I missed a good detective novel that made me crave a good cup of coffee. To my delight, The Invisible was that novel, gritty, full of coffee and whisky, it was what I call my literary “comfort food”. Despite its dystopian label and it’s Gotham-like atmosphere, New Babylon was a familiar landscape with a refreshing amount of optimism not usually found in this genre.
It doesn’t take long before you notice the political and social parallels, sometimes eerily similar to today’s headlines. Ratner’s attitude throughout the entire story makes the tension palpable, rolling with the punches and putting his best foot forward.
Dashes of quirkiness set this story apart from other detective novels, adding a little bit of the unexplained to further distinguish this plot from the rest. Short chapters make the timeline move quickly, a slow burn that sneaks up on you, a resolution that satisfies but leaves you wanting more.
Doubinsky has created a welcome respite to the chaotic ups and downs of the traditional mystery. A paradoxically rich palate cleanser that rests and rejuvenates the mind while still delivering an engaging plot.
Many thanks to Meerkat Press for a galley copy of the book. The opinions are my own.
It doesn’t take long before you notice the political and social parallels, sometimes eerily similar to today’s headlines. Ratner’s attitude throughout the entire story makes the tension palpable, rolling with the punches and putting his best foot forward.
Dashes of quirkiness set this story apart from other detective novels, adding a little bit of the unexplained to further distinguish this plot from the rest. Short chapters make the timeline move quickly, a slow burn that sneaks up on you, a resolution that satisfies but leaves you wanting more.
Doubinsky has created a welcome respite to the chaotic ups and downs of the traditional mystery. A paradoxically rich palate cleanser that rests and rejuvenates the mind while still delivering an engaging plot.
Many thanks to Meerkat Press for a galley copy of the book. The opinions are my own.
fagurfifill's review
2.0
I could not quite make out what this book was for.
For me, a book should have an end as well as an ending, and this one stopped quite abruptly – so abruptly, in fact, that I thought at first I was experiencing formatting issues with my e-book version. However, I have since learnt that this is maybe supposed to a cliffhanger of sorts, so we might expect a 2nd volume. It seems there’s a collection of short stories with the same protagonist and setting that might have to be read before this to understand all the premises.
The setting is an alternate universe - of sorts. The place names have been changed to: New Babylon (which is, very transparently, New York), New Petersburg (nicknamed “Pete”, same as its namesake Питер), New Berlin, New Moscow, New This and New That - however, apart from this re-christening of real-life places, Doubinsky’s universe does not differ from ours in one single instance*. Virtually everything we have, they have: E-Mail, combustion engines, Guinness, YouTube, Antonioni or Iggy Pop, one and all being firmly in place, making you wonder why the author even bothered with his creation. To avoid being sued for libel? A simple disclaimer would have done the trick more conveniently.
*Edit: I’ve only just seen from other reviews that there is, in fact, one thing: there seems to exist a “legal assassination” concept, which may feature prominently in some of the other books, but gets only such a passing mention in this one that it did not register with me.
Anyway, here we are, witnessing the protagonist, an ageing cop, taking over his new job of city commissioner. A job he, basically, disapproves of as being political, however, there are some (rather benign, on the face of it) cases of corruption going on, which somebody has to uproot, and it’s either him or his arch enemy, so he buckles to. As we go along, we find that he, himself, is not above a spot of lobbying and getting “sponsored”, which even his radically socialist girl-friend does not object to. Ah well, live and let live.
An investigating detective is “stabbed from behind … right into the heart” (can that even be done?) and his notebook taken, however, it seems, not for his case notes, but for the poetry verses from his pen, and which the murderer, naturally, hangs on to. All of which points to some dark conspiracy on a large scale with the aim to suppress poetry, literature and, so, free thought. Also, there is a new illegal drug flooding the market. Said drug is reported to be neither addictive nor in any way harmful to its users, moreover being sold at cost price within a rather small community, making you wonder why it’s illegal in the first place. The Secret Service (?) stake out a drug lab. First appearance of “The invisible”. The end.
