Something's Gone Wrong
The Future Is Now
August 2001 75p
28 pages A5 B&W
Everything falls apart as the cast meet and make their own destinies.
If you've never read an issue of Tony McGee's Angel Nebula, don't send for this last one. Instead, send for all 9 issues and read not only a complex and imaginative sci-fi narrative, but also a wonderfully human story of love, friendship and dreams both crushed and realised. It's hardly unusual to find a sci-fi story about genetic engineering and life on Mars. It's much rarer to find such a story with everyday characters - the sort of people you'd normally meet only in "slice of life" books, made all the more attractive through an art style that stays cute without ever getting cutesy.
borderline
So what exactly has gone wrong? The whole Martian adventure, that's what. The people who came brought all their Earth baggage and corrupt values with them, and rather than making a fresh start, were doomed to repeat their past mistakes. Even the attempts to integrate with Mars (terraforming, genetic engineering) were half-hearted at best, and it seems the only true way of becoming Martian is to bond with the spirits of Mars. And the future, in case you're wondering, is now. I think the second half of this issue is one of the best things I've ever done.
