Project Nought

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The characters were so lovable and easy to root for. Ren was sort of shy and anxious. Mars was excitable and eager. Jia was withdrawn and jaded. Phoebe was friendly and fun. Phoebe was especially great and sort of hilarious sometimes. There were a couple other characters too with smaller parts. And they all had good hearts. I liked them all. And when he crosses paths with the absolute last person he expected to see in the future, he has a bigger problem on his hands: What if Chronotech isn't the benevolent organization they claim to be, and he and his fellow subjects are in great danger? Now to get into something I’m more neutral about, the characters. I don’t hate them, but I also don’t love them. I think Phoebe, Jia, and Tané were my favorites to see. Ren was alright, nothing special. I liked the little message at the end with him but eh, not an amazing MC imo. As for Mars, while I found him to get better later on, I think there should’ve been more consequences for him just…straight up not believing Jia. I wish they had stayed a bit mad at him still, or that he at least had not been fully forgiven. Something like “You’re my friend and I still love you, but just know that you trusting a company over me for 2 years stings.” Overall just didn’t feel like any of these characters got the full time to shine. They were likeable enough and drove the story forward, but I wouldn’t say I’m super attached to any of them. EDIT: Actually gonna just put this here, I think I was too soft on Mars. I’d genuinely say he drops the book to around 2.5 stars for me, not any lower because the art still carried the book for me, and I liked Jia and some of the humor. But genuinely I don’t think I liked Mars anywhere within the book. I don’t see how he has such fast chemistry with Ren when all I see is him treating Rem like some museum exhibit and not a person for a lot of the book early on. I don’t remember him ever apologize for that either. And him quite literally stanning a corporation and being concerned about “breaking the law” when they’re going to save the other subjects was hard to read. It’s not funny it was just frustrating. He is barely held accountable for any of this plus how he treated Jia about their ex-partner and thus congrats Mars, you’ve made me so pissed in retrospect at your character i dropped my review score by a full star.

Ren sort of falls for his time travel program partner Mars, a really sweet guy who idolizes Chronotech. Mars has funky-colored hair, is enthusiastic about everything, and stans the head of Chronotech, Eliza Yu. There’s a little bit of kissing that goes on in the story, but it isn’t fully fleshed out why Ren is interested in Mars. It seems like they could be just friends who bond over laser video games and candy, but suddenly they’re into each other? It’s hard to swoon when you don’t see the push and pull between the characters getting to know each other and crush on each other. I bought this book since I thought a graphic novel would help me get out of my reading slump, which I think it may do that now. Ren, running away to meet his pen pal, falls over in 1996 and wakes up in 2122. Along with his host Mars, fellow time traveller Phoebe and ex-member of the time travel education programme Jira, Ren finds himself at the centre of a mission to uncover the truth. It seems like time travel might be too good to be true. read it all in one sitting over the course of like 4? 5? hours (ignoring the three other books without pictures that i’m ostensibly reading right now) needed this so bad … like it hit! i needed to see a cute gay couple get together and have an adventure and it delivered. more than delivered. a lot of queer and trans characters which always heals me a little and was especially nice rn because i’ve been pissed off at cis people treating me badly this week. it got darker than i expected which wasn’t a bad thing at all like it was really good and i teared up multiple times (although never quite enough to let tears fall). i got the fluttering feeling in my chest that i am literally always chasing from stories and in life so that made me feel like a person again. i also laughed out loud a couple times which is impressive i don’t often laugh from books!! and beautiful beautiful art like it transmitted the action so well. facial expressions felt very real and during the emotional scenes they were honestly kind of brutal in a good way. loved the plot twist too 😼 i’m excited for the next book (there’s gotta be one … ) This was great! Sci-fi, action, mystery, twists, humor, romance, friendship, lovable characters—a bit of everything, with beautiful art, to boot!

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But this doesn’t make Project Nought a bad graphic novel. It makes me not the right reader. I borrowed a friend’s tween as a test reader because I felt I couldn’t truly do Project Nought justice without someone who thought 1996 was the distant past. They loved the novel. The multiple character views aren’t just artistically impressive but helped them follow the complex plot, which they said was fast-paced and exciting. They also liked seeing themself, and Aotearoa, in well-produced graphic novel.

