Release Date: 23/03/17
Publisher: Tor
SYNOPSIS:
Infinity Engine is the third and final novel in the Transformation series, by bestselling science fiction author Neal Asher, following Dark Intelligence and War Factory.
A man battles for his life, two AIs vie for supremacy and a civilization hangs in the balance . . .
Several forces now pursue rogue artificial intelligence Penny Royal, hungry for revenge or redemption. And the Brockle is the most dangerous of all. This criminal swarm-robot AI has escaped its confinement and is upgrading itself, becoming ever more powerful in anticipation of a deadly showdown.
Events also escalate aboard the damaged war factory station where Penny Royal was constructed. Here Thorvald Spear, alien prador, and an assassin drone struggle to stay alive, battling insane AIs and technology gone wild. Then the Weaver arrives - last of the Atheter, resurrected from a race that suicided two million years ago. But what could it contribute to Penny Royal's tortuous plans?
And beyond the war factory a black hole conceals a tantalizing secret which could destroy the Polity. As AIs, humans and prador clash at its boundary, will anything survive their explosive final confrontation?
REVIEW:
I've been a fan of the author for years now and to be honest, if there's one thing I know, its that I've never been really disapointed by him as each book gives me cracking storytelling backed up with characters that I not only love to spend time around but cheer as they scrape through each personal struggle whethers its physical or mental.
Here in the final part of the Transformation trilogy you have a tale that is carefully wrapped up, has magical universe building and of course evenly matched opponents vying for supremacy. Its been a top notch journey and when backed with skills that have been hard earned over multiple books all round demonstrates that whilst this is a top rated book that the best is perhaps yet to come from this author. Magical.
Release Date: 24/09/15
Publisher: Pan
SYNOPSIS:
One man transcends death for vengeance. One woman transforms herself for power. And no one will emerge unscathed...
Thorvald Spear wakes in hospital, having been brought back from the dead. He died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago.
Spear had been trapped on a planet, surrounded by alien Prador forces, when he spotted a rescue ship. Yet he and his entire squad were killed by the ship's Artificial Intelligence, Penny Royal, which turned rogue. Now, reliving these traumatic final moments, Spear finds the drive to keep on living. That drive is vengeance.
The AI still roams free and Spear vows to destroy it, planning to exploit another of its victims in his quest. But crime-lord Isobel Satomi has been modified by Penny Royal, turning her into something far from human. And as she evolves into the ultimate predator, will she turn Spear from hunter to hunted?
This is the first volume in a no-holds-barred adventure set in Asher's popular Polity universe.
REVIEW:
A book from Neal is always a joy to read and whilst I’ve had it for a while, I like to take my time and savour them, so with the stressful season upon us, I picked this title up and sat down with a glass of mead, some Stollen and my comfy duvet. What you get from Neal is a book that is full of action, told wonderfully well from his character points of view backed up with solid dialogue with a kickass plot. Whilst you can read this book without having read any others in the series, I feel that you should as you’ll have missed solid world building as well as delightful characters and of course, the bigger picture of the tales undertone. All round a real joy.
Release Date: 14/03/13
Publisher: Pan Macmillan/Tor
SYNOPSIS:
Earth's Zero Asset citizens no longer face extermination from orbit. Thanks to Alan Saul, the Committee's network of control is a smoking ruin and its robotic enforcers lie dormant. But power abhors a vacuum and, scrambling from the wreckage, comes the ruthless Serene Galahad. She must act while the last vestiges of Committee infrastructure remain intact -- and she has the means to ensure command is hers. On Mars, Var Delex fights for the survival of Antares Base, while the Argus Space Station hurls towards the red planet. And she knows whomever, or whatever, trashed Earth is still aboard. Var must save the base, while also dealing with the first signs of rebellion. And aboard Argus Station, Alan Saul's mind has expanded into the local computer network. In the process, he uncovers the ghastly experiments of the Humanoid Unit Development, the possibility of eternal life, and a madman who may hold the keys to interstellar flight. But Earth's agents are closer than Saul thinks, and the killing will soon begin.
REVIEW:
It’s never been a secret that I love escaping into the future with Neal Asher, I love the way he works the storyline bringing cracking characters, top notch action and of course his own wicked little twist as mankind proves that no matter how far advanced we think we’re becoming, the baser instincts tend to take over.
