Alderbaran: The Creature By Leo

Alderbaran: The Creature
By Leo, Published by Cinebook

SPEECH BALLOONs reviewed the first Cinebook collection of Alderbaran a while back, and it seems that Book 2: The Group slipped me by, causing me to play catch-up and amateur detective with this third collection.

And since my comment back then was that science fiction of this nature wasn't an automatic choice of reading material, it's pretty ironic that I was so interested in finding what had happened to the characters.

An awful lot it seems.

On the planet of Alderbaran Mark and Kim are no longer travelling alone, they're part of a whole troop of characters, some friends and acquaintances from the first collection, some enemies, and even Mr Pad's back to be as playfully mischievous as ever. No longer looking for just a safe place to stay and hoping for a bright new future they're now on a quest to meet with the mysterious alien creature known as the Mantrix.

As hinted at in the first collection, the Mantrix has been making some humans near-immortal, for reasons unknown, but with tests undertaken as the decades go by... Alas, the fascist authorities in charge of Alderbaran aren't happy for something they can't turn to their own cruel devices doing what it wants and the do their level best to prevent this happening.

There are new strange beasts and landscapes to be seen, fears and persecutions to be overcome, and the revelation that Mark and Kim's relationship has matured and bloomed.

Or at least that's how things end around Page 48, when the original Alderbaran epic by Leo ends. Then we're into a new saga, a continuation of the previous, with some characters and traits crossing over, but one where Leo's following Betelgeuse collection begins

Whereas in the Alderbaran story we had a race of humans who, on the whole, expected those from the planet Earth to reach them by spaceship again (and they did), the apparently more recently populated Betelgeuse looks to have given up on ever being found, and the people who do inhabit it now seem very much on their last legs - it's not an entirely savage world but the people are too few in number to develop civilization beyond a certain point, and are inhibited from doing because their military or scientific heritages appear to have stunted them emotionally in some areas, or at least that's the impression I'm getting.

The titular heroine for the outset of The Betelgeuse Planet is a young bald girl called Mai Lan. The military types want to take her from her parents, they claim it's for her own good, educationally, but there's a nasty whiff in the air that forced procreation is part of their scheme too. Fortunately, she escapes their clutches, saved in part by native creatures who combine characteristics of both the sloth and the panda - I think there's meant to be an analogy or comparison there with the humans but I'll wait to see how the story develops to see if that's true.

It seems it was a mistake the people landing as they did and being in the circumstances they are, for up above in the sky the spacecraft they came in is still hovering there, and a few remaining people are being reawakened from cryogenic sleep. Meanwhile, back on Alderban there's been quite a change: Kim's just returned there after living on Earth, and she's alone, no Mark. Politics, social networks and further developments with the Mantrix are all part of the mix.

Kim has grown from the teasing school girl we were introduced to in the very first story to an intelligent, thoughtful young woman, whether she can keep her calm as the story progresses I've no idea, for she's off to Betelgeuse!

The pace picks up with the Betelgeuse story, there's more mystery but the promise of its revelations aren't the true point of interest, it's the enthrallment of the threat, things not being quite what they seem, and something that might be waiting just around the corner.

Betelgeuse looks to me a more immediate and more accessible series to me, you'll get a deeper understanding if you read Alderbaran, but it won't hold you back, and there look to be at least another two volumes of 80 plus pages each due from Cinebooks in the future.

For further information visit: www.cinebook.com to purchase the books in English and even if you can't read French check out the rather cool: www.mondes-aldebaran.com and take a look at the following Youtube clip: