{"id":3459,"date":"2011-06-07T04:30:56","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T09:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2011-06-07T09:44:55","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T14:44:55","slug":"harlan-ellison%e2%80%99s-phoenix-without-ashes-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=3459","title":{"rendered":"Harlan Ellison\u2019s Phoenix Without Ashes Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Harlan Ellison\u2019s graphic novel Phoenix Without Ashes<\/a>\"\" <\/em>is a story that grabs you by the collar and and wastes no time shoving you into the fray. Ellison pulls no punches in his first comic in fifteen years.<\/p>\n

The story is set in the distant future and features Devon, a young man living in a puritanical world that stretches roughly fifty miles. When Devon begins to question the motives of the ruling party, and the decisions of the great machine that their society is founded on, Devon is hunted as a heretic. While on-the-run, he discovers a dangerous secret that will shape the future of his society and the course of the human race.<\/p>\n

This summary is intended to be vague because I don\u2019t want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn\u2019t read it. Ellison\u2019s ability to engage the reader never ceases to amaze me. I\u2019ve read quite a few Ellison stories and they always force me to pay attention to the images I\u2019m forming about the characters and setting, while at the same time he\u2019s slightly twisting reality. In this case, Alan Robinson\u2019s artwork does that for me. The comic reads like an Ellison story, a factor I hoped wouldn\u2019t be lost when I opened the first issue.<\/p>\n

The themes explored in this mini-series deal with man\u2019s unwillingness to conform, and to follow his intuition and ask questions, even at the risk of being cast out, or worse. Our man Devon fights for his right to freely exist. On the other side of the spectrum, the antagonist in charge of their society finds Devon to be a troublemaker which needs to be dealt with by any means.<\/p>\n

Phoenix Without Ashes <\/em>also comes with some baggage, as this is not a newly written story. It\u2019s resurrected from a failed 1973 Canadian produced sci-fi television series entitled The Starlost,<\/em> which was conceived by Ellison, and was riddled with so many production problems, he left the show before the first episode aired.<\/p>\n

Fellow writer Ben Bova was brought in as a science advisor, only to run into the same issues and eventually left the series as well. Ellison comments on his Starlost experience in the essay “Somehow, I Don\u2019t Think We\u2019re in Kansas Anymore, Toto” in his book Stalking the Nightmare<\/em>. Coincidentally, Bova reflects on his experience in his satirical novel The Starcrossed<\/em>. Nearly forty years after the Starlost debacle, Ellison brings his idea to life to a new generation, in a medium that can do his vision justice.<\/p>\n

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