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Abnett, Dan
Adams, Douglas
Asher, Neal


Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett's official homepage:http://www.danabnett.com
Dan Abnett's blog: http://theprimaryclone.blogspot.com

Gaunt's Ghosts:
    First and Only
    Ghostmaker
    Necropolis


First and Only
==============

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war... On thousands of
worlds, the Imperium battles against the forces of Chaos, and at the sharp end
are Gaunt's Ghosts, an Imperial Guard unit expert in stealth techniques. Their
homeworld Tanith has been destroyed, but they fight on, under the dour 
leadership of Commissar Ibram Gaunt.

================================================================================

I'd always been aware of Warhammer, the board game, but had never played it or
had more than a cursory knowledge, being more into Dungeons & Dragons as a kid.
As for Warhammer 40,000, I knew even less... Then someone at work lent me
the first few Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett, and now I'm hooked.

The universe is not a cosy place in the 41st millennium, being engulfed in
perpetual warfare between the Imperium of Earth and the demonic legions of Chaos.
Although most of the elements belong to science fiction - space travel,
futuristic weapons, aliens - there is a strong flavour of fantasy about the
setting, with human armies pitted against what might well be described as black
magic and devil-worshippers. There are even orks (note the spelling), who are
very like fantasy orcs but with bolt-guns rather than scimitars.

I found myself puzzling over why armies thousands of years hence would continue
to fight with tanks and artillery, rather than, say nanotech and AIs - it's as
if the US and China agreed to fight World War III with weapons out of the Bronze 
Age. But there is a good reason for this, which gradually emerges during the
novel: an ancient prohibition against sentient machines which has echoes of the
Butlerian Jihad in Frank Herbert's Dune books.  

Dan Abnett is a good writer of military SF, and effectively brings home the
horror of war. Reading First and Only I began to get to know the assorted
characters who are part of Gaunt's Ghosts and worry about them as they take part
in a series of increasingly bloody and violent battles. There is much of the
hideous randomness of 20th century warfare - a soldier will emerge unscathed from
one firefight to be blown to smithereens in the next - and the novels thus have 
something in common with World War II tales such as the TV series Band of
Brothers or novels by writers like Sven Hassel. War is hell - but it has a
grim fascination, as we know.

Being set in the far future, the series has an added bonus of a vast variety of
places in which to be killed. Jungle worlds, ice worlds, swamp worlds - the 
Imperium in Warhammer 40K, like a nightmarish version of Thomas Cook, offers a
wonderful profusion of alien planets on which to struggle for one's life. To
misquote the old Navy recruitment slogan: join the Imperial Guard, see the
universe, meet the minions of Chaos - and do your best to slay them.

And if the prospect of fighting off hordes of demon-worshippers was bad enough,
there's also the in-fighting. Ibram Gaunt, like a middle manager landed with a
hostile new CEO, finds himself reduced from protégé to pariah status, and is also
up against the Jantine Patricians, a particularly obnoxious Guards unit who have
their repertory of dirty tricks. 

First and Only is a good, solid introduction to the perilous, action-filled
universe of Gaunt's Ghosts. It has maybe the most convoluted plot of all the first
few books, and darts around a lot in space and time, but does its job in 
establishing the groundwork and giving us the life story of Ibram Gaunt to date. 
For those of you interested in Warhammer 40K fiction but haven't yet got started, 
this surely is where you sign up.

© Alex Cull, 6th March 2007


Ghostmaker
==========

The time - a very war-torn 41st millennium. The planet: Mondax. The location: a 
waterlogged battlefront, miles from anywhere. The mission: to fight, and quite 
likely to die. The combatants: Tanith First and Only, otherwise known as - 
Gaunt's Ghosts.

================================================================================

If the first novel of this series was mostly about Ibram Gaunt, Commissar-
Colonel of the Tanith First and Only, Ghostmaker is about the men who serve 
under him. As in First and Only there is a main narrative (the Mondax story) 
interspersed with flashbacks; in this book, these take the form of mini-
adventures, each showcasing a different Ghost. 

Ghostmaker could easily have been a directionless mishmash, but Abnett adroitly 
juggles the subplots and characters to make it all work. This is one of the 
author's great strengths - he is able to handle large numbers of plot elements, 
like an entertainer balancing loads of spinning plates on poles, without 
forgetting them and allowing them to smash. If it does seem a little strained at 
times, this is probably because he has to cover a great deal of ground - there 
are quite a few characters whose arcs we will be tracing over the course of this 
series, and Abnett means to give us a thorough introduction to each one.

