Omega Gray by Seb Doubinsky

Omega Gray Reviews

• 
  Lizz

  I don’t write reviews.
  
  It’s as if Seb channeled William Kotzwinkle and Robert Sheckley and wrote a story just for me. Callbacks to Burroughs and The Yage Letters, though not in regard of the substance of the story. Perhaps a bit of the old DMT Spirit Molecule via Rick Strassman. Yet for all these influences/similarities to the greats, he remains his own wordsmith. Light, interesting, karmic-balancing fare. Dare I say this story is cute? Yes, cute too! I’m in love with this writer.
  
• 
  Benoit Lelièvre

  That was...different! I've discovered the writing of Seb Doubinsky earlier this year with the stern, pertinent and oddly terrifying WHITE CITY and while OMEGA GRAY is a solid novel by any means it's oddly colorful and I surprised myself conceptualizing it as a late night cartoon more than once. If WHITE CITY was George Orwell-inspired, this is clearly influenced by the work of Philip K. Dick.
  
  What I enjoyed the most about OMEGA GRAY is how Doubinsky uses fiction to deny the one great assumption of human nature - that death is the end of life - in order to explain how ideas can shape reality and therefore need to be handled with caution and respect. OMEGA GRAY is a simpler and more playful novel than the grim WHITE CITY, but it's not any less smart. It might be a little less engaging, but as for as RELEVANT political novels, this is once again top notch material.
  
  
• 
  Danger

  This one was quick and weird, finding that balance between humor and pathos, and although it bounds across genres, sometimes in the same chapter, sometimes in the same paragraph, to wit: psychedelia, noir, supernatural, corporate espionage, science-fiction, romance, comedy, the list goes on… there’s still a core character, with a simple and understandable goal, that gives us just enough anchor on which to ride this story out. Omega Gray is fun, fast, and original. A winner, yes.
• 
  Bandit

  If you’re into armchair traveling to exotic fictional destinations, you can’t go wrong with Seb Doubinsky’s City States novels. You can go many places, but not wrong. Most of those places will be set in an awesomely built world of competing city states of recognizable origins, shaped by nefarious machinations. Most of them will be at least tangentially interconnected. All of them will be strangely beguilingly inviting, although potentially dangerous to visit in any way other than the armchair method.
  This novel takes you further into that world yet, all the way down to the Land of The Dead, which some might consider too ominous of a destination, but to, say, a mogul developer that’s just pure building potential, untapped markets and all that.
  Now it’s up to a professor on psychedelics to help sort out that mess.
  This is a shorter and somewhat lighter than most City States books, but it’s just as terrifically imagined, well crafted and deliciously droll and clever as the rest of them. It’s definitely somewhere in the realm of weird fiction of bizarro, but at the same time it’s remarkably recognizable as and smartly satirical of the world as we know it. And always, always wildly entertaining. Recommended.
  
  This and more at
  https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
• 
  Hakim

  Omega Gray is an exceptional book. I don’t want to compare Seb to other sci-fi authors, because I truly feel like he has a different approach to storytelling, a unique voice. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The plot is superbly woven, the characters are remarkably crafted, the setting is inventive and original, and ideas presented in the book are very inspiring and thought-provoking. Seb delivers, as he always does. Read Omega Gray!
• 
  Rodney

  Just how far will a big business capitalist go to turn a profit? If it was the next frontier, would exploiting the afterlife be going too far? As CEO and founder of the Warren Corporation, George Warren sets his sights on doing just that. As is true in the real world, we see the far-reaching consequences of his aspirations as the plot progresses.
  The characters and societal structure within the afterlife are clever and fresh. The ways in which one enters, manipulates and comes back from the “land of the dead" are handled well, all concepts that could easily have fallen apart. The author consistently maintains their legitimacy throughout.
  Compared to Seb Doubinsky’s other books, Omega Gray is light and funny, with plenty of tongue in cheek humor as Todd Bailer, hired by Warren as top researcher on the project, struggles with the implications of what he is paid to do. Another solid read that I related to and enjoyed on many levels.
• 
  Zachary Tanner

  The first of Doubinsky’s books to bring a tear to my eye. I’m continuously fascinated by the author’s ability to draw anthropologically from various ancient cultures (Babylonian, Sumerian, Persian, etc) in this Russian doll cycle of detective novels: here to tell of a history professor who takes some Yage or Ayahuasca or some such and first visits the land of the dead, then returns after a plane crash only to regress into life-already-lived, and so on such that the Land of the Dead remains between visits, between persons, between worlds, unless the one force that threatens to destroy the fabric of sentient reality succeeds: the organized oligarchy of the 1%. Reminiscent of other far reaching, concept-driven short SF books such as Dick’s “Dr. Futurity” or Delany’s “Empire Star.”
• 
  Thomas Joyce

