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A review by ellelainey
Human by Diego Agrimbau, Lucas Varela
5.0
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Human, by Diego Agrimbau, Lucas Varela
★★★★★
144 Pages
Content Warning: extinction, dictatorship, death, slavery, off-page forced insemination
Human is a graphic novel about what humanity is capable of, the injustices we commit without thought of consequences, the depravity we're all capable of in extreme situations, and the hard truth that the world would be better off without our destructive influence.
That sounds harsh, but it's the truth.
Honestly, when I began reading Human, I wasn't sure what to think. Alpha was an interesting character, though it would have been good to have an idea of identity long before halfway through the story, as I didn't realise Alpha was female until Robert used pronouns. Until this point, Alpha thought their name was Robert, because of the marks on their robotic body RBRT. However, getting past that was easy enough because, in my mind, robots are all genderless. Once Robert came into the story, it became something interesting and new – the last human on Earth – until he reveals that his wife, June, crash landed nearby.
The plot is clever, original and absolutely something I could imagine an egotistical scientist could imagine – take his wife to the distant future, after humans have already destroyed their own world. Emerge in a time when the planet has flourished without humans and recovered from the damage we've done, then repopulate the planet with his wife. Enter = God complex.
How Alpha – a robot who was made with the ability to disobey, if an order was only given once (given twice, they would be compelled to comply) – reacted to all of this was the interesting part. Created by humans, but fundamentally a robot with only rudimentary Empathy programming, Alpha was, by far, the most interesting character. They had a unique view of the situation. At times, they reacted as a robot would, but at others, they showed more foresight, more empathy and understanding of the situation than Robert, with his egotistical and limited human view.
For me, Human was a graphic novel that explored the depths of human nature in less than 200 pages, with stunning sci-fi appropriate illustrations, and a clever and original plot. I loved Alpha and June equally, One was intriguing and Robert was a typical human who couldn't adapt to a changing world. In short, Human was utterly terrifying...because of its realism.
Though it's not billed as a Volume 1, the story left the ending resolved but open to more. I'd definitely be intrigued to see what came next.
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Human, by Diego Agrimbau, Lucas Varela
★★★★★
144 Pages
Content Warning: extinction, dictatorship, death, slavery, off-page forced insemination
Human is a graphic novel about what humanity is capable of, the injustices we commit without thought of consequences, the depravity we're all capable of in extreme situations, and the hard truth that the world would be better off without our destructive influence.
That sounds harsh, but it's the truth.
Honestly, when I began reading Human, I wasn't sure what to think. Alpha was an interesting character, though it would have been good to have an idea of identity long before halfway through the story, as I didn't realise Alpha was female until Robert used pronouns. Until this point, Alpha thought their name was Robert, because of the marks on their robotic body RBRT. However, getting past that was easy enough because, in my mind, robots are all genderless. Once Robert came into the story, it became something interesting and new – the last human on Earth – until he reveals that his wife, June, crash landed nearby.
The plot is clever, original and absolutely something I could imagine an egotistical scientist could imagine – take his wife to the distant future, after humans have already destroyed their own world. Emerge in a time when the planet has flourished without humans and recovered from the damage we've done, then repopulate the planet with his wife. Enter = God complex.
How Alpha – a robot who was made with the ability to disobey, if an order was only given once (given twice, they would be compelled to comply) – reacted to all of this was the interesting part. Created by humans, but fundamentally a robot with only rudimentary Empathy programming, Alpha was, by far, the most interesting character. They had a unique view of the situation. At times, they reacted as a robot would, but at others, they showed more foresight, more empathy and understanding of the situation than Robert, with his egotistical and limited human view.
For me, Human was a graphic novel that explored the depths of human nature in less than 200 pages, with stunning sci-fi appropriate illustrations, and a clever and original plot. I loved Alpha and June equally, One was intriguing and Robert was a typical human who couldn't adapt to a changing world. In short, Human was utterly terrifying...because of its realism.
Though it's not billed as a Volume 1, the story left the ending resolved but open to more. I'd definitely be intrigued to see what came next.