Review: On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden

[Russ Allbery]

On a Sunbeam
by Tillie Walden

Publisher: Tillie Walden
Copyright: 2016-2017
ISBN:      on-a-sunbeam
Format:    Online graphic novel
Pages:     544

On a Sunbeam is a web comic that was published in installments between
Fall 2016 and Spring 2017, and then later published in dead tree form.
I read the on-line version, which is still available for free from its
web site [1]. It was nominated for an Eisner Award and won a ton of other
awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Mia is a new high school graduate who has taken a job with a
construction crew that repairs old buildings (that are floating in
space, but I'll get to that in a moment). Alma, Elliot, and Charlotte
have been together for a long time; Jules is closer to Mia's age and
has been with them for a year. This is not the sort of job one commutes
to: they live together on a spaceship that travels to the job sites,
share meals together, and are more of an extended family than a group
of coworkers. It's all a bit intimidating for Mia, but Jules provides a
very enthusiastic welcome and some orientation.

The story of Mia's new job is interleaved with Mia's school experience
from five years earlier. As a new frosh at a boarding school, Mia is
obsessed with Lux, a school sport that involves building and piloting
ships through a maze to capture orbs. Sent to the principal's office on
the first day of school for sneaking into the Lux tower when she's
supposed to be at assembly, she meets Grace, a shy girl with sparkly
shoes and an unheard-of single room. Mia (a bit like Jules in the
present timeline) overcomes Grace's reticence by being persistently
outgoing and determinedly friendly, while trying to get on the Lux team
and dealing with the typical school problems of bullies and in-groups.

On a Sunbeam is science fiction in the sense that it seems to take
place in space and school kids build flying ships. It is not science
fiction in the sense of caring about technological extrapolation or
making any scientific sense whatsoever. The buildings that Mia and the
crew repair appear to be hanging in empty space, but there's gravity.
No one wears any protective clothing or air masks. The spaceships look
(and move) like giant tropical fish. If you need realism in your
science fiction graphical novels, it's probably best not to think of
this as science fiction at all, or even science fantasy despite the
later appearance of some apparently magical or divine elements.

That may sound surrealistic or dream-like, but On a Sunbeam isn't that
either. It's a story about human relationships, found family, and
diversity of personalities, all of which are realistically portrayed.
The characters find their world coherent, consistent, and predictable,
even if it sometimes makes no sense to the reader. On a Sunbeam is
simply set in its own universe, with internal logic but without
explanation or revealed rules.

I kind of liked this approach? It takes some getting used to, but it's
an excuse for some dramatic and beautiful backgrounds, and it's oddly
freeing to have unremarked train tracks in outer space. There's no way
that an explanation would have worked; if one were offered, my brain
would have tried to nitpick it to the detriment of the story. There's
something delightful about a setting that follows imaginary physical
laws this unapologetically and without showing the author's work.

I was, sadly, not as much of a fan of the art, although I am certain
this will be a matter of taste. Walden mixes simple story-telling
panels with sweeping vistas, free-floating domes, and strange, wild
asteroids, but she uses a very limited color palette. Most panels are
only a few steps away from monochrome, and the colors are chosen more
for mood or orientation in the story (Mia's school days are all blue,
the Staircase is orange) than for any consistent realism. There is
often a lot of detail in the panels, but I found it hard to appreciate
because the coloring confused my eye. I'm old enough to have been a
comics reader during the revolution in digital coloring and improved
printing, and I loved the subsequent dramatic improvement in vivid
colors and shading. I know the coloring style here is an intentional
artistic choice, but to me it felt like a throwback to the days of
muddy printing on cheap paper.

I have a similar complaint about the lettering: On a Sunbeam is either
hand-lettered or closely simulates hand lettering, and I often found
the dialogue hard to read due to inconsistent intra- and interword
spacing or ambiguous letters. Here too I'm sure this was an artistic
choice, but as a reader I'd much prefer a readable comics font over
hand lettering.

The detail in the penciling is more to my liking. I had occasional
trouble telling some of the characters apart, but they're clearly drawn
and emotionally expressive. The scenery is wildly imaginative and often
gorgeous, which increased my frustration with the coloring. I would
love to see what some of these panels would have looked like after
realistic coloring with a full palette.

(It's worth noting again that I read the on-line version. It's possible
that the art was touched up for the print version and would have been
more to my liking.)

But enough about the art. The draw of On a Sunbeam for me is the story.
It's not very dramatic or event-filled at first, starting as two
stories of burgeoning friendships with a fairly young main character.
(They are closely linked, but it's not obvious how until well into the
story.) But it's the sort of story that I started reading, thought was
mildly interesting, and then kept reading just one more chapter until I
had somehow read the whole thing.

There are some interesting twists towards the end, but it's otherwise
not a very dramatic or surprising story. What it is instead is
open-hearted, quiet, charming, and deeper than it looks. The characters
are wildly different and can be abrasive, but they invest time and
effort into understanding each other and adjusting for each other's
preferences. Personal loss can have huge consequences, and even drive a
lot of the allowed to be happy after loss, and to mature independent of
the bad things that happen to them. These characters felt like people I
would like and would want to get to know (even if Jules would be
overwhelming). I enjoyed watching their lives.

This reminded me a bit of a Becky Chambers novel, although it's less
invested in being science fiction and sticks strictly to humans.
There's a similar feeling that the relationships are the point of the
story, and that nearly everyone is trying hard to be good, with
differing backgrounds and differing conceptions of good. All of the
characters are female or non-binary, which is left as entirely
unexplained as the rest of the setting. It's that sort of book.

I wouldn't say this is one of the best things I've ever read, but I
found it delightful and charming, and it certainly sucked me in and
kept me reading until the end. One also cannot argue with the price,
although if I hadn't already read it, I would be tempted to by a paper
copy to support the author. This will not be to everyone's taste, and
stay far away if you are looking for realistic science fiction, but
recommended if you are in the mood for an understated queer character
story full of good-hearted people.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Reviewed: 2022-05-21

URL: https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/on-a-sunbeam.html

[1] https://www.onasunbeam.com/

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>