Millennia ago, mankind fled the earth's surface into the bottomless depths of the darkest oceans. Shielded from a merciless sun's scorching radiation, the human race tired to stave off certain extinction by sending robotic probes far into the galaxy to search for a new home among the stars. Generations later, one family is about to be torn apart in a conflict that will usher in the final race to save humanity from a world beyond hope.
I really wanted to like this graphic novel more than I did. The artwork grew on me but to begin with it felt a bit too all over the place for me, and it was a job to keep up with the action at times. I was expecting to see more of the "water world" as I was drawn to the cover of the novel in the first place.
In the beginning of the novel I appreciated that RR discusses his pessimism and how therapy helped him become more "hopeful" which this books message is all about, and I felt a great connection with him in terms of the future of humanity and that without hope the world is set for downfall.
This graphic novel isn't bad, but for a story that's meant to centre around positive thinking and hope it was lacking any kind of humour. A book on optimism needs that humour, even though it is set in a pessimistic world of finding land "above the surface" in hope of the survival of humanity- finding the funny side of something dark can bring a lot to a story and that's what I feel was missing from this graphic novel.
As the world beneath the seas begins to run out of resources, we're hoping that our hero Stel will find land that promises a better life for herself and her children. However, with an overlord controlling the people her being able to even come close to this seems impossible until 10 years later a probe comes back with hope of a second chance for humanity..but the doom and gloom preceeds to wipe that hope from my mind into desperation instead.
I enjoyed Stel's character and I think she'll turn out to be a great heroine in this series, with her losing her husband and her children being taken away everything was turned on its head. She's gutsy, hopeful and a woman to look up to but she needed to be a bit more "badass" for me to like her more.
That being said I'm not going to give up on this series just yet, and I still have the hope that this series will turn around as everything the story focuses on is what I'm interested in. Having studied possible outcomes for the human race in my studies and personal reading I'm wanting to enjoy the next volume...
If you like sci-fi dystopian novels then this novel will capture you imagination too.
