| Title | : | Missing Signal |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 206 |
| Publication | : | First published August 28, 2018 |
Missing Signal Reviews
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Skillful, enjoyable writing, a surreal atmosphere, and an intriguing story. Yet it ends too abruptly without much resolution. This is really a short story posing as a novel. It's delightful, but the end felt strangled, as if this book could easily have been extended to a novel and instead, in the interest of leaving a "mystery" for the reader, is simple cut short with too few answers.
Missing Signal takes place in some slightly-off alternate reality. It's not too far off, perhaps slightly futuristic, but the world has changed from the current state. The main character, Terrance Kovacs, is an espionage counter-intellience agent (posting subversive propaganda--"fake news" indeed) for a country called New Petersburg that doesn't particularly seem Russian. Doubinsky leaves a lot for the reader to fill in. Terrance's job essentially is to disguise government weapons testing as UFO phenomenon, so he embeds himself in the UFO conspiracy movement, and when there is something the government wants hidden, he creates a UFO story that slightly changes the facts enough to subvert the truth.
The following is not a spoiler--it's in the book description--Terrance is approached by individuals who claim to be actual aliens disguised in human bodies. And from there, things start to get weirder and weirder, with Terrance unsure who he can trust, and whether he is being lied to by his department or by a foreign power.
Doubinsky's writing is a pleasure, and he crafts a wonderfully strange atmosphere. The real issue is just how abruptly this ends, leaving me disappointed. Still. Even with the disappointment, I think it is worthy of four stars. I'd like to check out his other books.
Note: I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. -
Another daring, psychedelic experiment from professor Doubinsky.
Halfway into a 1970s thriller and an existential novel, Missing Signal is not really a novel about aliens. Oh no, sir. Nothing's that easy with Doubinsky. It's a metanovel about perception and control of information that breaks through the boundaries of simple narrative structure. It's one of these doubt-every-word-you-read kind of book and I'm always up for one of these. -
Aliens are among us. That's what the government wants us to think it doesn't want us to know. But, like everything else that passes for conspiracy and truth in the cold, gleaming City States, unraveling the obfuscation is just a card trick to keep us scrambling for ghosts, while the real work by the Powers That Be goes on. New Petersburg Counter-Intel Agent Terrace Kovacs knows this, and happily remains a cog in the machine, until the arrival of a strange woman into his duplicitous life makes him realize that being a part of the problem might be a bigger problem than he ever realized.
UFO conspiracies and the devil's drug Synth. Deep states ruling the surface world and tripled crossed info proxy wars. And the divisions. All those beautiful divisions, that each new day look more and more like the fencing of livestock pens. In Missing Signal, master social commentator Seb Doubinsky pulls us further into his near-future/probably-now European continent carved up not by current borders and bloody treaties, but by the social, political, and racial scalpel cuts of the City States, blending science fiction with current fact in his always intense, sometimes horrifying, and often quite tragic exploration of a doomed race dancing toward midnight, smiles fixed and glasses raised. Dystopia has arrived with a whimper, and no one scheduled the parade. Maybe after the next commercial break. -
Missing Siginals is like a lost episode of the X-Files where certain pieces to an alien conspiracy leads to more questions, or the wrong questions are being asked. Throw a beautiful woman in the mix and plans on unraveling the mystery just leads to even more questions.
Doubinsky takes you through a fast paced Sci-Fi mystery of an alien conspiracy, Planet X, and a drug that alters vision, mind and body but misses the signal that has all the answers... or what is the answer? -
“Missing Signal―a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a government conspiracy? Agent Terrence Kovacs has worked for the New Petersburg Counter-Intel Department propagating fake UFO stories for so long that even he has a hard time separating fact from fiction. Especially when he’s approached by the beautiful woman named Vita, who claims she’s been sent from another planet to liberate Earth.”
This blurb would not normally attract my attention because Sci-Fi is not a genre which appeals to me. However, having read several earlier publications from Meerkat Press (all outstanding), when offered the opportunity to read an ARC of this story I leapt at the opportunity. I knew I didn’t want to miss out on what could prove to be novel which would enjoyably widen my reading experience. Missing Signal has done just that – indeed, I’m delighted to have discovered an exciting new voice in Seb Doubinsky’s unusual novella. This is not a traditional Sci-Fi story but is one which offers a disturbing glimpse into a dystopian City-State future which reflects, albeit in an exaggerated way, so much of all that is disturbing in our 21st century world.
