Comparing the art to the Kindred adaption, obviously the artist is the same, but I didn't find it quiet so overwhelming visually. My negative side wonders if this has to do with reading it frame by frame digitally, rather then parsing it page by page physically, but I don't know. My gut says it is a bit more parred down and more pleasing to my eye. Which is obviously super important - not. As the story does revolve around Lauren's religious speculation there is a lot of quotes and excerpts included alongside the art. As always, re-reads and digital comics are both a bit hard for me, but that is a me problem not a book problem. It's a super timely read not only for the actual timeline of the book being in the 2020s but also just because of how prescient it feels. This does fall into my appreciated sub genre of the "hippies" kind of winning, or at least that might does not make right at the end of the world. I feel like the past few months of mutual aid and caremongering has perhaps shown us that humanity can be even more compassionate, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see...?

Gender and race are both pretty central to Lauren's mission with Earthseed. She talks several times about needing to create a diverse community of people. That said, things end up feeling pretty heterosexual.

My biggest complaint is the extreme drug stigmatisation that goes on. I mean, it's not unique to her, but it is unfortunate. Maternal drug use is also the reason why Lauren is disabled and that certainly brings up a lot of bad connotations.

Class is less of a monolith, and all the characters do rough it, but it does feel like there is judgement there. Kind of hard to untangle from the general fear of the outsider that is part of the sub-genre.