STG's

Lockdown Tales 2, by Neal Asher is a collection of shorter SF stories, which (all?) take place in his Polity universe. I was struck by how good these were, although I shouldn't be surprised - Lockdown Tales was also excellent. Naturally many stories cover a smaller situation than his books (specially given the latest trilogy format he used), and are still very compelling. I particularly liked that the Quiet War finally got a story, as well as the anti-aging bits of the universe (of course, that might seem quaint given the golem style mind transfers). Mildly entertaining for me was seeing the several ways SuperIntelligence is possible while reading Nick Bostrom's book, as well as the Prisoner reference, which is a series I never saw but got a lot of references while reading Season of Skulls, just before this one. Overall, excellent.

The Bosch is a novella by Neal Asher, that takes place in the Polity, in a post-polity period. I really loved this one. There is a lot of biotech, and the usual weird monster/bioweapons. Obviously, there aren't a lot of character definition, but I came for the tech, and it was totally worth it.

The Human, by Neal Asher, is the finale of the Jain Trilogy. As usual, it was great. There was a bit of new tech, and a lot of insight into the Jain, and why they behaved like they did, as well as the why of their tech remnant. Overall, strongly recommended, but you might want to start elsewhere (and you really want to start the trilogy at the beginning) if you are not familiar with the Neal Asher Polity universe.

The Warship, by Neal Asher, is the second novel in the Rise of the Jain series. On the end of the last book, Orlandine had just dropped a black hole on the accretion disk full of Jain tech. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they wanted... Great battles, great expansion of the tech and the storyline. Very much recommended, if you read the previous book, of course.

The Soldier, by Neal Asher, is an SF novel that takes place on the Polity. Many old favorite characters are back, and this time the main focus is a ring of old Jain tech, carefully guarded by Orlandine, one of the Dragon spheres, and many AIs. As usual, bad tech gets loose, and large scale battles occur. I like the new scope that this trilogy format allows. The wait between volumes, though, is brutal. Overall, strongly recommended for fans of the Polity series.

I just finished the third book in Neal Asher's Transformation series - Infinity Engine. The book takes place in the Polity and mostly concerns the creation, breakdown and ascension of Penny Royal (while showing a whole lot of characters from the other books). I do now wonder if Asher already had some of this in mind as Penny Royal first appeared in his books... The series was simply spectacular, and ended very, very well. It would be very confusing to start from this book, of course, but I strongly recommend it, the Polity series, and the Transformation series.

War Factory - by Neal Asher - is the second book in the Transformation trilogy, which takes part on the Polity. I liked the first book in the series - Dark Intelligence (as well as all that take place in the Polity universe) and War Factory too. Sverl troubles continue to mount, and Penny Royal is still creating a lot of chaos in its machinations. Overall, pretty good, although I liked Dark Intelligence better, I'm not sure why.

Dark Intelligence: Transformation Book One - by Neal Asher - is a SF novel that takes place in the Polity universe. It has been a while since I read one of Asher's books, and this one really reminded me of how much I like them. I was a bit surprised to not get a notice from Amazon, as I've bought most of his books there already. There are some of the old characters - specially Penny Royal, which is a main focus and really shows what it can do - and several interesting new ones, specially Thorvald Spear - which was killed a century before and was just being revived. Of course, not everything is what it seems... The book was just great, and I can't wait for the sequel!

