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REVIEW: The Surgeon #1
Book Title: The Surgeon #1
Book Description: The Surgeon #1 takes us roughly 30 years into the future. It’s an apocalyptic world that has clearly been torn apart. Whether that is by war, riot, or pandemic remains to be seen.
What we don’t see is a lot of people. 15 years ago anyone that could afford the million-dollar protection fee went underground, literally. These individuals abandoned the rest of humanity, leaving an untold number to die.
Dr. Jenny Hanover was in the middle of her residency when the doors to the underground were closed. She was almost ready to be an orthopedic surgeon with the lifestyle that came with it. Instead of living the high life, she’s spent 15 years steadily heading west on horseback.
Dr. Hanover wanders from town to town bartering medical services for the provisions she needs. She gets to Turtle Island and has a litany of patients that need tending to. Before she can barely get settled in Hanover finds herself conducting an appendectomy in the middle of a tornado.
Turtle Island is very big on people being true to their word. After the dust settles from the tornado the town’s representative reaches out to Dr. Hanover to ask what she wants. When she lists a few provisions, she’s told to “think bigger”.
This continues a few times until Dr. Hanover makes some rather exorbitant requests, which the Turtle Island representative promises to make happen with the reminder that in Turtle Island word is bond.
Later the people of Turtle Island have a festival. The catfish is delicious and the beer is free-flowing. Dr. Hanover has quite a few too many, and in her drunken stupor finds herself agreeing to train the entire town in combat along with other lofty ambitions before passing out.
Dr. Hanover awakens the next morning to a note from the people of Turtle Island thanking her and reminding her that word is bond. Will Dr. Hanover be able to deliver the nearly impossible? Or will she be forced to rescind her promise?
Book Author: John Pence
Book Format: Paperback
Publisher - Orgnization: Unlikely Heroes Studios
Publisher Logo:
Illustrator: Zachary Dolan
- Story(4.1)
- Interior Art(3.8)
- Cover Art(3.5)
- Dialogue(3.7)
- Mechanics(3.8)
- Editing(3.9)
Summary
The Surgeon wasn’t on my radar until I saw some of the creative team on a podcast. During the podcast, they announced a promotion for a free digital copy of this issue. Being a geek on a budget I couldn’t pass up that price.
I liked the premise of this story. It has an originality akin to Undiscovered Country with character development that feels like Firefly. I was left with some questions. What caused everyone to go underground? What year are we in? Where are we on the map? I have theories, but I want to read more to see if I’m right.
Dr. Hanover is brilliant, gritty, and confident. Yet she still feels like someone you could have a beer with. She’s everything one would hope for in a title character.
I like that the cover artwork gives us glimpses of what’s to come in the story. The artwork itself is crisp and it creates intrigue. It does exactly what you want in the first issue of a series: Get eyes on the book.
The interior artwork is magnificent. It has plenty of vivid detail while avoiding making the panels look too busy. It allows us to see how daunting the group’s pursuers are as well as just how badass and fearless Dr. Hanover truly is.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I’ll be acquiring the others in the run shortly. You can get your free digital copy of The Surgeon #1 at:
This is a limited-time promotion, so act fast!
Thanks for reading!
Until next time, gang!
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