Border Worlds

Border Worlds by Don Simpson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Down and out, Jenny Woodlore travels to the space station Chrysalis to work with her brother in his shipping business. By the time she arrives, her brother's business is a shambles and the space station itself may be in jeopardy...

Aeons ago, I read some Don Simpson books like Megaton Man and Bizarre Heroes. When It's Alive had their May sale, I bought this, vaguely remembering ads for it in the back of various Kitchen Sink Comix.

Okay, I misjudged Dandy Don Simpson over the years because he has some serious drawing chops. Some of the art reminds me of EC sci-fi like Wally Wood and Al Williamson. There's also some Moebius in here, typically in the space suits and the space station itself. The art is slick and detailed, nothing like what Don did on Megaton Man or Bizarre heroes.

The story starts off on a small scale and ratchets up. Jenny's personal life is in a shambles but nothing compared to her brother's and certainly not the degrading orbit of Chrysalis. Jenny tries to get her brother's shipping business going before getting caught up in something else all together.

I only have a couple gripes on this. One is that the art edits and the final chapter are a different style, which is jarring, but probably couldn't be helped since Don was doing them over a long period of time. My much bigger gripe is that it isn't finished! This is just book one and the rest of the saga doesn't exist!

As far as the first volume of never finished epics go, Border Worlds is hard to beat. Four out of five stars.

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