The Skinner - Neal Asher
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