Monster Complex ™

View Original

N.K. Jemisin on her sci-fi murder mystery FAR SECTOR: “It was a chance to play with things I haven’t had the chance to dig into before.”

Chris Well

Author photo by Laura Hanifin.

“The first murder in five-hundred-ish years means we’re all going to have to improvise.”

Hugo award winner N.K. Jemisin talks about bringing all her SF novelist energy to a brand-new Green Lantern officer.

One of the interesting things about the DC Comics group known as the Green Lantern Corps is that they are a sort of police force patrolling the entire universe. (More or less.) They travel to the far ends of the DC Comics universe serving the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa.

Over the years, there have been lots of Green Lantern members in the comics. Each Green Lantern is awarded a cosmic power ring that shoots energy that the bearer can mold into (just about) anything. Currently, there are thousands of Green Lanterns serving.

Which brings us to the brand-new Green Lantern, Sojourner “Jo” Mullein.

(Who we recently spotlighted here: 45 Important Black Comic Book Superheroes.)

The main character of the sci-fi murder mystery Far Sector, Mullein is stationed lightyears away from Earth on a strange planet where emotion no longer exists—commissioned to solve a murder mystery on a planet that hasn’t seen a murder in centuries. (The locals are so not prepared to investigate this.)

As the mystery unfolds, Jo has been protecting the metropolitan sprawl City Enduring for a few months. The city—inhabited by more than 20 billion people—has been at peace for centuries because its citizens have been cleared of their ability to feel. Crimes of passion, especially murder, have not happened in centuries.

But now everything is about to come crashing down…

One of the great things about this murder mystery is that the crime scene is on a world populated by three different alien species. So the investigation requires figuring out these separate cultures—and even learning about their separate approaches to life and science.

Far Sector was created by the Black comics creative team of writer N.K. Jemisin (a stunning choice—more on her in a bit), artist Jamal Campbell, and letterer Deron Bennett. Below, find out about the book FAR SECTOR, more about author N.K. Jemisin, check out a Q&A with Jemisin about FAR SECTOR, and more!

Monster Complex uses Amazon affiliate links.

About the book FAR SECTOR

Acclaimed, award-winning author N.K. Jemisin (The Fifth Season, The City We Became) makes her comic book debut with bestselling artist Jamal Campbell (Naomi) as they thrust you into a stunning sci-fi murder mystery on the other side of the universe! For the past six months, newly chosen Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein has been protecting the City Enduring, a massive metropolis of 20 billion people. The city has maintained peace for over 500 years by stripping its citizens of their ability to feel. As a result, violent crime is virtually unheard of, and murder is nonexistent.

But that’s all about to change in this new graphic novel that puts a unique spin on the legacy of the Green Lanterns! The Far Sector trade collection includes all 12 issues of the original maxi-series comic book.

Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell, and Deron Bennett
DC Comics
Categories: Superhero Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Find Far Sector at Amazon

About the author N.K. Jemisin

N.K. Jemisin. Author photo by Laura Hanifin.

N.K. Jemisin is the first author in history to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo Awards—one for each book in her Broken Earth trilogy. Her work has won the Nebula and Locus Awards, and she is a 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow.

The first book in her current Great Cities trilogy, THE CITY WE BECAME, is a New York Times bestseller. Her speculative works range from fantasy to science fiction to the undefinable; her themes include resistance to oppression, the inseverability of the liminal, and the coolness of Stuff Blowing Up.

Interview with N.K. Jemisin about FAR SECTOR

Q: With the City Enduring, you were able to create your own world within the greater canvas of the DC universe. The concept of Green Lanterns exists here, but it’s so far out from everything else that you weren’t in danger of Martian Manhunter or whoever popping in, and you were able to create your own new alien species. What was fun about staking out a little bit of territory for yourself?

“I love world building, obviously, since we just talked about that. It was a chance for me to play with some things that I haven’t really had the chance to dig into before and to create some characters that I thought were memorable and interesting, and who I would like to revisit and play with again at some point.

