#RRSciFiMonth: The Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

Sci-Fi November is a month-long blog event hosted by Rinn Reads and Over The Effing Rainbow this year, created to celebrate everything amazing about science fiction! From TV shows to movies, books to comics, and everything else in between, it is intended to help science fiction lovers share their love and passion for this genre and its many, many fandoms.

Descender, Vol. 1: Tin Stars by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

Genre: Science fiction

Publisher: Image Comics (September 2015)

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

A sudden attack by giant robots and their equally sudden disappearances leaves humanity with only one decision: all robots must be destroyed. On a remote mining planet, one robot survives the culling. His name is Tim-21 and he was designed to be a companion for a young boy. As it turns out, Tim is not alone in his robotic status, but more importantly, his programming is very similar to the harvesters that attacked a decade earlier. This makes Dr. Quon, his designer, a very wanted man.

A robot boy who wants to be real. Robot genocide at the hands of humans who fear them. Rebel factions. Bounty hunters. Political intrigue and betrayal. All of these things are fairly common stories in the realm of robot science fiction, but Lemire’s writing and Nguyen’s stark yet powerful art breathe new life into this tale and leave me wanting more as Tim tries to understand who he is and how he fits into the puzzle.

But most of all, Tim just wants to find his family and, though he knows he is a robot, he displays all of the emotional moments needed to endear him to us.

The mystery behind the harvesters looms over the story, but so too does a strange dream that Tim has when he is momentarily deactivated, revealing him to be the potential saviour of all of the robots who have perished before him. But Philip K. Dick has already asked the question of whether or not androids dream, so what is it that Tim truly experienced?