What this novel has to offer is: Loads and loads of characters, which I found a bit difficult to keep track of (the protagonist, before consistently called “Ratner”, at some point and quite out of the blue is referred to as “Georg”, leaving me like: “Who is that now?”). Smoking and boozing like in a seventies talk show. Cops happily littering their crime scenes with cigarette butts. An investigation virtually going nowhere. Choppy writing, reiterating parts of conversation verbatim within two consecutive paragraphs. Weird similes (“… her mouth appeared dark red. Ratner thought of cherries in the spring”). An Egyptian goddess acting as the hero’s “occasional detective sidekick”, offering not very helpful advice. I don’t know about “noir”, but there is certainly enough world-weariness and pointlessness floating around to put me off the rest of the series. Not for me, this wasn’t.
Finally, some facts for fiction:
- Undercovers do not usually make arrests.
- The bombing of Dresden (on a large scale) took place in 1945.
- A book burning is not normally called an “auto-da-fé”
- The DIN series for envelopes is C, not A
For me, a book should have an end as well as an ending, and this one stopped quite abruptly – so abruptly, in fact, that I thought at first I was experiencing formatting issues with my e-book version. However, I have since learnt that this is maybe supposed to a cliffhanger of sorts, so we might expect a 2nd volume. It seems there’s a collection of short stories with the same protagonist and setting that might have to be read before this to understand all the premises.
The setting is an alternate universe - of sorts. The place names have been changed to: New Babylon (which is, very transparently, New York), New Petersburg (nicknamed “Pete”, same as its namesake Питер), New Berlin, New Moscow, New This and New That - however, apart from this re-christening of real-life places, Doubinsky’s universe does not differ from ours in one single instance*. Virtually everything we have, they have: E-Mail, combustion engines, Guinness, YouTube, Antonioni or Iggy Pop, one and all being firmly in place, making you wonder why the author even bothered with his creation. To avoid being sued for libel? A simple disclaimer would have done the trick more conveniently.
*Edit: I’ve only just seen from other reviews that there is, in fact, one thing: there seems to exist a “legal assassination” concept, which may feature prominently in some of the other books, but gets only such a passing mention in this one that it did not register with me.
Anyway, here we are, witnessing the protagonist, an ageing cop, taking over his new job of city commissioner. A job he, basically, disapproves of as being political, however, there are some (rather benign, on the face of it) cases of corruption going on, which somebody has to uproot, and it’s either him or his arch enemy, so he buckles to. As we go along, we find that he, himself, is not above a spot of lobbying and getting “sponsored”, which even his radically socialist girl-friend does not object to. Ah well, live and let live.
An investigating detective is “stabbed from behind … right into the heart” (can that even be done?) and his notebook taken, however, it seems, not for his case notes, but for the poetry verses from his pen, and which the murderer, naturally, hangs on to. All of which points to some dark conspiracy on a large scale with the aim to suppress poetry, literature and, so, free thought. Also, there is a new illegal drug flooding the market. Said drug is reported to be neither addictive nor in any way harmful to its users, moreover being sold at cost price within a rather small community, making you wonder why it’s illegal in the first place. The Secret Service (?) stake out a drug lab. First appearance of “The invisible”. The end.
What this novel has to offer is: Loads and loads of characters, which I found a bit difficult to keep track of (the protagonist, before consistently called “Ratner”, at some point and quite out of the blue is referred to as “Georg”, leaving me like: “Who is that now?”). Smoking and boozing like in a seventies talk show. Cops happily littering their crime scenes with cigarette butts. An investigation virtually going nowhere. Choppy writing, reiterating parts of conversation verbatim within two consecutive paragraphs. Weird similes (“… her mouth appeared dark red. Ratner thought of cherries in the spring”). An Egyptian goddess acting as the hero’s “occasional detective sidekick”, offering not very helpful advice. I don’t know about “noir”, but there is certainly enough world-weariness and pointlessness floating around to put me off the rest of the series. Not for me, this wasn’t.
