Aâma

Frederik Peeters's four-volume science-fiction series Aâma began at Gallimard in 2011. Verloc Nim wakes with missing memories and is drawn into an expedition involving Aâma, a mysterious biotech substance. The journey to the planet Ona(ji) joins an outer mystery to Verloc's damaged relationships and uncertain sense of self.

The series grows from investigation into transformation. Verloc's attempt to understand the substance also forces him to face estrangement from his family. The speculative plot is large, but its emotional direction remains personal.

Peeters won the 2013 Angoulême Best Series prize for the early volumes, according to the English publisher SelfMadeHero. The award reflects a work that uses science fiction to press on questions familiar from intimate drama: what a person remembers, what they owe others, and how change can make return impossible.

The four-volume form lets the biotechnology remain mysterious while consequences accumulate. Rather than treating Aâma as a single gadget to be mastered, the series follows a widening chain of biological and social effects.

Aâma is a biotechnology experiment with transformative potential. On Ona(ji), its effects reach beyond one body into an environment, making the line between research and uncontrolled evolution unstable.

The premise turns transhumanism into a family question. Verloc's altered possibilities matter because he still wants answers from people who knew him before. Scientific change does not erase the past; it complicates his ability to return to it.

Peeters draws both the unfamiliar planet and its inhabitants with a strong sense of organic variation. Forms change across the series, giving the biotech premise visible consequences rather than leaving it in dialogue.

His page design can hold close emotional exchanges beside expansive scenes of transformation. Faces remain important even when the imagery grows strange, preserving the connection between Verloc's inner uncertainty and the world changing around him.