Strange Attractors

A young graduate student discovers that his aging professor has been saving New York City from collapse by a series of “adjustments,” a la the Butterfly Effect, only to be informed that he must be the one to take over keeping the city alive. A grounded sci-fi thriller in the vein of Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau.

Every once in a while you pick up a book with no idea of what you’re getting into and finding yourself hooked really fast.  That certainly ended up being the case for me with Strange Attractors after just a few minutes.  I love a more fictional approach to stories as much as the next guy, but this more reality driven tale was a great new read for me.

Stories like this that sit so close to possible always seem to be that much more interesting, as it really drives your imagination into high gear.  Our main character is just an average guy, but his life quickly becomes not so average when his unforeseen quest to save the Big Apple begins.  This fast paced, sci-fi ride set in the world we all live in may be fiction, but the compelling story Soule tells almost makes you wonder how real it could be.

The artwork here actually has a few strong components that should be mentioned.  The main story imagery throughout the book is quite nicely done, in both pencils and color work that the respective artists offer up.  The other component that I personally enjoyed was the mathematical additions with the complexity maps.  These added a nice touch that really drove home the major focus of the story.

If there’s one thing that can set the bar higher for me personally, it’s when I finish a book and wish it would get turned into a movie.  That says something when a story is that enjoyable in the graphic novel format that it would be worth seeing on the big screen.  That likely won’t happen of course, but it’d be great if it did.  Needless to say, this gets two thumbs up for me and a definite suggestion for you to get a copy to check it out.

For more information on Strange Attractors or other titles, check out Archaia.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.