We also learn more of the universe these characters inhabit, and it is not a 
comfortable one. War is raging throughout the galaxy, as the armies of the 
Imperium are pitted against the forces of Chaos, and it is total war, without 
quarter asked for or given. Drop ships rain down like peppercorns upon besieged 
planets, in suicidal mass assaults that make D-Day look like a playground 
scuffle. The Imperial side face a motley horde of opponents, including vicious 
orks, Chaos Space Marines and cyborg Dreadnoughts in a variety of challenging 
deathtrap environments, from swamps to ice caps to hive cities. 

As if that wasn't enough, there is a great deal of internal strife behind the 
Imperial lines. In First and Only Gaunt was up against the unpleasant Jantine 
Patricians, and in Ghostmaker he has to deal with the even snootier Volpone 
Bluebloods, plus the animosity and nasty tricks of rival General Sturm. 

Oh, and also the sinister Inquisition are taking an interest in one of his 
troopers. Enough pressure for you, Commissar-Colonel Gaunt?

This is great stuff. I'm now six books ahead in this series, and to anyone 
whose patience gets tested by the way Ghostmaker keeps switching from 
story to story and character to character, I'd just say: keep going. If you 
enjoy military SF, or are into Warhammer 40K, or both, these books are 
definitely for you - the Gaunt's Ghosts series gathers strength with each new 
novel, and once the preliminaries are out of the way, you'll find yourself 
quickly hooked. Trust me on this.

Reading Ghostmaker, there's an additional bonus in that we get a little 
more background on Tanith - and discover the meaning of "Feth".

Alex Cull 15th May 2008


Necropolis
==========

Responding to an emergency signal, an Imperial force including Gaunt's Ghosts 
make a landing on the strife-torn world of Verghast. Coming to the aid of giant 
city Vervunhive, the Imperials soon find themselves under siege - and fighting 
for their lives. 

================================================================================

Technically, Necropolis is the third Gaunt's Ghosts book, but in a way it's the 
first proper full-length novel of the series, as opposed to a collection of 
flashbacks and vignettes linked by a main narrative, which is basically what the 
first two books are. It's also one of the better ones - not that the others are 
bad, but Necropolis definitely stands out. It satisfies on a number of levels.

The setting is awesome - a gigantic city that is more like an entire nation 
state wrapped up in a single building. We experience every aspect of Vervunhive, 
from the corridors of power and the palatial abodes of the mighty right down to 
the grimy industrial zones and the crime-infested underbelly; it emphatically 
comes across as a real place. 

Abnett's gritty description of warfare in an urban setting is very readable and 
reminiscent of sieges in recent history, such as those of Stalingrad, Moscow and 
Sarajevo. Streets, factories and thoroughfares become killing zones; even in a 
city this size, there is nowhere to run, and few places in which to hide.  

In addition to Ghosts regulars, such as Larkin and Corbec, there are a number of 
new characters who will become key later on, and the mix of Tanith and 
Verghastite elements will provide a fair bit of dramatic interest over the next 
few books. As (almost) always, Dan Abnett does an excellent job of juggling 
characters and threads, keeping the reader involved. 

Back on the subject of very big cities, could something the size of Vervunhive 
really be feasible? I think it could, although super-strong materials would be
required to support such an immense structure, and it would need to be built on
a tectonically stable region of planetary crust (either that or built to 
withstand powerful quakes.)

We have large cities here on Earth right now, and they have a different pattern
to the ones on Verghast, being flatter, of course, and tending to be surrounded 
by a sprawl of suburbs and towns linked by highways and rail networks. But our
cities are mostly organic in nature, having evolved from smaller settlements
over the centuries; Warhammer 40,000's hive cities are much more self-
contained, and maybe this is logical, as they would have been founded by
pioneers starting from scratch on a potentially hostile world (and in a very
hostile universe.)

There are now eleven or so novels in Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series, plus a
few spin-off books. I've read most of them, and let me tell you, Necropolis is 
one of the best.
     
Alex Cull 1st December 2008


Top



Douglas Adams


The Salmon of Doubt

The Salmon of Doubt
===================

At the dawn of the 21st century, Douglas Adams was working on a tale of 
mystifying sleuthery, half-missing cats, gun-toting kangaroos, a sort of relaxed
god-like person on an island somewhere and a rhinoceros called Raymond. Alas, 
time was not on his side.

================================================================================

In 2001, when I heard that Douglas Adams had just died at the age of 49, I 
remember feeling an acute sense of loss. This was not only because I was, and 
still am, a fan of his, and not only because he was dead and at a relatively 
young age. Quite a few of my favourite SF writers have died during my lifetime, 
including Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, and while I've always felt a 
sadness and a sense that their absence has taken some of the light out of the 
world, there's also often been the feeling (certainly in the cases of Asimov and 
Clarke) that they had a good innings and pretty much fulfilled their destinies 
as writers. It was different in this case.

