A few years ago I reviewed a massive graphic novel called The Silver Cord created by Kevin Kelly (my friend and business partner) and Steve Masseroni, along with a team of writers and artists (from places like Pixar, ILM, Lucas, Disney, and Electronic Arts). They spent 8 years on it. Here's what I wrote about it in 2012:
The Silver Cord is an enjoyable and thought-provoking graphic novel about a war between humans, angels, and robots with human-like intelligence. I've never read anything like it before, but many of the concepts ring a bell with me because they are what my friend Kevin Kelly has been thinking about and writing about for many years in his fantastic non-fiction books, such as Out of Control, and What Technology Wants.
The Silver Cord Vol 1 had a cliffhanger ending, which left me and its fans wanting more. In 2012 Kevin and Steve launched successful Kickstarter to raise funds for the follow-up volume. In February of this year they released a monster-size 465-page hardbound book that includes volumes 1 and 2. The colors are incredibly vibrant, almost glowing above the rich black ink printed on heavy pages. I just like holding it and admiring it as an example of how beautiful a print book can be.
As I told Kevin after reading it, this techno-spiritual epic gets even wilder in volume 2. The battle between humans, soul-bearing robots, and angels heats to the boiling point as Tasi, the reluctant teenage half-angel hero, must summon every last bit of her will power to save herself, along with every conscious entity in the multiverse from spiritual annihilation. Of course, volume 2 ends with another cliffhanger. I wouldn't expect it to end any other way. But I don't want to wait as long to read volume 3. Get busy, Kevin and Steve!
