Babylon Babies.

Back in my teens I set myself a rule. I went to see Jurassic Park in the cinema. I enjoyed it as it was, a good old Spielberg rollercoaster, with state of the art CGI at the time. A few month later, I read the book. I didn't know Michael Crichton at the time and was quite blown away by the depth of the story.

I realised at that time that should I have read the book before seeing the movie, I would have been massively disapointed...
So from that time, I try to refrain to read a book if I know that a movie adaptation is on the way. Of course, in most of those cases, I become aware of the book I should read when I hear about the adaptation.
It worked quite well so far, thanks to this I managed to enjoy I Am Legend for example. Having read the book since, I don't think I would be able to prevent myself from thinking how better the movie could have been so much better.

Anyway, all that to say that Babylon Babies almost falls into that category: I waited for Kassovitz's adaptation to come out to read the book, which has been warmly recommended by a friend for years now. Only here, I didn't see the movie in the theatre because the word wasn't as positive as I would have hoped. So missed my opportunity to see it, haven't had one since, so I just went ahead and read the book... I can't succeed every time.

Finally back on the subject, all the good I heard about this book is well deserved. By any standard, it ranks with the best SciFi work I have ever heard / seen. Groundbreaking, high concept, epic and all articulated around a sturdy crime-novel story.
It's interesting because I read Les Racines Du Mal ("the roots of evil" also by Dantec) and it was a "proper" crime novel, only with SciFi elements to it. In it, Dantec had some SciFi digressions, that were great and contributed to the atmosphere, but were only parellel to the story.
Here it's the opposite. The frame is clearly SciFi, so Dantec can just let loose without any doubt that any of his imagery will feel out of place.

There's much to say about his writing style that changes shapes depending on the situation, he can be very crude and at the same time conjure some brilliant metaphors...

As for the themes, you go straight out into metaphysical territories nothing could be more appropriate for such an apocalyptic work...
Also to note is how he ties in his previous work (La SIrene Rouge & Les Racines Du Mal)... If you know them, then it just builds on his universe and feels even deeper...

A truly great work...
Definitely one of the best books I've ever read...