To listen to what else Mike and I read this week, you can hear the episode here on your favorite podcasting platform: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1793148/episodes/16304563
Skin Police is a series that hooked me from the beginning. For those who aren’t familiar with the series, the plot is that in the future birth rates plummet. Where there is demand there is money to be made, so a black market selling cloned babies is created. The problem with these clones is that they can potentially “pop”. When a clone pops they hallucinate and hurt or kill anyone around them.
To battle these “Dupes”, the Skin Police was formed. They hunt down the clones and exterminate them. As you can imagine, not everyone agrees with their tactics because the clones are people and is it fair to exterminate them when they don’t always even know they are a Clone? Should they preemptively be killed?
This third issue continues the excellent pacing the first two issues established. We begin to learn more about the Skin Police and the resistance to the extermination of the Clones. I begin to wonder who I should be rooting for. On one hand, the Clones can be dangerous and kill innocent people, but should they all be treated the same way There is some social commentary you can gather from this series, but just like with all social commentary it’s more impactful when it’s weaved into the story and not heavy handed. For me, anyway.
If you’ve listened to the podcast or read any of my other poorly written blog posts, you know that I’m a Stan for Jacen Burrows and his artwork. He does body horror like no other. If Burrows is 1, then Daniel Gete is 1B. The artwork is beautiful and horrific all at the same time. It’s realistic enough to haunt your thoughts with the sci-fi horror elements with bold lines and defined characters. You rarely question who is who because they are all distinctive.
This book is Possessor meets Children of Men and it’s right up my alley. A must read for any science fiction/horror fan.
