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The Babylon Eye (Linked Worlds Book 1) by [Masha du Toit]

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Masha du Toit

The Babylon Eye (Linked Worlds Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Masha du Toit (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

14 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Linked Worlds

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Elke Veraart is in prison. She used to be an eco-terrorist, hunting down poachers to protect endangered species. Now she’s facing the grim reality of life behind bars. Just as Elke is about to give up hope she is offered a chance to win back her freedom. All she has to do is find a missing dog.

Meisje is no ordinary dog. She's cybernetically enhanced, a valuable living weapon. She's also lost, hungry, and alone. As Elke closes in on Meisje she finds her admiration for the resourceful cyber-dog growing. And Meisje begins to wonder if she could trust the woman on her trail.

Then Elke discovers that she’s not the only one hunting the cyber-dog, and that her orders have changed. She must do more than find Meisje. She has to kill her.
Elke has to make an impossible choice: her freedom, or Meisje’s life. Or is there another way? It’s risky, but Elke could use the secrets she’s uncovered to save them both.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

November 25, 2016
File size

548 KB
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Total Price: $14.97

Books In This Series (3 Books)

Complete Series

Linked Worlds

Kindle Edition

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

1
The Babylon Eye (Linked Worlds Book 1)
Masha du Toit

(14)

Kindle Edition

$4.99
2
The Real (Linked Worlds Book 2)
Masha du Toit

(11)

Kindle Edition

$4.99
3
The Strange (Linked Worlds Book 3)
Masha du Toit

(5)

Kindle Edition

$4.99

Masha du Toit
11
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Masha du Toit
5
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N69BTZ8
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 25, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 548 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1539816699

Best Sellers Rank: #1,970,401 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,620 in LGBTQ+ Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #6,181 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction eBooks
- #6,763 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction (Books)

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14 ratings

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Masha du Toit

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Masha du Toit is an artist and writer. She reads far too much, draws pictures that tell stories and writes stories about every-day magic. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

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What a great book! Deserves more than five stars!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2018

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Elke Veraart has a past as a Rent gang ecoterrorist and as an expert handler of highly trained, cybergenetically-enhanced dogs known as “gardags.” When the story begins, Elke is offered a way out of jail if she will go into the Babylon Eye and retrieve a gardag known as Meisje. Elke is told that she can bring the gardag back dead or alive. Elke takes up the challenge.

The Babylon Eye (what a great name!) is a huge, constructed portal between the worlds of “the reals” (humans), and of “the strangers” who come in many shapes and forms from everywhere that is not “real.” The presence of gardags in the Babylon Eye is highly illegal. Elke has to work undercover and search for the dog in her off-hours. She has to be careful because she recognizes early on that there are competing interests in the Eye, everyone has their own agenda, everything is highly politicized, and Elke could easily become expendable. She has to figure out who is trustworthy and who is not.

This book is much more than your typical sci-fi book. Du Toit is a master writer who effectively creates a whole new world for us in the Babylon Eye. Her descriptions of this world are complex and rich. At the same time, she takes us into the Babylon Eye world in a way that we never get lost or confused. Her descriptions are very cinematic so we can “see” in her words this very unusual place. Her language is at times very lyrical. For example, Elke goes to a market and encounters some “stranger” perfumes, of which Du Toit writes, “perfumes subtle and rich, spicy fragrances painfully intense like memories of lost childhood or dreams forgotten as soon as the sleeper awakes.” This is lovely writing – to create in words a sense of a fragrance that is both deeply familiar and deeply alien.

Du Toit brings it all. Her story has mystery, suspense, action, science fiction ideas and concepts, and at the heart, hers is a story about love. This is not the typical romance. It’s about love between a human and a non-human. I just wish I could give The Babylon Eye ten stars.

When Ursula Le Guin died earlier this year, I despaired, wondering if there were any sci-fi writers on the horizon to carry on her legacy. Ursula, fear not. Masha is here.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2017

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I saved this book so that it would be the first one I read in the new year, so that I could get started with a positive reading experience. It worked :)

Masha du Toit is one of my favorite authors. I started to write "current authors" but decided that she is one of my all-time favorites. Like the greats, her stories offer both entertainment and social commentary. Plus, there are dogs in all of them -- so far.

This is the story of Elke, a woman who is in prison, but is offered a deal that could result in her freedom. She is an expert dog trainer, though the dogs she works with are not normal dogs. They somewhere between cyborg and dog. As you may have guessed, Elke's world is not the one we all live in.

In the time/place of the story, there are "reals" and "strangers" and there are multiple worlds, with gates between them. The gates function as small, closed communities with people from both worlds living and working together. Elke is tasked with finding a gardag who is lost and whose handler/trainer has disappeared in one of the gate communities -- The Babylon Eye. The gardags are built by a particular cooperation and are not supposed to be in the Eye, so the whole thing has to be done covertly.

One aspect of the story that I really enjoyed was the slow, quiet ratcheting up of tension. There are times that the reader knows things that Elke doesn't know, and that adds to the build-up of the drama. The world-building is beautifully done, as well. You understand all sorts of things about the setting without them being explicitly explained.

The only thing I didn't like about the story was that it ended. I wanted to know more about pretty much all of the characters. Happily, it ends somewhat openly -- there is room for a sequel, should Ms. du Toit choose to write one.

If you like stories with strong, female main characters, alternate reality (possibly dystopian?) stories, or stories in which dogs play a central role, you will probably enjoy this one.

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Torah Cottrill

Flawless world building that puts the characters first

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 14, 2019

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A fugitive cybernetic dog (yes, sci fi purists, I know that's not exactly right), a prisoner provisionally paroled if she finds the dog, rival global factions ready to kill them both --- set against one of the most beautifully realized worlds I've read in a long time, and I read a LOT. It's hard for some sci fi writers to balance world building with fully realized characterization, but Masha du Toit it not one of those writers. Babylon Eye immerses you from the start in the lives of characters you care about as they discover their beautiful, deadly alien surroundings pulls you through the story. There wasn't one part of this book I felt was the "middle doldrums" where I wished the story would pick up again. Far from it! I couldn't put this book down (cliche or not), I was so invested in what happened to all of the characters.

I liked this book so much I bought both sequels as soon as I finished it.

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Mindy

Fun, enjoyable read if you love dogs

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 18, 2021

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I picked up all three books in the series and have read the first two. I have really enjoyed my time in the world of The Babylon Eye. The characters are relatable and interesting. The world building is very enjoyable, with elements of solar punk. This has definitely been some of the most fun sci-fi reading I've done in awhile.

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AH

First book in the series

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 22, 2019

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This was imaginative, compelling and beautiful. Great set up for the following books in the trilogy.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2017