Finally, some facts for fiction:
- Undercovers do not usually make arrests.
- The bombing of Dresden (on a large scale) took place in 1945.
- A book burning is not normally called an “auto-da-fé”
- The DIN series for envelopes is C, not A
a_bailey's review
5.0
This novel is the 8th book in his City-State cycle and the second book within the Vita cycle within the City-State cycle. Coming into this I did not know that this was the second book of a cycle within a larger cycle. So if you know me, then you know I’ll be going back to read the others. That being said, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Seb Doubinsky himself says they can be read in any order. So that makes my completionist heart feel a little better, anyway. So, let’s talk about the story a bit. The City-State universe takes place in an alternate history where countries are broken up into City-States as the name suggests. The world uses contemporary technology, for example the characters use Skype in one scene, but world events and politics are different. Doubinsky says that he writes dystopias but, for this novel at least, the world is no more dystopian than our own and there aren’t any technological advances that are important to the plot. It is pretty easy to follow what’s happening from the get-go.
Speaking of that, the book is really a mystery hung on a frame of SF and romance. The story focuses on Georg Ratner a police commissioner recently appointed to his position. Political pressure forces him to start cracking down on a drug called Synth. Synth seems to create shared hallucinations, but it remains unclear throughout the novel. Then Ratner’s friend and fellow policeman is murdered and he has to figure out how the murder ties in.
I really enjoyed this book. It was written in a very straight-forward style, without much embellishment. However, embellishment does come in the form of the tarot card drawings that name each chapter and the way Doubinsky also manages to keep the theme of each tarot card throughout the chapter. It’s done with subtlety and style.
The characters were also well done. You really get a feel for the characters. One of the things I really appreciated was the relationship between Ratner and his wife. There was no macho nonsense about how marriage is terrible. Ratner, is in fact a remarried widower and not one tied down by bitterness or anger. It was truly a refreshing take after the nonsense Hollywood and many novels shove down your throat. As you can see, there is a lot packed into the 233 short pages. If I had to sum the book up, I’d say it was like PKD wrote an Umberto Eco novel. Or maybe the other way around. Anyway, pick this one up if you like questioning the nature of reality, conspiracies, and straightforward prose.
If you like what I'm doing, come and check out my podcast about SFF: https://itgodp.libsyn.com/
Speaking of that, the book is really a mystery hung on a frame of SF and romance. The story focuses on Georg Ratner a police commissioner recently appointed to his position. Political pressure forces him to start cracking down on a drug called Synth. Synth seems to create shared hallucinations, but it remains unclear throughout the novel. Then Ratner’s friend and fellow policeman is murdered and he has to figure out how the murder ties in.
I really enjoyed this book. It was written in a very straight-forward style, without much embellishment. However, embellishment does come in the form of the tarot card drawings that name each chapter and the way Doubinsky also manages to keep the theme of each tarot card throughout the chapter. It’s done with subtlety and style.
The characters were also well done. You really get a feel for the characters. One of the things I really appreciated was the relationship between Ratner and his wife. There was no macho nonsense about how marriage is terrible. Ratner, is in fact a remarried widower and not one tied down by bitterness or anger. It was truly a refreshing take after the nonsense Hollywood and many novels shove down your throat. As you can see, there is a lot packed into the 233 short pages. If I had to sum the book up, I’d say it was like PKD wrote an Umberto Eco novel. Or maybe the other way around. Anyway, pick this one up if you like questioning the nature of reality, conspiracies, and straightforward prose.
