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Switchblade Honey
The alien Chasta put their war machine into gear and humankind was suddenly in the worst fight it had ever known - and lost. The solar system will be annexed by the Chasta within the next thirty days. If humankind can't be the U.S. Army anymore, then it will have to be the Viet Cong. Disgraced Captain John Ryder gets a ship and crew and leads them into space as guerrilla fighters. Once clear of the system, they locate a place to hide between sorties and begin fighting. They strike from behind and shoot from cover. If they can't give them hell, Ryder and crew at least give them a hard time. The Chasta throw a ring of steel around the system as they close in on Earth, so Ryder pokes holes in it. They're on their own. No support. Naval vessels won't even recognize their callsign. They don't exist... but they're mankind's last hope.
88 pages, Paperback
First published July 29, 2003
About the author
Warren Ellis
1,911 books5,769 followersWarren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 2, 2024
It's the far future and Earth just lost an interstellar war with a hive Mind known as the Chasta. A general went rogue and came up with a desperate strategy. "We can't be the U.S. Marines anymore. Now we have to be the Viet Cong."
The result is the experimental guerrilla space destroyer Switchblade Honey. He hoped to build eight more. He got the one. He couldn't find normal soldiers, who he sent convicts.
The thing is, most have been arrested or convicted by the Navy for refusing to commit warcrimes. They're all pretty disgusted with the human race. Hell, they're probably only three steps from trying to kill each other.
And they're pretty much the only hope we have.
2/5
Mediocre art and nowhere near the best of Ellis' writing, it's fun, but doesn't aspire to be much more. There is more potential, but it's a one-off.
The result is the experimental guerrilla space destroyer Switchblade Honey. He hoped to build eight more. He got the one. He couldn't find normal soldiers, who he sent convicts.
The thing is, most have been arrested or convicted by the Navy for refusing to commit warcrimes. They're all pretty disgusted with the human race. Hell, they're probably only three steps from trying to kill each other.
And they're pretty much the only hope we have.
2/5
Mediocre art and nowhere near the best of Ellis' writing, it's fun, but doesn't aspire to be much more. There is more potential, but it's a one-off.
August 12, 2017
What if Warren Ellis wrote Star Trek?
There's the usual Ellis twist on the story. The leaders are corrupt. Our guy is thrown in jail for trying to do the right thing. The leaders are under attack from a superior alien race. They get our good guy to recruit an undercover guerrilla team Seven Samurai style to save humanity.
There's the usual Ellis twist on the story. The leaders are corrupt. Our guy is thrown in jail for trying to do the right thing. The leaders are under attack from a superior alien race. They get our good guy to recruit an undercover guerrilla team Seven Samurai style to save humanity.
May 10, 2020
A short take on a bunch of done-right-but-punished-by-the-system people who are given a ship and instructions to help take out aliens coming for the Earth. An alright band of people; but short and not much in the way of plot.
November 17, 2008
Reads like the pilot episode to a really good sci-fi TV show.
For those of you who wondered what Star Trek might be like if in the future people still smoked, swore and drank.
As always when Warren does sci-fi there are some clever bits, a couple nice human moments and lots of biting sarcasim and humor.
Like with any pilot episode of a Star Trek, Warren makes the same stumble, in that only a couple characters feel developed, the rest are types or one joke characters that might have been fleshed out if there were later stories.
A fun read that it might be fun to see Warren do more with.
He really needs to gather up all these one shots and pitch stories and let somebody keep them going. So, many good ideas that we get a taste of and then he leaves us hanging.
For those of you who wondered what Star Trek might be like if in the future people still smoked, swore and drank.
As always when Warren does sci-fi there are some clever bits, a couple nice human moments and lots of biting sarcasim and humor.
Like with any pilot episode of a Star Trek, Warren makes the same stumble, in that only a couple characters feel developed, the rest are types or one joke characters that might have been fleshed out if there were later stories.
A fun read that it might be fun to see Warren do more with.
He really needs to gather up all these one shots and pitch stories and let somebody keep them going. So, many good ideas that we get a taste of and then he leaves us hanging.
March 12, 2009
I love Warren Ellis's space comics. For a non-scientist, he takes great care with the facts, and I always learn something interesting from them. Switchblade Honey, by Ellis's own admission was supposed to be a joke, a throwaway (what if Ray Winstone was captain of the USS Enterprise?). But there's some good stuff there, all wrapped up in a tight little package. It was also wonderful to learn from the Introduction that my favorite comics writer hates Star Trek. I've never seen a full episode, and never understood the appeal. Now I have the justification to remain a nerdly curmudgeon, and Warren gets a 4th star for the help.
August 29, 2014
Another Warren Ellis one off. Ellis asked himself what Star Trek would be like if the ship were commanded by Ray Winstone rather than Patrick Stewart or the Shat. It's fun, amusing, very much a Warren Ellis work, and it doesn't aspire to be much more. There is really nothing I can add to Ellis' self assessment of the book:
I present to you, then, a joke. An extended gag at the expense of the colourless, clean SF of the big media. The anti-Star Trek, if you like. Almost automatic writing; a joke told in my voice, full of my usual rubbish. I think it's a good joke, and worth the time it takes to tell it to you, otherwise it wouldn't be here and neither would I.
