Sentient is bit different than you would expect from premise. It tells about AI controlled ship with only children in it. You could expect this is something aimed for kids. It is not. You will be reminded from time to time it is not for kids. At times it feels like it is for kids but then something violent happens. I wish I didn’t know the premise when I started. First page shows dead parents so it is not surprise when parents die even if you haven’t read the description. I would have preferred not knowing parents will die when the incident happens.
Sentient is six issues long miniseries. It has three two issue mini arcs inside main arc. This is hard science fiction with realistic feeling AI. I liked moments when AI acted like it was no big deal when kids saw their dead parents. Watercolor art gives same time kids comic feeling and gritty hard science fiction feeling. Art made me pick this up because I wasn’t that sure about the premise.
Recommendation is you want darker hard science fiction with realistic AI. Kids have huge role but this is not kids comic. Storytelling is quite slow. I could tell everything in few words. Art and story gives feeling of lonely ship traveling in radio silence. Slow story telling makes shocking moments feel shocking. There are few of those. I wish book told more about antagonists of the last two issues. They almost need similar series. They weren’t just obstacle in our heroes way. There was more in them. If not more about them I would like to know more about dynamics of AI ships and their crews in this world. We met two ships and two crews. Neither of those were fully controlled by humans. There could be more interesting stories in this world.