If you like what I'm doing, come and check out my podcast about SFF: https://itgodp.libsyn.com/
novelbloglover's review
5.0
Book Review
Title: The Invisible
Author: Seb Doubinsky (The City-States Cycle)
Genre: Noir/Crime/Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Rating: *****
Review: I didn’t know there were multiple books in the City-States Cycle but from my understanding they are stand alone novels in a shared universe, so I should be ok. I didn’t know anything about this book before getting into it but from what I understood of the synopsis, it seems to be a noir crime novel with dystopian and sci-fi elements. I didn’t know what to expect from The Invisible, but the opening was interesting as we are introduced to the newly appointed City Commissioner Georg Ratner, who is taking over from a dead man. This world of New Babylon seems to be very politically driven as almost all the characters we have been introduced to are involved in politics and also seem very corrupt. Ratner even weighs people by how corrupt they are and the people he seems to trust are the least corrupt but even he himself can’t say he isn’t corrupt as he has done small favours for friends although nothing serious or criminal, yet. An interesting thing to note is up until a new law is brought in right at the beginning of the book, politically driven assassinations have been legal, which puts politicians in an extremely dangerous profession. Ratner is visited very quickly by his old partner from the police force, Captain Jesse Valentino asking for a search warrant he was refused, he is investigated a coffee company he believes are importing drugs. Jesse produces email between the CEO and Helena Gonzalez who is known in the underworld and the head of his department is a politician named Thomsen who Ratner knows is extremely corrupt and agrees to give him the warrant as long as he is discreet and keeps him in the loop. Ratner has an interest in this as it is linked to the upcoming election as some of the parties involved are close to Ted Rust, the presidential candidate running against Maggie Delgado.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we start to see the development of the plot at the core of the novel as DA Flowers asks Ratner to personally take responsibility for dealing with the new drug, Synth, meaning he would be accountable for something that he can’t personally deal with. However, as it will help the current President Delgado with her possibly re-election, she promises him another term as City Commissioner and in Ratner’s eyes she is the lesser of two evils, so he agrees. He also uses his background as a cop to help in the investigation but it seems that the drug is really advanced and supposedly allows the user to see new realities, an ultimate escape, but the dealers have no connection other than they are all students or work, so they aren’t the typical types for dealers. He ends up meeting with Jesse again and he explains they found some information on the dead man’s laptop and that it might be big stuff, however, in the middle of the night, Ratner gets a call about a colleague being killed and has to rush into work. An old army friend now on the police force investigating Synth tells Ratner that this drug is political as it offers an escape from reality something the politicians cannot afford to stay on the street when they need to bend people to their ideas and agendas. So far, The Invisible was enjoyable, but I was a little confused about the world, political system and where the book is going to go.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the person who has been murdered is Jesse, and the laptop he found and his notebook are missing which makes Ratner believe that Jesse was on to something and someone didn’t want that knowledge becoming public but they didn’t know about the USB drive that Jesse had. On the back of all this, Ratner wants to find out who killed his friend but he is also dealing with the Synth crisis and a lot of political shifts from a lot of different people which makes following things a little difficult but we get the gist of where the story is going. I really liked Ratner’s relationship with Laura as through her we get an outside perspective on the state of New Babylon in the wake of a financial crisis and a fight for political power leading to strikes and a general discontent among the people. As City Commissioner, Ratner has a difficult line to walk in order to please the people above him while serving his own agenda to find the murderer of his former partner. The race for power is also heating up as Rust seems to be a well-loved if corrupt person and it seems like he is moving ahead in the Presidential race which isn’t something that Ratner or anyone else wants.