AI simulations, company mismanagement, and a psychological thriller intertwine on this first graphic novel from cartoonist Package Anderson.

From Avery Hill Publishing, Second Shift brings us throughout a frozen wasteland removed from Earth and right into a lush habitat the place the second shift of Terracorp staff are simply being introduced out of stasis. Enter Birdie Dornan, the senior of the 2 staff signing on for the present shift. The opposite is her brother Heck. After artificially cheerful greetings from the automated farm machines and a clumsy passing of obligations as first shift heads into stasis, it’s time for Birdie and Heck to run administration operations on the multitude of automated methods slowly working to seize minerals from passing asteroids and terraform a hostile panorama.

Second shift is there for repairs within the midst of accelerating mechanical breakdowns and to watch the standing of the “payloads” harvested for the assets they comprise. Via all of it, they’re assisted by the station AI, a digital projection which manifests into any variety of varieties thought-about pleasing to the human inhabitants.

Questioning how a lot their employers care about them and infrequently on edge amidst the relative isolation, Birdie and Heck cross their free time in a sequence of simulations supplied by the Station AI, all fastidiously tailor-made to the person inhabitants. From journey video games to nighttime meditations, algorithms and digital actuality add depth and complexity to this distant nook of house. Every thing adjustments when an unexplained sign leads Birdie and Heck to find a second station, seemingly deserted by folks but additionally unlocking a number of questions which Birdie should determine if she really needs answered.

Providing worldbuilding in small particulars and interlude messages unfold between chapters, Anderson paints sufficient of an image for the reader to know the circumstances of those characters whereas permitting the fullness of the bigger world to exist in ambiguity. It’s a choice that works as Birdie and the others, out of contact with the broader galaxy, additionally discover themselves lower off, disoriented, and questioning precisely how they match into bigger occasions happening someplace past the place they will see. There’s loads of sci-fi intrigue, however Birdie’s uncertainty after a lot time with Station are central to the story. As she and Heck delve into digital realities and the synthetic atmosphere of their present house, traces of understanding start to blur. Terracorp is probably going holding secrets and techniques whereas the Station AI assures the workforce that the whole lot is really fantastic. Removed from assist and caught between the digital and the actual, Birdie’s willingness to ask questions—and to embrace the solutions they bring about—will form a lot of what’s to come back.

With heavy line work and a muted palate of colours, Anderson provides richness and emotion to every section of the story. The artwork is stylized sufficient to carry the dreamlike unreality of sure sequences, but additionally lifelike sufficient to floor the narrative firmly in Birdie’s boots as she finds her manner by means of every twisting hall of the thriller surrounding her. For such a contained forged, every character and voice steps onto the web page in memorable trend, and as we observe Birdie down the rabbit gap, the psychological and tangible realities of the scenario start to indicate themselves throughout the panels of the story, bigger than life however concurrently all too actual.

Avery Hill doesn’t assign the amount an age score. Although there is no such thing as a mature content material to talk of, the final themes and pacing of the e-book will extra probably attraction to older readers from teenagers to adults. Regardless of the broader sci-fi setting of the narrative, the story itself is comparatively gradual paced and deeply private because the characters navigate extra existential questions of the place the place they’ve discovered themselves. For readers who respect the power of science fiction to discover future potentialities and the human situation, Second Shift ought to present an enticing learn. Balancing ambiguity with lovingly crafted element, it’s a thriller that takes its time to unfold—however what it reveals drives at truths far deeper than simply the character of the mysterious second station. As a Terracorp missive asks within the e-book’s opening, “Isn’t all of it price it?”

Second Shift
By Package Anderson
Avery Hill Publishing, 2025
ISBN: 9781917355209

NFNT Age Suggestion: Grownup (18+), Older Teen (16-18)