Jupiter War - by Neal Asher - is the conclusion of the Owner trilogy, where a super genius gets enhanced with an implant, and takes over an asteroid/ship station to escape and fight a dystopic Earth government (not the current ones - an even worse unified one). In this volume, The Owner decides to escape the solar system, but Earth is not going to let him go without a fight... It was a very satisfying conclusion, and I feel it was even better than the first two parts. Great fights, great and reasonable new technology and a nice little twist in the Earth Dictator's story in the end. Of course, there is always the possibility of further sequels :-)

Zero Point , by Neal Asher , is the middle book in the Owner Trilogy. I've recently reviewed The Departure  , the first book, and I really liked it. Zero Point  begins just after the first book. A large part of the Committee delegates, enforcers and structures has been destroyed - by falling satellites, planes, and automated defenses. A delegate with a mildly comic name and serious mental problems - Serene Galahad - is going to take over, and do even more damage (some people complained about Asher's right-wing anti-socialism slant on the first book. Their heads probably exploded with his portrayal of an all powerful radical ecologist). Argus is moving to Mars, but Saul gets in major trouble. Props for not doing a quick fix for Saul here, although I can't help but feel that the middle part of the book got slower because of it. It still probably made the whole book more interesting. Argus and the Mars base are now in major trouble because of the spaceship referred to in...

The Departure , by Neal Asher , is the first on The Owner trilogy, and not part of the Polity series (I don't think so anyway, although it does share some tech elements). The book takes place a few decades from now, when the whole world has been consumed by The Committee (not in a literal sense, which could very well be the case on a Neal Asher book). Surveillance is absolute, and you can be killed for any display of discontentment and thought crimes.  Population is over 18 billion, and both large numbers and mismanagement from the Committee means that most of these people go hungry all the time. It is in this world that Alan Saul is awaken in a crate by an AI. Neither remember who they are, and the crate is about to be incinerated. Saul escapes, of course, and now is going to take on the Committee to find out who he is and exact revenge for what they done to him... The Departure has some very bad reviews. Some think that is because of the right-wing lean of the boo...

Just finished Hilldiggers - by Neal Asher. As usual, this is a Polity novel, however it doesn't happen in the Polity. The setting is between two world, colonized from Earth before the AIs took over in The Quiet War. Asher wouldn't want to skip on the bizarre creatures aspect, I imagine, so one of the world is badly toxic and the Brummalians are weird adapted humans, with a hive mind. They have been at war with the Sudorians for decades, until the Hilldiggers came about - massive ships with grav-tech weapons. Now the war is over, but after they captured an alien life form, most of the planet has gone insane... When the present time of the story starts, a Consul from the Polity (an old Captain from Spatterjay arrives on the system. And there is also a quirky AI drone, as usual. They will have to stop a civil war and genocide... Hilldiggers was very good. I'd even say it was surprisingly good for a non-series book - I usually like Asher's series more than the stan...

Shadow of the Scorpion - by Neal Asher - is a prequel to the Cormac series of books, which I previously reviewed here. It takes place on Cormac's childhood and early training as an ECS Agent. It also shows how he got Shuriken, his personal semi-AI weapon. It was nice and had some exciting points, but it lacks the momentum that the series had and thus cannot be as good as it was. The ending (about Cormac's father) was a bit telegraphed in advance, but still reasonable. Recommended for fans of the series.

The Technician - by Neal Asher is a book in the Polity Universe. Most of the action happens in Masada, the homeworld of the ancient race of the Atheters. It was discovered previously that they erased their minds and created mechanisms to destroy all remains of their civilizations, and to keep their minds erased to the levels of animals. But during the fall of the Theocracy in Masada ( In the Line of Polity ), a proctor was almost killed by a special Hooder (one of Atheters biological war machines) called The Technician. His face was stripped and something was placed into his brain... Now, 20 years later, the proctor's mind is getting back together, and what it contains may destroy Masada and the whole Polity. This book has cool battles, a lot more exposition about the Atheter and their biomachines, and the development of the nature of The Technician during the book was very interesting - as usual, Asher makes the best crazy monsters actually have a clear purpose and logi...

Prador Moon, by Neal Asher, is another novel of the Polity. This one covers the beginning of the Prador war - right when the the Prador and the Polity had first contact. I particularly enjoyed the extra detailed explanation into Prador armor and augs. The ending is satisfying but while the book pretend to be coy about it, it gives too much away for it to be anything close to a surprise. Recommended for those who are already fans of the Polity books.