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things are starting to move forward as the tech team manage to break the encryption on the USB drive found on Jesse’s body but all it contains are a lot of spread sheets that the police have to go through but they lack man power due to budget cuts. Two strange things also happen back to back, Ratner receives an email from Inspector General Ali Shakr Bassam from Samarqand saying that he heard about Jesse’s death and what he was investigating and might have some valuable information to send his way and they arrange a time to speak over Skype to discuss this. On the back of this, there is a death being related to Synth which has never happened before, so a lot of pressure is being put on Ratner to produce results when he doesn’t have anything to go on. After meeting with the narcotics teams, he begins to suspect that Synth is an elite drug as it isn’t cheap and a lot of the junkies in New Babylon are sticking to tried and tested drugs like cocaine. He suspects that this drug is designed to appeal and target the elite, which would explain the politicians desire to see it gone from the city. He also believes that there isn’t a larger network as many believe, as the drug is only sold in limited quantities which would only produce small profits. Ratner is being to suspect that this drug is being used as an experiment of some kind and needs to get to the bottom of the mystery before his head is on the chopping block as Rust is gaining traction in the polls and if the current President loses power, then everything is going to go to Hell.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was really starting to enjoy The Invisible after getting used to the writing style and rather strange set up of the novel. When Ratner finally speaks to Inspector General Ali, he learns that Ali among many others are members of the Egregorians, a group fighting for the forces of good. Ali explains that the deaths of many writers all over the world including Jesse is a sign that very dark times are ahead but if it is developing into what Ali believes then there is still a chance for them to fight back and he asks Ratner to keep him informed and he agrees. That night Ratner dreams of Nut, an Egyptian goddess, who has helped him in the past but all she gives this time is a cryptic message that Ratner knows he will understand when he needs that information. While I was expected a group like the Egregorians to pop up at some point, I don’t know what the purpose of the Gods and Goddess are as they come from a variety of origins and they seem extremely real but I am not sure how they fit into the wider world. Ratner ends up in a Synth commune talking to Warren, and he realises that a lot of the information they have about Synth is false or misleading at best. Warren also lets slip that Synth is a drug of freedom as it has a set price that never changes, and you can only get it if you are connected to the right people. When Ratner asks if Warren is on Synth, his response is amazing as you wouldn’t know which is the point of the drug, to offer an escape to those that need it. Shortly after a general strike is called meaning there is even more pressure on Ratner to sort it out but he makes the right call in contacting the union rep in order to discuss a plan of action, but everything seems to be leading to the conclusion that Synth is a politically motivated drug and that someone high-ranking might be distributing it and this leads us back to the Green Star coffee company which both Jesse and John were looking into when they were killed.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Ratner learns that Jesse’s publisher has been killed in an arson attack and he informs Ali as he promised, in return Ali gives him the location where he can get his hands on Jesse’s last collection of poetry before his death. Ratner also gets the information for the spreadsheets back and it is bigger than he imagined. It turns out that Green Star is owned by S & G, which seems to be involved with some seriously shady business which all links back to Rust and politics. With Jesse’s former boss, Ratner decides they should continue their investigation into S & G, but they need to keep it quiet as they don’t want the investigation to be any more political than it already is. Ratner has Warren tracked and eventually breaks up a Synth festival where deals are going down, Warren agrees to help the police with a identification sketch in return for a lesser sentence but the name Vita, is one that was mentioned earlier and she seems to be the only person making deals with people using the drug. The political system is also changing as the President does a 180 on her ideal agreeing with the strikes, most likely in an effort to gain some left minute votes and maintain her lead and it seems to be working.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we see the final pieces of the puzzle come together and while it isn’t a happy ending, it is a satisfying one. However, I did have a lot of lingering questions about the world, political system and the involvement of the Gods and Goddesses. I think this might be something that might satisfied by reading the other books in this series, just to get more immersed and in tune with this particular universe, which is something I will definitely be looking into in the future. As a political/crime noir novel, The Invisible definitely hits all the right spots but the dystopian and sci-fi elements were very light, and I hope they are expanded on in the other novels too. As I mentioned, I haven’t read many crime noir novels and The Invisible was definitely an interesting introduction to the genre and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.
