Mazda Hun is a soldier caught in a web of political and military struggles beyond his comprehension. Captured by the government, they sentence him to Lethe. Society doesn't believe in the death penalty anymore. They've modernized the paradigm of punishment.
Lethe has many names: mercy, treatment, repair, reformation and rehabilitation. Some even call it justice. The Lethe procedure inflicts no pain and is over quickly, but its victims consider it a fate worse than death.
Lethe is the execution of a person's soul. They make room for a new personality that will remember nothing of the old. Those who undergo the process don't seem quite human ever again. And Mazda Hun's time is running out fast.
In an attempt to save humanity, a dying Earth sends out shuttles with a human genome project on board. The ships are designed to land on different planets and birth humankind again. In Universe year 987, two factions of these projects are engaged in war. For those caught alive, the punishment is not death but a process called Lethe-the subject will forget all his memories, his personality, and his loyalties to live a new life. Mazda Hun is a soldier facing Lethe and pondering the mercy of this fate; he recalls his life in bits and pieces, focusing on a mysterious woman who may or may not have betrayed him. Though memories are not always pleasant, Hun decides they are better than nothing and begs for death. The frailty and subjectivity of memory is exposed in lush watercolor, and the artwork alone is worth purchasing a copy-the watercolor adds a sense of madness and vibrancy: it is Hun's stream of consciousness poured out on the page. Libraries looking to add some good manhwa can satisfy their older teens and adults with this highly stylized sf story.
-Sadie Mattox, DeKalb Cty. P.L., Decatur, GA
For Library Journal
- Total 4
reviews Avg. rating
(8.0)
Existential
kjmathew
01/29/09 18:14
This is only my second net comic i've read, and I'm still getting used to manga/manhwa, even though the artistic style of anime is familiar to me. I enjoyed the watercolor look. The style would alternate between harsh details and soft with everything a little out of focus. I'd describe it as occasional vignette illustration, which worked to complement the Lethe idea of forgetting about death/life and blurring memory. In this regard, the comic seems to be probing existential questions of identity and sense of self. How much of a role does memory really play in constituting who we are? And if one is simply a statistic, an engineered human with a standardized genome, how much individuality does one really have? Is it the "lower-class" humans who have a flawed genome, thereby giving them genetic deviance and uniqueness, that are the ones who are actually more individual than the rest? These are the kind of existential questions that the comic boldly asks. Note: I've only read the first two chapters.
Ya this seems very much like the comics my brother used to read....not really like the manga style I've gotten addicted too.....the art is good by someone who can really draw...looks very traditional.
The art for this title is beautifully colored and interesting in its repitition and gestured, morphing lines. I suggest buying the chapters just to check out a new, thoughtful drawing style. The story, however, is a little sparse and hard to follow... I think the idea may be that it follows the artistic theme: stylized, gestured and chaotic. Check it out, dude.
I really liked the color. it's not often you see that. And I liked the drawing style. It reminds me of older comics with a little bit of edge to it. The story... i can't really say, as much information was ...it it still seemed kinda vague ?_? In that respect it reminded me of 'Blame'. I wonder, am I supposed to write detailed reviews like this... i feel silly for some reason!
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