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michelenwash's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
tani's review
3.0
Belated review: I read this due to the Hugo win, although it had already been kind of on my radar. I haven't read a ton of Okorafor's work, but what I have read always feels kind of disjointed and jerky to me. I appreciate her imagination and her perspective, and I keep hoping that I'll adjust to her style and enjoy it a bit more, but no luck so far. This wasn't the work that did it for me, either. The message is lovely, the art is nice, but parts of the story just didn't work. I didn't like some of the character relations, and I felt like there were times where the story lost its sense of urgency, and just kind of meandered in a very strange way. (This is especially true at the end.) I do think having read Lagoon would have helped as well, as this is set in the same world, and I was a bit confused by some of the context I was lacking. Anyway, it wasn't bad, but definitely not my favorite.
lesbrary's review
4.0
I didn't realize this was set in the same world as Lagoon! Really interesting look at immigration, xenophobia, and racism--not just as metaphor, but interwoven with existing prejudices. Okorafor presents a future that is hopeful while dealing with the struggles we have now. I appreciated the complexity in characters like Citizen or the inter-Floral wars. I hope Okorafor does more comics in the future!
eva_ave's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
rick_k's review
3.0
Good message and lots of expressive non-human characters. Very much a "Men In Black" feel to aliens and interaction. Pacing and dialogue lack flow, but get the story across well enough. Left a Checkov's gun un-addressed which is a shame for a one-shot.
weweresotired's review
3.0
Last time I was at my neighborhood library, I learned that there's a whole section of graphic novels! I picked this one at random and it was fine, I guess? I liked Tana Ford's character design for the many different alien creatures. The story itself was a little too heavy-handed (although sometimes it seems like heavy-handed is the only way to get a message like this, about immigration and discrimination, across) and I think suffered from a normal weakness of the comic book format, which is that lots of plot points get glossed over very quickly because you only have a certain number of pages to work with. I was interested in knowing more about some of the side characters, and about the backstory of Future, our lead character, and about this alien war that's brewing without anyone noticing, but we're given only the most cursory details on all of them.
beckporter's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Inspiring and easy to read! a lovely combination