Supreme Power Vol 1 Contact

Supreme Power Vol 1 Contact (2004) J. Michael Straczynski

I picked this up because I really liked J. Michael Straczynski’s Rising Stars. It looked interesting, so I decided to see if I liked this series as well.

The story is good, although not quite as good as Rising Stars. But then that was unbelievably good, so I could hardly expect it to be as good.

An alien child lands on Earth and is kept in isolation by the government and raised by two agents who volunteer for the decades long project of seeing him to adulthood and acting as his adopted parents. There are also others who appear: a boy who can run incredibly quickly, a boy who sees his parents killed, a soldier who attempts to work with an element of the alien boy’s ship.

I really like J. Michael Straczynski’s stories. He’s a good storyteller, and sucks me into the tales he tells.

Contact starts somewhat slowly as he develops the story and gives the history of the characters. The book primarily focuses on Mark Milton and project Hyperion: how he was found, how he was raised, and how various politicians handled the situation. But throughout the development of the story there are multiple moral questions and issues that appear and are resolved, but you’re pretty sure that those resolutions will come back later to cause problems.

Interestingly, I could have stood to read less about Mark Milton and more about the other characters. Not that the Mark Milton story was boring, I just wanted to know a bit more about the other characters. There were also storylines that were hinted out, but then the story moved on.

It’s an good story, and like other stories I love, the moral ambiguities and issues were the most fascinating part. I am not sucked in the same way I was to Rising Stars, but it’s still a good story, and I am curious to find out what happens. Michael also read and enjoyed Contact and also wants the next book, so he can find out what happened.
Rating: 7/10

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