Review: Invisible Kingdom
"The emptiness you feel is normal.
After all, it's only by emptying ourselves of falsehood that we make room for the truth."
Grix is captain of the Sundog, a freighter transporting cargo between the four planets of the Duni system. Her employer is Lux, a company that has a monopoly on trade. The Lux name is emblazoned everywhere, selling goods and entertainment to the populace.
Vess is an initiate of the Renunciation, a contemplative religious order that seeks to rise above the base materialism of the system's consumerist culture. Having made her way, blindfolded and barefoot, from her home world to the prime planet Duni, she enters the floating monastery to begin her new life as a None (sic) seeking to transcend the material universe and enter that of the spirit, the 'Invisible Kingdom'.
Following a near crash, Grix discovers discrepancies in the cargo manifest that indicate financial irregularities by Lux...
Following her induction as bookkeeper for the monastery, Vess discovers discrepancies in the Renunciation's financial dealings that indicate a worrying connection with Lux. The company represents everything her order rejects, so why are they exchanging huge sums of credits?
Invisible Kingdom by writer G. Willow Wilson artist Christian Ward is an action/drama that centres around issues of corruption, oppression, hypocrisy, complacency and expediency. The characters are very closely humanoid in all but colouring: green Grix is a Zithian, violet Vess is a Roolian and the inhabitants of Duni are yellow... but their personalities and dealings with each other are all too human. This is a thriller transferred to a sci-fi setting.
When Grix and Vess find themselves on the wrong side of their organisations they become fugitives. Exposing the scandalous dealings makes no difference; their revelations are met with apathy by the general public. Then, just when it looks like things could not get any worse, the Sundog is ambushed by the pirate Turo. However, he turns out to be surprisingly decent... and astute. Despite taking her ship, he offers Grix the opportunity to join his crew. He is also well aware of the great conspiracy: Lux keeps the people happy with the bread and circuses of material pleasures while the Renunciation "fleeces any free thinkers" by offering them a metaphysical opium of the masses... Just like in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, those who think they are joining the rebellion against (in this case a corporate) Big Brother are just falling into a trap.
This highlights the political and religious minefield of how power in society is divided among the elite. There is no mention of a civilian government in the Duni system, only business and the order, hand in hand. It is not difficult to draw parallels with our own real world in which supposedly democratic political parties, transnational corporations and the Church are all too often found to be in each other's pockets.
The art of Invisible Kingdom is striking with some very abstract spacecraft designs and gorgeously over-saturated planets and space backdrops. The reader is led through an acid trip of a journey which nevertheless has at least one foot firmly planted in a reality that we are all very familiar with: the inevitable shortcomings of those who set themselves up as being in a position of authority.
Zak Webber
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