Thank you to Harper360YA for sending me an ARC of this graphic novel in exchange of an honest review.

When Kieren Mittal, who is cued as being of Asian Indian descent, learns that his mother plans to send him to stay with his aunt for the summer so he can work and not just sit around playing video games, he impulsively decides to go visit his pen pal. After tripping and hitting his head on the bus, however, he wakes up in the year 2122. Ren discovers that he’s among 50 subjects transported through time by Chronotech to assist University of Time Expansion students with their history projects. After five months, the subjects’ memories will be wiped, and they will be returned to the moments from which they were taken. Knowing he won’t remember their time together, Ren struggles with growing closer to Mars, the White boy who will be studying him. Meanwhile, fellow subject Phoebe, Ren’s roommate, receives dire warnings from former student Jia about the experiment’s risks and Chronotech’s cover-up of a death. Ren and Phoebe must investigate to find the truth. Ren and Mars’ developing relationship is both adorable and full of angst, while rising tension mounts into a stunning twist ending. The attractive artwork is reminiscent of classic comics and features interestingly varied panels and a charmingly expressive, queer, and racially diverse cast. Project Nought is about a boy from the 1990s being brought to the future to participate in a time travel exchange program... Except is it really an exchange program when the kids from the past are just going to get their minds wiped at the end of the ordeal?

Tech conglomerate Chronotech sponsors a time-travel program to help students in 2122 learn what history was really like…from real-life subjects who’ve been transported into the future…and Ren is one of them. Ren is suddenly transported from his mundane life in 1996 to the year 2122 as a subject in an elaborate student exchange program to study the past in Chelsey Furedi’s exciting and mind-bending Project Nought.It has been a high streak for queer graphic novels over the past year and this is another excellent edition, taking a fresh and fun approach to the time travel genre and delivering it through a large cast of endlessly endearing characters and eye-popping art full of bold colors and sci-fi goodness. Combining playful romantic friction with a narrative of the dark side that lurks under any society that presents itself as a utopia and the dangers of probing the mysteries keeping it hidden, Project Nought is a fast paced and blissfully nuanced tale with twists that keep you guessing and friendships that will melt your heart. Ren has been through it, you guys. First he finds out his mother is going to send him away, so he runs away from home to meet his longtime pen pal, and then, out of nowhere, he’s sent to the future?! Not only is he a subject who is evaluated from all sides, but his time travel program partner is a guy named Mars, who Ren starts to have feelings for. And on top of that, like that isn’t enough, he runs into a person who shouldn’t be there in 2122, bringing up all sorts of questions about how he got there as well. Ren is a survivor!! It’s easy to root for him as he goes through this fray. A New Zealand teen is dragged from 1996 into the future by a shady company in this work that expands on a popular webcomic. A solidly queer addition to the sci-fi canon that interrogates how the pursuit of science can sometimes overshadow a commitment to ethics.” — Publishers Weekly

The art is great and the subtle shifts in style from perspective to perspective and character to character is both well-done and interesting. Mars, who is easily the most anime-esque character, gets given the full manga treatment occasionally. Ren, more cautious and guarded, is drawn in a way that’s more muted – even when they share the same panel.

Furedi’s art is a joy to behold as well. She excels at use of color and constructs a lot of the tone and atmosphere through her color palettes. The character designs are really fun too and there is a nice emphasis on their fashion that nods to the looks of the 90s and how that might look in 100 years designing fashion based on those aesthetics. The frame work is great and conveys a lot of action and keeps the story moving. This is just a lovely book in general.

For fans of Kiss Number 8 and On a Sunbeam, this debut graphic novel is a fast-paced time travel adventure with a hint of romance that has garnered 1.5 million views as a Tapas webcomic. Ren Mittal's last memory in the year 1996 is getting on a bus to visit his mystery pen pal Georgia. When he wakes up in 2122, he thinks he might be hallucinating...he's not!