Jiroboy: The Mechnorganic Kid

Jiroboy: The Mechnorganic Kid (Volume 1), Anthony Jappa, Jappa Publications, 2011

Part 1 of a series, this graphic novel is about a near-future Earth in crisis. Its survival rests on the shoulders of one young man.

Earlier in the 20th Century, an alien spacechip crash-landed on Earth (in the Black Forest, not at Roswell). In exchange for help repairing their ship, they gave humanity certain very advanced technologies, which the leaders of Earth have passed off as their own discoveries. Recently it was discovered that the alien technologies are also destroying Earth. The natural production of oxygen is noticeably dropping. All possible Earth-based methods to remedy the situation have failed. Earth has one alternative to destruction, and his name is Koji Kanna.

Through the new science of mechnoragnics, Kanna is genetically engineered from birth to be the perfect astronaut. Sent into space with Egi, his databot, and Khanokia, his robot dog, Kanna's mission is to find those aliens who visited Earth years before. Of course, no one knows just who the aliens were, or where they came from, so finding a needle in a haystack would be child's play in comparison. Kanna does have some help from a special suit that encloses him almost instantly, and allows him to fire energy weapons while flying through interstellar space (think Iron Man).

Not all stars in the galaxy are giant glowing balls of gas and rock. Some are actually eggs holding solar serpents, ready to be born. Solar serpents are supposed to be able to create gateways from one part of the galaxy to another (like wormholes), or to another time or dimension, or to somewhere totally unknown. A group of scientists called the Enigmium force one such birth, prematurely. A piece of the star that exploded to bring about the birth lands on a planet, and de-evolves the nearby inhabitants millions of years, in seconds. While fighting the de-evolved inhabitants, who are now very strong and very mean, without killing them, Kanna comes up with a way to reverse the effects. Millions of pieces of that star are now flying through the galaxy. They all have to be tracked, and retrieved, before they can land on other planets and create more havoc.

Here is some good old-fashioned space opera. It's a quick read, and it has plenty of action, so it will keep the reader entertained. This is very much worth the reader's time.