I’m really enjoying Joe Henderson and Lee Garbett’s Skyward (the second issue just hit stores today), partly because of the art, partly because of the sassy dialogue, but mostly because it’s one of my favorite recipes for sci-fi stories: take a near future setting, add in one great big technological change, and mix with details details details.
Gravity disappeared twenty years ago, and some people are better than others at adapting. Throw in some intrigue, betrayal, and a mouthy kid you can’t help but like, and that’s Skyward.
Willa was just a baby on G-Day (the day when Earth became a low-G world.) Anybody much older than her tends to have a deep-seated fear of the open air, because if you start going in the wrong direction the consequences are not good. (In the second issue we got a quick look at what eventually happens to anything that isn’t tied down.) But Willa loves the freedom of moving in three dimensions, and can’t imagine being stuck on the ground.
But while she’s definitely brave, she’s also a little unsympathetic. Her father never adapted, especially after all they lost on G-Day. She’s supporting him, so she has a lot of the resentment you’d expect of a child who had to grow up too early, who has to basically be the parent to their parent. But there’s also an element of “Dad you have to GET OVER IT” in her attitude, as if overcoming phobia and a massive case of PTSD is just a matter of willpower. (In her defense, it’s been 20 years, and it doesn’t look like he’s tried much therapy.)
Willa’s fearless, but also cocky, and as fun as it is watching her try to bully her way into every tricky situation, I’m sure we’re going to see it backfire soon.
Lee Garbett’s art is fantastic, but I already knew that: the second I saw the preview pages I went “The guy from Lucifer!” (Sorry, Lee, I’m bad with names, but I recognized your art immediately.) His style is perfect for a world of people not restricted by gravity: it’s flowing, dynamic, and exuberant, and he always does a great job with expressions (Willa in particular can go from smug to sulk in a heartbeat.)
But like I said, it’s the details that have me hooked. How would life change on a low-G world? In a way it’s a post-apocalyptic story, because there’s decades old remnants of the old world for kids to puzzle over (explain a street-crossing sign to someone who’s never had to move in two dimensions on the ground.) How do people travel now? What kind of jobs do they have? What’s the fashion like? (Dresses would be tricky in low-G.) And we’ve already had a couple stories about where people were on G-Day: It’s one thing if it happened and you were inside, but what about anybody who was in, say, the Great Plains, and standing up too fast could literally send you into orbit?
In the second issue we got a look at neighborhood called The Streets, which if you think about it is a weird name: in a society that’s adapted to weightlessness why would you name a place after ground-based pathways? The answer is: it’s for the people who haven’t adapted at all.
I’m curious about how closely Henderson’s researched the science behind everything. I keep saying “the day gravity disappeared” but it’s not completely weightless (I’m assuming everyone would float out of orbit if that was the case, but people tend to float in place if they’ve stopped their momentum.) How much gravity would keep the atmosphere in place? (Nobody’s wearing a breathing apparatus.) We haven’t seen an open body of water yet, but I don’t see signs of water restriction, is there still rain and reservoirs?
Speaking of water, I get nervous when I see globs of water floating there, I’ve heard if you accidentally inhale liquid in zero-g the water lines the inside of your lungs (but it’s not a good thing to inhale liquid in regular gravity, so I’m sure people can just be careful.) Her father exercises with resistance bands, is muscle tone a problem in low-G? Are people getting taller like they are in Larry Niven’s Integral Trees? (Though it’s only been 20 years so we may have to wait a little longer to see that kind of change.)
Would any other science nerds like to weigh in (har) on the science of a low-G world?
As much as I love the details, it’s definitely the characters that make the book work. Willa’s desperate to see the world outside of Chicago, to the point where she’s blind to the dangers involved: not just in the lack of gravity, but in the people she chooses to trust.
Her father’s at the heart of a conspiracy, and not only has information on how G-Day happened, but on how to reverse it. But after 20 years there’s a lot of people invested in keeping things the way they are.
I’m looking forward to how the story plays out. I think it’d take a lot for Willa to want the world to go back to “normal,” but maybe that whole “you’ve got to have gravity to have an atmosphere” thing will (har again) carry some weight with her.