I present to you, then, a joke. An extended gag at the expense of the colourless, clean SF of the big media. The anti-Star Trek, if you like. Almost automatic writing; a joke told in my voice, full of my usual rubbish. I think it's a good joke, and worth the time it takes to tell it to you, otherwise it wouldn't be here and neither would I.
August 15, 2011
Enjoyed the concept of it: We started a war, humanity as a whole (at least the government and military) has gone downhill fast, leaving the most cruel people in charge. Five convicts who are actually good people get sent out on a scouting mission without any support to end up saving Earth. I wish it had been longer!
January 26, 2025
I was weeding my graphic novel shelf and ran across Switchblade Honey, which I hadn't read in 20 years. The art is lacking, and Ellis' foreword is more mean-spirited about Star Trek than necessary. But the story still has its hooks in me, like a pilot for a sci-fi TV series that never got made.
(If Switchblade Honey was adapted today this short graphic novel would probably take up a whole season.)
Humanity is losing a war against aliens. As a last resort, a disgraced former captain is given a ship to hide out and "be the Viet Cong". He pulls his crew from unjustly-imprisoned soldiers, and off they go.
Reading this the same weekend that Section 31 hit streaming makes for an interesting comparison. Neither one feels like Star Trek, but both are trying to put tonal twists on the franchise. Switchblade Honey was by far the more successful of the pair, holding my attention & interest the whole way through. Most of Switchblade Honey's characters are paper thin, but there's a foundation of something interesting that I'd like to see explored.
This graphic novel was never intended to be a series, but I wish it had been.
(If Switchblade Honey was adapted today this short graphic novel would probably take up a whole season.)
Humanity is losing a war against aliens. As a last resort, a disgraced former captain is given a ship to hide out and "be the Viet Cong". He pulls his crew from unjustly-imprisoned soldiers, and off they go.
Reading this the same weekend that Section 31 hit streaming makes for an interesting comparison. Neither one feels like Star Trek, but both are trying to put tonal twists on the franchise. Switchblade Honey was by far the more successful of the pair, holding my attention & interest the whole way through. Most of Switchblade Honey's characters are paper thin, but there's a foundation of something interesting that I'd like to see explored.
This graphic novel was never intended to be a series, but I wish it had been.
October 2, 2024
This was… fine? I feel like I got this from some random second hand bookshop and picked it up because I like some Warren Ellis stuff. I tried to read it and found it insufferable. It was hyper nerdy technobabble Star Trek riff plus swearing. I don’t think I finished it even though it was short. I think maybe I like Star Trek more now so I was more open to it and just able to accept it for what it is this time around. The art is clean with good visual storytelling. The book is so light and breezy that it barely exists. It does what says on the tin. Star Trek with swearing. “Rebel” characters do subversive things like smoke cigarettes and disobey orders to fire on allies. I dunno. I guess it’s about war and othering and our responsibility to our fellow humans even when they’re committing atrocities all the time.
June 22, 2017
terrible..
February 15, 2019
La acción que narra es buena, pero la falta de una culminación deja toda la lectura como una pérdida de tiempo.
October 3, 2024
Short one-off. Underdeveloped, formulaic, and forgettable.
March 5, 2025
I really didn't vibe with this one, which was unexpected. It gave off David Ayer vibes, and that's never good.
February 12, 2013
Switchblade Honey is basically a joke about modern scifi by Warren Ellis, as is stated in his own foreword. It's a rather good joke but only decent on it's own. The plot is good in all it's shortness and the characters work. I got the feeling that McKinney's art didn't quite do the text justice since the moments that Ellis mentioned in the foreword weren't quite as funny in the actual comic. Although Switchblade Honey isn't great or superb in just about anything, it doesn't come even close to not being worth your time.
After reading all the amazing Ellis stuff, you might as well read this one.
After reading all the amazing Ellis stuff, you might as well read this one.
January 11, 2012
This book doesn't amount to much (it reads like a pilot TV episode), but SWITCHBLADE HONEY is a wonderful glimpse into an Ellis version of STAR TREK, in which the characters aren't heroes but instead are as flawed as any Philip K. Dick character. If sci-fi interests you, this is well worth your time.
March 6, 2008
this is sorta like Warren Ellis's take on Star Trek, with the captain as a typical Ellisian tough guy (hard-drinking, chain-smoking, constantly swearing) instead of the typical Hollywood whitewashed future archetypes. not his best, but there is a lot of meat here.
January 9, 2011
So what if ya tried to make star trek but you were in the corrupt evil vicious world of transmetropolitan that is so much closer to out reality than the federation could ever be? Kick ass space opera, star trek meets blakes 7.
April 22, 2011
this book was awesome. the introduction made me cackle. ilu, warren.
August 22, 2016
Un giro a la tradicional space opera al estilo de Warren Ellis, destilando muy buenos diálogos, en los clásicos personajes tomados de su particular cantera.
October 7, 2016
original tv sci fi on paper !!!!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews