Rafał Kosik: Félix, Net and Nika and the Gang of Invisible People (originally published in Powergraph in 2004)
Félix Polon is just starting the seventh grade at his new school. On the first day, he manages to make both friends and enemies. Félix is an ordinary-looking kid, but he is preparing to be an inventor, Net, one of his new classmates, is good at computers, but hides it in computer class. And Nika is a strange girl who always wears Martens boots. The three of them become inseparable and together they overcome all difficulties using the boys’ good ideas and Nika’s common sense. While they are at school, a mysterious gang robs the most guarded banks in Warsaw without leaving a trace. They are the Gang of Invisible Peolpe.
The book is a classic middle grade adventure novel with elements of science fiction and fantasy. Each chapter can be read as a separate episode and is connected by the investigation of the Gang of Invisible People. It’s been a long time since I read such a good book that would have kept me so engaged and allowed me to live with the characters. There were serious elements in the story, but the characters were funny and the whole thing was permeated by the familiar atmosphere of Warsaw. It felt indeed closer to me than Anglo-American novels.
Rafał Kosik studied architecture, but before graduating he left the university to found his own advertising agency, which he later transformed into a publishing house. He has been writing since childhood, but he became a full-time writer when his first short story was published. Later, he published several sci-fi and fantasy works. In addition to his writings for adults, his most popular works are the volumes of the Félix, Net and Nika series for young people, of which 18 books have been published in Poland so far, and the second was also made into a movie. The first two books can be read in Hungarian. As a writer, he is most inspired by Stanisław Lem, Philip K. Dick and Stephen King, and he likes to write stories that he would like to read: science fiction, horror or a mix of the two. He is not interested in presenting reality, he leaves that to historians.
