Minds (Cerebus, Book 10) [Paperback]

All..(pregnant pause)..it has effected.

"Minds" is not "Reads".

Let's get that point across straight from the start.

"Minds" is not about you, the reader. The story arch "Mothers and Daughters" ended with the afore-mentioned final volume of which it was composed. Yes, Cirin is still there, for awhile anyway. The first approximately 60 pages, she and Cerebus have what is essentially a repetition of the screaming match between him and Astoria in issue #105, only instead of in the dungeons of a small Tarimite church, this one takes place on a large chunk of rock shooting through space.

But, even though we will get to hear some talk about her behind her back, "Minds" is not about Cirin. So, accordingly, Sim gets rid of her. No, no, don't be upset-slash-throw a party (whichever you prefer). He simply sends her to Saturn for a while.

So Cerebus is left all alone on his large chunk of rock.

Now the fun begins.

Did I mention "Minds" is not about Cirin, "Mothers and Daughters", or you? It concerns, in fact, a certain puzzling grey-furred personality whom we have all come to know and love/hate. And his Creator.

As you know, Sim has spent something like 20 years on his title character, Cerebus. He has been "Prime Minister, then he was a houseguest, than he was Prime Minister, then the Pope, and then a house guest again".

Don't forget mercenary, Kitchen Staff Supervisor, and...ehh, skip it.

He has been offensive, cruel, cunning, barbaric, sophisticated, loving, unlovable, scheming, noble, petty....

Etcetera.

He has been the focus of attention, and he has been in the wings.

He has been a lot.

So what is he?

Well, it hurts to say it, but he remains much the same in one tragic respect. He is destructive. He has wrecked, or had a part in wrecking, the lives of a lot of people, and he is well on the way to wrecking his own. Sim has tossed just about every trick in the book at him, and he still continues unswervingly on his path to a grim death--chant along, people!--"alone, unmourned, and unloved". He seems inviolate. It has become painfully clear that nothing on earth is going to make him change.

Well, he's not on Earth now, is he?

Sim has taken the voice of a lot of people in his books, including Cerebus himself, Oscar Wilde, Jaka, and Victor and Viktor. Now, in "Minds", he takes his own in a lengthy discussion with Cerebus: Creator to Creation.

You see, Cerebus has run up against a brick wall. With all that has happened, he continues grimly on the road to self-destruction. To draw a parallel, he has now encountered that same fork in the road Neil Gaiman's Morpheus encountered. He must either change...or die.

If a "needle in Cerebus' eye", "Jaka's new boyfriend" and "abandoning Cerebus on Juno" don't make him change, it's not likely anything else will.

"Minds" concludes on a humorous note, but there is still danger. Cerebus seems resolved to change his life, but then again, he's no longer stranded on Juno, is he? Instead, he's falling through space...to the rest of his story.

Well, it's 1997. We have until 2006. Nine years in which Cerebus can either shape up or revert back to his old ways--change or die.

Is that a cliff-hanger or what?

Minds is much more traditional in its presentation compared to the previous volume, Reads, although it continues Sim's idiosyncratic view of the relation between creator and creation. I liked it a lot--especially the points where Cerebus tries to come to grips with the fact that he is talking to "God." Call it meta-fiction, call it jacking off--its unreal and poignant at the same time. Even if you think it doesn't work, you at least have to admire Sim for his audacity.

New to Cerebus? Don't start here. Find the first eponymous phone book and try that. It gets both better and worse after that, but this is truly one of those cases where you have to take the good with the bad.