Black Star is the story of a crew of scientists who are dispatched to collect a flower from an alien planet that has powerful medicinal properties. However, something goes wrong and the shuttle crashes, killing almost everyone on board. The only survivors are Parrish and North, two scientists who already don't like each other, but there's only room for one on the rescue shuttle. What follows is a race across deadly terrain to be the first to the shuttle.

I enjoyed the story as it was quick and full of action, and you can definitely tell it was a screenplay first, but neither of the characters were really likable and I didn't understand why there would only be one rescue shuttle - it sounds like a poorly planned mission if they didn't consider the need for an escape shuttle that would fit them all, or at least decide on who would take the shuttle and who would remain behind. I feel like it would have been a more fulfilling story if we had a "the ships other shuttles were damaged beyond repair" or "North was the one who was chosen to take the shuttle in the event of a crash but Parrish refuses to follow the agreement," etc. I guess possibly the point could be the depths of depravity ordinarily "good" people will go to in order to survive, including manipulating and attacking other innocent survivors - but I also feel that would have been a far more powerful story if perhaps they had been close friends and one had shockingly betrayed the other, or if we'd had more in-depth to the "bully" Parrish appeared to be (or the potential love triangle with the captain that I may have just read too much into) but the tension is far more "lukewarm" than anything the way it stands now.

I enjoyed the book as a boredom buster and I loved the diversity and all-female cast of characters, and I also do think it would make a good action movie, so I definitely think it's worth a read, but I feel like some things could have been elaborated on further to make it even more interesting. I also always have a nitpick about ARCs that are provided without full color - it leaves me feeling like I perhaps missed out on important details that could have really boosted the story.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

Black Star is a tense story of survival on a hostile planet and a cut-throat competition. The reader is thrown into the action and learns about the technologies available and histories between the characters through context clues. This makes certain parts of the story opaque, but there is a visceral gut-punch feeling that comes when the reader realizes exactly what's going on. Both characters are devious and intent on survival, committing brutal acts to gain the upper hand, and I wasn't able to predict the ending. Jovellanos does a great job with the art. The characters have access to different surveillance equipment, and Jovellanos does a good job showing simulations, recordings, and how the characters think through and interface with these technologies.

A group of scientists are on their way to a planet where a flower grows that within it holds the key to helping humanity survive (not entirely sure in what way, I guess in a curative way?). The mission is to retrieve samples of the flower to take back to Earth. The crew is hybernating snugly in their hybernation pods, when the ship collides with some comets (I think..?), and is about to explode. One of the scientists, Harper North awakes, and quickly flees the burning ship (not entirely sure how she gets to the surface of the planet?).

Turns out through a flashback that another crewmember was awake, Parrish, who was pleading to North to help save yet another crewmember called Fletcher. North says she thinks she can't help, and leaves. We then see Parrish trying to save Fletcher, failing and she also jumps ship, to the planet below.

There is an auxillary shuttle on the planet, that will carry one (1) person back to Earth. Both Parrish and North have been dropped (I guess) about 4 hours from the shuttle. Who gets there first has to repair the shuttle, and can then leave. Parrish despises North for not helping her save Fletcher - turns out Fletcher was Parrish's partner. North argues that she deserves the shuttle, to take back one of the flowers. Supposedly Parrish is only interested in the flower for the money (not entirely sure why this is bad, per se, as long as the flower is delivered back to Earth?).

And so there's a race against time, and against a very hostile planet. It's unclear if we're supposed to root for one character over the other. We spend most time with North, but I quickly came to dislike her - I guess this ambiguity is what the author was going for?

Thing is, comics can be ambiguous as a medium, especially when they're based on the script for an unproduced film. There's a lot of action, and I don't feel the art is proficient enough at correctly conveying what is happening. I'm not a huge fan of narration in comics, but I feel like this book could've used some in places. The fact that there are so many things I'm unsure about should tell you something, both about script and art.

In the end, a filmscript is a fundamentally different thing than a comic script. I don't know how this book was produced, but it feels like either they took the filmscript as it was, or it was badly rewritten.

The book is produced as part of Abrams Comic Arts' Megascope initiative, which dedicates itself to producing stories by and about people of colour, which is fantastic. Sadly, this book isn't that fantastic.

Dr. North and her crew of scientists are traveling in a space ship to a far away planet when the ship crashes. Only Dr. North and one other crew member survive. They must each make their way to the reserve shuttle that only seats one in the hopes that they get there first.

I never once got to enjoy this graphic novel of a stranded astronaut, and whichever race against time it was she was facing. Too often I was struggling to work out what the heck I was reading – something about crabby women, and possibly a flower... I gave up too quickly.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

A graphic novel about survival . Two officers battle to secure and escape pod. The graphics are exceptional as is the story line. This is a standalone but hopefully not the last novel by the author nor the characters.

Black Star is an entertaining science fiction story, told in visual and textual form. An enjoyable graphic novel ride and I love the author/artist’s style.

Very confusing graphic novel about a mission to get the flower and if not the flower the seed of a plant that save humanity. There are only two survivors in the mission, North and Pattish when an asteroid storm destroys the ship and put the shuttle ship that could save them, four days walk away from them.

What is never clear is why Pattish is so angry at North, and who we should be rooting for. Shouldn't we be rooting for someone? But we have no idea why North should survive more that Pattish should. And why is NOrth so angry at Pattish. Is Pattish the one that we should be rooting for.

The point of view is of North until near the very end, where it switches to Pattish.

Nicely drawn, however, even if confusing.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review

I want to start this off with the complete insanity that the "rescue" ship is only built to handle one person. Like I get the odds are grim just generally in this world but I feel like that's insane like assuming everyone made it out of the crash, how does a crew make that decision of who to send back.

But once you get past the lack of forethought on what are we going to do if things go down. This story is action-packed from beginning to end, it is definitely a page-turner and leaves you on the edge of your seat the entire read. Because up until the last page you really don't know how this is going to turn out

As I was reading I really ended up feeling like this was a commentary on humanity, and how it is easy to put your survival over everyone elses.