The labyrinthine network of false websites Terrence Kovacs creates as an agent in the counter-intelligence department – he has fifty-seven different aliases and is a master at reinventing himself – offer him some sense of satisfaction in his work but, at the same time, it also highlights his sense of loneliness and isolation. Even his name isn’t his own, so who is he really? Which of his experiences are fact, which fiction? The arrival of Vita complicates his life even more as his paranoia about whom he can trust becomes caught up in his need to believe in someone or something. Has she been sent by his superiors to test his loyalty or is she genuinely trying to help? Will a mind-altering, genetically-designed alien drug help or hinder his search for the truth?
This story is told in very short chapters, some of which are just a paragraph, or even a sentence, long, with none being longer than three pages. When I first started to read I wondered whether this style could possibly hold my attention; would I be convinced that a sentence could constitute a whole chapter? However, I very soon did become convinced because the quality of this author’s writing is such that he makes every single word count, nothing feels superfluous to the story-telling. In fact, it is the very sparseness of the writing which seems to give it such a thought-provoking power. The dystopian nature of the story, with its reflections of the all too easily recognisable horrors we see in today’s society, make this a book which I know will stay with me for a long time. Apart from the various themes which emerge in this story, I think that the nature of the writing-style would also make for some fascinating reading group discussions.
This is the seventh book in the “City-States Cycle” but can easily be read as a stand-alone story. I now feel highly motivated to seek out the earlier ones. If you enjoy creative stories with a difference, I hope that my enthusiasm will encourage you to seek out this author’s work for yourself.
My thanks to Nudge and Meerkat Press for giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful and amazing book in exchange for an honest review. -
Doubinsky takes on ALIENS. Fantastic city-states book. I’ve been reading these digitally, but Missing Signal further affirms my suspicion that to adequately appreciate these novels and fully reap the rewards they offer the careful reader, one must own all of the volumes in paperback, of which this is the seventh to be released and the first book of the Vita epicycle within the greater cycle of cycles, that they might be stacked together on a desk, or flipped through abreast one another, recycled through from the first page of the first volume after reading the last page of the last one, from the first one all the way through to the last one all over again, or perhaps a few chapters from each all mixed together. Missing Signal, in my mind, plays a very expository, retrospective role for the cycle as a whole, while still being written in a way that even a reader who hasn’t read The Song of Synth (third book, essential companion reading) might appreciate. yet another novel that stands well on its own while casting metafictional light on the greater series and the glue of humanity that binds the characters in a single one of the books with all the characters in all the books. I give five stars for taking the misinformation campaigns, deep fakes, and fake news of today and projecting them onto an alternate reality in such a way that I actually enjoy it without ever coming across as trite or obtuse. “Meaning disappears and becomes replaced by something else, which resembles a meaning, but isn’t one” (120). It takes a special kind of speculative fiction to effectively draw on William S. Burroughs Word Virus theory and a poet novelist with an eye for the mysterious hidden beneath the surface of the mundane to take things about reality that make me want to vomit and allow me to ponder them in the minds of Fassbinder-esque techno degenerates I don’t mind spending time with, even though they’re not my type, and to do so in a pleasant way over the comfort of a nice meal, a good vintage, and 700 grams of crushed white Synth powder is a treat the likes of which only fiction can craft. A cup of coffee and a notebook and pencil are also very helpful scaffolding for reading the later books of this series.
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In this latest Dystopian offering from Seb Doubinsky, the intelligent, lyrical prose offer snapshots of a haunted, paranoid mind. Missing Signals eschews genre for another carefully-constructed story that serves as a photo-album arranged by a poet; each chapter is a small offering of words, and within the framework of a single page (or two), moments and reflections in the life of our paranoid protagonist draw us in to the fantastical (for the protagonist) arrangement of the plot.
I admire Doubinsky’s ability to build a meaningful denouement; layered with a wistfulness for the 1960s, Doubinsky transfers the subconscious into a reality that unravels perception, but only because the impossible seems to be happening. When powerful drugs do become involved, the narrative wraps the reader in the paranoia with a rather unexpected twist. Here is where a spoiler would ruin everything. And yes, this book discusses the existence of aliens and the very concept’s impact on the paranoid, deconstructed mind of a man who works for the government and deals in secrets. And I absolutely loved the way this book concluded; the last sentence is very memorable. -
I received an ARC of Seb Doubinsky’s "Missing Signal" from Meerkat Press; I had never read him before and had no idea what to expect. It turns out that this is the latest in a cycle of “City State” novels set in a dystopian near-future world, possibly modeled on Europe. Terrence is a master spy in this world, with some 50+ identities and a job involving…. well, hard to say what it involves, but he’s very good at it. Until, that is, he is contacted by a mysterious and beautiful alien, who has a plan to save the planet from being taken over by an evil Empire, said plan involving the highly controversial drug Synth, which may (or may not) allow humans to see the world as it really is…. Or something like that. This is a very short novel with very short chapters (sometimes only one paragraph) and a very quick read, although I have to say that I am not entirely certain of the plot other than to say it’s quite wild. I believe the author is also a poet, and this is a very poetic book, not to mention being really zany at times. It will be published in August 2018, and I hope readers will have the chance to discover this writer as "Missing Signal" is a lot of fun; recommended.
