Review of EFC Bk 16: Blink With A Capital O
Review by Rafael Nery
All inhabitants of the Rat's Nest, humans and mutants alike, know all too well that beyond their settlement one finds little besides imminent danger. Unfathomable and barren, the waste land once called Earth now harbors menaces that challenge our understanding and treacherous bandits of which vile reasoning one may understand instinctively. But, sure enough, one of the Nest's resident will find in such barrenness a hidden treasure: beyond the safe haven of her home, Blink, a fierce and obstinate young woman, will set out to discover a possession worth every and any danger — her destiny and her truth. Until then, Blink's days were spent in dull chores, safely constricted by her mother's grasp, a life of boredom and routine, at least it was so in her heart — a world much different and distant from that she desired. Responsible not only for Blink but for all of the Nest's inhabitants as her leader, Rosemary, Blink's mother, herself was once between many perils, running from or causing them, and sealed her position among the group through a strict and explosive demeanor. But when fortune catches both Blink and her mother unguarded, shes is caught on a journey from which there is no return and which will unavoidably lead to the unraveling of her fate and of her past.
From its inception, science-fiction presented itself both as a form of travel itself and as means for the development of travels surreal and unattainable to our present. On the stipulation that such development is driven towards the invention of a surreal and unattainable future, though unquestionably intimately connected to our concrete and given present — particularly its technical and political conditions. But as the technical creations and unreal landscapes developed by creativity may surely bewilder us — the readers —, what truly establishes this creation in our attention and memory is its capacity to express a sense of urgent humanity in each and every character dwelling said creation. What truly makes possible our embarking on any of literature's journeys are the fixed residences it offers us in the vitality of its characters' hearts.
As a new entry to Endless Ink's Earth's Final Chapter series, Blink with a Capital O brings to it an exploration both of the wasteland which might exist in our future and also of the entangled paths that forge one's self. As Blink takes the road that is paved before her eyes, she has to face the imminence of being hunted, lost, captured or of merely starving in the desert, and only relentlessness will lead to her final destination, the kind of relentlessness that also leads to the discovery of a new self.
The development of Blink's quest is only enlivened by the world built around her, crafted with both emotional and pictorial zeal by its author, Remy Fernandes, whose tone modules with much artistry from serious and austere to irate and quick to easygoing and fun or filled with tension and fear, putting just the right, inevitable words in each character's mouth. The author applies the same high-level of diligence both to the creation of the world and to the peculiarities of each of its voices and faces. Allied with a great set of illustrations by Bora Arslanbulut, this edition brings to life the kind of adventure every science-fiction reader desires and deserves, one duly preoccupied with the correspondence between an uncanny and mesmerizing world and our own familiar humanity.