Advance Review: ‘Sap Hunters’ Is A Sci-Fi Story That Flourishes

Welcome to the table,

I’ve always been a fan of TTRPGs that focus on a time after mankind. Gamma Word, R.I.F.T.S., and Dark Sun are always settings that seem full of story opportunities to explore stories in the “what comes after.” Sap Hunters, published by Humanoids, feels like it can sit among those stories.

This graphic novel is beautifully illustrated and written by Alexandre Ristorcelli and translated into English by Montana Kane. Sap Hunters is adapted from a science fiction novel by Laurent Genefort, and it is honestly a weird, beautiful, traveling story through an alien, and yet somehow totally familiar landscape.

The civilization that the story focuses on lives in a massive world tree that seems to be miles wide and stretches far above the clouds. Groups of humanoids call this tree home and travel through the boughs exploring forest-sized branches and valley-sized craters in the bark. What becomes fairly obvious early on, in a social commentary sort of way that reflects what’s happening to our planet, is that The World Tree that all of these humanoids live upon, is dying.

As such stories go, a small band of vastly different personalities join together to go figure out why the world they know seems to be coming to an end, and if they can save it.

That is not a commentary on this story being run-of-the-mill. While it follows a very familiar “our world is dying we must save it” kind of story thread the world is so rich with visually different and exciting set pieces that I was never bored reading it.

As the sickness that has infected the sap of The World Tree eats at it, the unlikely group of heroes works their way down the levels of the Tree, inching closer to its roots. But what they begin to uncover as they travel further and further down changes their understanding of the world itself and everyone’s connection to it.

Alexandre Ristorcelli skillfully adapts Genefort’s story of a world teetering on the edge of destruction, bringing it to life with stunning artwork that will leave readers breathless and delighted with each page turn.

Fans of green spaces, traveling adventures, and beautiful art will delight in this strange science fiction story. You can pick it up in bookstores and on the Humanoids website soon.

Until next time, it seems to be the end of the word as we know it… but I feel fine.