SPOILER ALERT!

Behind the Glamour of Professional Sport

Dueling Ambitions - John Jackson Miller

Pretty much once I got to this graphic novel the series begins to degrade. Zayne Carrick and Gryph have cleared their names and are now free agents travelling the Republic looking for whatever adventure they might come across. Jareal and Rodan are still with them, as well as a silent robot named Ebee. However the stories simply did not have the same panash as the first few stories did.

 

The main story involves a sporting event that is very popular in the Republic: speedbike duelling. Basically the competitors are given speedbikes and they rush around a course attempting to defeat their opponents and win the tournament. All seems to be above board, and despite it being a full contact sport, most of the weapons have been worked so that no injuries are caused, or so it seems.

 

As Zayne becomes involved in this sport he discovers that there is more to this game than it first appears. He meets one of his sporting heroes who has apparently retired until he discovers that for these guys retirement is not an option. They are not the sporting heroes that we know but slaves who have been sold to the sporting association, and the whole idea that it is not a blood sport is simply propaganda put out by the association.

 

The suggestion is that the only actual game that anybody is interested in is what we would call the Grand Final. In fact that is what many of us are interested in these days. Here in Australia the AFL Grand Final (just like the Superbowl in the United States) generally attracts high ratings (as well as a full house at the MCG), however only die hard supporters watch the other games. So is the case here, as it is suggested that the only people that are interested in the other events are gamblers, who will pretty much bet on anything.

 

The same is the case here because gambling has become such a big industry. One can pretty much bet on anything from the winner of an election, to who will win a particular seat, to who will kick the first goal in the match, to, I reckon, which fly will land on the bread slice first. As I have said, if there is an element of chance, then you can place a bet on it. I will say more about slavery when I look at volume 8.

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/379226859