Review by Win Wiacek

2000AD has been reshaping the minds of a generation of readers since 1977, affecting and inspiring hundreds of creators. Very much in the mould of the anarchic, subversive and wickedly cynical weekly comes this superb collection of tales starring a devious and irredeemably self-serving chancer with the fate of humanity unhappily piled on his shifty, unwilling and mostly uncaring shoulders.

Written throughout by Daniel Whiston, a peek into the legendary wrong-un’s murky history is first provided by ‘Blast from the Past: Prologue’, illustrated by Dave Thomson and set in the final days of EarthFed when sleazy politico and trade-whore Neroy saw most of his Ponzi-scheme style deals with alien races coming adrift all at once. He didn’t care. He was using government resources to sift space for priceless Pre-Collapse artefacts and relics. A fortune could be made with the smallest shard of 10,000-year-old tech and he’s been stockpiling them for years.

‘One Last Job’ has art by Johnny McMonagle with grey-tones by Thomson supplied throughout the collection. It opens ten years later with Neroy now a scuzzy conman and partial amnesiac, fallen foul of elderly, astoundingly vicious mobster Mr. Dubblz. The wizened felon wants Sphinx to shepherd an art heist but hasn’t reckoned on his cat’s-paw fooling not just the cops but also his employer.

Free and finally off-planet, ‘The Job From Hell’ (James Kircough) finds the ageing grifter on Proxima and slowly recovering memories. Unfortunately the first thing he remembers is that he removed certain recollections himself, in an effort to excise something too horrible to deal with.

An aimless wanderer, the mountebank resurfaces on a feudal backwater and becomes a pawn in a royal power-grab on ‘The De’Splurge Job’ (McMonagle) before getting stuck as an indentured labourer on a privately-owned planet where his native cunning soon exploits the exploiters in ‘Fall to Rise’ (Kircough).

Things become decidedly hinky after Sphinx’s libidinous nature drags him into a transgender trap and another scammer’s scheme to steal a precious treasure in ‘What You See Ain’t What You Get’ (McMonagle). Following that more suppressed memories are revealed in ‘Ice Woman’ (Kircough) as he is reunited with Fenris, the living weapon he once resurrected.

With human space gradually being infested by alien intruders ‘Cassiopian Queen’ (Kircough) sees the Machiavellian miscreant captured by the sorry remnants of EarthFed security, only to turn the tables on both cops and the crazy space pirates challenging them for mastery of the void.

A valued old associate Neroy doesn’t remember fortuitously returns in ‘Enter the Griffin’ (Kircough) when Sphinx is infected with a nano-virus to make him a much more motivated thief. All Neroy needs is a little more background information before ‘Breakin’ Outta the Bughouse’ (Thomson). The final piece of the puzzle means heading back to poor, shattered Earth and a reunion with Griff and Fenris, but sadly ‘Old Familiar Places’ (Thomson) often house bad memories too and Mr. Dubblz has exceptional recall but no mercy.

Everything ends with a tantalising taste of things to come in Playing to Lose. Last survivor Ensign Eudora Carver barely escapes her final skirmish with alien horrors thanks to an infuriating holo-message and bequest from the legendary Neroy Sphinx himself in the Thomson limned ‘Blast from the Past: Epilogue’.

Ambitious, gloriously engaging and exceedingly well-executed; this is contemporary space-opera with a broad scope and a deft touch that will delight lovers of edgy but light-hearted fantastic fiction.