She is still a program that has built-in rules and logic that guide its actions. But while Valerie is able to extend the limits of her programming somewhat, to take on a more parental role toward the children, she is not a parent. Valerie, meanwhile, tries to shepherd both children toward working together to complete their journey to the Earth colony. Meanwhile, for spoiler-y reasons, the children shun Isaac, until he is finally able to prove himself to them. Quickly, the other children turn to Lil as their leader, a role to which she is not entirely suited.
Lil and Isaac are the oldest children in the group. Which brings us around to discussing the book’s main characters, Lil, Isaac, and Valerie. Instead, the children always look and behave like children, which helps readers connect with them more thoroughly. There are no oddly-proportioned heads or panels in which the children look like mini-adults here. And they want readers to feel that darkness and fragility as they read Sentient.Īnother plus for Walta: he draws children who look like children, which is a surprisingly rare skill for a comic artist. Lemire and Walta both understand their young leads are drifting through the void of space in a small, relatively-fragile metal box. Particularly, Walta’s liberal use of dramatic shadows, and his refusal to draw a ship-set scene without a well-rendered background, make Sentient feel tense, claustrophobic, and real. Jeff Lemire’s writing is superb as always, but Gabriel Walta’s textured, watercolored art is Sentient‘s real star.
However, while Sentient‘s story is clever, compelling, and well-executed, it’s not the main reason I’d recommend it. But space, it turns out, is a dangerous place – and there are others who think Valerie is not acting in the children’s best interest. Valerie does her best to care for, teach, and protect the children. The high concept is this: After surviving a separatist attack on their colony ship, a group of children must navigate through space with only the help of the ship’s A.I., Valerie. Jeff Lemire, Gabriel Walta, and co.’s Sentient feels like a gripping, one-off sci-fi movie in all the best ways.
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