I felt that after The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Dirk Gently 
novels, Douglas Adams still had a lot more to write about and would have taken 
his stories to some pretty exciting new places. There would have been another 
Dirk Gently book, of course, and then an embarking on who knew what amazing 
projects. Alas, it was never to be. 

Instead, we have The Salmon of Doubt, a posthumous collection of Adams’s 
articles, bits and pieces salvaged from his computer, and some rather fragmentary 
chapters of the third Dirk Gently novel (which is where this book's title comes 
from.) Reading it left me amused and entertained, as always with Adams, but also 
inevitably quite melancholy. I wish he were still alive.

The articles are a showcase for Adams's wit, his curiosity about the world and his 
love of technology, and have titles such as Hangover Cures, The Rhino Climb, 
Little Dongly Things and Is There an Artificial God? There is also – and this is 
poignant – a review of P.G.Wodehouse’s unfinished novel Sunset at Blandings. He 
writes: "...But you will want to read Sunset for completeness, and for that 
sense you get, from its very unfinishedness, of being suddenly and unexpectedly 
close to a Master actually at work - a bit like seeing paint pots and scaffolding 
being carried in and out of the Sistine Chapel."

I say this article is poignant, because Adams is also describing something akin 
to the sense I get from reading what there is of his novel The Salmon of Doubt. 
There are 11 chapters in all, most of them featuring the eccentric and 
perennially disorganised Dirk Gently of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency 
and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, although one chapter is about a rather 
laid-back, godlike person called Dave, who inhabits DaveLand in DaveWorld, and 
there is also a bewildered rhinoceros called Raymond, who is teleported somehow 
into Los Angeles and ends up in someone's swimming pool.

None of these elements hang together really, or make any kind of sense. But you 
just know that Adams would have edited them, written the rest of the chapters, 
added other characters and plot threads, and in some magical sense made it all 
work out beautifully, albeit in a supremely unpredictable way. The secret of 
Dirk's mission would have been revealed in all its cleverness, Dave’s existence 
would have fitted in perfectly, and Raymond the rhino’s story would have shown 
us that being teleported into a Los Angeles swimming pool was logically the most 
likely fate that could have befallen him.

Unfortunately, now we will never know how Douglas Adams would have done it. A 
few months ago (I’m writing this in early 2009) it was announced that Eoin Colfer 
(author of the Artemis Fowl stories) has been commissioned to write a sixth 
Hitchhiker novel, possibly using some of the material Adams had been working on. 
It might be that Colfer will also go on to write a third Dirk Gently book and 
carry it off very well indeed - in this unpredictable universe of ours, who 
knows? But it wouldn’t be the novel Douglas Adams would have written.

For me, he was one of those people who left the world a better place, because he 
wrote stories that were funny, intelligent, brimming with ideas and that somehow 
made you feel happier for having read or listened to them. I have been a fan of 
Douglas Adams from that day in 1978 when I happened to hear the very first radio 
broadcast of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; over thirty years later, 
reading The Salmon of Doubt made me feel sad, amused, exasperated and delighted 
all at the same time, a mix of emotions that seems somehow appropriate, given the 
wonderfully quirky nature of the man and his stories. How typical, really.

© Alex Cull, 29th January 2009


Top



Neal Asher	 

Neal Asher's homepage: http://freespace.virgin.net/n.asher
Neal Asher's blog: http://theskinner.blogspot.com

Africa Zero
Brass Man
Cowl
Gridlinked
The Line of Polity
Orbus
Prador Moon
The Skinner
The Voyage of the Sable Keech


Africa Zero
===========

In the far future, Africa has become a very different place, where mammoths and
other exotic creatures roam free, and where humans have become scarce. Someone
or something has started to kill the mammoths, however, and has also managed to
annoy the Collector, which is rather a bad idea. For he is no mere human but a
cyborg with turbocharged physical powers.

================================================================================

I've read and enjoyed most of Neal Asher's more recent novels set in his Polity
milieu, so was intrigued to find Africa Zero, which is an earlier work, or
rather two works - novellas Africa Zero and Africa Plus One - which
are not in the Polity universe. No runcibles or Prador here, but plenty of
gene-spliced wildlife and trigger-happy zealots, not to mention the Collector, a
humanoid with his vulnerable bits shielded within a metallic armoured body and, 
like the Terminator, sporting a topcoat of synthetic flesh (which tends
to become rather the worse for wear during battles). 

Africa Zero is a short but enjoyable read, with plenty of the explosive 
and crisply described action sequences that Neal Asher does so well. It's a bit
rough around the edges, as you might expect from an early work (and the
double-novella format of this volume is rather awkward) but all the elements are
there that make The Skinner and the Polity books so much fun - sleek, 
futuristic technology, vicious weapons and a mystery to solve at near mach speed. 

When you have a battle in which a super-powered tank takes on a whole fleet of
aircraft and where huge clumps of jungle are vaporised in the ensuing fight, you
know you're in Neal Asher country.  

