Monitor Duty by Randy Lander "Cathedral Child Revisited" About four years ago, I was introduced to the term "Texas Steampunk" by Lea Hernandez's freshman effort, Cathedral Child. It was something completely new for me, with plenty of manga influence and done in a small book format that seemed very weird. Of course, that doesn't seem anywhere near as unusual now, which is but one of the small but important changes taking place between the original release and this new release by Cyberosia Publishing. So, in the interest of comparison as well as providing insight to readers who may not have been reading my reviews four years ago, this side-by-side comparison of Cathedral Child's two editions. Overall, Cathedral Child remains a strong first effort, although there are elements that show it as a first effort. In particular, Hernandez's characters are sometimes not distinctive enough from one another, and when her storytelling is sometimes confusing anyway, it can make the story very hard to understand. In particular, Sumner Stuart (Nikola) and Johnson and Glory and Dona looked so much alike that I couldn't tell them apart at times. While Glory and Dona should of course have a familial similarity, there were occasional moments where it made the story hard to figure out. Leaving aside the occasional storytelling difficulty, some of which comes from the storytelling and some of which comes from me as the reader not paying close enough attention the first time around, this is a magical and delightful story. The story centers around a town called Heaven, Texas, where a group of natives have helped a pair of scientists to create a "thinking engine" called Cathedral in the midst of an old cathedral. Amidst this story of steampunk technology coming to life there are themes of murder, love and greed, and a heavy spiritual undercurrent runs through the whole story. What really makes the story move is the central love story between Glory and Sumner, which turns out to be connected to the birth of Cathedral as a thinking machine as well. Hernandez does a fantastic job of making their relationship sweet and believable, with an element of sexual awakening that is underplayed with very clever storytelling techniques such as symbolism or the use of off-panel story. The relationship between the Cuerpo natives and the outsider scientists and financiers, the creation of a sentient "machine" and the notions of wishes made into reality are all side elements to the central theme of a difficult love affair. In almost every respect, Cathedral Child by Cyberosia is an improvement over the Image printing from years gone by. I actually like the more striking cover design of the Image book more than the understated cover design used by Cyberosia, but the new cover design will allow the Texas Steampunk books to be grouped together visually in a pleasing manner, so I can understand the change. Most notably different in this edition is the paper quality. Where the Image paper had a yellowish tinge to it that often made the work look more muddy, the solid white paper used in the Cyberosia edition really makes the artwork jump off the page. There are occasional panels, such as the ones with the jackelopes or the very first shot of Cathedral, where this rougher paper element helped to enhance the detail, but for the most part the new paper is a godsend for the story, and the book looks a whole lot better for it. Rounding out this edition is what Hernandez calls the "commentary track," which perked up the ears of this DVD fan. Her page-by-page commentary, similar to the annotations that Carla Speed McNeil does in her Finder trades, are the big treat of the new edition for those who already have the old edition. She clarified a few points that had lost me, and more importantly, gives insight into some of the story elements that I had only partially picked up on or had seen in a different way. Cathedral Child was a groundbreaking work when it was first released, to such an extent that some of its innovations were regarded as drawbacks. I can't remember back to my review, but it isn't inconceivable that I might have complained about the smaller size of the book. However, in addition to being an impressive new talent, Lea Hernandez was ahead of her time, and it's good to see Cyberosia putting this strong early work of a talented creator back into print, with an improved format to boot. Email Randy Lander comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.