Ren sort of falls for his time travel program partner Mars, a really sweet guy who idolizes Chronotech. Mars has funky-colored hair, is enthusiastic about everything, and stans the head of Chronotech, Eliza Yu. There’s a little bit of kissing that goes on in the story, but it isn’t fully fleshed out why Ren is interested in Mars. It seems like they could be just friends who bond over laser video games and candy, but suddenly they’re into each other? It’s hard to swoon when you don’t see the push and pull between the characters getting to know each other and crush on each other.

Project Nought by Chelsea Furedi is unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s a cleverly crafted, queer sci-fi graphic novel full of twists and revelations. I was kindly sent an advanced copy from Harper360YA. And they share the same panel a lot because this is a love story. Multiple love stories in fact. Plus, the far future may have many things but what it doesn’t have is straight people (every dystopia needs utopian aspects). Overall, I really liked the mysterious sci-fi story, the lovable characters, the cute romance and friendships, the beautiful art, and really just everything about this graphic novel! But this doesn’t make Project Nought a bad graphic novel. It makes me not the right reader. I borrowed a friend’s tween as a test reader because I felt I couldn’t truly do Project Nought justice without someone who thought 1996 was the distant past. They loved the novel. The multiple character views aren’t just artistically impressive but helped them follow the complex plot, which they said was fast-paced and exciting. They also liked seeing themself, and Aotearoa, in well-produced graphic novel. Furthermore, we got to see a great friend group, who were always ready to help and be there for each other. Another thing I really loved was the blossoming romance between Ren and Mars. Here I really liked seeing them getting to know each other, and slowly forming their bond.

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Characters: I adored all of the main characters, especially Mars, Jia and Tāne. I loved the casual representation and varying personalities of each character and all of them were a delight. Stunning character designs and expressive drawings made the characters pop and implicitly gave exposition to their personalities well (Jia and Mars' character designs are so cute, they were my favorites by far). While I found aspects of Ren and Mars' character development too fast, Jia and Phoebe were paced well. Thank you to the author, El and Harper Insider, and Harper 360YA, for sending me a proof in exchange for an honest review! Tech conglomerate Chronotech sponsors a time-travel program to help students in 2122 learn what history was really like…from real-life subjects who’ve been transported into the future…and Ren is one of them. For fans of Kiss Number 8 and On a Sunbeam, this debut graphic novel is a fast-paced time-travel adventure with a hint of romance that has garnered 1.5 million views as a Tapas webcomic.

A solidly queer addition to the sci-fi canon that interrogates how the pursuit of science can sometimes overshadow a commitment to ethics.”— Publishers Weekly Yet the only one who seems concerned by this is one of our leads, Ren, while the other past kids decided, "Hehehe no consequences for anything we do here 😈," which is actually an equally valid response from their perspective. Except what about the girl from the past who was tragically injured two years ago? The one that everyone was told was brought home safe and sound but whose student host insists that she died before their very eyes? Clearly, there's some dishonesty going on here, and it's not all fun and games and no consequences. I bought this book since I thought a graphic novel would help me get out of my reading slump, which I think it may do that now. Ren and Mars are gay, Phoebe is bisexual, Jira is non-binary. Even the baddies are lesbians. It’s a wonderful contrast to hypermasculine superhero comics. My tweenage test reader found the storyline and especially the characters, “extremely relatable, other than the time travel bits.” Anyone who likes graphic novels, lovable teen characters, science fiction, sweet romance and friendship, twisty stories, and a bit of mystery and action.

Ren, running away to meet his pen pal, falls over in 1996 and wakes up in 2122. Along with his host Mars, fellow time traveller Phoebe and ex-member of the time travel education programme Jira, Ren finds himself at the centre of a mission to uncover the truth. It seems like time travel might be too good to be true. For fans of Kiss Number 8 and On a Sunbeam, this debut graphic novel is a fast-paced time travel adventure with a hint of romance that has garnered 1.5 million views as a Tapas webcomic. I am looking forward to reading more from the author, and I would love to revisit this world someday. I’d highly recommend this graphic novel to anyone who loves Heartstopper, Bloom, or Cosmoknights!

