You may not recognize Jeff Lemire’s name but you’ve likely heard of the recent Netflix adaptation of his comic ‘Sweet Tooth.’ In his Descender series, a young robot boy struggles to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. Called “your new sci-fi obsession” and listed on multiple best books of the year lists, this six volume series is definitely one to explore.
Read on for a longer summary:
Ten years in the past, planet-sized robots appeared out of nowhere. They began to wreak havoc throughout the galaxy, demolishing entire worlds before suddenly disappearing as quickly as they arrived. After the destruction caused by these the “harvesters”, as they are nicknamed by The United Galactic Council, anti-robot fanaticism spreads throughout the council’s nine-core planets, resulting in the culling of all artificial intelligence and robotic life in the galaxy. Ten years after the carnage, a young android named TIM-21 wakes up to discover that he is not only one of the last robots in existence, but also the most wanted being in the universe. Pursuing him are the inimitable Captain Telsa, daughter of the U.G.C.’s president and survivor of the harvester attacks, and Doctor Quon, the disgraced and secretive “father of robotics”. Alongside his robot dog, Bandit, and a maladroit mining droid named Driller, TIM-21 embarks on a cosmic odyssey that has him facing bounty hunters and threats at every turn.
