Author: Sarah Vaughn
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: WORTHY!
Illustration and some writing: Jonathan Luna
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
This is a remarkable graphic novel which follows a path which is not new (it has some elements of the movie Bicentennial Man in it), but which hasn't been explored, to my knowledge, in quite this way before. The writing was sparse and interesting, and the graphics were clean and simple without being brain-dead. For some reason I kept thinking of Sim-life while I was reading this; I'm not sure why because the two aren't really alike. I guess the one was reminiscent of the other in some way in my weird brain!
I loved the start of this where the humdrum life of Alex is depicted in a series of frames as he tells his house to get him set up for the day, one word at a time. Alex has nothing to look forward to, and seems oblivious to the attentions of other humans in his life. The most "exciting" thing in it is a news item which catches his attention whereby we learn of the demise of the Nexaware corporation after an AI attack resulting in 34 deaths. No one knows how it happened or why (although I have some solid suspicions on that score!), but from that point on, legislation was enacted to prevent AI's going beyond the simplest of stages. I loved the newscaster's comment: "Your thoughts - literally - when we return."
On Alex's birthday, he gets a call from his grandmother. She's freaking hilarious and shameless, going on about her, um, personal android.... Contrary to his grandmother's attitude, Alex seems oblivious to, if not shy of attention from the opposite gender. At this own birthday party, he completely fails to register the interest of a woman he's known for some time.
He even gets bored with his own party and leaves early with a trumped-up excuse, but when he arrives home he discovers that his grandmother has bought him an unexpected present - an android - and a top of the line model, at that. Since it's female, it ought to be a gynoid, and I am a bit disappointed that a female writer didn't at least work that into the conversation. but you know how this works, right, in a male-centric world?
The transition from page 57 to 58 was weird for me. The two pages are laid out in exactly the same way; obviously there are different images in each frame, but the images all show people sitting on two facing couches, so it looked animated when I clicked the next page - like the people were moving. You don't get that with a print comic! It was reminiscent of one of those books where you flip the pages rapidly, and the static images on the bottom corners appear to move.
But I digress! This novel explores a question which we, as a race, are actually going to have to explore for real before so very long, as machines become ever more intelligent: at what point does something deserve to be treated as human?
Indeed, the issue is already upon us in a variety of ways as we realize that existing organisms in the natural world have intelligence, often at a level beyond that which we've typically been willing to credit them. Animals such a the great apes, sea-born mammals such as the cetaceans, as well as canines and even some birds. Do we extend protections to them, and if so, when and how much? And if we're going to do that, how will this reflect upon current policy relating to human fetuses? From all of this bloom questions bristling with thorns, and offering no easy fruit for the picking.
Alec's initial reaction to his android is to send the XS (a designation chosen advisedly?!) back to the supplier, but in the end, he cannot. She already seems too human to him even with her limited programming. Alex cannot let this go and after an hilarious evening when he finally introduces "Ada" (nice choice of name) to his friends, he starts to explore online forums where he eventually meets with someone who reveals to him an interesting secret about his android - a secret, I think, that is only the start of the changes that are to come.
I hated the ending as much as I adored it. It spoke as portentously as it did heart-warmingly of a newly-dawning day, but at the same time, it stopped the story right there and left me wanting to read more (which is coming - at least I hope it is, otherwise there will be riots - if one guy can riot). It can't get here soon enough for me. I loved this story, and loved that it's being told (largely) by a female writer, a gender which is sadly under-represented in graphic novels.
