Babylon Terminal

Monk is a "Dreamcatcher," a ruthless government agent assigned to track down those who attempt to run away from their dark city. There are legends of an ocean and a paradise far beyond a vast wasteland from which no one has returned. When Monk's wife Julia decides to see if the legends are true, Monk goes against his sworn oath to follow and bring her back. Some think he is now a runner, too.

Outside the city, Monk encounters all kinds of lurid characters on his quest, including a gang of savage children and cannibalistic road warrior-type marauders. My favorite scene is an edge-of-your-seat brawl with another Dreamcatcher who is the best there is.

In the final act, we're left to ponder events as the ending takes on a surreal/nightmare-ish tone. Has Monk been dreaming everything? Has he really found his wife or has he become the victim of one of the goons he has met on the road? It's best to keep your imagination running here, but even if the conclusion isn't your cup of tea, there's plenty of hard hitting action beforehand, and some truly tense moments.

BABYLON TERMINAL reminded me of a violent version of LOGAN'S RUN with some BLADERUNNER thrown in, but Gifune's own flavor is felt from the first page and this fine novel moves at a breakneck pace. An interesting change up for Gifune fans.

Review of BABYLON TERMINAL by Greg F. Gifune

Once again, author Greg F. Gifune explores unexplored territories in this story of a couple locked in an unnamed city where dreams are life and existence might as well be death. The ocean is considered a fantasy. Even though individuals are not physically confined, no one is allowed to leave, and Dreamcatchers make sure they can't. One such Dreamcatcher, a very violent man, is Monk. When his Julia disappears, he searches high and low, literally, despite the fact that his is an unsanctioned hunt, not one to which he is assigned.

BABYLON TERMINAL is a very surrealist, existential work, akin to living inside a Dali painting. The only two books I can remember reading that affected me with this existential angst and characters' despair are Robert Jackson Bennett's THE COMPANY MAN and Jon Bassoff's FACTORY TOWN. All 3 stories make me want to take a hot toxic shower, and turn to something graphically violent so I can shrug off the mood the book wraps me in.

Babylon Terminal is like an acid trip with Blade Runner running in the background. Even though there's no direct science fiction in this book, it felt like a sci-fi read and because there are "runners" my mind automatically goes to Blade Runner, but there is no real similarity between the two.
Monk is a Dreamcatcher-those whose job it is to track down runners. Runners from what and to what- that's where all the questions begin, and that IS a beginning. Are runners those who are bold enough to dream? Or are runners only those bold enough to chase those dreams? Monk is a resident of a dark city. Is there any sunlight? Why or why not? Does the dreamscape Monk travels through in pursuit of Julia, (a runner AND his wife), really exist? And the people and things he meets there, are they real? You'll have to read this and find out, (interpret?), for yourself.
I won't lie and say that I have a complete and total understanding of this story. I will say that I enjoyed the hell out of it and that's because Greg Gifune is a master of language and imagery. There are scenes in this book that I think may be with me for a long time because they were so vividly depicted. The children. The ice palace. The man in the chair. The ocean.
This book is not going to work for everyone. It requires an imagination, an open mind and the ability and willingness of the reader to give up the reigns and be lead. If this sounds intriguing to you, drop those reigns and let Mr. Gifune lead you to Babylon Terminal. It's the end of the road. Or is it?
Recommended to fans of Greg Gifune and to fans of ambiguous fiction.

*Thank you to Net Galley and Darkfuse for the opportunity to honestly review this e-ARC.*

Creepy, action packed, and adventurous.

What more could anyone want?

Highly recommended.

Babylon Terminal takes place in another version of reality, one in which it is always night and raining, reminding me of Blade Runner. This is the perfect setting for this strange noir/hard-boiled/surreal mashup.

Monk is part policeman, part assassin, and must use his skills to find his runaway wife. This puts him up against both a criminal element and his own colleagues. There is a lot of action and shockingly brutal violence; Monk is ruthless and doesn't believe in giving an opponent a second chance to come at him.

As can be expected with Greg Gifune, all is not as it seems on the surface. There are flashbacks and dream sequences that cut away from the main story and give glimpses of what might be going on behind the curtain. I really like this style of writing so it worked completely for me.

I read Babylon Terminal without reading the synopsis, so I won't comment on what it reveals in the hopes that you haven't read it either. I was shocked about how much it gives away; in fact, it outright reveals things that are only hinted at in the book. If you haven't already done it, my advice is not to read any of the product description. Finding things as the author intended is much more rewarding.

Babylon Terminal is an action packed, genre bending read. Weird fiction and crime fiction fans will both enjoy this one. 5 stars, highly recommended.

Elements of Dark City, Mad Max, Planet of the Apes, Logan's Run and Conan in a wonderful mashup.
Hallucinogenic, violent, touching and always satisfying.
Very cinematic.

A new Greg F. Gifune book is always something to look forward to and the fact that “Babylon Terminal” is due in March gives Gifune’s fans something to look forward to reading. I had an advance review copy so I was lucky enough to not have to wait for the release date before cracking open one of my most anticipated books of the year.

Monk had never questioned his job before. He is a dreamcatcher who lived to track those who would run away from society to try and set off on a path of their own. Order is paramount for the survival of society and Monk was one of the best dreamcatchers in the government’s employ. He approached his job with little emotion and strove to bring the runners to swift justice with no emotion. He never questioned the order of society. Then his wife, Julia, went missing and is believed to be a runner and everything changed forever.

