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A review by zare_i
MADI: Once Upon a Time in the Future by Duncan Jones
5.0
This was a truly remarkable book, quite a discovery for me. I came across it while searching for some SF cyberpunkish novels and comics and after I saw gorgeous cover decision was made - lets see how good this is.
And man was it good! It was extraordinary.
So in order of things .... Story.... I saw a lots of comments saying story is already seen multiple times. I agree, it is, for pure reason it is story old as time - hubris brings our hero down and hero finds the way back through self-sacrifice and helping people around, goes through cathartic experience to finally come victorious against all odds.
Above is corner stone of every adventure story (including almost every hard-boiled detective novel). And lets be honest these types of stories provide, together with action and adventure, insight into society and internal dynamics (mercs, corporations, ordinary people etc) but if you read these types of books to gain knowledge about world around you ..... you are reading wrong literature.
So to say story is already seen is like saying - after reading Bible no other book offers anything new.
The way world of this novel is presented is truly magnificent - we are given view of the dystopian future where corporations control parts of the world (literally, not unlike crime gangs of today), charge people from other corporations daily fee for walking their streets, everyone from simple accountant and janitor to professional security forces are expected to live and die for their corporation (echoes of Morgan's "Market Forces" are strong here). Everything is shiny but people are kept in debt slavery because their augmentations require maintenance and money. When augmented mercs collide it is truly a slugfest, you can see how difficult it is to kill these cyborgs. Final showdown just screams "film me".
Technical parts of the story are so natural - you do not see cables or android like bodies that split up like in Total Recall. People look normal but beneath their skin mechanisms of enormous power are poised to strike out. Entire look and feel is combination of Robert Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series (with a bit of Thin Air in it) meshed with Nagata's Red trilogy and [of course] Gibson's Neuromancer. City is flashy and seductive (imagine Night City in all its splendor) but all this glitz only hides truly terrible and dystopian world, ruled by ruthless corporate managers, world where human life is not worth anything, there is no privacy and everyone is tracked, marked and charged. Hits a little bit to close to heart these days.
Art is mixed bag in a positive way. There is like 20 artists working on this story and as story progresses art styles switch. Now some of art styles are little bit tough on eyes imho but majority is great. From panoramas to interiors, level of details is breathtaking - there is always something going on (i.e. Arizona casino, those panels are truly overflowing with crowds, agents running through and drones searching for our protagonists in this sea of people). Entire look and feel is cinematic (why is that became clear to me after I heard this was supposed to be third movie in the series but decision was to create graphic novel instead of [I guess very] expensive production). Art style reminds me very much of Blade Runner 2029 series, just wonderful.
And the ending was hillarious - our heroes seek shelter from dystopian world by going to Canada. This had me laughing so hard I fell to the floor. They might as well decide to go to Australia
And man was it good! It was extraordinary.
So in order of things .... Story.... I saw a lots of comments saying story is already seen multiple times. I agree, it is, for pure reason it is story old as time - hubris brings our hero down and hero finds the way back through self-sacrifice and helping people around, goes through cathartic experience to finally come victorious against all odds.
Above is corner stone of every adventure story (including almost every hard-boiled detective novel). And lets be honest these types of stories provide, together with action and adventure, insight into society and internal dynamics (mercs, corporations, ordinary people etc) but if you read these types of books to gain knowledge about world around you ..... you are reading wrong literature.
So to say story is already seen is like saying - after reading Bible no other book offers anything new.
The way world of this novel is presented is truly magnificent - we are given view of the dystopian future where corporations control parts of the world (literally, not unlike crime gangs of today), charge people from other corporations daily fee for walking their streets, everyone from simple accountant and janitor to professional security forces are expected to live and die for their corporation (echoes of Morgan's "Market Forces" are strong here). Everything is shiny but people are kept in debt slavery because their augmentations require maintenance and money. When augmented mercs collide it is truly a slugfest, you can see how difficult it is to kill these cyborgs. Final showdown just screams "film me".
Technical parts of the story are so natural - you do not see cables or android like bodies that split up like in Total Recall. People look normal but beneath their skin mechanisms of enormous power are poised to strike out. Entire look and feel is combination of Robert Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series (with a bit of Thin Air in it) meshed with Nagata's Red trilogy and [of course] Gibson's Neuromancer. City is flashy and seductive (imagine Night City in all its splendor) but all this glitz only hides truly terrible and dystopian world, ruled by ruthless corporate managers, world where human life is not worth anything, there is no privacy and everyone is tracked, marked and charged. Hits a little bit to close to heart these days.
Art is mixed bag in a positive way. There is like 20 artists working on this story and as story progresses art styles switch. Now some of art styles are little bit tough on eyes imho but majority is great. From panoramas to interiors, level of details is breathtaking - there is always something going on (i.e. Arizona casino, those panels are truly overflowing with crowds, agents running through and drones searching for our protagonists in this sea of people). Entire look and feel is cinematic (why is that became clear to me after I heard this was supposed to be third movie in the series but decision was to create graphic novel instead of [I guess very] expensive production). Art style reminds me very much of Blade Runner 2029 series, just wonderful.
And the ending was hillarious - our heroes seek shelter from dystopian world by going to Canada. This had me laughing so hard I fell to the floor. They might as well decide to go to Australia