Throw into the mix, a pace that is almost as fast as the future, wonderful prose that that really fires the readers imagination which all round made me a very happy reader. Great stuff and definitely an author I can’t wait to embark into the future with again.
Release Date: 05/09/11
SYNOPSIS:
Visible in the night sky the Argus Station, its twin smelting plants like glowing eyes, looks down on nightmare Earth. From Argus the Committee keep an oppressive control: citizens are watched by cams systems and political officers, it's a world inhabited by shepherds, reader guns, razor birds and the brutal Inspectorate with its white tiled cells and pain inducers.
Soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human being need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online . . .
This is the world Alan Saul wakes to in his crate on the conveyor to the Calais incinerator. How he got there he does not know, but he does remember the pain and the face of his interrogator. Informed by Janus, through the hardware implanted in his skull, about the world as it is now Saul is determined to destroy it, just as soon as he has found out who he was, and killed his interrogator . . .
REVIEW:
Neal Asher has been a favourite author of mine for quite some time, especially when I want a Sci-Fi fix, I love his work as it brings humour, the future and the human condition to the reader and wraps it all up in a kick ass story. Whilst this is a departure from his much loved Polity series what this novel does is bring more of the authors talents to the fore as we get to see a future not that dissimilar to what we currently live in where the rich get richer and the poor stay downtrodden. It’s a cleverly written title with a number perspectives, a different look to how colonisation would work and when mixed in with the authors cracking narrative alongside prose really does go for the jugular.
All in, I had an absolute blast with this book and if you haven’t tried Neal’s work before this would be a good place to start as it has a fairly familiar feel to the reader. Add to this the additional skills picked up from previous titles and his work really does get better and better. Great fun all in and a title that I really think should get some decent recognition.
Release Date: 03/09/10
BOOK BLURB:
The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hitlist. Escaping his sanatorium Tombs is pushed into painful confrontation with reality he has avoided since the rebellion. His insanity has been left uncured, because the near mythical hooder called the Technician that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race. The war drone Amistad, whose job it is to bring this information to light, recruits Lief Grant, an ex-rebel Commander, to protect Tombs, along with the black AI Penny Royal, who everyone thought was dead. The amphidapt Chanter, who has studied the bone sculptures the Technician makes with the remains of its prey, might be useful too. Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals, stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons.
REVIEW:
Neal Asher is one of those Science Fiction authors that I really enjoy landing. Not that I expect to get the guy himself on my doormat but I know that when a tale from him arrives that I’m going to get a story that I absolutely love. You get some great characters (some old friends return) and the author knows how to weave alongside interweave plots and subplots with great dialogue and some beautiful examples of pace. It’s definitely one of the Neal’s best, it was not only entertaining but one that was hard to put down and if an author can pick you up when you’re feeling down and not in the mood then you know that this story is well worth the cost. A great addition to the series and one that will open future exploration that fans as well as new readers will hopefully enjoy.
BOOK BLURB:
‘What has six arms, a large beak, looks like a pyramid, has more eyes than you’d expect and talks nonsense? If you don’t know the answer to that, then 1) you should and 2) you haven’t been reading Neal Asher (see point 1)’ Jon Courtenay Grimwood
In the eight years since his first full-length novel Gridlinked was published by Pan Macmillan, Neal Asher has firmly established himself as one of the leading British writers of Science Fiction, and his novels are now translated in many languages. Most of his stories are set in a galactic future-scape called ‘The Polity’, and with this collection of marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, he takes us further into the manifold diversities of that amazing universe.
No one does monsters better than Neal Asher, so be prepared to revisit the lives and lifestyles of such favourites as the gabbleduck and the hooder, to savour alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont.
REVIEW:
Those who have fallen in love with Neal’s Polity series will more than be pleased with this collection of short stories as he continues to expand the universe in his own indomitable style as his universe building is perhaps one of the ones without par at the moment. Its beautifully written with a reality of blood, death, disease and of course slaughter as races come together in mankinds expansion. It’s a cracking offering and one that is a good book to dip into if you just want a quick fix until the next novel. Personally I wouldn’t advise reading this title if you’ve missed the rest of the series as I don’t think you’ll get the full scope without it but it’s definitely a worthy addition to your Polity collection and one that if you can sneak it in will make many fans Christmas dreams come true.