The Collector actually reminds me not so much of the Terminator than he does of
another, more literary, figure - Tarzan. Both are outsiders - Tarzan is an English
lord, the Collector is a near-immortal man-machine, neither are native to the
African wilderness. Both have incredible physical strength, Tarzan by virtue of
his mighty thews, the Collector by virtue of advanced technology. Both are the
law, in a place where the law of the jungle applies.  

And both have powerful allies. Tarzan has the Waziris and, of course, the great
apes and other animals ("Tantor! Ungawa!") who help him defeat baddies. The
Collector has the sauramen, a race of reptilian humanoids who resemble the
creatures dinosaurs might have evolved into if it hadn't been for the great
extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.

I like the sauramen. They are rather like the dracomen in the Polity books,
except that where the dracomen are somewhat bland and not particularly
memorable, the sauramen are lusty, gutsy and have an appetite for the good
things in life (which include humans, either for food or procreation.) And
there are saurawomen as well. 

It would be great to meet them again for more adventures; the Collector too,
for that matter. Unfortunately, they inhabit another universe to that of the
Polity books, so it seems unlikely at the moment. I would certainly love to
read some short stories in the Africa Zero universe, however; perhaps
in a future collection, along with a reprint of the novellas. Africa Plus
Twenty sounds to me like a promising title. 

In a world of monstrous gene-spliced animals, power-hungry corporate families
and roaming armies of bloodthirsty fanatics, I'm sure there are a few more
good stories waiting to be told. 

© Alex Cull, 16th October 2006


Brass Man
=========

In the far future, super Polity agent Cormac and his associates are facing no
less than three formidable old enemies. Firstly there's evil Skellor (enhanced
with the thoroughly nasty and virus-like Jain technology), and then there's the
mysterious and troublesome alien entity Dragon. Things get worse when Skellor
digs up and activates another foe from Cormac's past - the massive, gaunt,
powerful, almost-indestructible psychotic killer android Mr Crane.

================================================================================

I just knew that I'd enjoy this book. Not only does it have evil villains, scary
alien monsters, an even scarier and extremely virulent form of alien
nanotechnology, a killer android and a bunch of AIs duking it out in a truly
titanic space battle, it has a planet named Cull, which also happens to be my
surname. To have a desolate, primitive alien world (crawling with hideous monsters)
named after one, what more could an SF fan ask for? 

Yes, Brass Man was great fun, and a worthy addition to Neal Asher's Polity
series. Lots of things I enjoyed here - pace was good once all the flashbacks were
over, the story skipping along very nicely. Plenty of action, of course, as the AIs
that rule the Polity seek to contain the Jain unpleasantness - one species of
technology waging total war on another. And the monsters! Just as in The
Skinner and The Line of Polity Asher delights in producing ever bigger
and nastier beasts as the story progresses. Just as you start to think that the huge
insect-like horror with the vicious mouth-cutlery is the absolute last word,
something even bigger will come along and gobble it up. Yikes! 

What I enjoyed most was the AIs. The acknowledged rulers and arbiters of humankind,
these fabulously powerful and sentient computer systems are engaged in a ruthless
Machiavellian jostling for power. The human characters, even the redoubtable
Cormac, are puny by comparison. Equipped with starships, armed with insanely
devastating weapons, the AIs have a falling-out and proceed to fight amongst
themselves like angry gods, breaking up huge chunks of solar system like so much
furniture in a gigantic bar brawl. Wonderful stuff. However... 

As usual, I have my quibbles. We learn little more about Cormac's friends, e.g.
Mika, Thorne et al., and they remain as relatively two-dimensional as ever; well,
I've said this before in other reviews, so I won't bang on about it here. There
are more than enough good things in this novel, after all, to compensate for the
lack of character development. Also, the first quarter of the book is a bit of a
patchwork quilt, with alternating flashbacks and pieces of main narrative; this
was signposted but I still found it jarring at times. A character would appear and
I'd think: hang on, isn't he dead? Then: oh, it's a flashback. A few pages on, it
would happen again. Wasn't he killed long ago? Oh, a flashback. 

And there could have been just a little more about Mr Crane himself, I mean about
his mental processes and what makes him tick. It would have been interesting to see
him become something other than a silent metal killing machine... Oh well, you can
probably tell that I'm just casting around desperately for negative things to say
about Brass Man and can't find much at all. Basically, it's a very very
good read. 

Now I'm looking forward to a return to another monster-riddled planet - the
dangerous waterworld of Spatterjay - in The Voyage of the Sable Keech, due
out in February next year (2006). Sniper has been promoted to Warden of the planet,
and will need all the resources he can muster to face a set of new challenges - 
I'm not sure exactly what, just yet, but I'm sure it will be excellent and
gloriously over the top. 

