Ether – 2016-2020 (Dark Horse Comics) – Sci-Fi, Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy
Author: Matt Kindt
Art: Dave Rubin
Series Contents: Ether #1-5; Ether II #1-5; Ether III #1-5
Boone Dias falls into a new dimension of mystery, adventure and magic. Will Boone be able to balance his life on Earth with his interdimensional travels, or will he lose parts of his humanity along the way?
Story:
Ether is a fast moving Sci-Fi adventure with a large scale and many interesting concepts. Boone Dias is a grounded family man who prides himself on solving any type of mystery using science and reality. However… upon opening a portal and finding The Crossroads, a gateway between Earth and the magical realm of Ether, he finds his life will never be the same.
He absolutely loves his new realm that he has wandered into, including new beings and “friends,” like Glum, the monkey like gatekeeper of The Crossroads. As Boone gets to know Ether, and Agartha, the capital city, he is enthralled in new kinds of life, and new mysteries, including a murder!
As Agartha’s mayor ropes Boone into the murder of The Blaze, who is the land’s great protector and most powerful warrior, his brain starts ticking and he analyzes all clues around him. As his investigation takes him to strange new places and he meets even odder characters, it is all he can do to stay sane and grounded in Ether. Science can only explain so much… will his faith in data and numbers hold true forever?
Meanwhile, he has to return to Earth, as he can only spend a day in Ether as he cannot digest food or water in that dimension. As he hits the streets of Venice, Italy, he feeds and sleeps, but cannot stop himself from thinking about his next trip back to Ether. It has become an addiction. Time however passes differently in Ether than it does on Earth, so Boone must sacrifice his life and family if he wants to keep heading back. Quite a dilemma, but there are mysteries to solve and just so much to discover, and this is just the beginning!
Art:
The art is an absolute blast, matching the high-concept story with detailed and extravagant mosaics. It is colorful, cute, creative, scary, fun, realistic, dreamlike, engaging and enthralling, just like the world of Ether which it paints fully. Basically, it is just what it needs to be to fit all of the moods and the shifting storylines. Somehow both grounded as well as completely “out there,” Dave Rubin meets Kindt’s script with systems on full blast. There is so much to feast on visually on every single page. The land of Ether feels both fully alien, as well as somehow familiar.
Reasons to Read:
Ether’s written and visual creativity stimulates the brain in the best of ways. Touches of adventure and mystery keep the pages turning quickly. An awesome script matched up with stellar art creates a whirlwind of fun and new sights to behold. It is very well paced, and covers both scientific ideas as well as fantasy concepts. It all blends together very well, and should be read by fans of most any genre listed above.
Similar Titles:
Oblivion Song; Planetary; East of West; Middlewest; Black Science; Descender; Ascender; Decorum; Invisible Kingdom; Snow Angels