Reviews

The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 6: The Sun Beyond the Stars by Rus Wooton, Michael Garland, Nick Pitarra, Jonathan Hickman

elysareadsitall's review

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a great ending to a terrible series. This volume is a solid, interesting sci-fi adventure while the other 5 volumes are a hot mess. I read this volume first years ago, and I shouldn't have bothered with the other 5. They're so unbelievably different. This volume has great characters, plot, and art. It's ridiculous and entertaining. 

jakekilroy's review

4.0

It's wild that this series became its most coherent self when it went to space and introduced a slew of new characters, but it really does become its most straight-forward version when it relies on Point A to Point B without the madness of connecting a flurry of dots, which itself was chaotic fun. Either works for this series, really, as madness is an ally as a throughline. It was just nice to root for a team that wasn't inherently freaking out with dimension-splitting rage. It was a good adventure.

themattacaster's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

nharkins's review

5.0

(NOTE: This trade volume can be read standalone, no prior context necessary)

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and Laika, the space dog are destined, er doomed, to be reunited. I laughed pretty much constantly through the whole thing.

18thstjoe's review

4.0

sad conclusion

markk's review

4.0

I first learned of Jonathan Hickman's Manhattan Projects about five years ago. The premise of the effort to build the first atomic bomb being a cover for a group of the world's leading scientists to engage in some truly gonzo activities had me hooked from the start. I purchased the first three volumes quickly, and then the next two as they were published. Yet for all of the fun of the basic idea, the series seemed to be losing steam, and when I learned that the delayed sixth volume was going to focus exclusively on my least favorite main character — the dog-obsessed Yuri Gagarin — I pretty much gave up on it.

Yeah, that was a mistake.

The sixth volume begins where the fifth volume leaves off, with the cosmonaut and Projects member docking at an intergalactic trading outpost. Still searching for his dog Laika, he quickly ends up in court for a parking violation, which proves to be the first of a series of misadventures involving a corrupt judge, a robot incapable of telling the truth, and a freed slave who wants to use macro spores to destroy the his enslavers' civilization. It's all edgy and wacky in a way that the series hasn't been for some time, and I finished it with my excitement for the series restored. Keep 'em coming, Hickman!

nigellicus's review

5.0

Can't help but feel I missed a volume somewhere along the way, but... well, this is a self-contained adventure featuring cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in space searching for his dog friend Laika. They end up transporting a vengeful ex-slave armed with deadly biological weapons into the heart of a vast space empire, pursued by a bored space-judge looking for a little spicey space adventure. So, that happens. It's certainly colourful and strange and full of black humour and violence and scientific nihilism. One senses one could have enjoyed Yuri and Laika's ongoing space adventures, but Hickman isn't the sort to allow any of his characters become overly likable or, y'know, live very long if they do. Still, 259 in dog years isn't bad.