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dame_samara's review
2.0
This book at its core is about Colonization. Colonization of peoples and organic spaces. In the end I was left like this book was justifying it. Which left me feeling icky afterwards.
Below this is Spoilers:
Let's start with the attitudes to the people.
These people crash land on a planet, and judge these people as savages, at no point showing respect for these people or the lives they live. Instead they say things like they will teach them to live with dignity, and judge their practices. Even when they find people who aren't 'worshipping' The Great One. It still didn't feel like they treated these people as equals.
Then there is The Great One a sapient being who lived on this planet long before humans ever existed here. And has been threatened at every turn by humans. Causing it to take drastic measures to try and ensure their safety. To only once again be threatened with destruction by humanity and humanity adjacent.
While the core of this book COULD have been about whether taking away one person's free will, to ensure your survival is moral. Instead The Great One is considered "Evil", even when given no real proof that was the case. We do see, these beings rescue them when they crash land, playing with children on the beach.
We even hear from this entitiety the whole reason started was because they were scared for their life, paired with images of them being slaughtered by those who first landed here.
I am not saying this makes taking the free will of people away is alright. Forcing a hierarchy chain of humans working specific goals in order to help ensure that they are powerful enough to keep humans from destroying them by enslaving more humans to continue this process. I can say well that was not a great choice and is kinda terrible. But this was life or death for The Great One.
But we also see that there are humans that aren't under The Great One's control, who tried to bring their loved ones to the path of having free will. Those people chose the happiness they found in the life they had been living. We also see that The Great One could have had these other humans under their control to if it had really wanted, but they didn't until threatened with absolute destruction.
Even once The Great One backs off, now locked in a standoff with humanity's creation. Those who crash landed don't accept that these people might miss this happiness, miss the lives they were living that was fulfilling for them. They had that decision made for them by another outside force, in reality subverting their supposedly gained free will.
The last pages left me feeling like I was seeing something akin to the Spanish Inquisition and the Native American Boarding Schools. Where outsiders seemed to think they knew better. Which is in reality beginning to end the narrative that this book tells.
Below this is Spoilers:
Let's start with the attitudes to the people.
These people crash land on a planet, and judge these people as savages, at no point showing respect for these people or the lives they live. Instead they say things like they will teach them to live with dignity, and judge their practices. Even when they find people who aren't 'worshipping' The Great One. It still didn't feel like they treated these people as equals.
Then there is The Great One a sapient being who lived on this planet long before humans ever existed here. And has been threatened at every turn by humans. Causing it to take drastic measures to try and ensure their safety. To only once again be threatened with destruction by humanity and humanity adjacent.
While the core of this book COULD have been about whether taking away one person's free will, to ensure your survival is moral. Instead The Great One is considered "Evil", even when given no real proof that was the case. We do see, these beings rescue them when they crash land, playing with children on the beach.
We even hear from this entitiety the whole reason started was because they were scared for their life, paired with images of them being slaughtered by those who first landed here.
I am not saying this makes taking the free will of people away is alright. Forcing a hierarchy chain of humans working specific goals in order to help ensure that they are powerful enough to keep humans from destroying them by enslaving more humans to continue this process. I can say well that was not a great choice and is kinda terrible. But this was life or death for The Great One.
But we also see that there are humans that aren't under The Great One's control, who tried to bring their loved ones to the path of having free will. Those people chose the happiness they found in the life they had been living. We also see that The Great One could have had these other humans under their control to if it had really wanted, but they didn't until threatened with absolute destruction.
Even once The Great One backs off, now locked in a standoff with humanity's creation. Those who crash landed don't accept that these people might miss this happiness, miss the lives they were living that was fulfilling for them. They had that decision made for them by another outside force, in reality subverting their supposedly gained free will.
The last pages left me feeling like I was seeing something akin to the Spanish Inquisition and the Native American Boarding Schools. Where outsiders seemed to think they knew better. Which is in reality beginning to end the narrative that this book tells.
ellelainey's review against another edition
4.0
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Inhuman, by Denis Bajram, Valerie Mangin, Rochebrune
★★★★☆
94 Pages
Content Warning: mentions of cannibalism, violence, mind control, cult behaviour
This was an interesting and original take on the “stranded on an island” concept. With a Sci-Fi twist that left a shuttle crash-landing on a planet they'd been sent for an exploration mission, a psychological horror story begins.
The characters were interesting, though some didn't last long enough to see much of them. It was clever to make the main character the robot, Ellis. She allows us to get an unbiased (by human concepts) opinion and view of the experiences on the crash site. She wasn't tainted by the events or human constraints, meaning we could explore without an emotional attachment.
The plot was nicely explored and paced, with a lot of world-building put into it. The gradual exploration of this new world, through its inhabitants, was clever and interesting.
However, while the story has a philosophical question at it's heart – can humans co-exist without introducing hierarchy, power-dynamics or violence to a peaceful world? – I had unanswered questions. Ellis implied the crew were acting weird before they crashed. Does that mean they were drawn to the planet, and made to crash? The ending was also a bit unsatisfying, because it felt like they'd just hit the reset button, despite the ritual cannibalism and cult behaviour being addressed.