I can't wait - but I suppose I'll have to.  

© Alex Cull, 24th August 2005


Cowl
====

Polly, a drug-addicted young prostitute, and Tack, a programmable
genetically-altered soldier are not the most well-matched or congenial pair of
companions. However, it turns out they are humanity's best hope when sinister
and monstrous forces from the future invade the timelines and threaten the human
race's very existence.

================================================================================

After being slightly disappointed by The Line of Polity I started reading
Cowl without much in the way of high expectations. However, not for the
first time I was wrong-footed, as I found Cowl a terrific story. It has
such a lot going for it - battles, explosions, good solid characters, time
travel, a menagerie of prehistoric beasts and a Lovecraftian monster from the ends
of the universe. 

As you can expect from a Neal Asher story, the action never lets up. The war
between the Heliothane and the Umbrathane is a fierce and bitter one, resounding
throughout historical epochs and beyond, as both sides are using time travel
devices, setting up encampments and strongholds in the depths of prehistory,
constantly seeking to ambush and destroy one another. I found the story fast-moving
and exciting, with plenty of twists and reversals, as you might expect where travel
in the fourth dimension is involved. 

There is plenty of entertainment with historical personages appearing briefly
in cameo roles, interacting with Polly as she is drawn ever further back to the
Cambrian era (or is it the pre-Cambrian?) where Cowl has established his base. Also
I recognised several of the prehistoric creatures that Polly and Tack encounter,
from an excellent BBC TV series Walking with Beasts and it is good to see
some new monsters on the block, including the vicious pig-like entelodonts
and the thoroughly bizarre andrewsarchus. Great stuff.

One very minor quibble I have is that if anyone did jump back through time, at
random, all they'd mostly encounter would be trees, grass, insects and maybe the
occasional bird (or pterosaur), not Roman Emperors or super carnivores. I'm not
complaining, though, for obvious reasons. 

I've also given some thought as to why I identified with the characters in Cowl
when I didn't so much in The Line of Polity. I think I know the reason for
this. Polly and Tack are flawed, vulnerable people, up against frightening odds,
which is why I found myself empathising with them - even super-soldier Tack is an
underdog when pitted against the likes of Cowl. Cormac and his friends, on the
other hand, seem almost invincible at times (or at least that's the way I'm
remembering them.) 

So - excitement, adventure, time travel, super monsters, good (if complex) plot,
adequate characters and a cracking, rip-roaring pace throughout. I really enjoyed
reading Cowl, and if, like me, you love this kind of turbo-charged
thrill-a-minute SF adventure, you will enjoy it too. 

Oh, and apparently the torbeast was named a long time before Neal Asher
took up with publishers Tor Books. Just in case you, like me, were wondering
about that. 

© Alex Cull, 11th February, 2005 



Gridlinked
==========

Earth Central Security agent Ian Cormac is assigned to find out why a disastrous
explosion has destroyed an ambitious terraforming project on the planet
Sarmarkand. In the process he encounters for the second time a vast mysterious
alien entity known as Dragon. Meanwhile, his enemies (both human and non-human)
are closing in...

================================================================================

Gridlinked is the second book by Neal Asher that I've read so far,
immediately after The Skinner, which I thought was pretty excellent.
However, it's difficult for me to disguise a very slight feeling of
disappointment; even though the elements are all there for a rattling good space
opera - futuristic tech, nifty weapons, assorted mercenaries and hitmen, plus a
scary two-metre tall killer android - I felt it didn't somehow come together as
it might have done. Maybe I should have read this one first and then
The Skinner. Anyway, too late.

The pace of the story is mostly just what you'd expect - fast and furious, as
hero Ian Cormac struggles to find out why a catastrophic technical fault killed
thousands on a remote planet, being hunted down meanwhile by grotesque villain
Arian Pelter. Here and there we get snippets of information that help to build
and furnish Asher's futuristic universe - we learn a little about the Earth-based
civilisation of the Polity and also the Runcibles - fabulous AI-operated machines
which fold space and provide instantaneous transportation across the light-years.
There are some deft touches which bring this future age to life - Asher's worlds
are peopled by sentient robots (the Golems), plus humans (both regular and
transmogrified) who have the capability to be linked to the data nets via tiny
interfaces or "augs".

And this brings us to super agent Ian Cormac's problem - for years he has been
constantly "gridlinked" or hooked up to the data grid via his aug. Now he is
facing the most challenging mission of his career to date - and he has been told
he must disconnect from the grid, as his sanity is at stake. One implication is
that he must re-learn some basic human social skills in order to survive; instead
of downloading facts directly to his brain, he must - gasp! - ask people questions.
Being somewhat of a net-head myself, I can relate to his predicament.

