FORMAT: HARDCOVER (REVIEWED), DIGITAL | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
The year 2020 has been one for very large books that can serve as something as a companion for difficult times. What you want is something interesting, accessible but is always going to keep you fascinated and engaged. Rian Hughe’s XX A Novel Graphic is absolutely the sort of book you’ll keep coming back to, partially due to the story but also because it tells the tale in brilliant and original way.
The core of XX is a classic sci-fi tale of alien communications and a small number of brave people who have figured out that something out there is trying to talk to us on Earth. There is a Signal and thanks to the wonders of the internet, everyone knows ‘something’ is out there. But it’s down to one man (and their unique view on the world ) to figure it all out. So far, it sounds like standard sci-fi, but that’s where Hughe’s own genius comes in.
Where XX comes into its own is the typography and page design. If that sounds mundane, it really isn’t; this is a truly remarkable work. Rather than just text on the page, Hughe’s has applied his graphic design skills to convey tension and drama throughout. This isn’t just the now normal trick of presenting an online conversation as a series of text messages, instead Huges uses everything from font size to illustration to a seemingly complete re-format of the way the book is presented in order to tell his tale.
Some of the pages should be hanging up in a gallery somewhere. This is every bit as much a novel as it is a work of art. We honestly expect to see this book appear in every other sci-fi book award list out there; it’s that clever and it’s that original. Rian Hughes is a graphic designer responsible for the ‘look’ of modern British pop-culture, having worked for the likes of Deadline, Forbidden Planet and 2000AD. His new novel confirms that he is a modern master of Sci-Fi.
It helps that this story is essentially a mystery, one that is about how we communicate with each as much as it is about what we communicate to each other. Some of the pages look truly bizarre and this visually striking approach really does help put the story into the reader’s mind. The weight of the book is also an aspect; this a large, relatively heavy hardcover and as you work through it, the physicality of the thing feels every bit as much a part of the story as the images on each page.
Starburst highly recommends XX A Novel Graphic and expects to see it on every sci-fi fan’s book shelf in the years to come.