SLIPSHOT

Aibo’s SF sequel focuses on a high-school student who may be the key to ending a war in a mysterious realm.

Most of Cythiria Crenshaw’s memories are absent. She has no idea where she got the two scars on her forehead, but she does know that intermittent blinding headaches accompany them. As such, she’s a loner who, on her first day of high school, would rather be anywhere else. She makes a friend and finds herself persuaded to join a gym outside of school. Gym owner Rive Amber has an ulterior agenda: She believes the girl is crucial to stopping the war in Griddish, a domed realm that’s essentially a hub used for monitoring variations of worlds, such as Cythiria’s planet, Farth (or, as it’s called in Griddish, Var 7). Meanwhile, over on Earth (aka Var 8), Matere Songgaard, formerly a scientist in Griddish, gets word of the conflict in his erstwhile realm. He opts to head that way to gather intelligence, using a “Slipshot” portal that he discovers is, rather unusually and unexpectedly, open. It’s not easy for others to get access to a Slipshot, but that’s just what Cythiria’s father Fredrick Munchen and her new friend Chelss Brimwater will need if they want to pull her away from Rive’s influence. In the midst of all this are the Griddish “Vérkatrae,” emotionless machines that serve a variety of functions. But if they’re so coldly mechanical, what explains the animal-like Vérkatros that Cythiria befriends (and names), or the one that morphs into a “human shape?”

Aibo’s series’ sophomore installment brings back a plethora of characters, including Fredrick and Cythiria’s mother, Jillian. Readers returning to the series will settle right back in, but those just joining will have no problem following the crisp narration. There’s mystery for series newbies and veterans alike—it’s not immediately apparent what the war entails, or what Cythiria can do to thwart it. The story smoothly transitions between worlds that share some similarities; Farth, for example, has a planetary ring but is otherwise akin to Earth. While the futuristic tech (such as the close-combat weapon called the Plaxis Strand) is compelling, this narrative’s human element stands out the most. (Cythiria is an angsty teen who warily opens up to Chelss (with the possibility of romance) and has a strained relationship with her mother Jillian, whom Cythiria noticeably does not call “Mom.”) Vibrant descriptions throughout bring even inanimate objects to life: “In the distance, a cluster of tall spike-shaped buildings reached towards the white sky. They looked broken, abandoned, eerie, a desolate cityscape that had been burnt and crushed by some unseen monster.” In the same vein, recurrent uses of onomatopoeia truly resonate, as in the “thump” of a heart, the “clang” of metals, and the “whoosh” of vehicles speeding past. As in the preceding installment, Sunada-Wong and Juarez’s colorful artwork includes individual character profiles and ravishing two-page spectacles, the highlight being a flat-bodied, spidery-legged Vérkatros whose multihued surface illuminates an awestruck Cythiria.

An enthralling continuation of a nimble, ultra-chic SF series.