Orbus, by Neal Asher, is the third book in the SpatterJay series. It changes the setting quite a bit from the two previous volumes - almost nothing of the story passes on SpatterJay. But ultimately, it is all about SpatterJay. In particular, we get a full explanation of the origin of the SpatterJay virus, its purpose, and why it has almost magical powers. It is hard to go on without dropping lots of spoilers, but I can say that the story of Vrell continues and end in a very satisfying manner, and that Orbus (I mean, duh! It is in the title!), Sniper and Thirteen are back, and that the book ends in the typical heavy battle. Recommended, and I have to say I'm a bit sad to see the end of the series. Thankfully, I've got several books to go with the Polity yet. I just bought Prador Moon and will read it soon enough.

The Voyage of the Sable Keech , by Neal Asher, is the second book in the Spatterjay series. In the first book of the series , a reification - a high tech zombie that is driven by a recording of his own mind (usually) got resurrected by nanotech. What isn't clear in the first book is that not only this isn't common - it just has never happened before. Thus, a mass of other reifications are coming to Spatterjay to try to get themselves resurrected too. Obviously that is not going to go very well... Most of the characters of the first book are back. Of interesting note is that Captain Ron now flies spaceships, Olian Tay made a sprine bank that now is the basis of Spatterjay's economy, and the adolescent Prador, of course, survives. Also, Janer is involved in a skirmish between hive minds that may destroy Spatterjay... As usual on Asher's books, the Spatterjay virus leaves people, Pradors or Giant Whelks capable of almost anything, including massive, nearly instan...

The Skinner  - by Neal Asher - is the first of the SpatterJay series. I had heard it was pretty good, but I ended up reading the Ian Cormac series first. It was pretty good, so I didn't think the SpatterJay series could be much better. I was wrong. Very wrong. The Skinner was simply awesome. Asher seems to take a lot of pleasure in creating incredibly complex ecologies with horrible, yet believable creatures. Spatterjay, with the "magic" virus that can keep humans living forever while changing, and a veritable panoply of dangerous creatures, is easily one of his best. There were plenty of battles and action on the book, and a new ECS agent - Sable Keech. The ending was quite satisfying yet leaving plenty for the rest of series. I already bought the next one, of course. Very strongly recommended. Get The Skinner now at Amazon

The Parasite, by Neal Asher  is a 1996 novella sized SF tale. It is does not take place in the Polity universe, although any casual reader familiar with Asher later works would probably assume it was - the main topic is an alien tech or species that takes over humans, making them better in the process. And it also has a  golem that someone tries to make crazy and anti-proton weapons. Clearly Asher was already interested in these topics way before he got around to the Polity books. It is a pretty good read (and in fact it had been a while since I couldn't sleep before finishing a book), and there is a nice amount of action. The ending is nice, but clearly less optimal to the creation of a continuing series than the regular Jain tech used later. On a side note, it is somewhat interesting that this is the first time Asher self-publishes. I imagine that he gets a lot more per unit than on regular books. Good look with that! Very much recommended.

I've just finished the last of Ian Cormac Series - Line War , by Neal Asher . I have reviewed every other one in the series, and liked them all. This one is the best. Probably not on the sense of clever plot twists (although there were a few) or major new inventions, but in the great sense of completion. Unfortunately, this is followed by a bit of sadness, because the series was great, memorable and among my favorites. As the events of last book continue, the Line war with Erebus continues, and it threatens to go to a full war with the Polity. Surprisingly, Cormac has a minor role in the conflict, while getting full control of his powers. Plenty of revelations about the Polity AIs in the end of the book. And an interesting side adventure where Asher makes it look like he is pulling a Deus Ex Machina to solve the plot (he even mentions describes it as one!). That immediately reminds of Peter F. Hamilton, which closed at least a couple of otherwise great series (Night's ...