Need something new for your reading list? This week, we recommend Cecile Pin’s Celestial Lights and the new Image Comics series, If Destruction Be Our Lot.
Celestial Lights
Henry Holt and Co.
Another melancholic narrative about love, loss and the consequences of human ambition, with space as the backdrop? Oops, I might have a type. Cecile Pin’s Celestial Lights is a short and contemplative novel about Oliver Ines, or Ollie, a man who has always been drawn to the stars and is one day chosen to lead a 10-year mission to one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa. It hops through time, following Ollie’s memories across his life and weaving in logs from the mission.
While space exploration is part of it, this isn’t a book to grab if you’re looking for excitement and adventure. Celestial Lights is, as the blurb explains, “A portrait of a complicated man and a breathtaking tale of memory, personal choices, and the relationships that define us.”
If Destruction Be Our Lot
Image Comics
The first issue of this series came out at the beginning of the month, and oh does it feel like the start of something really, really great. The main character is, absurdly, an Abraham Lincoln robot whose purpose appears to be regurgitating quotes said by the 16th president of the US. He’s one of countless robots still running decades after humans have gone extinct. And, unlike most of the droids around him, he’s pretty caught up on what the meaning of his life is now that his original, human-assigned purpose is moot.
When things go awry during a bus ride one day — the vehicle being Abe’s autonomously driving friend, Bus — his world suddenly seems to expand, for better or worse. I loved the art style and tone, which is kind of darkly funny but also a bit serious. Super promising premiere issue. If Destruction Be Our Lot is by writers Mark Elijah and Matthew Rosenberg and artist Andy MacDonald.