REVIEW: Sentient (graphic novel) written by Jeff Lemire, art by Gabriel Walta

Sentient is a one-shot sci-fi graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Earth only has about 10 habitable years left. The USS Montgomery is part of an effort to keep humanity going with far-flung colonies on other planets. It's a booster ship intended to add to the population of a colony that's already been established - it's full of families composed of skilled adults with young children.

The colony they're heading towards is threatened by separatists who believe that Earth governments will only repeat the same mistakes elsewhere. Also, what the crew doesn't realize until too late is that one of their own is a separatist. Valarie, the ship's AI, does her best to follow orders and protect the children. Unfortunately, she's too late to save any of the adults. Somehow, she has to train the children, the oldest of whom is only 10, to run and maintain the parts of the ship that she can't.

She does her best, but they're all still kids, and there are dangers to come that she can't predict.

I'm always drawn to sentient AI stories, although it's sometimes hard to tell whether I'll get the usual "evil AI" story or something more complex. Although Val does kill several humans in the course of this story, she's firmly in the "trying her best on behalf of her crew" side of things. She's asked to do things she would normally never do and wasn't prepared for. I really felt for her as she tried to deal with the aftermath of the separatist attack, reassure the children, and simultaneously figure out how to parent them and train them to do the things her adult crew members normally would have done.

The ending feels hopeful, although it's hard to imagine how that could be the case in the wider scheme of things. Earth and humanity are not in a good place, here.

The artwork is darker and muddier than I generally like, but it worked for this. Overall, my sci-fi AI-loving heart enjoyed this.

Extras:

A few pages of cover art.