As I said, it has all the elements, and I did enjoy it. Maybe there were awkward
anti-climactic moments and some rather bland characterisation which spoiled it a
bit for me, and yes I preferred The Skinner but Gridlinked is good.
And there's now a sequel! 

© Alex Cull, 30th March 2004


The Line of Polity
==================

Earth Central Security Agent Ian Cormac is back to face enemies old and new,
including the mysterious space entity Dragon, plus evil megalomaniac doctor
Skellor. Eventually, Cormac's mission takes him to the hostile planet Masada,
where slave labourers face a number of equally unpleasant choices - work for
the cruel Theocrats, die by asphyxiation or be devoured by a variety of
monstrous native life forms! 

================================================================================

Neal Asher's The Line of Polity is basically a sequel to his earlier novel
Gridlinked, which introduced us to Cormac and to a varied cast of recurring
characters, such as scientist Mika and ex-mercenary John Stanton. It's a
roller-coaster of a ride, featuring alien worlds, terrifying and bloodthirsty
monsters, and battles fought with exotic and devastating weaponry.

As such, it's great fun. The author is highly inventive, dreaming up ever more
scary creatures, such as the hooders and gabbleducks in this novel,
and ever more action-filled scenarios. Indeed the action rarely lets up, and much
of the second half of the book features a massive land and air battle for control
of an entire planet, fought with rail-guns, aircraft, spacecraft and tanks. This
is all well and good. 

On a more negative note, however, there is a shallowness in the writing and in the
characterisation that prevents the reader from becoming more than superficially
involved. After reading two whole novels featuring the same characters, I feel
I'm no closer to knowing any of them very well. Gant, Mika, Cormac himself, seem
at times to be little more than sketches, lacking even a two-dimensional presence.
I mean, I'm not talking about Dostoyevskian depth and significance here, just a
tad more substance. 

This, for me, would make a difference. Reading about high-octane chases and
battles, with flat characters that I don't give a monkeys for, is generally about
as interesting as playing a repetitive shoot-em-up style computer game. The same
chases and battles but with characters I genuinely care about, now that's another
kettle of aliens entirely. Not that I dislike computer gaming or non-stop
fictional mayhem, don't get me wrong, but if I could picture Mika, for example, as
a rounded, interesting, vulnerable human being, I would feel a lot tenser whenever
danger came her way.

Ah, well. I've read Cowl in the meantime, and greatly enjoyed it (review
coming up soon!) For some reason I found Cowl a lot more satisfying - maybe
it's because of the time travel (another favourite theme of mine) and maybe the
characters are just a little bit more sharply defined. I'll have to think about
that. 

Oh, and there's another book in the Cormac series, Brass Man, coming out 
this year (2005). There's also The Voyage of the Sable Keech, a sequel to
The Skinner due out at some point. Definitely looking forward to these. 

© Alex Cull, 10th February, 2005


Orbus
=====

Something untoward is happening in the Graveyard, a sinister half-abandoned
zone between two vast and mutually hostile spacegoing powers. Converging on this 
locale are Spatterjay native Orbus, gung-ho rogue drone Sniper and mutated Prador 
Vrell. The question is: will any of them survive?

================================================================================

If this was the future, and there existed a desolate, lawless area of space which
was a contested no-man’s-land between two implacably opposed galactic cultures and 
which was known colloquially as "the Graveyard", would you ever want to go there? 
Would you, in fact, want to venture within a hundred light years of the place? I 
certainly wouldn’t, and neither would you if you’re as pathetically cautious as I 
am. Luckily for readers of Orbus, however, the characters in Neal Asher’s latest 
book are not averse to a little trouble now and then. And trouble – in spades – 
is exactly what they find in the Graveyard.

Ever since reading Neal Asher’s The Skinner back in 2003, I have thought that the 
Prador (a race of enjoyably nasty and warlike crustacean-analogues from deep space) 
are among some of the best SF baddies to emerge since Terry Nation invented the 
Daleks. Furthermore I have believed it was high time that they had a whole novel 
to themselves, more or less, without any danger of the planet Spatterjay’s 
entertainingly horrible and ruthless oceanic fauna stealing the show. Asher’s 
2006 novel Prador Moon came close to accomplishing this, the one caveat being 
that it was all too short, but at 438 pages, Orbus hits the bull’s-eye.

So, what’s to like? Plenty! As per usual in a Neal Asher book, there is no 
shortage of futuristic mayhem, as Prador engage in battle with one another, and 
with monstrosities even scarier than themselves, in a flurry of explosions, 
crashes, laser blasts, rail-gun duels and hand-to-hand (claw-to-claw) fisticuffs. 
Joining the fray is the eponymous Orbus (a Spatterjay native with superhuman 
strength and an attitude problem), his rather dim sidekick Drooble, the 
nautiloid-shaped war drone Sniper (who easily has to be my favourite Neal Asher 
character) and his own sidekick, the seahorse-shaped drone Thirteen. They find 
that even a boosted musculature and/or fiendishly advanced weaponry do not 
necessarily guarantee survival in an environment like this, where sudden death 
is usually only a fraction of a second away. It is, of course, all excellent, 
violent fun.

