Salvation’s Child Review

 

Salvation’s Child Review

Writer: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Artist: Mike Collins

Colorist: Pippa Bowland

Letterer: Simon Bowland

Cover Artist: Steve Stone

Editor: Paul Cornell

Designer: Dylan Todd

Introduction: Sophie Aldred

Publisher: Comixology

Kindle ebook Price: $6.99

Release Date: May 26, 2026

 

She lives under the threat of annihilation. So when an alarm rings through the colony, Marta Torino straps her belongings to her back and hurries from her quarters. When she gazes up into the sky, she sees an Architect ship descending into the atmosphere of her adoptive world. Despite her late-term pregnancy, Marta races along the crowded streets toward the spaceport.

 

By the time Marta boards the Ayou, people are filling the hold. But as they climb into their suspension pods, the pilot has yet to arrive. With port control urging them to depart, Marta takes charge. She straps herself into the cockpit, grabs the controls, and launches the Ayou into space. Where will Marta find refuge for all the people sleeping in her ship’s suspension pods? And why are the Architects intent on exterminating Humanity? Let’s leap into Salvation’s Child and see!

 

Story

Despite encountering difficulties leaving the planet, Marta manages to navigate the Ayou to a Throughway, the only safe way that Humans can travel through Unspace. Still, Marta knows she cannot retain her sanity if she remains awake. So, as the ship travels toward another star, Marta climbs into a suspension pod and sleeps during her journey to another star.

 

As Salvation’s Child begins, Humans have lived beneath the threat of extermination for half a century. After the Architects transformed the Earth, the aliens reshaped their colony worlds. After escaping the Architects yet again, Marga gives birth to her daughter Xavienne in a temporary medical camp. A decade later, Marta and Xavi live in a refugee camp on Istri’vii. But all the locals call it Crabtown.

 

Humans are only one of many intelligent species in Adrian Tchaikovsky's story. Yet they remain reliant on other species willing to feed and house the refugees. And whenever cultures clash, understanding each other becomes a problem. As a single mother, Marta strives to protect Xavi as best she can. But her daughter demonstrates a surprising ability to communicate with other species. So, Marta must stand back and allow her daughter to take on the responsibility for Humanity’s survival in Salvation’s Child.

 

Art

Despite the poster above her bed, Marta lives in a room devoid of individuality. When she awakens, Marta grabs the backpack containing her belongings and runs into a crowded corridor. As she reaches the street, Mike Collins tilts the camera angle. A double-page spread shows a maddened throng, spaceships lifting off landing pads, and an upside-down crystal city glowing in the night sky.

 

Despite carrying her unborn child, Marta climbs a ladder along with the other refugees. Then she gazes up at the makeshift floors of suspension pods filling the spaceship's hold. As the Ayou lifts off, it encounters other spaceships clustered above the churning atmosphere. When she races toward a Throughway, all of Pippa Bowland's bright colors fade. Then, Marta enters the black and white realm of Unspace in Salvation's Child.

 

Marta and her daughter journey across the cosmos, meeting aliens shaped like crabs and worms. They also encounter a race of cloned women. Simon Bowland shares their conversations using uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons. Dark blue letters in light blue balloons appear when their friend Hermes, the Quartermaster and Logistician of his ship, speaks to Marta and Xavi. Giant letters race across the page when danger threatens, while white letters fill a panel aboard the Ayou, signaling an altered future for Marta and her unborn daughter. Thanks to Comixology for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

As Humans struggle to survive among the stars, they live under threat from an alien race they don’t understand. Like the Jana’ata in Maria Dora Russell’s novel The Sparrow, the Architects pursue a unique form of artistry. But instead of transforming people’s hands, they fashion worlds into uninhabitable shapes in Salvation’s Child.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Salvation's Child.