Review: Sea of Stars
You thought you were having a bad day?
It should have been a straight run: after the Krogarrian Space Museum was destroyed by a meteor storm, Gil gets the contract to haul the surviving exhibits to a new home on Krogarr 9. It's a week-long trip, too long to leave eight year old Kadyn with the neighbours, so Gil brings the boy along for the ride.
Just one problem: "Space is crapping boring!"
Boredom swiftly gives way to sheer terror, however, when a gigantic space-dwelling creature homes in on their ship and decides to take a bite...
Father and son clamber into spacesuits and are spilled out into the void floating in a cloud of wreckage and alien museum exhibits. Kadyn watches in horror as his father disappears into the beast's mighty maw. The monster heads for him next and Kadyn panics, arms and legs wheeling for something to grab hold of.
Without looking, his left hand connects with one of the museum artefacts, a small, ornate wooden club -
- and Kadyn explodes with light and power. The creature turns tail and flees.
Kadyn wakes up floating in space, his suit damaged, but somehow he is still alive. He is found by two inhabitants of the local region, a space 'monkey' riding a space 'dolphin'. This sapient pair sense a strange power within the "little manperson".
Kadyn's suit has no oxygen yet somehow he is not only alive but also impervious to many of the dangers of his new surroundings (which is teeming with space-dwelling life) and he has the ability to swim through space, which he does with great joy.
Meanwhile, Dad is alive inside the leviathan, though he does have to fight off a horde of carnivorous space monkeys that live inside the creature. And that is just the beginning of his struggles as he battles to find his way back to his son. A man-eating plant and a vicious pint-sized security drone also lie between him and his goal.
Kadyn is found by Dalla, a young woman of the nomadic Zzazteks (the People of the Broken Moon), accompanied by her sunhawk (a bird which is literally made of fire). She also sees the power within the boy, and she recognises it and tells him his destiny...
Sea of Stars by writers Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum and artist Stephen Green is a wild, action-packed surreal trip of a story with exotic characters set against a dazzling backdrop: here, space is no empty abyss but a colourful environment filled with bizarre phenomena and a whole zoology of extraordinary animals. This sets the scene for a tale that blends space opera with a magical quest of epic proportions.
The story packs more than a few emotional punches, also: father and son both desperate to find each other and both racked with guilt at letting the other down. Humour is supplied by the supporting cast: monkey and dolphin perplexed by the super-powered human boy, Gil's hungry plant, the deliciously creepy Zzaztek shaman eager to release Kadyn's god-like power and the obnoxious drone Kyle ("Would you like me to list the ways you're most likely to meet your grisly demise out here, in order of abject horribleness?")...
Sea of Stars is a crazy space fantasy romp, illustrated with a astounding Kirby-esque psychedelic style by Green. This combined with the human drama of a man searching for his missing child set against a cosmic battle between good and evil all adds up to a very satisfying joyride for the reader.
Kadyn has the power within him to achieve the impossible ... but what are the dangers of unleashing such galaxy-shattering force?
Sea of Stars on Image
Zak Webber
Twitter - @sfcomicartist / Instagram - @sfcomicartist
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! - SCI-FI COMIC NEXUS
*****
***
*
Comments
Post a Comment