The Babylonian Trilogy by Seb Doubinsky

​      I’m a serious reader, but not a series reader. Not traditionally. But that being said, if I find one worth the time, the completist in me kicks in and wants to read all of them. So when I discovered the bizarre delight that is The City States series, I’ve determined them to be absolutely worth it. The determination was made solely based on the appeal of the latest books in the cycle, The Invisible and The Paperclip, though the fact that the author seems like a genuinely nice person appreciative of his fans certainly helped.
    Normally it would be difficult to impossible to get into a series began so out of order, but alas these novels are all created as standalones. There is a sequential order, but you can read out of it without too much disorientation.
    And so this is how it all begun, with this collection, comprising three novellas that introduce you to the strange world of the author’s imagination. Conceptually intriguing as always, but very different beasts, each one. Both from each other and from the later novels I’ve read.
   Specifically…the first novella is really out there, this is the author as his most abstract and experimental. For my linear narrative craving brain, it was interesting but not necessarily engaging. The second novella was much more in line with what was expected, featuring Detective Ratner in his first crime solving outing. Yey, said my brain, that’s more like it. And the third novella was somewhere in between, thematically and stylistically.
    But the overall effect is definitely fascinating and I love the way all these stories interlock together, directly or tangentially. I’m also a fan of the spareness of the narrative, I can barely streamline my reviews, so I really appreciate succinctness done right. And Doubinsky’s books got this really excellent dynamic to them, there is a singular sort of word economy, spare brushstrokes and all that but it manages to render the entire picture perfectly. They also speed by like bullet trains. Quickest reads for the page count, easily.
    It’s difficult to judge this as a series introduction having the prior knowledge of/experience with the books, but then again having read the more recent books it is fascinating to witness the author’s evolution. So far from the empirical evidence gathered, I’d say he certainly evolved stylistically into a more easily digestible less abstract sort of storyteller. Which works for me. Though who knows what the other books hold. And only one way to find out…Onward.