What impresses me in Orbus, and in Neal Asher novels generally (as it also does 
in the novels of Iain M Banks) is the ease with which the future technology is 
described, to the point where it becomes difficult to accept that rail-guns, 
fusion power plants, augs, chainglass and all the other accoutrements don’t 
actually exist right now (although I’m sure DARPA is on the case) and this is 
a testament to the way Asher is able to make his fantastically and nightmarishly 
improbable scenarios seem absolutely solid and real.

What also delights is that along the way the reader is treated almost 
imperceptibly to some of the bigger themes and questions in both fiction and 
real life. Such as, what makes aliens alien? (Take a while to think about that 
one.) And if you take most of what defines a person away from him (by 
reanimating his corpse under the control of an uploaded digital snapshot of his 
own mind, let’s say, or infecting him with a virus that causes him to undergo 
rapid and irreversible mutation) is what remains the same person? Happily, these 
thought experiments are not conveyed by long expository passages but occur as 
by-products of the relentless action-filled story, like a crop of interesting 
weeds found growing in a bomb crater.

Some reviewers have pointed to the rather lacklustre character of Orbus himself 
as a weakness in the novel, but my own impression is that, mad as this may sound, 
he is just about ideal for the role – physically superhuman enough to hold his 
own in an environment where mere humans wouldn’t last more than a minute at most, 
and at the same time able to act as a perfect foil to the more exuberant or 
dramatically interesting characters. In my opinion, it works.

As you have probably realised by now, I had a lot of fun reading this novel; 
and yes, I’m rather a fan of Neal Asher’s books, generally. Orbus isn’t The 
Catcher in the Rye, or Anna Karenina, but then it never sets out to be. There 
are indeed days when I prefer to read something like Anna Karenina. And there 
are other days, mostly after having done my level best to help prop up this 
country’s ailing economy for another twenty-four hours, when what I really, 
really want to read about – and nothing else will do – is aliens trying to 
murder one another with absurdly powerful military hardware.

© Alex Cull, 28th February, 2010



Prador Moon
===========

First contact with an alien race is always an exciting but tricky moment.
What will the extraterrestrials be like? Wise, sophisticated, aloof? 
Unfortunately for humankind, the aliens in question are the Prador - hideous, 
warlike and bloodthirsty crab monsters.

================================================================================

Prador Moon is set in the same fictional universe as the Cormac novels
and The Skinner but further back in time, at the point when one space
civilisation - the Polity - encounters a very different sort of civilisation
(if that term can be used to describe the Prador.) These are not friendly aliens.
They are predatory crab-things with carapaces, eyes on stalks and plenty of 
limbs, all the better to clutch railguns and other sorts of nasty hardware. 
And they mean business. 

Mayhem ensues from the start, and things swiftly go from bad to worse - the 
Polity come off badly but rally to fight back, in a vicious, take-no-prisoners
war. When it comes to space battles and explosive futuristic combat, of course,
Neal Asher is the man. Fans of the Cormac and Spatterjay books will be in 
their element.

There are some interesting comparisons to be made. The aliens have ruthless
qualities that are disturbingly human - do we not also vie for absolute power
and do we not also sacrifice our children on occasion, when it becomes expedient
to do so? (By "we", I should add, I don't mean you, gentle reader, or indeed 
myself, I mean "we humans, at some point in our chequered and bloody history.")
There is definitely something of us in them.

And if the monsters have their human aspects, the humans have their monstrous
side. Jebel Krong, who has lost a lover during the carnage at Avalon Station, 
becomes an awesomely skilled, cruel and absolutely dedicated soldier in the 
fight to contain the Prador; dubbed "Ucap" ("Up close and personal") he is, in
his way, as frightening and relentless as any alien invader.

If Prador Moon has one fault, it is this - the novel is very short, especially 
compared to any of Asher's more recent books. It's a bit of a tiddler, for 
example, next to the behemoth of Line War. Which is a shame, as the Prador 
(like the Daleks) are just really great baddies, and I can't get enough of them.

"A seafood cocktail for the strongest stomachs" is, I think, a phrase from the 
cover of Guy N Smith's Night of the Crabs (or maybe another of Smith's immortal
Crabs series, I forget which.) But it also sprang to mind when I read and swiftly 
finished Prador Moon. This is excellent, action-filled SF, light on 
characterisation but fast-moving and very very readable.

It's a starter rather than a main course, though. I'm still hungry. 

