Aldebaran

I stumbled upon this series by accident and ordered the first volume on a whim. Aldebaran is both written and illustrated by Leo, and is a Franco-Belgian style SF graphic novel collected in three volumes by Cineworld for the English speaking market. It is beautifully drawn and coloured, and the world building is lovely, perhaps the best part of the whole book.

The translation is a little clunky in the first volume (perhaps it's the script?) but gets better as you go on.

Aldebaran is the first extra-solar colony established by humanity but - in a not uncommon SF trope - it has been cut off from Earth for nearly a hundred years. Humanity has thrived on the world, but technology has fallen backward, perhaps towards a more sustainable level similar to the 1950s or 1960s.

The colony has grown, but has slipped towards autocracy with a heavy handed military and religious influenced government. Rights and freedoms are under pressure as the government seeks to maintain control and expand the population. The press is controlled, people can be imprisoned at will and the state dominates. It reminds me of the situations in reality in the cold war.

The story opens with our two initial protagonists, Kim (a 13-year old school kid obsessed with Earth and the possibility of recontact) and Marc (a 17-year old sailor infatuated with Kim's older sister Nelly) when their village suffers a strange catastrophe. They end up travelling towards the Capitol, Anatolia, and become drawn into an adventure which reveals hidden truths about Aldebaran and puts them in a collision course between the government and those that oppose it.

It's a world-building type of science fiction which has a more gentle pace as it covers a span of perhaps four years. It has a more grounded feel than something like Valerian(*). I enjoyed it a lot, and I've ordered the next series - Betelgeuse - because of that.

There is one oddity; Cineworld have edited some of the scenes to remove nudity by drawing underwear in. l'm guessing this is as they're marketing it as young adult (15+) and are concerned about the US market. I only note this because it jars in some places; contextually, it's weird against the story. That said, it doesn't bother me, it's just slightly out of kilter.

Overall, I recommend the series, and hope the next part matches up.

19 March 2022

(*) Valerian is a must-read in graphic novel form and you can see it's influences on Star Wars and others.