Instead, we see them struggle through day-to-day challenges, like grappling with a secret crush or escaping from a deadly chamber full of physical tests. Who are they, what are the rules of their world, and what does it all mean? These big questions are not answered. Later, we meet an adventurer whose consciousness is hiding in a temporary body then we meet a young woman who has been selected as a candidate for immortality. We are introduced to Eugene, a low-level worker of some kind in a giant mobile city, and we see him go about his day-to-day routine. How can a book be so lush and also so sparse? Set in an unidentified future on unidentified worlds, Rain Like Hammers benefits from a generous peacefulness, presenting beautifully detailed sci-fi landscapes and intimate quiet moments with our main characters. I think I’d enjoy the hike if I hadn’t been given so much to carry. I think I’d like the setting if I could just see it more clearly behind the speech bubbles. We barely get to know the characters because we’re always spending time in world-building and lore I think I’d like them if they just had the room to show us who they are instead of telling us in overstuffed panels where the text eclipses the illustration.
Oh, if only the premise ended there alas, each page seems to introduce new bits and pieces of exposition, spelled out in lengthy “I don’t know why I’m telling you this” character dialogue.
The setup is lovely: On a magical planet of fantasy creatures, the twelve-year-old son of superheroes would rather be a chef than fight evil. Pax Samson spends so much time packing that I’m not sure we’ll ever make it to the top.
Yes, you should of course include the essentials necessary for survival - water, sunscreen, snacks - but when you start strapping entire pieces of furniture to their backs, you’re making the climb extra-arduous and you had better make sure the view at the top is worth it. I once had a writing teacher who described plot exposition as being like loading up the reader’s backpack in preparation for a hike up a mountain.
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