Title: The Invisible
Author: Seb Doubinsky (The City-States Cycle)
Genre: Noir/Crime/Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Rating: *****
Review: I didn’t know there were multiple books in the City-States Cycle but from my understanding they are stand alone novels in a shared universe, so I should be ok. I didn’t know anything about this book before getting into it but from what I understood of the synopsis, it seems to be a noir crime novel with dystopian and sci-fi elements. I didn’t know what to expect from The Invisible, but the opening was interesting as we are introduced to the newly appointed City Commissioner Georg Ratner, who is taking over from a dead man. This world of New Babylon seems to be very politically driven as almost all the characters we have been introduced to are involved in politics and also seem very corrupt. Ratner even weighs people by how corrupt they are and the people he seems to trust are the least corrupt but even he himself can’t say he isn’t corrupt as he has done small favours for friends although nothing serious or criminal, yet. An interesting thing to note is up until a new law is brought in right at the beginning of the book, politically driven assassinations have been legal, which puts politicians in an extremely dangerous profession. Ratner is visited very quickly by his old partner from the police force, Captain Jesse Valentino asking for a search warrant he was refused, he is investigated a coffee company he believes are importing drugs. Jesse produces email between the CEO and Helena Gonzalez who is known in the underworld and the head of his department is a politician named Thomsen who Ratner knows is extremely corrupt and agrees to give him the warrant as long as he is discreet and keeps him in the loop. Ratner has an interest in this as it is linked to the upcoming election as some of the parties involved are close to Ted Rust, the presidential candidate running against Maggie Delgado.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we start to see the development of the plot at the core of the novel as DA Flowers asks Ratner to personally take responsibility for dealing with the new drug, Synth, meaning he would be accountable for something that he can’t personally deal with. However, as it will help the current President Delgado with her possibly re-election, she promises him another term as City Commissioner and in Ratner’s eyes she is the lesser of two evils, so he agrees. He also uses his background as a cop to help in the investigation but it seems that the drug is really advanced and supposedly allows the user to see new realities, an ultimate escape, but the dealers have no connection other than they are all students or work, so they aren’t the typical types for dealers. He ends up meeting with Jesse again and he explains they found some information on the dead man’s laptop and that it might be big stuff, however, in the middle of the night, Ratner gets a call about a colleague being killed and has to rush into work. An old army friend now on the police force investigating Synth tells Ratner that this drug is political as it offers an escape from reality something the politicians cannot afford to stay on the street when they need to bend people to their ideas and agendas. So far, The Invisible was enjoyable, but I was a little confused about the world, political system and where the book is going to go.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the person who has been murdered is Jesse, and the laptop he found and his notebook are missing which makes Ratner believe that Jesse was on to something and someone didn’t want that knowledge becoming public but they didn’t know about the USB drive that Jesse had. On the back of all this, Ratner wants to find out who killed his friend but he is also dealing with the Synth crisis and a lot of political shifts from a lot of different people which makes following things a little difficult but we get the gist of where the story is going. I really liked Ratner’s relationship with Laura as through her we get an outside perspective on the state of New Babylon in the wake of a financial crisis and a fight for political power leading to strikes and a general discontent among the people. As City Commissioner, Ratner has a difficult line to walk in order to please the people above him while serving his own agenda to find the murderer of his former partner. The race for power is also heating up as Rust seems to be a well-loved if corrupt person and it seems like he is moving ahead in the Presidential race which isn’t something that Ratner or anyone else wants.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things are starting to move forward as the tech team manage to break the encryption on the USB drive found on Jesse’s body but all it contains are a lot of spread sheets that the police have to go through but they lack man power due to budget cuts. Two strange things also happen back to back, Ratner receives an email from Inspector General Ali Shakr Bassam from Samarqand saying that he heard about Jesse’s death and what he was investigating and might have some valuable information to send his way and they arrange a time to speak over Skype to discuss this. On the back of this, there is a death being related to Synth which has never happened before, so a lot of pressure is being put on Ratner to produce results when he doesn’t have anything to go on. After meeting with the narcotics teams, he begins to suspect that Synth is an elite drug as it isn’t cheap and a lot of the junkies in New Babylon are sticking to tried and tested drugs like cocaine. He suspects that this drug is designed to appeal and target the elite, which would explain the politicians desire to see it gone from the city. He also believes that there isn’t a larger network as many believe, as the drug is only sold in limited quantities which would only produce small profits. Ratner is being to suspect that this drug is being used as an experiment of some kind and needs to get to the bottom of the mystery before his head is on the chopping block as Rust is gaining traction in the polls and if the current President loses power, then everything is going to go to Hell.