Monday, August 03, 2020

Falling on the Same Grenade, Over and Over

Darryl Knickrehm's The Immortal is, at least in the first volume, about a bounty hunter named Z. He's supposedly the last human left, and even he is just a copy. He has a ship, and on the ship is a machine. One that can recreate him from as little as one finger. Useful, since that was all that was left of him after his most recent death.
Unfortunately, he only has memories up to the last set he saved, and those don't include any of the details on the bounty he was working, or what happened up to the point he died. So he has to go back to planet's surface and start all over again. Not only piece together the trail to his target, but try and figure out what happened to him the first time. All while there's someone trailing him and reporting back to someone else.

It's an interesting mystery, because it's pretty clear this particular job is a set-up, considering the pay is exactly the amount Z claims to need to retire. But the reasons why anyone would bother aren't clear. The regrowth process costs Z some memories each time, but the end cost of that isn't clear yet, either.

I'm curious why Z's so eager to retire, beyond the obvious that it'll probably reduce the frequency at which he's killed. But what's he looking forward to? Where's he wanting to go? Does he even remember at this stage? Does his goal still exist any longer, if he's been alive long enough there are no other humans left? Assuming that's true, of course. Maybe there are lots of humans, and he's forgotten all of them.
Knickrehm uses a lot of close-ups on faces, often at extreme angles. Looking up Z's nostrils, for example. A focus on people that are as unfamiliar to Z as they are to us, but they all remember him. Which would probably be disorienting. The surroundings are all finely detailed, but oddly neat. There's never any random items just laying out of place or order. Even in the bar Z goes to, there are marks that represent stains on the walls, but no other messes. It makes things feel strange and kind of empty.

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