Now in pursuit of Julia, everything that Monk once accepted as truth is called into question and he is forced to look at the world and everyone he knows in a new light. That includes himself and he soon learns that he is not the person that he thought he was. As he continues to track Julia down, Monk is not sure if he is trying to save her, join her, or just to end it all.

Trying to summarize “Babylon Terminal” is extremely difficult and trying to explain it is near impossible. This is definitely not a book for those who enjoy traditional narratives as there is very little in this book that can be expected from one page to the next. In fact, it is difficult to determine what is real and what is just in Monk’s head as even he sees the world he is in as unclear and surreal. Monk’s search for Julia happens in the real world but it is so intermingled with Monk’s internal journey for understanding that the actions and thoughts become one and merge into a kind of shared consciousness between Monk and the reader. Is the action really happening or is this just a shared thought or dream? Gifune keeps the reader on edge throughout the story so that the story is at once compelling and unsettling simultaneously.

In “Babylon Terminal,” Greg F. Gifune gives the reader a unique vision that is his clearly his own work but which can also be individually interpreted to create a personal reading experience. It is difficult to summarize the book because the narrative is ambiguous enough to allow every reader to bring individual perspectives to the story. The story can at once be seen as a quest for redemption or a slow descent into despair. Gifune’s mastery is on display throughout the novel as the story is both beautiful and unsettling at the same time. I have read other reviews that try to compare the novel to other works and these comparisons fall short. In my mind, “Babylon Terminal” is almost a reinterpretation of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” as Monk tries to navigate a hellish landscape in the hope that he will find something better on the other side. The world he lives in is a type of inferno with the ocean representing purgatory with the promise of paradise on its far shore. This, however, is only my personal interpretation of a tale left wide open to interpretation by a master storyteller who hold a tight rein on the chaos he has created. “Babylon Terminal” is just another step forward for Gifune and a strong testament to just how talented he is. The story kept me guessing throughout and made it difficult to put the book aside even for a moment. “Babylon Terminal” is sure to be among the best books of the year when all is said and done.

I would like to thank DarkFuse and NetGalley for this advance review copy. “Babylon Terminal” is scheduled to be released in March.

What I could figure out from this one, I really enjoyed. It was a little sci-fi-ish for me. It lost me on more than one occasion and I still couldn’t stop reading it. Crazy. I don’t know many authors that could have pulled this one off without creating a total trainwreck and I still am not sure wtf happened here. It doesn’t even matter because this was still a very good one from one of the best in the biz. 4 Crazy Don't Make Sense But Deserve It Anyway Stars!

*As a member of the DarkFuse NetGalley Readers Group, I received an advanced copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Babylon Terminal by Greg Gifune was received direct from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Other reviewers have related how this book is hard to “get.” While I agree this author thinks in ways many of us don’t, I “got” this book much easier than many of his others. The story, I will not go any deeper, is about attempting to find Julia, his wife, and the trials and tribulations in this off centered world, as he looks for her. With dialogue like: "then I opened my eyes and killed everybody in the room," how can you not stay interested. This book flows well even though the ending does kind of makes me think WTF just happened here? If you like this author or non main stream type books, this book is for you. 4.25 stars.

This is one of those books by Greg Gifune that makes you go 'huh?' while you're reading it, but if you stick it out til the end you'll find that once again he's messing with your mind - something he does very well! Gifune is always looking at the human condition; at how lemming like most people are.

What we have here in BABYLON TERMINAL is another example of that. BT is about a bounty hunter of sorts. And while this didn't rank up with my favorite Greg titles (he's one of my must read authors) it's still very good, and will give you something to talk about over drinks with friends.

I'll call this a recommended read from DarkFuse who gave me this book in exchange for a review.

I'm finding myself to be a bit at odds on how to go about reviewing this title. BABYLON TERMINAL is a dense narrative, one that's difficult to discuss in depth without approaching not only massive spoiler territory but also huge speculations about what exactly the hell is going on here. So, consider yourself warned.

Here's the most basic gist I can come up with for this book: Monk is an enigmatic officer of a certain branch of law enforcement known as a Dreamcatcher. His job is to capture or kill 'runners,' and when his wife, Julia, disappears he finds himself chasing after her, hoping to find her before his fellow Dreamcatcher's can get a hold of her.

This cursory overview, though, really doesn't get into much of the meat of the book. BABYLON TERMINAL is a freaking hallucinatory read and I spent a good part of it wondering what the hell was going on here. Greg F. Gifune's latest feels like a literary mash-up of a David Lynch flick by way of the sci-fi love-child between VANILLA SKY and DARK CITY with some MAD MAX levels of mayhem, wrapped up a pitch-black urban fantasy. I consider these things to be highly complimentary, by the way, but I struggled a bit and ultimately felt lost. I liked what I read. I'm just not sure exactly what it was that I read.

I don't think I've felt so out of sorts by a book since Jon Bassoff's FACTORY TOWN, which this feels like a spiritual successor to. Like Bassoff's work, there's a tricky balancing act at work here between the conscious and the subconscious. Was this all a dream? A death-bed hallucination? Are Monk and his world even real, or dreams in and of themselves? There's some INCEPTION like layering going on here, and it gives the narrative a damn twisty vibe but one that, for me, was lacking in clarity.

It's a fun read, and it's highly probable that I'm just not smart enough to distill all that's going on in its pages. Gifune, though, is a damn good writer and this one had me hooked all the way through, even as it raises many a question that its author refuses to easily answer. Take of this what you will.