A curious and peculiar collection of interconnected, character-driven sci-fi stories all set in the far future.
- A Star Called the Sun
- Image Comics
- Written & Illustrated by Simon Roy
- Colors by Sergei Nazarov & Drew Shields
- ISBN 9781534333246
- Lunar Code 1225IM0458
- Scheduled Release 02/11/2026
Robotic clergy, posthuman hive-men, immortal cyborgs and ancient alien races all play a part in this collection of sci-fi adventure tales set in the universe of HABITAT and GRIZ GROBUS.
This anthology collects “Hale-Bopp,” “The Oxpecker and the Elephant,” “Pride of the Central Republic,” “A Portrait of The Artist As Hive Parasite,” “The Ansible,” “The Anchoress,” and finally, “Vanguard”.
Peculiar…
Friendly…
Deep…
All words that came to mind while I was reading A Star Called the Sun, written & illustrated by Simon Roy. There were other words, some of them a lot less eloquent than others (“holy s**t” worked its way in there once or twice), and others were more grunts of disbelief than anything coherent. But from the introduction given by Simon himself, written into his crazy sci-fi universe as an amiable guide to greet the reader as a welcome guest, I thought there was something very cool going on here.
Simon’s vision is a far-reaching tour that avoids the tropes of intergalactic war and intrigue in favor of far more personal stops. The links between the stories are subtle, exploring both the human and inhuman condition with an eye toward the hopeful… even when something horrifying is going on. From the entirely alien opener, Hale-Bopp, through the twists and spins of stories like The Oxpecker and the Elephant and A Portrait of the Artist as Hive Parasite, and marginally more standard tales like Pride of the Central Republic, there’s a unifying sense of insight lightened with warmth and humor.
Adding depth and substance to his words, Simon’s illustrations are just a little bit boggling. He’s casually creating a complete, lived in universe set in the far-future, and every page is dripping in the details. There are things included in the backgrounds that are just there because they belong, naturally, not because they directly contribute to the story. That’s an attention to detail worth the cover price of this book, without taking into consideration anything else it has going for it. As a bonus, there are pages filled with extras, info on the various species, mecha, and flora featured throughout the book. All of it is evidence that Simon Roy doesn’t sleep… he creates whole realities.
A Star Called the Sun is gift-wrapped in a welcome sense of warmth and hope for the future, with a hint of the darkness we tend to carry with us wherever we go included as warning. Coming in at a whopping 184 pages, there is more to discover than I can include without dedicating more time than my family might appreciate. For the reader who appreciates the speculation in speculative fiction, who watches Star Trek for the exploration of strange new worlds, I’d have trouble recommending anything better.
Final Score: 13/13
(That’s a recommendation…)