“I had always designed Jo to be transferable into the great Green Lantern canon. That was one of the reasons why I wanted her to come out in floppy form first, because I understand the comic book audience enough to understand that when something comes out in graphic novel only, there’s a certain subset of the comic audience that’s just going to dismiss that — like she’s not a real Green Lantern unless she’s in a monthly series. So that was the goal, to set her up for whatever future usage within or without the canon. I feel like I accomplished that, because it worked.”

—How N.K. Jemisin’s Green Lantern comic taught her to think visually (Entertainment Weekly)

Q: How does Far Sector differ from other takes on Green Lantern?

“Well, I can’t say because I haven’t read every take on Green Lantern. It’s in a separate part of the universe. That much of it, I don’t have to actually read a bunch of other Green Lantern comics to know, although I have read a lot of them at this point. Basically, the rest of the Lantern stories take place within the 3,600 sectors that are overseen by the Guardians, what they call Guardian Space.

“This particular one takes place outside of Guardian Space, in a culture that is of almost-comparable level technology with the Guardians, and so the Guardians have not done much more than have very basic diplomatic contact with them. And they’ve requested someone! They’re aware of the Green Lanterns. They know of the very many Earth-based Green Lanterns, and they’ve specifically requested a Lantern for help with this, because they think that they’ve got a problem that an outsider would be especially useful for.

“So that’s kind of the core difference, is that she’s there as a lone Lantern representative, except that she’s not really part of the Lantern Corps. She has not interacted with the other Lanterns thus far. She knows that they exist. I don’t know if they know that she exists. The Guardians do, though. Some of this will become clearer over the course of the story. The Guardians know that she exists, [but] she has not been part of the Corps.”

—N.K. Jemisin On A New Green Lantern In ‘Far Sector’ (Bustle)

Q: What are some of the comics and shows and just geekdom that you were into growing up?

“I was a big fan of Star Trek: The Original Series and the original Twilight Zone. I was a fan of some of the X-Men comics, but at a certain point I hit a paywall as a college student. It cost too much, so I started getting more into indie comics, because then you didn’t have to buy like six of them to know what the story was.

“But I was a giant anime fan and I got a lot into manga. Like a lot of shojo stuff, and video games are probably my most recent and biggest influence outside of science fiction books.”

Q: Because you come from the world of long-form prose storytelling, was the adjustment to comics difficult?

“It’s a very different structure. Short stories are always harder for me than the novels. And this is a relatively short story told over 12 issues. So yeah, that’s a major adjustment. This is the first time I’ve ever done a collaborative work as well. Learning different mediums, learning different methods of storytelling helps all of my creativity as a whole.”

—Indie Comics Spotlight: N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell on their new new Green Lantern (SYFY)

Q: Unfortunately, while writing science fiction, you’ve had to deal with intense cyberbullying. With the film on the horizon, how are you preparing yourself for this whole new level of visibility? Or are you?

“There’s no point where you’re [completely] safe. I have reduced my vulnerability to things like that as a result of having dealt with previous cyber attacks. I know enough to protect myself against a lot of the casual brigading, but part of the issue is I’m basically not on Twitter anymore. I pop in every few days to remind people I’m not dead. Otherwise, I’m done with social media.

“It’s been a slow realization that I’ve gotten too big to just talk freely on social media anymore. I can’t really be myself there, so there’s no point in being there. So, I’m not going to see a lot of what people decide that they want to say about me. and that’s good for me. I’m using new techniques to try and guard myself, financially and in every other way. That’s just part of reaching a certain point of visibility.”

—Chatting with Author N.K. Jemisin about Her First Comic Book Collection Release of ‘Far Sector’ (Black Girl Nerds)

Hugo Winner N.K. Jemisin Explains why FAR SECTOR is the Green Lantern Story She Needs to Tell | Comics Beat

In the video interview below, Jemisin explains what makes Far Sector THE comic you need to read right now…

More about N.K. Jemisin online

More author features on Monster Complex

More comics articles on Monster Complex

More from Monster Complex