It's 1956, and the world is shutting down its spaceports. Mary Raven -- a space pilot without a ship -- arrives at the last active spaceport, the heavily guarded Ignition City, seeking her late father's effects and information on his murder.

Warren Ellis's Ignition City owes much to the science-fiction serials of the mid-20th century. But it's the characters -- down-on-their-luck space hoppers, pilots and engineers still dreaming of space -- that make this book soar.

The ray guns are pretty cool, too.

Ellis's tale is supported by Gianluca Pagliarani's art. Pagliarani handles the broken-down science and laser blasts well, but his people are a little awkward and misshapen.

That one failing aside, this is a series I would love to see continue.