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Comics |
Ronin - Ronin is a set of comic books
that has, since it's publication, been collected into a single volume.
The premise is that an ancient lordless samurai ritually slew a demon
in such a way that both their souls were suspended together in time.
Much later, through the wonders of a quasi-nanotech, they are given the
change to play out their epic struggle again.
The style of art used in this work is somewhat atypical of action
comics in general, but personally I found it fascinating. There is at
least one high level AI and some sort of technology apparently
equivalent to decent nanotech, though humans do pervade the story.
Memetics are not heavily involved in the story, nor space travel. The
theme of technology allowing man to attain a mythic or animistic past
is dealt with as well as limited transhuman elements. There is a heavy
thread of the paranormal and supernatural that runs through the story,
although this blurs into Clarketech as the story progresses.
SYNOPSIS: In the early 21st Century, the NASA space shuttle Venture vanishes shortly after reaching orbit. In response, all human spaceflight ends - first as a "temporary" measure, then permanently.
Ten years later, the Venture comes back to Earth, with new engines, a pseudo-organic hull covering, and an insane pilot. A team of specialists now have to figure out what's been done to the Venture, where it's been, and where the crew is...
ORBITER is first of all a beautiful book just to look at. Otherwise static scenes are broken up with single-page splash art of the Venture sailing where no space shuttle has a right to go in the first place. The art is absolutely incredible all the way through.
More OA-germane, the book deals with concepts that we've kicked around in the past, especially in the realm of reactionless drive systems (won't say more, so as to not spoil things!) You could almost describe ORBITER as "What if a high toposophic race - or one with access to high-toposophic toys - took pity on our struggles to reach space, and decided to help us out?"
Very interesting, but a bit of a brief read. If you have unnatural love for NASA, the shuttle, the space program or just need the old senseawunder recharged, ORBITER is recommended.