Ren Mittal is a teenager in 1996 New Zealand. He plans to run away from home when he suddenly appears in the year 2122 as a “subject” of a time travel program by a company called Chronotech. Chronotech intakes these subjects from different eras in the past so that students of the 2100s can learn their history and culture from them directly. When in the middle of an interview, Ren meets someone he last expects to see in 2122, which leads to the question: is Chronotech actually doing good, or is there something more nefarious going on? Oh this one was so cute, I really enjoyed this one. Project Nought is an adorable debut with beautiful art that can put a smile on anyone's face, plus lovable characters as a bonus. This review will be spoiler free, but I will still try to go in depth. Ren is suddenly transported from his mundane life in 1996 to the year 2122 as a subject in an elaborate student exchange program to study the past in Chelsey Furedi’s exciting and mind-bending Project Nought.It has been a high streak for queer graphic novels over the past year and this is another excellent edition, taking a fresh and fun approach to the time travel genre and delivering it through a large cast of endlessly endearing characters and eye-popping art full of bold colors and sci-fi goodness. Combining playful romantic friction with a narrative of the dark side that lurks under any society that presents itself as a utopia and the dangers of probing the mysteries keeping it hidden, Project Nought is a fast paced and blissfully nuanced tale with twists that keep you guessing and friendships that will melt your heart. Furedi’s art is a joy to behold as well. She excels at use of color and constructs a lot of the tone and atmosphere through her color palettes. The character designs are really fun too and there is a nice emphasis on their fashion that nods to the looks of the 90s and how that might look in 100 years designing fashion based on those aesthetics. The frame work is great and conveys a lot of action and keeps the story moving. This is just a lovely book in general.Ren Mittal's last memory in the year 1996 is getting on a bus to visit his mystery pen pal Georgia. When he wakes up in 2122, he thinks he might be hallucinating...he's not! The first thing you need to know about Project Nought is that the characters are all queer and diverse. I will never get tired of stories like this, where queer people are able to thrive in a queer-normative world. Where everything just fits. Project Nought is set 100 years in the future, and I hope we are headed towards a similar society. The world-building was incredible. The art felt futuristic, and I think the author did a great job making everything look as realistic as possible. I would love to take a step out of this timeline and jump into a new one, but based on everything that happened in Project Nought, I’m not sure if I really do. For fans of Kiss Number 8 and On a Sunbeam , this debut graphic novel is a fast-paced time travel adventure with a hint of romance that has garnered 1.5 million views as a Tapas webcomic. Ren Mittal's last memory in the year 1996 is getting on a bus to visit his mystery pen pal Georgia. When he wakes up in 2122, he thinks he might be hallucinating…he’s not! The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.

Project Nought is about a boy from the 1990s being brought to the future to participate in a time travel exchange program... Except is it really an exchange program when the kids from the past are just going to get their minds wiped at the end of the ordeal? read it all in one sitting over the course of like 4? 5? hours (ignoring the three other books without pictures that i’m ostensibly reading right now) needed this so bad … like it hit! i needed to see a cute gay couple get together and have an adventure and it delivered. more than delivered. a lot of queer and trans characters which always heals me a little and was especially nice rn because i’ve been pissed off at cis people treating me badly this week. it got darker than i expected which wasn’t a bad thing at all like it was really good and i teared up multiple times (although never quite enough to let tears fall). i got the fluttering feeling in my chest that i am literally always chasing from stories and in life so that made me feel like a person again. i also laughed out loud a couple times which is impressive i don’t often laugh from books!! and beautiful beautiful art like it transmitted the action so well. facial expressions felt very real and during the emotional scenes they were honestly kind of brutal in a good way. loved the plot twist too 😼 i’m excited for the next book (there’s gotta be one … ) Ren has been through it, you guys. First he finds out his mother is going to send him away, so he runs away from home to meet his longtime pen pal, and then, out of nowhere, he’s sent to the future?! Not only is he a subject who is evaluated from all sides, but his time travel program partner is a guy named Mars, who Ren starts to have feelings for. And on top of that, like that isn’t enough, he runs into a person who shouldn’t be there in 2122, bringing up all sorts of questions about how he got there as well. Ren is a survivor!! It’s easy to root for him as he goes through this fray.In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world. EDIT: Actually gonna just put this here, I think I was too soft on Mars. I’d genuinely say he drops the book to around 2.5 stars for me, not any lower because the art still carried the book for me, and I liked Jia and some of the humor. But genuinely I don’t think I liked Mars anywhere within the book. I don’t see how he has such fast chemistry with Ren when all I see is him treating Rem like some museum exhibit and not a person for a lot of the book early on. I don’t remember him ever apologize for that either. And him quite literally stanning a corporation and being concerned about “breaking the law” when they’re going to save the other subjects was hard to read. It’s not funny it was just frustrating. He is barely held accountable for any of this plus how he treated Jia about their ex-partner and thus congrats Mars, you’ve made me so pissed in retrospect at your character i dropped my review score by a full star. The characters were so lovable and easy to root for. Ren was sort of shy and anxious. Mars was excitable and eager. Jia was withdrawn and jaded. Phoebe was friendly and fun. Phoebe was especially great and sort of hilarious sometimes. There were a couple other characters too with smaller parts. And they all had good hearts. I liked them all.