Book Review: Sentient by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta

Sentient
by Jeff Lemire (writer), Gabriel Walta (art), Steve Wands (letterer) (741.5 Lem)

This was a stunning achievement in graphic novel storytelling. I first saw Sentient on the New Books display at the downtown library, picked it up and flipped quickly through it, and my first impression was that the artwork was too dark and murky, and I probably wasn’t going to like it. I’m glad I still checked it out and gave it my full attention, because it turned out to be one of my favorite reads of 2020!

 

It’s hard to tell you too much in plot points without giving away critical “spoilers”. In a nutshell, this is a science fiction story set aboard a deep-space colonizing vessel that suffers several calamities. With its normal “mission protocols” turned off, the ship’s Artificial Intelligence (Valarie) finds itself having to operate in ways it was never designed to function, in order to keep the humans aboard her alive. This story is a little bit of the dark suspense of “Alien”, a lot of the pulse-pounding action of “Die Hard”, and a heavy dose of “coming of age” storytelling as both Valarie and the young humans aboard her are faced with deadly challenges that make them grow up fast.

 

I loved Sentient. And, although the artwork by Walta is dark and gritty, it fits the story perfectly. I may end up having to buy this one myself. I’m giving it a rating of 9 out of 10, only because I thought the ending was a bit rushed and lacking in the level of details of the rest of the story. That felt like a weak point for me, though other readers may have different takes on that. Still — an excellent graphic novel for science fiction fans and fans of great storytelling.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try William Gibson’s Archangel, the Cemetery Girl trilogy of graphic novels, by Charlaine Harris and various artists, or the Locke & Key series of graphic novels, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.]

[ publisher’s official Sentient web site ] | [ official Jeff Lemire blog ] [ official Gabriel Walta Twitter feed ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!