Review: The Book of Ekroy # 1 Disciplines
Yzoc is falling.
In the battle above the planet Thadus662 his transport is hit by a Disconnected fighter. Losing control, it plummets towards the atmosphere and begins to burn up. Yzoc ejects, dropping from the sky like a stone.
As he falls, memories flash through his mind in a rapid jumble. A year ago he received his 'Adornments' - synthetic limbs and sense organs. For five thousand years 'Pure' Yunorians have received these cybernetic upgrades as part of their creed, founded upon the Book of Ekroy. The fusion of flesh with artificial prosthetics is believed to bring a heightened state of consciousness, a harmonious union called Nekkto. Over the millennia these teachings have developed into a fully established religion with all the trimmings: clergy, dogma, ritual ... and heretics.
The Disconnected have created their own system of cybernetic enhancements, challenging the authority of the Ekroyans. The Pure cannot allow this blasphemy to go unpunished...
The Book of Ekroy, written by the Cory Brothers with art by Francesco D. Mazzoli, drops the reader into the middle of a high-tech holy war between two cultures divided by their differences over the use of technology. In this first issue we learn about the process whereby perfectly healthy arms, legs, eyes and ears are sliced away and replaced with artificial alternatives during a ritualised ceremony. The new sense organs also act as a data link; everything you see and hear is recorded, uploaded and relayed to the 'Leader'... Like an ultimate Big Brother, the gift of augmentation comes with a price: total submission to the authority of the orthodoxy.
The scene is set and, right from the start, seeds of doubt that were sown years earlier begin to sprout. Yzoc's mother was dying of a disease that could have been cured by a medical procedure that is considered to be blasphemy. The contrast of advanced technology with repressive ideology is an emotionally jarring one.
It is easy to draw parallels with religion and its clashes with the modern world (eg: Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions) but the orthodox here are more akin to Communist totalitarians, imposing a forced unity on its populace and cracking down on the counter-revolutionary forces.
Mazzoli brings all of this to us with some dynamic imagery. The green-skinned Yunorians are closely humanoid, as in the long-standing Trek-esque tradition; more foreign then truly alien, easy for the reader to identify with. The emotional and ideological baggage is certainly all too familiar.
Yzoc is not having a good day. Blasted out of orbit, plummeting to his doom - a forest of trees sporting large thorns rushing up to meet him - this kind of predicament can lead to a radical re-evaluation of one's core beliefs. In the highly unlikely event of our hapless hero surviving, will his outlook ever be the same again?
Nekkto is the promise of the Pure, the comforting embrace of unity and belonging ... but what fate awaits those who fall from grace?
The Book of Ekroy on Kickstarter
Zak Webber
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