'Celebrated author Zep (A Story of Men, A Strange and Beautiful Sound) weaves a mystery borne from humanity's addiction to convenience and technology, and the dangers such addiction can propose. This gorgeously illustrated, poignant sci-fi tale aims a spotlight on current social trends such as over-consumption, climate change, identity theft, and transhumanism. Painted in detailed watercolors by Dominique Bertail, this book evokes the classic science fiction styles of Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Enki Bilal, and Jean-Claude Mézières.'
Paris 2119 transports readers to the future, a world where technology has provided people with everything they could ever need, instant entertainment, security, and easy travel. Despite this world of wonders Tristan pines for the days of old, and forgoes as much of technology that he can, particularly the new travel pods from the Transcore corporation that allow people to teleport from one location on the planet to another in the blink of an eye, instead, he prefers to walk through the streets of Paris and take the old, battered metro system.
Whilst travelling on the metro Tristan comes across a strange woman who seems to be in a daze, walking around in a trance, barely able to talk. He doesn't think anything of it until he ends up meeting this woman again, as his new boss. However, the woman seems fine now and has no memory of their first meeting. When Tristan sees her on the street acting strange again he follows her, only to see her killed by employees of Transcore. When she turns up alive and well Tristan finds himself wanting to get to the bottom of things, and soon stumbles across a conspiracy beyond anything that he could have imagined.
One of the things that immediately jumps out at you about Paris 2119 is how good the book looks. The artwork has been supplied by Dominique Bertail, and it looks stunning. The watercolour artwork is something that you don't often see in comics, and with the very fine line work that does with it, it gives the book an almost delicate and ethereal look at times. This style of art, coupled with some of the designs for the future architecture and art that fills the streets of Paris makes for some stand out visuals, and locations that reminds me of films like Blade Runner.
The central mystery of the book is one that I saw coming before Tristan, and is one that has been done before in science fiction, particularly in any story that involves teleportation, but it was still entertaining to watch him try and figure things out, and the journey he had to take to do so; especially when he pops across the channel to visit London, which is very different visually from Paris.
Paris 2119 might not be the most original book in terms of story, but thanks to likeable characters, some great designs and a visual style that feels unique, it end up being a book that really impressed me and that I found myself wanting more of by the time it came to an end.
No comments:
Post a Comment