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I started this book with some trepidation because science fiction is not usually a genre I read. But, when I started reading it, I realized it's a compelling read, and I could easily identify with the characters and lives.
The books is divided into short chapters, which detail the lives of Agent Terrence Kovaks and his work as a counter-intelligence agent. He has many aliases and mainly debunks UFO stories by propagating fake news about them. Once day, he attends a conference and meets a skeptical attendee, Thomas. Thomas gets in touch with Kovaks and brings a beautiful woman, Vita, with him at the meeting.
Vita tells Kovak that she is an alien and has come for help. Does Kovaks trust her? Does he believe in what she is saying? Or is is all part of a test? What is fake and what is real, and where do we learn to accept our loneliness and reach out, these are some of the questions that form the crux of this concise, yet expressive story.
I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series now! -
Seb Doubinksy is one of those writers I love to read. He’s no-nonsense in his writing and hits all the points that make me happy as a reader. I haven’t read his library, but ‘Missing Signal’ reminded me to get on that, preferably sooner than later. He’s the closest thing to a modern Philip Dick as we’re ever going to have, but wholly original in the craft.
Missing Signal is a story about Terrence Kovacs, who works as a disinformation agent, and how he deals with life in a bubble, covered with truth and fiction. He’s been at the game so long he questions everything; paranoia is part of the norm for the simplest and mundane of daily tasks. For the big jobs, it’s a given. Then he meets Vita who makes him question everything, either out of love or his own desire to simply know the facts. But can he trust the facts as he sees them?
The story is heavy on conspiracy theory. Doubinsky does an amazing job of keeping the reader just as “questioning” as our protagonist is. There are many short chapters within the book, some as short as a sentence, or two; a paragraph here and there, or two; etc. But this worked wonderfully for me. I have no idea if this was intentional or not but the short chapters gave me a real feel of dipping into a secret world, bits at a time, deeper and deeper, into a growing conspiracy. Slowly learning more and more, bit by bit. Have you ever had a late-night YouTube spiral? The kind where you start out watching a tutorial on fixing an air conditioner (or some other task that needs to be done around the home) and before you realise it it’s two hours later and you have somehow moved to footage of Bigfoot, to supposed ghosts ‘caught on tape” to home-video of UFOs hovering in the sky. Well this is that type of feeling those short chapters gave me, which made for a captivating and real page-turner of a book. The ending (which I won’t spoil) also aided the theme of conspiracy well, ending in a way for the readers to ask questions (the sure-sign of every great reading experience) and possibly question themselves—the joys of falling so far down the rabbit-hole. Between this, a superbly realised world, and believable characters, I was hooked.
5 out of 5 stars, easily. -
Sebastien Doubinsky’s *Missing Signal* is the latest installment in the City-State cycle and it is dystopian fiction at its most pared down and wondrous. Doubisnky’s prose is lean and hearteningly human in the most inhuman of contexts. Like many of Doubinsky's protagonists, Agent Kovacs is flawed hero unable to escape his tarnished past no matter how fast he hurtles toward a shiny new future. Immersive and unputdownable noir sf from a writer at the top of his game.
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Seb Doubinsky's Missing Signal is covertly a dystopian novel that is visibly (in its ending) part of a series. One need not have read any of the City-States series to find immersion in this newest instalment whose crisp chapters cartwheel you in an incredible odyssey that gets wilder and weirder as it possesses you.
Together with a loneliness that is real as touch, but is also a ‘beautiful emptiness’, Terrence Kovacs is a man attuned with himself, self-aware in his deficits... Missing Signal is full of suspense, something ominous lurking from the very onset.
Near the end, the reader cannot help but wonder how the islands of conspiracy could attain totality, but they do. The narrative finishes on an edge, and the reader must suddenly clutch at what ground there is, lest they drop very steeply down a coast, or a precipice, likely a scene set for a sequel.
Doubinsky achieves a winsome speculative fiction that is also a convincing psychological thriller, and it leaves you with the right attitude: What is real? The unreal? -
I enjoyed this book. It was a fast, but interesting read. It was surreal, but worth the investment. I really liked the pace and the character of Terrance.
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This was an odd, short read. Full review to come.
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[Disclaimer: I received an Advance Review Copy] This novel is set up in a possible future world where real and fake news fiercely compete: the main character is indeed a counterinformation agent. The idea is developed well, only a bit hurried at the end, which was not obvious at all given the theme. What I did not like was the "stream of consciousness" bits: most chapters were just a few lines long and I did not manage to get an overall idea of the relation of these parts with the main plot. It could be just me, however.
