This sector is home to the City Enduring, a metropolis of twenty billion citizens, which had just had its first murder in five centuries.
And my murderer? Just got murdered.
Keep reading for a review of Far Sector #2.
Some small spoilers below, if you haven’t read the issue yet you should probably shelve this review until you do.
I love what N.K. Jemisen is doing with the story. The setting is fascinating; three very distinct races that have only been able to live together so long because of the Emotion Exploit, which keeps them from feeling any emotions, and is now a genetic trait in the keh-Topli and the Nah (they conspicuously did not mention the @At, I’m guessing because genetics in a digital race is tricky. And will probably be important later.)
Everything’s going pretty well until some people started taking Switchoff, a drug that cancels out the Emotion Exploit, lets them experience emotions. “Drowning in feelings” is how they describe Switchoff tweakers, and now it’s being blamed for two murders.
Dropped into the middle of all that is Jo Mullein, one of the newest Lanterns, and she has to solve a murder while simultaneously being the one person in the whole City who’s actually supposed to have emotions.
I’m having a great time getting to know Jo. She’s funny and smart and a bit of a badass but still endearingly human. (I’m not familiar with her backstory, but a Lantern who’s afraid of heights is an interesting twist.)
She wants to point out that feelings don’t necessarily make you evil or crazy, but as much as she’s creeped out by the emotionlessness (supposed emotionlessness) of the people around her, she can’t forget they’re just as creeped out by the fact that she has emotions. And can control them. Supposedly.
It certainly makes her life interesting, especially since she’s already tried to have a fling with someone in the Enduring City and it didn’t work out but everything’s totally okay and it’s not awkward at all except when it is.
But the City Enduring itself is also endlessly fascinating. We’re always getting new bits of information, like the reasons why the keh-Topli feed on people. Specifically people. (If I understand right, it doesn’t work the same way if the prey isn’t sentient.)
It was difficult to remember that these creatures, so bold and bright, were not for eating.
Or we hear annoyed comments on futuristic police work (“Sometimes it doesn’t matter how advanced the technology is. Bad camera angles are still bad camera angles.”) or we see Jo’s frustration when the dialog goes wonky because her translator can’t always handle a funny dialect.
And the tiny little description we got of the City Ships of the Nah, with names like The Wavering Dark, The Streaking Ice, the Sentinel of Quiet…it just makes me want a whole book about this race of winged space pirates, holy cow.
And I swear, I am so in love with Jamal Campbell’s art.
I love the dramatic parts like Jo’s breakneck charge through the city, throwing out giant Lantern hands to frantically scoop bystanders out of the way as the tries to catch the suspect.
But I also like the quiet parts; Jo’s wistful expression when she talks about coffee with Syzn, or her face when Councilor Thorn leaves after telling her she smells delicious, the transparency of her visor and the points of lights in her eyes. I use this word too much, but it’s lovely. If you haven’t checked it out, you really should.
