For anyone who enjoys Westerns with a strong science-fiction background, or vice versa, with compelling characters and an intriguing plot, and a lot to say about memory and how someone is remembered, this will be great.
It’s a book full of anxiety, dread, and suspense, but also a thoughtful exploration of war, negotiation, and potential ways of being.
The keen sense of visual design contrasts the childlike aspects of the character art. That’s not due to a lack of skill; this is clearly deliberate. There really is a striking degree of intentionality, here. The level of detail and the superabundance of decoration in the art and the page layouts makes that very clear.
“And it is in the execution of the familiar conception that I think writer/director Louise Sherrill achieves something wonderful and eerie on a microscopic budget.”
The novel is hugely entertaining and compulsively readable, while achieving a great deal of moral depth and nuances in its characters and plot, as well as some fascinating world-building.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this novella is that, like What Moves the Dead, the investigation and subsequent reactions felt very much like an ensemble effort from the characters.
