Monday, June 16, 2014

Artifice by Alex Woolfson and Winona Nelson

A gay love story set in a future controlled by a militarized interplanetary corporation - Artifice is a surprising graphic novel by Alex Woolfson and Winona Nelson.

I was delighted by how fresh it feels. The realistic bodies and facial expressions in Nelson's artwork make it easy to stay focused on the story. The android/human romance is sensitively portrayed; complicated characters and naturalistic dialogue give it authenticity, the plot is carefully structured, there's nice tension between the android and his therapist, and the ending leaves plenty of room for speculation.

Readalikes: Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie) and The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi). These science fiction stories aren't in graphic novel format, but they are suspenseful, dark and gritty, plus feature romantic bonds between artificial beings and humans.

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