The art was gritty and had a great Sci-fi feel, but the font was incredibly small. It was almost impossible to read, in the normal format. I had to enlarge each page and read some pages sideways (landscape, not portrait) which needed a lot of fiddling around with scrolling to the bottom and back up again, to read the page-long panels on some pages. It wasn't ideal.
Still, despite the problems, I generally enjoyed the story. It was the kind of ambiguous-morality, philosophical story that I wanted Cullen Bunn's Rogue Planet to be. Where that failed to fit a suitable plot to the storyline, this one managed well. The story was original, clever and well explored, despite the few niggling questions I was left with, and the artwork was not only suited to the story, but also clear and detailed.
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Inhuman, by Denis Bajram, Valerie Mangin, Rochebrune
★★★★☆
94 Pages
Content Warning: mentions of cannibalism, violence, mind control, cult behaviour
This was an interesting and original take on the “stranded on an island” concept. With a Sci-Fi twist that left a shuttle crash-landing on a planet they'd been sent for an exploration mission, a psychological horror story begins.
The characters were interesting, though some didn't last long enough to see much of them. It was clever to make the main character the robot, Ellis. She allows us to get an unbiased (by human concepts) opinion and view of the experiences on the crash site. She wasn't tainted by the events or human constraints, meaning we could explore without an emotional attachment.
The plot was nicely explored and paced, with a lot of world-building put into it. The gradual exploration of this new world, through its inhabitants, was clever and interesting.
However, while the story has a philosophical question at it's heart – can humans co-exist without introducing hierarchy, power-dynamics or violence to a peaceful world? – I had unanswered questions. Ellis implied the crew were acting weird before they crashed. Does that mean they were drawn to the planet, and made to crash? The ending was also a bit unsatisfying, because it felt like they'd just hit the reset button, despite the ritual cannibalism and cult behaviour being addressed.
The art was gritty and had a great Sci-fi feel, but the font was incredibly small. It was almost impossible to read, in the normal format. I had to enlarge each page and read some pages sideways (landscape, not portrait) which needed a lot of fiddling around with scrolling to the bottom and back up again, to read the page-long panels on some pages. It wasn't ideal.
Still, despite the problems, I generally enjoyed the story. It was the kind of ambiguous-morality, philosophical story that I wanted Cullen Bunn's Rogue Planet to be. Where that failed to fit a suitable plot to the storyline, this one managed well. The story was original, clever and well explored, despite the few niggling questions I was left with, and the artwork was not only suited to the story, but also clear and detailed.
juannaranjo's review against another edition
Este cómic tiene un contenido visual bastante llamativo y una historia con sus altos y sus bajos. Puede gustar mucho a los amantes de las exploraciones galácticas, los de la ciencia ficción clásica y los de las novelas de aventuras de toda la vida. Cuenta la historia de una tripulación cuya nave cae en un planeta desconocido y tiene que interactuar con los habitantes nativos de esa sociedad: unos humanos primitivos organizados a través de unos ritos muy peculiares que pondrán en peligro constante a los protagonistas de la historia.
eliebooks's review against another edition
3.0
Thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review :)
A small exploratory vessel crashes onto an unknown ocean planet after its crew is seized by some sort of madness, which raises a lot of questions. After some of them survive the crash (saved by giant squid-like creatures) they are greeted by primitive humans. The mystery regarding these primitive humans, the madness and the planet kept me so curious and keen to find out more. I finished it in one sitting and I really liked the idea, so good. Just made me want to read more science-fiction.
The characters were not the main focus and I really wish there was more about each member of the crew. I think it would have been more emotional and impactful if I was more attached to them, in general. Due to this, the ending was a little bit strange for me - didn't expect it and not sure if I liked it in some way.
The art was not my favourite. The environment looks absolutely great, but the humans... I am not a fan on how humans were drawn and I think it influenced me in appreciating some scenes.
All in all, I think it is a great story that keeps you curious and it's easy to read. If you are a science-fiction fan, give it a try :)
A small exploratory vessel crashes onto an unknown ocean planet after its crew is seized by some sort of madness, which raises a lot of questions. After some of them survive the crash (saved by giant squid-like creatures) they are greeted by primitive humans. The mystery regarding these primitive humans, the madness and the planet kept me so curious and keen to find out more. I finished it in one sitting and I really liked the idea, so good. Just made me want to read more science-fiction.
The characters were not the main focus and I really wish there was more about each member of the crew. I think it would have been more emotional and impactful if I was more attached to them, in general. Due to this, the ending was a little bit strange for me - didn't expect it and not sure if I liked it in some way.
The art was not my favourite. The environment looks absolutely great, but the humans... I am not a fan on how humans were drawn and I think it influenced me in appreciating some scenes.
All in all, I think it is a great story that keeps you curious and it's easy to read. If you are a science-fiction fan, give it a try :)
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