Sentient
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Gabriel Walta
TKO Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The ship U.S.S. Montgomery was en route to a colony world when disaster struck: a rogue separatist murdered every adult on board. Now the shipboard AI, Val, must raise the children and continue on its own... a task beyond its current programming, especially when they encounter a threat to both the survivors and the Montgomery itself.
REVIEW: Though there are strong hints of sequel potential, Sentient works as a largely self-contained story. The children and the computer both have to push themselves to acts they never thought themselves capable of in pursuit of survival, plagued by inner doubts and old rules that no longer apply in the wilds of space. Friction between Lilly, the oldest (and therefore captain-presumptive of the survivors) and Isaac, whose mother was the murderous separatist (and who is therefore blamed by association by the grief-stricken survivors), threatens to tear them apart, a fault line that could be a fatal weakness when an outside danger arrives. Though the stars are mostly children, there's a horror undertone to the tale, not to mention several gory deaths, that makes this more of an adult (or older teen) story. The ending feels a little open-ended, but resolves the immediate issues. I honestly can't tell if Lemire intends to continue this or not; as I mentioned, it's a mostly decent wrap-up if this is a standalone, but there is series potential in the larger themes.
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