Customer Reviews

Doktor Sleepless Volume 1: Engines of Desire HC

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So the Doktor is a weird scientist that has stuff going on in the background, somehow he is a form of someone that used to live in the city, and also somehow he is not all of the mad genius controller the fate of the town as he may think he is, but overall, it is a good story so far.

The other characters are not well developed as of yet, but the Doktor and his side kick "Nurse" partake in some witty banter.

The art is good, but anything really special though, but the town itself is beautifully created and described. The townsfolk are shown to be sort of bitter and nihilistic at the fact that the future was not what they were promised. One tag on a building is says "Where's My Jetpack?!" I found that humorous.

The writing is good, typical Warren Ellis and his use of main charismatic, not-so-good main characters. Some of the speeches that the Doktor gives shows a wonderful spark of genius. Oh, did we mention that he hosts his own radio show that the lower-class seem to take as gospel? It is a good show...I think I would listen to it.

Overall, this is a good book if you want to know the story so far. One of the problems with the comics is that he produces to many covers for each issue, making us collectors pay more to own them...it is annoying...

Get the book if you like comics, anti-heroes, dark futuristic stories, mad scientists, or Warren Ellis.

I found this collection a welcomed break from the superhero-centric onslaught of Marvel and DC. This title shares similarities with Blade Runner and Rocky Horror Picture Show in that it is a science fiction mystery about a near dystopian future, and the adventures of a amoral, and even sinister Doctor and his "Nurse." The good Doktor is a radio DJ and media personality who know things about the technology currently in use and about the forces at play in this world. The state of the Doktor's mental health is very questionable, which makes the read all the more enjoyable. This collection raises more questions than it does providing answers, and provides a vehicle for Warren Ellis, the writer, to vent his thoughts on music, comics, technology, and subculture. This work is comparable in style to Transmetropolitan. Ivan Rodriguez's art is clean and eerie, and I think fits with the book. I enjoyed reading this very much and will continue to collect it.

Doktor Sleepless is a mad scientist terrorizing a near future metropolis. Or is he a sane genius who acts like a mad scientist so no one will take him seriously until it's too late?

Ellis desperately wants us to love the good Doktor, he makes him smarter and wittier than anyone else. He tries to impress us with his plan to get revenge on the world for giving us a future without jet packs and robots but with starvation, pollution and war.

Ellis does fill the book with clever near-future ideas like social-networking contact lenses, rave girls networked together to share sensations and self-made cyborgs. But we soon learn that Doktor Sleepless invented all of these things and more.

So the end result is the Doktor is pretty clearly a Mary Sue, a perfect, flawless character we readers should all fall in love with.

And over the course of the book he does... nothing. He talks about how clever he is. How he will burn it all down and upend society. And talks, and talks, and talks.

Maybe he'll bet around to it in a later volume but I won't be there to read it.

Oh and there's something about a Cthulhu-like monster and some cyborg angels in here too. Whatever.