BOOK BLURB:
In charge of an old cargo spaceship, the Old Captain Orbus flees a violent and sadistic past, but he doesn't know that the lethal war drone, Sniper, is a stowaway, and that the past is rapidly catching up with him. His old enemy the Prador Vrell, mutated by the Spatterjay virus into something powerful and dangerous, has seized control of a Prador dreadnought, murdering its crew, and is now seeking to exact vengeance on those who tried to have him killed. Their courses inexorably converge in the Graveyard, the border realm lying between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom, a place filled with the ruins left by past genocides and interplanetary war. But this is the home of the Golgoloth, monster to a race of monsters, the place where a centuries-long cold war is being fought. Meanwhile, the terrifying Prador King is coming, prepared to do anything to ensure Vrell's death and keep certain deadly secrets buried ...and somewhere out there something that has annihilated civilizations is stirring from a slumber of five million years. The cold war is heating up, fast.
REVIEW:
Many might think that Neal Asher spends way too much time in the same universe alongside creating and expanding it for future projects, yet the question has to be asked, what about the uninitiated. How do they get into it? What happens if they pick up the new novel having seen it displayed prominently and then get annoyed that is part of a series?
Well that worry is always a concern for any reader, yet here, in Neal’s latest offering the new as well as established readers can get a fair crack of the whip and enjoy the adventure presented within. Its as you’d expect from Neal, fun, fast paced and above all well developed. (Although that said the principle protagonist doesn’t stand out as much as he perhaps should do against the myriad of other cast members even though he originally appeared in the Voyage of Sable Keech.) Add to the mix a light romp in Asher’s universe and a chance to stop for tea and it’s a book that doesn’t require deep seated scientific understandings. Doing what it says on the tin, which to be honest is what I need at times, a book to relax and take comfort from instead of something that needs a PHD to understand as a number of more Hard Sci-Fi people seem to think you need.
BOOK BLURB:
Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and the vicious arthropoid race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn't remember. In the years following the war, he signs up with Earth Central Security, and is sent out to help either restore or simply maintain order on worlds devastated by Prador bombardment. There he discovers that though the old enemy remains as murderous as ever, it is not anywhere near as perfidious or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some of them closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, he discovers in himself a cold capacity for violence, learns some horrible truths about his own past and, set upon a course of vengeance, tries merely to stay alive.
REVIEW:
Whilst a huge fan of Neal’s work usually, I always have a niggle when an author writes a prequel. Why? Basically its because you know that the central character is in no danger as s/he, has to be alright for the rest of the series to continue. It really does niggle me as it takes a lot of the drama out of the tale. Don’t get me wrong, its what you’d come to expect from Neal’s work, epic battles, snappy writing, all wrapped up in a neat package but without the suspense about the characters survivability it lacks a lot in the telling for me. Still solid reading and perhaps a book to give to the uninitiated for his writing as an introduction to what is to come.
BOOK BLURB:
The Polity is under attack from a 'melded' AI entity with control of the lethal Jain technology, yet the attack seems to have no coherence. When one of Erebus' worm ships kills millions on the world of Klurhammon, a high-tech agricultural world of no real tactical significance, agent Ian Cormac is sent to investigate, though he is secretly struggling to control a new ability no human being should possess...and beginning to question the motives of his AI masters.Further attacks and seemingly indiscriminate slaughter ensue, but only serve to bring some of the most dangerous individuals in the Polity into the war. Mr Crane, the indefatigable brass killing machine sets out for vengeance, while Orlandine, a vastly-augmented haiman who herself controls Jain technology, seeks a weapon of appalling power and finds allies from an ancient war. Meanwhile Mika, scientist and Dragon expert, is again kidnapped by that unfathomable alien entity and dragged into the heart of things: to wake the makers of Jain technology from their five-million-year slumber. But Erebus' attacks are not so indiscriminate, after all, and could very well herald the end of the Polity itself...
REVIEW:
As regular readers know I’ve been a big fan of Neal’s work for quite some time. Its gripping, its action packed and above all you get value for money as it’s a guaranteed quality. The writing is crisp, the characters are solid with continual development as an added bonus. Part of the fun with Neal’s writing is the fact that you know that his characters really aren’t that predictable, they do things that they want to do when they want to do it and of course, how they decide to tackle it. It’s a real guessing game from page to page as to the events. Add to the mix epic space battles and you really have a book that should tick all the boxes for a lot of Sci-Fi readers.
