Robota by Doug Chaing and Orson Scott Card
06/12/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

pub: Chronicle Books, San Francisco. 176 page hardback. Price: $35.00 (US). ISBN: 0-8118-4041-7.

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Whatever else any of you people think about the films, I haven't heard anyone criticising the design. Indeed, looking at this illustrated book, it doesn't take too many brain-cells being rubbed together to realised where the influence for the robot army came from.

This doesn't mean to say that this is anything to do with Lucas' mythology but more to do with recognising the signature of one of its designers.

So, what have we got here.

For those of you old enough to remember the artbooks from the 70s where there was text or story sprinkled around art that generally came from various book covers will remember that feeling looking at this book's design.

This though is Doug Chaing's book. His art and ideas with the assistance of Orson Scott Card to making the prose work. 'Robota' starts with the arrival of the Olm on Earth while Man still sails the seas in galleons. There's some rather striking paintings here of flying saucers above these sailing ships.

We then skip a century to where an amnesiac character called Caps awakens into a world ran by the robots left by the Olm and out to find out his purpose in life. Along this journey, he encounters cybernetically enhanced talking apes - well, a couple of them - and joins the rebellion to stop the robot tyranny that has evolved.

I have to confess that I found this an oddly disjointed story. The characters disappear and appear off set when they aren't needed. You end up wondering what they've been up to, let alone know when to return at a crucial moment.

Orson Scott Card's prose tends to fill the gaps between the paintings. I also got the impression that he remained faithful to Chaing's art/plot and didn't over-do any descriptive detail so as to ensure the art carried that part of the story. Therein lies the problem. Chaing is extremely good at painting technology and evocative robots but his people don't display anything beyond comicbook art. More's the pity really.

Although the pictures do have some link to the prose, they don't always cover as much information pertaining to the action as would probably would really be needed. I tend to put this down to neo-writer jitters as they find their feet although I wish the editor and the more experienced Card hadn't acted as hired hands.

It's an odd book and I hate to sound so negative about its faults. I do think the one aspect to the reality, the Olm, had been covered better. Seeing the fall of the robots doesn't really cover their development on Earth in the first place.

If you like technology based art, then I think you'll find something here to like but do suggest you look at it in a shop before making a purchase as I don't think it will appeal to everyone.

GF Willmetts