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November 6, 2020

DEBUT This book has, at its heart, a simple premise: scientists on Earth have detected the first extraterrestrial signal. Through a mixture of traditional narrative and mixed media imagery, comic book artist Hughes tells the story of Jack Fenwick and other humans attempting to decode the extraterrestrial message. Even though the overall story is fairly straight-forward, there are many shifts in settings and multiple subplots (including an entire novellette) to keep track of over the course of the novel. VERDICT This novel combines hard science fiction elements and Hughes' background as a graphic novelist to create a vivid, expansive reading experience. That said, this book will not appeal to most casual readers and will probably be of interest only to adult readers who are excited by hybrid novels that blend traditional storytelling formats with elements of graphic novels and hard science fiction enthusiasts. There are many technical and theoretical scientific principles to contend with, and the sometimes-disruptive nature of the mixed media elements can make it difficult to follow the story over its nearly 1000 pages. --Lydia Fletcher, Univ. of Texas at Austin

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