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Highly recommended. Wonderful language, fast-paced, and thought-provoking. One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in some time. I’ll be reading more of Doubinsky’s work.
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Actually probably more like 2.5. This was an... unusual book. It wasn't what I expected from the synopsis on the back. There were many parts that were thought-provoking with clever wording. And then there were others that felt choppy, rushed, and a bit unsure. Sometimes it seemed like the book was trying to be philosophical or experiment first and foremost, rather than prioritizing storytelling. But the story did definitely keep me intrigued, and since it was such a fast read, I can't say it wasn't worth picking up. Some of the more "adult" moments I could have honestly lived without. They didn't seem to add much to the story--at least, not in something this short. In that sense, a lot of the story didn't feel as "fleshed out" as it could be. I wanted a fast read, and that's what I got, but I would have enjoyed the story more if the author would have given the plot and characters some more time to breathe. In theory, I guess I liked the concept of this novel--a man who makes up UFO stories for the government meeting an alien--more than its execution. There were a ton of possibilities that didn't get explored, and I was kind of disappointed. I read in the author's bio that he has written other books, all taking place in the future. If this book is connected with those, then it might make sense why I had so many questions throughout it. And then the end... really didn't end. I love ambiguity, but I felt as though I needed something else to go on. Still, the idea was good and the story itself was one that kept me turning the pages, even if it wasn't exactly what I expected. I'm not sure I'd say that I'd recommend it, but I also wouldn't say I regret reading it. I'm glad I did, especially with the lines of reality constantly being blurred. It reminded me of some magic realism works I read in college--except with sci-fi. I was fascinated by that genre then, and seeing it employed with a conspiracy bend definitely kept my brain buzzing. In short: this is worth a read if you're interested, but don't expect it to conform to any traditional ideas of fiction. That's a positive in many ways, but in others, it's a bit jarring. In the end, it just comes down to personal taste.
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A new novel from Seb Doubinsky is always such a treat; no one writes exactly quite like him. I never know what to expect, and I am never, ever disappointed. Missing Signal is no exception. Through a series of short entries, we learn about the life of Terrence Kovacs, an agent who works for the Counter-Intel Department, propagating fake UFO stories and getting confused in his own reality.
Each entry is a beauty of its own and can almost be read just for itself:
"When Terrence was finished, he realized that it was late in the evening and that he was hungry. His office felt tinier and barer than ever. Maybe he should buy a plant to create volume and an illusion of comfort? He stood up and stretched. A picture of himself buying a sandwich from a street vender flashed behind his eyes. Bright neon lights. The smell of the warm concrete. People brushing past you. An illusion of belonging."
At the beginning of the novel, Kovacs asks "Was his life a series of paragraphs or a long seamless succession of events?" Reading this novel feels exactly like this. Is it a series of paragraphs? A succession of events? It's both, and it's wonderful. As with his other novels, I did not want it to end. Once I'm in a Doubinsky atmosphere--strange, lonely yet warm, fabulously weird--I never want to leave. -
This city states universe is so wild! I like the style for a summer read that one can start and finish in the same day. Now that the US Navy and Pentagon have released more info and video of UFOs it is no surprise the author has already visited the topic. Just because the book includes in Aliens I wouldn't immediately call it sci-fi, although it is, but it seems like a study of how authors write characters and how individuals create their personalities in their lives. It is weird to see these strange cities and their relation to the drug synth and to intergalactic space. But his earth bound characters have to deal with subtle questions. What happens when someone sees who you really are? What happens when the foundation of your personality are a disguise to deceive yourself and others? As Doubinsky writes "you had to be dedicated to the truth in order to be lying all the time."
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Back in episode 18 I reviewed The Invisible by Sev Doubinsky. Missing Signal technically fits just before The Invisible in the City-States series and is first within the Vita series. In this novel, Terrence, a government agent in charge of disinformation around UFOs, falls into a plot by aliens to “free” earth from the threat of a second alien race. The characters within Missing Signal veer from a mutually agreed upon reality into a world of paranoia designed to question what is real. This novel is like if Len Deighton wrote the X-files, with a dash of Phillip K Dick (PKD) to keep it spicey.
The book is short and likewise the cast of characters very small. In fact, it is nearly a character study of Terrence as he goes from creating conspiracy theories to becoming involved in one. As before, Doubinsky has a straightforward style, not wasting time on overwrought descriptions and unnecessary adornments with an entire chapter sometimes consisting of a couple sentences.
Seb’s work shines in the same way PKD’s work does, but loses the misogyny, and improves the prose. Check this book out if you like quick reads, conspiracy theories and spies, and straight forward prose.
