Knights of Sidonia

Tsutomu Nihei

Outer space, the far future. A lone seed ship, the Sidonia, plies the void, ten centuries since the obliteration of the solar system. The massive, nearly indestructible, yet barely sentient alien life forms that destroyed humanity’s home world continue to pose an existential threat. Nagate Tanikaze has only known life in the vessel’s bowels deep below the sparkling strata where humans have achieved photosynthesis and new genders. Not long after he emerges from the Underground, however, the youth is bequeathed a treasured legacy by the spaceship’s coolheaded female captain. <br><br>Meticulously drawn, peppered with clipped humor, but also unusually attentive to plot and structure, <i>Knights of Sidonia</i> may be Tsutomu Nihei’s most accessible work to date even as it hits notes of tragic grandeur as a hopeless struggle for survival unfolds. <br><br><i>“One of </i>Knights of Sidonia<i>’s chief strengths is that it doesn’t bog down the intrigue of its world with too much unnecessary, bloated dialogue… Dig into the first volume and see if Nihei’s gorgeously depicted wreck of a sci-fi future doesn’t secure an immediately tight grip.” </i>—Otaku USA <br><br><i>“Tsutomu Nihei has been knocking on America’s door for ages now. Tokyopop released his ten-volume epic </i>Blame!<i>, pronounced “blam” like a gunshot, and its prequel, </i>Noise<i> in the United States. In 2006, he earned a coveted spot in the amazingly awesome (and financially successful) </i>Halo Graphic Novel<i>, standing shoulder to shoulder with superstar artists like Moebius, Simon Bisley, and Geof Darrow, among others.”</i>—Comics Alliance <br><br><i>“To complement his expert art, Nihei gives his story some welcome strange touches, such as the spacesuits having a built-in catheter than automatically inserts itself into the wearer—and we see the panels of Nagate shuddering as he experiences this for the first time… The Sidonia residents face the wrath of a tentacled (of course) monster that would give H.P. Lovecraft a boner, and the stakes are very real. There’s also a talking bear, and no one blinks.”</i> —BookGasm