By Pellé & Runberg
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849181723
It’s got very political and the heroes of the piece, the Sandjarr Mezoke and the human Caleb, couldn’t be in a worse state.
Following the conclusion of the previous story arc Mezoke finds herself on trial for the results of Kuala Lumpur, despite her heroism, as Ekkhlid, one of the leaders of the Confederation, makes a move to take full advantage of the situation. Meanwhile Caleb is in a very serious state in hospital and lies in a regenerative coma, but this means nothing to Ekkhlid who sees Mezoke and Caleb as means by which to fulfil his own aims and so orders that Caleb be brought out of the coma early to testify in the trial – an act that could cause him permanent if not fatal damage. As the world descends into increasing violence against aliens and now the murders of prominent isolationists it begins to look as if there’s nobody willing or able to turn the tide.
This isn’t however, a long and tedious tale of political shenanigans, although it does drive the story to the point where somebody, somewhere needs to break the stalemate. Fortunately that person is Mezoke.
The world (or should that be worlds) of Orbital feels more fleshed out now as we’re fed more detail about how it all operates. There’s also plenty of opportunity for Pellé to let rip with his artistic skills as he gets to design vehicles and buildings of the future, plus an awful lot of bizarre alien life. He sticks to a wintery, bleak colour palette too that helps with the initial despair felt in the opening pages.
It’s a story told on a grand scale with all the promise and possibilities of a future society laid out before it, so quite where it will go is an intriguing question, but what it could well be is a classic in the making.
And if you liked that: part two will be along soon
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