But it works so well here because there’s only so much a creator can do with limited word count and space for art. Learning through the eyes of a naive character is no new SFF trope, and others have done it (sometimes even better). We need a way to unlock those worldbuilding elements without being force-fed, and Tim-21 is an excellent educational device. In the graphic novel format, this approach works extraordinarily well. Lemire and Nguyen are a hell of a pair, leading us along this tight-rope narrative even as the scope of the story bursts open to encompass galaxy-spanning conflicts. As Tim-21 reboots his memory, we are treated to vignettes of his past interlaced with his discovery of the present. Instead, Tim-21’s story begins to shed light on the civilization that existed pre-Harvester attacks. Tin Stars opens the Descender saga with a hard-hitting question: how does a far-future society deal with a mass genocide? Further, how does that society respond when the enemy is seemingly indestructible and unidentifiable? This volume asks these questions early on, but it doesn’t answer them outright. Quon, the purported inventor ot the Tim series, but they aren’t the only faction tracking him. The UGC sets out to recover Tim-21 alongside Dr. The UGC registers Tim-21 as an active bot once he awakens, discovering that elements of his codex (essentially robot DNA) match the codices of the Harvesters. Tim-21 finds all residents of the mining colony dead and begins to explore the place he once called home. 10 years after the attacks, a child companion bot awakens from a long “sleep” on a mining colony. Relations between the UGC planets largely dissolve, and the survivors carry on living as best they can. Nine gargantuan robots (later dubbed “Harvesters”) appear out of nowhere, and each one unleashes a devastating attack that razes the nine UGC planets before disappearing. The serenity we see as readers only lasts for a short time, though. Nine planets comprise the Council, and they’ve achieved some semblance of peace between them. Tin Stars opens with a panoramic shot of a far-future society governed by the United Galactic Council (UGC). The good news: Descender still stands out as an excellent sci-fi story. The bad news: it’s not quite as polished as 2018-me remembers. Nearly three years ago, I read Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s Descender Volume 1 Descender, starting with a reread of Tin Stars.

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