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Friday, June 27, 2014

Prophet: Remission





Prophet. There are many things that come to mind when you just see the word prophet. Mostly they revolve around some form of enlightenment. Prophet: Remission which is a graphic novel by  Simon Roy (Author), Farel Dalrymple (Author), Giannis Milogiannis (Author), Brandon Graham (Author, Illustrator) took me a while to figure out what to say about this graphic novel and parts of me are still trying to wrap my head around it. I haven't gotten to the part where the enlightenment happens, mostly because I am not sure if I know what is really going on in this graphic novel.  It is a hard science story that makes no apologies if you can't keep up.

Hard Science Fiction  and Soft Science Fiction as defined by Wikipedia: Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. Soft science fiction is a category oscience fiction that either (1) is based on and explores the "soft" sciences, and especially the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, and so on), rather than engineering or the "hard" sciences (for example, physics, astronomy, or chemistry), or (2) is not scientifically accurate, or (3) both of the latter. Soft science fiction of either type is often more concerned with character and speculative societies, rather than scientific or engineering speculations.

 In the story you are following John Prophet. He is a representation of humanity and his mission is to restart the Earth Empire. You start each chapter following John on his quest and realize that the world is full creatures that resemble evolved ants and there isn't really any other humanoid looking creatures to be found.  It makes the reader wonder how are they going to restart the Earth Empire without any Earthlings, or are the Earthlings in a cryogenic sleep just as John was at the beginning of the story. The further you go on in the story, it becomes blatantly clear that the the John Prophet you are following is a clone and there  multiple John Prophets out there, and that there is something much bigger going on.  At the end of the graphic novel the original John Prophet returns and slays his clones. 

There is a clear focus in what is going on instead of a focus on the characters relationships with other characters.  That aspect of this makes it a very interesting read, but also a challenging read, because you don't know what you should really feel for the characters. It isn't going to hold your hand and tell you to feel sorry for them because they had a crummy childhood in a cloning tube. It focuses on the mission and what they are doing, not why they are doing it as much. The way that it is written and drawn makes you almost feel like you are the god watching this play out.  The art is striking and the writing keeps a person turning the page to try and figure out what is going to happen next. If I were to compare this to anything, it would be just like watching Aeon Flux for the first time. You don't always understand it right away, but you can recognize that it is good.

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