Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:James Farr / Alfa Robbi / Papillon Studio
Translated by:N/A
Adapted by:N/A
What They Say
Twenty minutes from now, visitors from a far-off world will fall into Earth's orbit and issue a most unexpected request... These "Emissaries" invite a single human being to be selected as a representative for all of Earth in an intergalactic parliament. Mankind is given five years in which to prepare this volunteer for the rigors of space travel and the intricacies of alien diplomacy. Scientist Dr. Richard Wymond devises the ZETTA seruma nano-biological cocktail that will augment its recipient with nearly superhuman abilities. But when Wymond's daughter Evie is mortally injured in a freak accident, he makes a fateful decision, and rather than let her die, injects Evie with the ZETTA serum. Now the fate of the world rests upon the shoulders of one 17-year-old girl. How will Evie cope with this awesome responsibility? Will she survive the strange political intrigues of the parliament? And more importantly, are the Emissaries' intentions as honorable as they have led us to believe...?
The Review
Aliens arriving on planet Earth are nothing new in Sci-fi, but no concept is so hackneyed that a clever writer can't put a fresh spin on it. And eV is blessed with a very clever writer. The fresh spin on the aliens is only the tip of the iceberg. You see, the aliens aren't after conquest or war - they just want the earth to select a delegate to send to a kind of intergalactic parliament. The explanation of what the aliens are up to, how the news is received, and the selection and preparation of the candidate, all require a fair bit of exposition, but Mr. Farr is up to the task. In his hands even spade-work can be entertaining. Indeed, some of his explanations are as amusing as parts of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though not in the same mind-bendingly absurd way. The developments are logical enough given the premise of the story - no small feat, considering how far-fetched that is.
But, as I said, all this is the tip of the iceberg. Once our heroine is thrust into the role of planetary representative and outfitted with a kind of exo-armour the read fun can begin. Not that the exposition is over, of course: there's still the whole intergalactic situation to be laid out. But the book is so tautly paced and engagingly written that it still keeps you hooked. I was positively dumbfounded when I looked back over the book to find that more than half of it is setup. Would that more set-up were as good as this. With dialogue and ideas like these, the whole book could be explanitory and I wouldn't care.
As to what the second half is...well, you'd be better off discovering that on your own. I'll just say that first volumes don't get much more epic than this - or stand on their own much better. If I hadn't seen the page promising a volume two I would have thought this was a stand-alone piece. After that ending I'm not even sure where it can go. But I have no doubt it can find a way if it wants to.
This book has a nice selection of extras: 4 colour pages in the front, and in the back, a schematic of Evie's body armour and a generous selection of character and species profiles.
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