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A review by spaemdmt
Soon - Book 1 by Thomas Cadène, Benjamin Adam
4.0
I received a copy of SOON V1 through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review is based on my opinions and on the version of the SOON V1 received through NetGalley, and does not reflect the opinions of other parties.
**
Sometimes, you just know. You turn the page and you think, yes, I love this. This was my experience with SOON V1: I was intrigued by the cover, I downloaded the copy for review, I got to the first page and knew that I loved this book.
I love how retro and clean and honest the art is. I love the storytelling, I’m fascinated by the dilemma the story presents (and what an absolute kick in the teeth the environmental message is), and the characters are interesting people.
And yet for all of that, I’m not sure I can confidently tell you what SOON V1 is about.
SOON V1 is a heavy read. (Context: my partner thinks I love reading books that make me feel miserable and he's not wrong) The book is set in 2151 and named for the predecessor to a central theme of the story: the launch of SOON 2, a one-way space mission. But SOON V1 isn’t really about that. It’s about Soon’s commander, Simone, and her trip around the world with her son. It’s about her hope for humanity, and her role in inspiring a despairing world. It’s about Yuri’s bitterness and broken relationship with his mother, even as we see flashes of a young Yuri proudly reciting his textbook history knowledge of how humanity destroyed the environment. And it’s Yuri’s coming of age story across their trip together.
It’s a beautiful and ambitious piece, but I found the scale of so much sheer content at once difficult to manage, and I started getting confused by what was happening towards the end of the book. I found the book difficult to re-read in one sitting, and I know I’ll be re-reading it again to try and better understand the message.
The art is beautiful throughout the book. The world is complex and developed, and the relationships in the story come with real problems.
My biggest complaint with SOON V1 is there were some points where Yuri comes across as much more immature than I thought he would be at the start. I assumed Yuri to be a young adult given his profession (and presumably qualifications), but while his naivety comes across clearly, towards the end of the book he crosses the line into behaving like a reckless teenager with little regard to his caretakers: it’s not poor writing, but it was odd and made him much more unlikable and I started to lose interest in his story - I wanted to see more about Simone instead.
SOON V1 is an excellent graphic novel to read if you’re in the mood for something beautiful, serious, complex and confronting. It’s absolutely not something I would recommend if you want some light reading - if so, do yourself a favour and save SOON V1 for a couple of quiet hours to appreciate the story.
**
Sometimes, you just know. You turn the page and you think, yes, I love this. This was my experience with SOON V1: I was intrigued by the cover, I downloaded the copy for review, I got to the first page and knew that I loved this book.
I love how retro and clean and honest the art is. I love the storytelling, I’m fascinated by the dilemma the story presents (and what an absolute kick in the teeth the environmental message is), and the characters are interesting people.
And yet for all of that, I’m not sure I can confidently tell you what SOON V1 is about.
SOON V1 is a heavy read. (Context: my partner thinks I love reading books that make me feel miserable and he's not wrong) The book is set in 2151 and named for the predecessor to a central theme of the story: the launch of SOON 2, a one-way space mission. But SOON V1 isn’t really about that. It’s about Soon’s commander, Simone, and her trip around the world with her son. It’s about her hope for humanity, and her role in inspiring a despairing world. It’s about Yuri’s bitterness and broken relationship with his mother, even as we see flashes of a young Yuri proudly reciting his textbook history knowledge of how humanity destroyed the environment. And it’s Yuri’s coming of age story across their trip together.
It’s a beautiful and ambitious piece, but I found the scale of so much sheer content at once difficult to manage, and I started getting confused by what was happening towards the end of the book. I found the book difficult to re-read in one sitting, and I know I’ll be re-reading it again to try and better understand the message.
The art is beautiful throughout the book. The world is complex and developed, and the relationships in the story come with real problems.
My biggest complaint with SOON V1 is there were some points where Yuri comes across as much more immature than I thought he would be at the start. I assumed Yuri to be a young adult given his profession (and presumably qualifications), but while his naivety comes across clearly, towards the end of the book he crosses the line into behaving like a reckless teenager with little regard to his caretakers: it’s not poor writing, but it was odd and made him much more unlikable and I started to lose interest in his story - I wanted to see more about Simone instead.
SOON V1 is an excellent graphic novel to read if you’re in the mood for something beautiful, serious, complex and confronting. It’s absolutely not something I would recommend if you want some light reading - if so, do yourself a favour and save SOON V1 for a couple of quiet hours to appreciate the story.