The Coffin

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully thought-provoking speculative fiction
Review: The Coffin is a wonderful book, an intelligent piece of science fiction that meditates on life, death, and life after death with no sacrifice of characterization or plotting. Combined with beautiful illustration that shows off Mike Huddleston's versatility, this book is exactly the sort of thing that would have had my college roommates and me up until six in the morning and loving every second of it.

Dr. Ashar Ahmad has discovered a way to trap the soul at the moment of death, by placing the body in a hermetically sealed containment suit made from a new type of polymer. Heller, the head of the company that funds Ashar's experiments wants the technology for himself, and orders Ashar killed; the doctor manages to encase himself in the suit in time to trap his soul, and sets out to stop the financier. More importantly, he has to determine what kind of life he hopes to lead, now that he is dead.

This book has a very well-done action-adventure plot, very nice character work, and some fascinating ideas about the relationship between the soul and the body and other of life's big mysteries. The philosophical musings don't feel like a forced attempt to give the book depth, nor does the narrative feel liek a forced excuse for Hester and Huddleston to talk about their ideas of the after life. The balance of the two is one of the book's major strengths.

Another is Huddleston's fine art. The book is crisply drawn, the coffin is suitably spooky, and the visions of souls suitably wondrous. Huddleston conveys not only the action of what the characters are doing, but the emotion of what they're feeling. And some of the texturing work here is just absolutely gorgeous to look at. This is a top notch book, and it's well worth reading and sharing with your friends. Assuming you don't have to be up early the next morning.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully thought-provoking speculative fiction
Review: The Coffin is a wonderful book, an intelligent piece of science fiction that meditates on life, death, and life after death with no sacrifice of characterization or plotting. Combined with beautiful illustration that shows off Mike Huddleston's versatility, this book is exactly the sort of thing that would have had my college roommates and me up until six in the morning and loving every second of it.

Dr. Ashar Ahmad has discovered a way to trap the soul at the moment of death, by placing the body in a hermetically sealed containment suit made from a new type of polymer. Heller, the head of the company that funds Ashar's experiments wants the technology for himself, and orders Ashar killed; the doctor manages to encase himself in the suit in time to trap his soul, and sets out to stop the financier. More importantly, he has to determine what kind of life he hopes to lead, now that he is dead.

This book has a very well-done action-adventure plot, very nice character work, and some fascinating ideas about the relationship between the soul and the body and other of life's big mysteries. The philosophical musings don't feel like a forced attempt to give the book depth, nor does the narrative feel liek a forced excuse for Hester and Huddleston to talk about their ideas of the after life. The balance of the two is one of the book's major strengths.

Another is Huddleston's fine art. The book is crisply drawn, the coffin is suitably spooky, and the visions of souls suitably wondrous. Huddleston conveys not only the action of what the characters are doing, but the emotion of what they're feeling. And some of the texturing work here is just absolutely gorgeous to look at. This is a top notch book, and it's well worth reading and sharing with your friends. Assuming you don't have to be up early the next morning.