More, please!

© Alex Cull, 14th December, 2008


The Skinner
===========

The planet Spatterjay is mostly one very big ocean, but you wouldn't want to go
swimming there, as it is swarming with voracious life-forms, both large and small.
All is relatively peaceful, however, until assorted visitors show up to conclude
some unfinished business left over from an ancient and very nasty war.

================================================================================

This is the first book I've ever read by Neal Asher, and I'm impressed. 
In particular I love the details of Spatterjay's murderous ecosystem with its
leeches, whelks and various other fauna - Asher has been very inventive here,
and the result is highly enjoyable. Following the twists and turns of the
Spatterjay food chain, I'm reminded of Liam Neeson's remark (from The Phantom
Menace) "There's always a bigger fish".

There's also some ace action in this book, after the arrival of a massive alien
warship alerts the planet's AI Warden and its collection of robot drones, and the
battles that ensue are crisply depicted and exciting. The Prador, with their
legions of zombie-like cored humans, are enjoyably nasty and deserve a further
book all to themselves, I think. There's so much going on here, and most of it
is absorbing and highly readable. 

The only reservation I have is that due to the fact that so much is going on, Asher
can only devote so much space to any given character or sub-plot. After finishing
The Skinner, I realised that at least two characters start out looking as
though they are going to be major players in the story, only to remain forever
sidelined, and perhaps they might as well have been edited out altogether.

However, this does not detract much from a brilliantly imaginative SF page-turner,
fun from beginning to end, that has had me looking at the seafood on my plate
with fresh eyes ever since.

© Alex Cull, 7th April, 2004


The Voyage of the Sable Keech
=============================

Taylor Bloc is a dead man. He is also owner of gigantic ship the Sable
Keech, which he plans to sail across the ocean to a lonely outcrop called
the Little Flint. A straightforward task, you might think. However, this is 
Spatterjay - a waterworld teeming with voracious and lethal life forms and where
nothing - ever - quite goes to plan.

================================================================================

After reading Neal Asher's novel The Skinner, and the others in his Polity
series, I was really looking forward to The Voyage of the Sable Keech,
which follows on from where The Skinner ended. But I was also wondering
if would be as good as the earlier book, and was bracing myself to be just a
little let down. 

Well, I'm glad to be able to tell you that I needn't have worried. The Voyage
of the Sable Keech is terrific fun, every bit as good as The Skinner
and has all the elements that make Neal Asher's books so enjoyable to read. There. 

Okay, you want more? All right, here's exactly why I really liked this book. 
Firstly, those of us who had a good time reading The Skinner are able to
catch up on what happened to some of the characters in the first novel, namely
Janer, Erlin, the Old Captains and, of course, pugnacious war drone Sniper. We
also learn a bit more about hive minds, reifications and the Prador. 

In addition, the reader becomes acquainted (or reacquainted) with all the
insanely dangerous and hungry creatures that infest Spatterjay's ocean. As well
as old favourites such as leeches, prill, glisters and such like,
there is a new reason not to venture into the water - the monstrous, unbelievably
huge whelkus titanicus - not only gigantic, not only aggressive and hungry,
but also approaching the borders of sentience... Not a life form that you would
want to encounter on a peaceful ocean cruise. 

However, things are rarely peaceful on Spatterjay. Which brings me to the next
thing I loved about this book. The Prador - they're back! Vrell (whose
unpleasant daddy features in The Skinner) is struggling to survive, in 
spite of a) the local fauna, b) Sniper and the rest of the Warden's motley
collection of drones who are protecting the planet, and c) all of the other
Prador, as well. It's a tall order, but he manages rather brilliantly, until he
learns about one of his race's deepest, darkest secrets... I like the Prador. 
They're nasty, cruel, vicious, selfish and aggressive - but also monstrously
entertaining. 

It wouldn't be a Neal Asher book without loads of amazingly vicious and deadly
futuristic weapons. I found myself strongly identifying with Sniper as he
whizzed along over the seabed, powered by his fast new supercavitation drive,
gleefully looking for something to blow up. I think my favourite weapon in 
The Voyage of the Sable Keech is the "sin gun". No, not sin as in
naughtiness. Sin as in singularity. As in a miniature black hole. Think about
that. 

Above all, what I enjoyed when I read this book, was the very obvious sense of
fun. The Voyage of the Sable Keech is an adventure that takes itself
lightly and rollicks along without getting caught up in much seriousness and
debate (but still manages to sneak in some serious questions, e.g. what
is death, anyway?) 

And the fun is not over yet. Prador Moon is coming out next month - a
prequel to The Skinner, it deals with the first (and very violent)
contact between the Polity and the Prador. In SF terms at least, 2006 is
definitely turning out to be an enjoyable year.

© Alex Cull, 18th April, 2006


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