Banks' genius is imagining a future removed from labour, sickness, even death, and then royally screwing it all up with people finding ways to pervert utopia and exploit post-scarcity. Just amazing and stunning sci-fi from cradle to grave.
Could not have predicted that this series would get me with the sorrow of a kaiju named Go-Go Space Baby sending time dilated letters to her given-up son, who was adopted by Ultramen. No joke, this is just a phenomenal series that Zander Cannon outdid himself on with each successive season.
+1 for the scene featuring a spilled Agromech screaming “should I punch out sir?” and the Dervish behind correcting the CO that he had no hands to help.
Banks has this unique ability to unflinchingly drop you into disorienting contexts and let you make sense of the alien where most authors would just bombard you with exposition.
There are a few glaring problems (i.e. treatment of women!) but I do genuinely wish more of these were made. Great idea to provide interesting backstory for immortals we see for only a few minutes on screen.
Good grief, this is fantastic. Noir is such a stereotypical whites-only genre and Pichetshote uses it to magnificently depict the alienation lived by immigrants both then and now.
Ruckley's main book remains meandering and underwhelming, which is unfortunate given his one-shot in the Annual is great! Tread and Circuits and the Halloween special also go quite a way towards making up for the flagship run too.