  Despite the straightforward narrative, this is far from a straightforward story. After a professor discovers the path to the afterlife and its lack of harp-playing angels and fluffy white clouds, he attracts the attention of a powerful businessman and thus begins a very heavenly land-grab. Doubinsky tackles deep issues of morality and mortality while keeping the story from becoming too serious. The afterlife seems to be populated by some very unexpected and colourful characters, from a TV private eye to winged monkeys (not the only allusion to The Wizard of Oz). Overall, it is an intriguing concept and one that seems to be quite different from Doubinsky's other books. But what is beyond debate is his ability to write interesting characters and thought-provoking scenarios.
  My first encounter with the work of Doubinsky, but it won't be the last!
• 
  Donald Armfield

  A psychedelic cosmic quest and a “Tom Wolfe” or “Grateful Dead” epiphany over the punch bowl. The land of the Dead exists and this rich enterprise must go. Don’t forget the monkeys in bellhop uniforms.
  Great read!
  
• 
  David Bridges

  A quick fun read by Doubinsky. This narrative is a bit more straight forward than other books I have read by the author, but still maintains the bizarre and dark originality that I love about them.
  
  After Todd Bailer discovers The Land Of The Dead, he shares his research with the world and is outcasted to the fringes of the scientific community. Losing his credibility amongst the ranks of his University he becomes despondent and frustrated with his situation. Things start to look up when Real Estate mogul George Warren takes notice and enlists Bailer to help get his company established in The Land Of The Dead. While Bailer feels guilty about selling out, he does begin the process of assisting Warren with this top secret project to construct a building in The Land Of The Dead. Meanwhile people The Land Of The Dead start to notice strange things happening and eventually become fearful that the cosmic balance of both dimensions is being destroyed. In an effort to save their world they manage to contact Bailer and enlist his assistance in destroying the project he helped create.
  
  Great for a quick 1-2 day read.
• 
  Christopher Payne

  When professor Todd Bailer embarked on a psychedelics quest to discover if the land of the Dead really existed, he had no idea he would threaten the cosmic balance of the universe by triggering a real-estate conquest of the new Frontier. Now, helped with a motley crew of living and dead, he must makes things right before it it too late...
• 
  Marvin

  I guess the old descriptions of the afterlife have become obsolete. We have ordained the heaven of hosannas described by Dante and Milton as stodgy and dull. And the tunnel of light is so 20th century. So what do we have now? For Seb Doubinsky, the afterlife sounds depressingly like our own present existence. We still have day jobs and still have to obey particular afterlife rules lest we damage the karmic balance. That means no prank phone calls to the previous world as a couple afterlife anarchists are learning the hard way. Immediate Reincarnation seems to be one dreaded punishment which at least tells us that the afterlife is a little bit better than where we are now. it is a parallel reality in the multiverse that is only open to the deceased...until now. That may sound a bit mundane but it is still entrenched with a karmic thread that keeps everything together...until now.
  
  In Omega Gray Professor Todd Bailer has entered The Land of the Dead by the use of a shaman's mixture of hallucinogens. At first he is skeptical and believes his journey is no more than an hallucination. But when it is followed by an accident resulting in a near death experience, he becomes convinced that the Land of The Dead is a real place. When he publishes his finding, it is met by ridicule by the scientific community and he is ostracized regulating him to the internet fringes and the true believers. That is until a very wealthy man takes an interest in the idea that one can actually go to this afterlife while alive. The reason? Greed and location, location, location. Yet this venture may lead to the destruction of the entire universe and then some.
  
  This is the first of Doubinsky's novels that I read that is not set in the author's own parallel universe of Viborg City yet it has many of the same themes going on. Omega Gray reads more traditionally, although I miss the intermittent poetry of White City, and is lighter in tone. Omega Gray is quite humorous in its own way and could be called a satire, making light of one's own greed and the very human stubbornness in keeping our old ways and values even when faced with a different reality. Bailer has sort of a spirit guide in the nature of Joe M., who is tasked with keeping law and order in the afterlife, a world he doesn't understand all that much himself. It is an amusing conceit . However if the author's speculation of the here and after is anywhere to being the truth, I can understand why Milton threw in the hosannas and angels.
  
  Doubinsky continues to be one of the more interesting speculative fiction writer out there. There remains a strong Phillip K Dick influence yet I sense I am sensing some of the social satire of Robert Sheckley seeping through in a droll and dryer Doubinsky version. Omega Gray would be a good introduction to this writer and well worth the effort to find and read.