REVIEW: The Sightless City By Noah Lemelson

Welcome to a world of æther and rust.

As both veteran and private investigator, Marcel Talwar knows this firsthand, and he likes to think he’d never participate in such things. However, that naïve idea comes to a crashing end when he takes on a new case that quickly shatters his world view. A trail of evidence points to someone in Marcel’s inner circle who’s using him as a pawn to conduct grisly experiments—experiments that could lead to genocide.

Now, Marcel is more determined than ever to discover who’s pulling the strings to this sinister plot. But the further he gets, the larger the target on his back becomes, and it’s not long before Marcel has to ask himself how much and how many he’s willing to sacrifice to get to the truth.

Noah Lemelson harmoniously merges unique genres in his new steampunk/apocalyptic/fantasy noir novel. “The Sightless City,” (July 20, 2021, Tiny Fox Press) is the debut novel of an upcoming trilogy, and has already received a First Place Award in the 2019 OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction. Lemelson places realistic and flawed characters in a world both strange and familiar. Strange in its unique creatures, machines, and magics, familiar in the corruption and cruelty that comes with industry and war.

Kidnapping. Enslavement. Murder. Those are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actions some will take to protect their interests in æther-oil, the coveted substance that fuels the war-torn city of Huile.

“The Sightless City”

Praise for

The Sightless City

"A gripping mystery with an exceptionally fleshed-out world."

-- KIRKUS Reviews

“Stellar worldbuilding and quick pacing. This is sure to entertain any fan of gritty speculative fiction.”

-- Publishers Weekly

 

“Take one step into The Sightless City  and you’re pulled into a crackling adventure of intrigue, danger and mystery until the very last page. Lemelson builds an intricate steampunk fantasy world and sets it ablaze with haunting characters and deep moral questions. It’s a thrilling debut!”

-Amanda Silver, writer and producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World

 

"Lemelson melds industrial revolution with powerful magic; and, like all revolutions, this one isn't a tea party."

-- Dave Higgins, author of Seven Stones: The Complete Series

 

"With one foot in the seemingly magical and the other in SF, The Sightless City hits that same sweet spot that Tamsyn Muir mines so successfully in Gideon the Ninth. Lemelson revives and updates the gestures of science fantasy to make it a truly 21st century form. Funny, dark, irreverent, and endlessly entertaining, The Sightless City is a rustpunk wonder and a first-rate debut."

-- Brian Evanson, award-winning author of Song for the Unraveling of the Worldand The Warren

 

“Feast your eyes on Sightless City, a world no one had ever seen until Noah Lemelson transported us to his exotic crossroad of fantasy, dieselpunk, and sci-fi.   It’s a book for all ages: past, present, and future.  At the same time.   Venture inside and this new author will be a part of your future.”

-- Gary Goldman, screenwriter of Big Trouble In Little China, Total Recall, Navy Seals

“Noah is an incredible writer. He has done what most sci-fi writers cannot. He wrote a believable sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk/thriller.”

-- Anne Hart, Instagram Influencer

“Big fat 5 stars for this book and a massive congratulations to Noah Lemelson for writing an exquisite debut novel.”

-- Melina’s Blog, blogger

“A longer read and I finished in just 2 short days.”

-- Lost in a Book Erin, Instagram Influencer

This author opened my eyes up to a whole new type of genre that really caught my attention. This author is wonderfully surprising it what he brings to his novels.

You will not want to miss this one! THE SIGHTLESS CITY had one of the most unique and well-developed world structures I have read in recent years! The diesel punk elements blend wonderfully into something I would describe as akin to dark fantasy, creating a rich and fascinating world for the story!

The city of Huile is both an industrial marvel and a nightmare after the Calamity, the fight for Huile's freedom. Marcel is a disillusioned veteran of that war, now working halfheartedly as a private investigator. Sylvaine is a Ferral, a nonhuman reviled by many, but all she wants is to become an engineer and work on her inventions. I fell in love so quickly with both Sylvaine and Marcel and found myself utterly invested in their separate stories and then their uneasy partnership as their paths finally cross and they work together against the evils of Lazacorp. I really want to know more about the mysterious warrior monk Kayip who seemingly comes out of nowhere to recruit Marcel and Sylvanie to his cause, and I hope there will be more background on him in the next book

You'll find yourself introduced to a new concept early on, and by the end you'll be so used to reading about it that you'll feel that it's always existed. The characters are all so well defined and interesting, too. Every single one of them is well thought out and feels real.

Noah Lemelson is a short story writer and novelist who lives in LA with his wife and cat. Lover of Science Fiction, Fantasy, New Weird, and Punk. He received his BA in Biology from the University of Chicago in 2014 and received his MFA in Creative Writing from the California Institute of the Arts in 2020. He has had several of his short stories published in both print and online magazines, such as Allegory, Space Squid and the Outsider’s Within Horror Anthology.