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was really starting to enjoy The Invisible after getting used to the writing style and rather strange set up of the novel. When Ratner finally speaks to Inspector General Ali, he learns that Ali among many others are members of the Egregorians, a group fighting for the forces of good. Ali explains that the deaths of many writers all over the world including Jesse is a sign that very dark times are ahead but if it is developing into what Ali believes then there is still a chance for them to fight back and he asks Ratner to keep him informed and he agrees. That night Ratner dreams of Nut, an Egyptian goddess, who has helped him in the past but all she gives this time is a cryptic message that Ratner knows he will understand when he needs that information. While I was expected a group like the Egregorians to pop up at some point, I don’t know what the purpose of the Gods and Goddess are as they come from a variety of origins and they seem extremely real but I am not sure how they fit into the wider world. Ratner ends up in a Synth commune talking to Warren, and he realises that a lot of the information they have about Synth is false or misleading at best. Warren also lets slip that Synth is a drug of freedom as it has a set price that never changes, and you can only get it if you are connected to the right people. When Ratner asks if Warren is on Synth, his response is amazing as you wouldn’t know which is the point of the drug, to offer an escape to those that need it. Shortly after a general strike is called meaning there is even more pressure on Ratner to sort it out but he makes the right call in contacting the union rep in order to discuss a plan of action, but everything seems to be leading to the conclusion that Synth is a politically motivated drug and that someone high-ranking might be distributing it and this leads us back to the Green Star coffee company which both Jesse and John were looking into when they were killed.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Ratner learns that Jesse’s publisher has been killed in an arson attack and he informs Ali as he promised, in return Ali gives him the location where he can get his hands on Jesse’s last collection of poetry before his death. Ratner also gets the information for the spreadsheets back and it is bigger than he imagined. It turns out that Green Star is owned by S & G, which seems to be involved with some seriously shady business which all links back to Rust and politics. With Jesse’s former boss, Ratner decides they should continue their investigation into S & G, but they need to keep it quiet as they don’t want the investigation to be any more political than it already is. Ratner has Warren tracked and eventually breaks up a Synth festival where deals are going down, Warren agrees to help the police with a identification sketch in return for a lesser sentence but the name Vita, is one that was mentioned earlier and she seems to be the only person making deals with people using the drug. The political system is also changing as the President does a 180 on her ideal agreeing with the strikes, most likely in an effort to gain some left minute votes and maintain her lead and it seems to be working.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we see the final pieces of the puzzle come together and while it isn’t a happy ending, it is a satisfying one. However, I did have a lot of lingering questions about the world, political system and the involvement of the Gods and Goddesses. I think this might be something that might satisfied by reading the other books in this series, just to get more immersed and in tune with this particular universe, which is something I will definitely be looking into in the future. As a political/crime noir novel, The Invisible definitely hits all the right spots but the dystopian and sci-fi elements were very light, and I hope they are expanded on in the other novels too. As I mentioned, I haven’t read many crime noir novels and The Invisible was definitely an interesting introduction to the genre and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.
apartmentcat's review against another edition
The Invisible is a noir police mystery set in the not-quite-New-York city of New Babylon. Georg Ratner is the police commissioner, and finds himself walking the tightrope of politics during an election year while investigating the murder of his former partner and the appearance of a new and mysterious drug called Synth. Not only that, but he also has to contend with a city-wide strike, a dead poet, and a secret society who believe that corruption is a living entity.
