Ezra Claytan Daniels

An aging couple agrees to invest in a rejuvenation project with the caveat that they get to be first in line for human testing.

Ezra Claytan Daniels' slow and creepy tale evokes Flowers for Algernon and Frankenstein as it plays around with ethical quandaries and immoral decisions in an unauthorized experiment that goes very awry.

I'm not sure Daniels quite sticks the landing, but everything leading up to it is engrossing and emotionally wrenching.

I found this creepy, powerful and fascinating -- from the engaging characters to the often off-putting illustrations, it's a really interesting conversation about the limits of morality and individuality; about the ethical considerations of medical choices, and about the hidden parts of our own personalities. A lot to think about, and it feels very much like Molly's story hasn't ended yet. LOved the complicated and powerful relationships and how those bonds continue to evolve.

Advanced show more Readers' Copy provided by Oni Press. show less

Note: I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

I've been trying to read more graphic novels/comics lately, because I know they contain some great stories. I just have a hard time focussing on both image and text and tend to forget the images after a while. But I keep trying, and some works make it really easy. *Upgrade Soul* by Ezra Clayton Daniels (story and art) is one of those works.

Hank and Molly Nonnar, a writer and a scientist support show more scientific research. When they are approached with the opportunity to back a project and to be test-subjects themselves, they are intrigued. The project promises rejuvenation with the added benefit of fixing all the defects life has thrown at them over time such as arthritis and diabetes. However, something goes wrong during the procedure, and they weren't told the whole story, which leaves them weak and old, with clones that are superior in every way except physical appearance. That leaves them and the scientists to figure out how to continue, who they are and what they want for the future.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the science fiction element in the story of a longevity experiment. But what grabbed me was the humanity, the emotional consequences of what has happened and the solutions for the future. I don't want to give anything away, but all I can say, read this. It is touching, it is great, it shows human character (both good and bad, but most importantly, real). Five out of five stars. show less

Welcome to the anti-Clone Club.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley.)

Despite being an interracial couple who married in the '70s, Molly and Hank Nonnar have built a pretty charmed life together. Dr. Manuela Nonnar is a scientist (geneticist?) at the top of her field, while Hank continues the legacy left him by his father, a franchise based on a popular black superhero named Slane. Though they have no children of their own, the couple acts as surrogate show more parents to their niece Del, who likes play researcher in Molly's backyard. (Yay girls in STEM!) Then a fateful meeting between Hank and Dr. Victoria Teel upends their world and calls everything they thought they knew into question.

For their 40th anniversary,* the couple decides to make a substantial investment in a company called Via; in exchange, they'll be the first to undergo Via's experimental "genetic purification" procedure. It promises to make them stronger, smarter, faster, healthier, and more long-lived than any human before them. And it does, in a way.

Molly and Hank wake up seven months later in bodies that have seemingly aged ten years. Instead of being changed, they have been cloned. And their clones are half-formed "monsters": aborted (er, "canceled") during the 10th week of development, Manuela and Henry (as their counterparts are christened) resemble baked potatoes with cured ham for limbs (in technical terms). But they are "better" than the source material in every other way, blessed with superhuman strength and intellectual prowess that surpasses that of their creators.

Yet there's only room in the world for one Molly and Hank. Will it be the "source material" that Dr. Kallose intended to destroy upon the successful completion of the project, or the "monsters" that are a sentient success, yet are too aesthetically displeasing to ever present in public?

http://www.easyvegan.info/img/upgrade-soul-04.jpg

Upgrade Soul might just be one of the most bizarre, horrifying, and thought-provoking books I've ever read, graphic novel or otherwise. It raises a myriad of deliciously thorny questions: What makes you you? Is a person more than the sum of their parts? How much are we shaped by our environments? Our bodies? What is normality, and who gets to define it?

Plus it delights in a wicked sense of humor while doing so, particularly in the forms of Molly and Hank 2.0.

http://www.easyvegan.info/img/upgrade-soul-02.jpg

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The plot's pretty compelling, and the artwork, appropriately crude and weird - but in an oddly moving way. There were a few holes, though; for example, it was never entirely clear to me what Molly and Hank expected of the procedure (e.g., did they know that their "original" bodies were destined for the incinerator?). Also: an already creepy story gets even freakier with the additional of an incest subplot, which is kind of left dangling, much to this reader's dismay. (You can't just drop a bomb like that and walk away, mkay.) And just why did Manuela do what she did?

Still, Upgrade Soul is one of the better graphic novels I've read in recent memory: a legit page-turner that both entertains and challenges. If you dig sci-fi, you owe to yourself to add it to your TBR list.

* It's right there on page 47 of my ARC, no matter what the synopsis says.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/10/08/upgrade-soul-by-ezra-claytan-daniels/ show less