Book Review: Wildfire vol #1

Book: Wildfire volume #1 (issues #1-4) by Matt Hawkins with illustrations by Linda Sejic

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

Is genetically modified food an end to world hunger - or a first class ticket to the apocalypse? Dan Miller is a plant biologist working with a small team perfecting an accelerated plant growth process. When things go wrong, Los Angeles pays the price in a disaster story unlike any before!



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I love the story and the illustrations. Just imagine what would happen if an experiment went horribly wrong? That's what this story is about. Scientists were in the process of developing a way to accelerate the growth of plants and produce which could possibly be a way help with the world hunger crisis.

However, when scientist Dr. Beth Silva was being interviewed by reporter Michelle Crawford she made a huge mistake by letting the world know that her experiment was ready when it was far from it. But she didn't want her team to lose funding and which mean they needed to put together some kind of presentation.

She along with fellow Dr. Dan Miller presented a live modified experiment but after an accident happened following a disturbance on stage spores from the experiment were soon out into the world. It didn't take long before most of Los Angeles was being covered with plants and was causing other problems.

Disaster was spreading throughout the city and after a major tragedy, Dr. Miller was left to try to figure out how to stop the destruction of the city. Also, on his mind was trying to locate his sister Ashley who was with Dr. Silva's daughter Violet, they were somewhere in the city.

I really liked this story because not only does it deal with the ramifications of big business controlling the advancements of science but also the ethics of some experiments. Just because something can be done doesn't mean that it should.

This was very well-written and the dialogue felt natural while the characters seem like real everyday people who found themselves in a terrible disaster trying to cope with everything. Reporter Michelle Crawford (see image below) reminded me of Lois Lane because she wanted nothing more than to report real news, she feels like journalism has turned into nothing more than celebrity gossip and sensationalism.

I did mention that I love the artwork. It was simply fantastic with some illustrations seem almost real. I don't know who is the colorist was for this but they did an amazing job.

This is one of those what if stories that deals with genetically modified organisms (GMO) and I think the author did a good job of showing that. The story was interesting and kept my attention all the way through. At the end of the story, there is a section "Science Class" that gives information about GMO and also gives the pros and cons for them. Wildfire was truly a scientific nightmare and the story ends by setting up the next volume which I am actually really interested in reading.

Wildfire is something that I would definitely recommend to readers.