The mystery deepens when he finds that there seems to be no central s0urce for the drug, and moreover it seems to have no negative side effects, but enhances creativity and peaceful feelings. Yet his superiors seem to want to crack down on it even more.
The book consists of very short, choppy chapters, most less than a page, and is divided into sections named after the major arcana in Tarot. This imbues the story with a mystical feel which contrasts with the gritty reality of murder and corruption in a very intriguing way. The magic intensifies when it's revealed that the Egyptian goddess Nut occasionally appears to Ratner in his dreams, giving him advice and answering questions. Music also plays an important part, with Ratner listening to songs inspired by the drug Synth and seeking out its creators. Despite the brevity of the text, the author pauses to describe a smell or the beauty of the season, which also helped to add a sense of the ethereal.
The Invisible is part of the City-States Cycle series. I wasn't able to find a numbered listing but it seems to be at least the tenth book set in this world so far.
I have to admit, it annoys me when I read a book and don't find out until later that it's one of the latter books in a series. I'm just a bit OCD that way. I was confused about some questions that presumably would have been explained had I read the series from the start. For example, the setting -- very similar to Earth but with different city and country names. Is it an alternate history or something else? Is it the kind of universe where magic is real? Can a goddess really help Ratner or is he just hallucinating?
The story also ended quite abruptly, with the mystery on the verge of being solved. It's hard to say whether the author intended it to be a self-contained ending, or if the mystery is solved in the next novel. If it's the author's style to leave major questions unanswered at the end of a novel, I can accept that, but if it's an attempt at drawing the reader in to continue on to the next in the series, it's kind of annoying.
Despite this, I did enjoy the story and found the concept of a harmless drug and a police commissioner guided by a goddess to be intriguing, and I have to admit, the brief chapters appealed to my ever-shrinking attention span.
Would I read more by this author? Yes!
The mystery deepens when he finds that there seems to be no central s0urce for the drug, and moreover it seems to have no negative side effects, but enhances creativity and peaceful feelings. Yet his superiors seem to want to crack down on it even more.
The book consists of very short, choppy chapters, most less than a page, and is divided into sections named after the major arcana in Tarot. This imbues the story with a mystical feel which contrasts with the gritty reality of murder and corruption in a very intriguing way. The magic intensifies when it's revealed that the Egyptian goddess Nut occasionally appears to Ratner in his dreams, giving him advice and answering questions. Music also plays an important part, with Ratner listening to songs inspired by the drug Synth and seeking out its creators. Despite the brevity of the text, the author pauses to describe a smell or the beauty of the season, which also helped to add a sense of the ethereal.
The Invisible is part of the City-States Cycle series. I wasn't able to find a numbered listing but it seems to be at least the tenth book set in this world so far.
I have to admit, it annoys me when I read a book and don't find out until later that it's one of the latter books in a series. I'm just a bit OCD that way. I was confused about some questions that presumably would have been explained had I read the series from the start. For example, the setting -- very similar to Earth but with different city and country names. Is it an alternate history or something else? Is it the kind of universe where magic is real? Can a goddess really help Ratner or is he just hallucinating?
The story also ended quite abruptly, with the mystery on the verge of being solved. It's hard to say whether the author intended it to be a self-contained ending, or if the mystery is solved in the next novel. If it's the author's style to leave major questions unanswered at the end of a novel, I can accept that, but if it's an attempt at drawing the reader in to continue on to the next in the series, it's kind of annoying.
Despite this, I did enjoy the story and found the concept of a harmless drug and a police commissioner guided by a goddess to be intriguing, and I have to admit, the brief chapters appealed to my ever-shrinking attention span.
Would I read more by this author? Yes!
Please note: this book was provided for me to read and review by LibraryThing's Early Reviewer programme. You can rest assured however, that this is (as always) an honest review!
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