Book Review! Alex + Ada, Volume 1 by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn




If you are a fan of sci-fi then the concept of ‘what makes us human’ and ‘how can A.I.’s find sentience’ is not a new one.   Authors have been exploring this idea in many forms from the short story to the blockbuster movie of the week.  Alex + Ada isn’t any closer to revealing this mystery than the others but what makes this story compelling to read is its simplicity.

Alex + Ada, Volume 1 is a compilation of the first five volumes of the comic by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn.  I will admit I am thankful for this because if I had to wait for each individual comic to be made available I may have lost interest.  The story is very slow moving as you meet Alex and go through his depressing life after a bad breakup with his girlfriend.  Enter Ada, an android gift from his eccentric and wealthy Grandmother and we have…even more depressing life with Alex adapting to an android.  It really isn’t until the 4th or 5th volume that the story begins to get a bit more interesting and then it ends and we will have to wait for Volume 2…or buy the individual comics.

Now I know how this may sound – that I didn’t like the story.  But surprisingly this isn’t true.  Yes, it took a while for me to get through the book (I have a severely limited attention span at times due to multiple projects going on at once) but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a bad story…just a slow burn.  The artwork is clean and simple and definitely reflects the atmosphere of the story.  When Volume 2 comes out I’ll be sure to pick up a copy just to see what happens to this unlikely duo next.

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