Second Shift
AI simulations, corporate mismanagement, and a psychological mystery intertwine in this first graphic novel from cartoonist Kit 
Anderson.
From Avery Hill Publishing, Second Shift brings us across a frozen wasteland far from Earth and into a lush habitat where the second shift of Terracorp employees are just being brought out of stasis. Enter Birdie Dornan, the senior of the two employees signing on for the current shift. The other is her brother Heck. After artificially cheerful greetings from the automated farm machines and an awkward passing of responsibilities as first shift heads into stasis, it’s time for Birdie and Heck to run management operations on the multitude of automated systems slowly working to capture minerals from passing asteroids and terraform a hostile landscape.
Second shift is there for repairs in the midst of increasing mechanical breakdowns and to monitor the status of the “payloads” harvested for the resources they contain. Through it all, they are assisted by the station AI, a digital projection which manifests into any number of forms considered pleasing to the human inhabitants.
Wondering how much their employers care about them and often on edge amidst the relative isolation, Birdie and Heck pass their free time in a series of simulations offered by the Station AI, all carefully tailored to the individual inhabitants. From adventure games to nighttime meditations, algorithms and virtual reality add depth and complexity to this remote corner of space. Everything changes when an unexplained signal leads Birdie and Heck to discover a second station, seemingly abandoned by people but also unlocking a host of questions which Birdie must decide if she truly wants answered.
Offering worldbuilding in small details and interlude messages spread between chapters, Anderson paints enough of a picture for the reader to grasp the circumstances of these characters while allowing the fullness of the larger world to exist in ambiguity. It’s a decision that works as Birdie and the others, out of touch with the wider galaxy, also find themselves cut off, disoriented, and questioning exactly how they fit into larger events going on somewhere beyond where they can see. There is plenty of sci-fi intrigue, but Birdie’s uncertainty after so much time with Station are central to the story. As she and Heck delve into virtual realities and the artificial environment of their current home, lines of understanding begin to blur. Terracorp is likely keeping secrets while the Station AI assures the team that everything is truly fine. Far from help and caught between the virtual and the real, Birdie’s willingness to ask questions—and to embrace the answers they bring—will shape much of what is to come.
With heavy line work and a muted palate of colors, Anderson gives richness and emotion to each segment of the story. The art is stylized enough to hold the dreamlike unreality of certain sequences, but also realistic enough to ground the narrative firmly in Birdie’s boots as she finds her way through each twisting corridor of the mystery surrounding her. For such a contained cast, each character and voice steps onto the page in memorable fashion, and as we follow Birdie down the rabbit hole, the psychological and tangible realities of the situation begin to show themselves across the panels of the story, larger than life but simultaneously all too real.
Avery Hill does not assign the volume an age rating. Though there is no mature content to speak of, the general themes and pacing of the book will more likely appeal to older readers from teens to adults. Despite the wider sci-fi setting of the narrative, the story itself is relatively slow paced and deeply personal as the characters navigate more existential questions of the place where they have found themselves. For readers who appreciate the ability of science fiction to explore future possibilities and the human condition, Second Shift should provide an engaging read. Balancing ambiguity with lovingly crafted detail, it’s a mystery that takes its time to unfold—but what it reveals drives at truths far deeper than just the nature of the mysterious second station. As a Terracorp missive asks in the book’s opening, “Isn’t it all worth it?”
Second Shift
By Kit Anderson
Avery Hill Publishing, 2025
ISBN: 9781917355209
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
