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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A good revelatory read, with characters you care about. I want more Prador though!
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Prequels are the last resort of a failing plot arc, but this reads nicely, In a Young Legionary kind of way. The hinting at the Gridlinked mentality plays falsely with the emotional development story, and pulling in a character from a separate arc is also a bit strained, but neither blows my retcon fuses.
3★
This was an okay-ish thriller set on a planet and serves as an introduction to Cormac, so no massive ship battles here or intellectually melting confrontation between god like AIs either.
This was an okay-ish thriller set on a planet and serves as an introduction to Cormac, so no massive ship battles here or intellectually melting confrontation between god like AIs either.
Fair enjoyed this origin story for Agent Cormac. It flits between time periods and follows on nicely from what I learned in Prador Moon. However this does touch upon Spatterjay, which I have not read yet, so I'm wondering how that will adjust those upcoming books.
This one however romps along with its two parallel stories that gradually converge at a pace that ratchets up through the book. I preferred the action elements of the current timeline, elements which were very robust - painful, surprising, and brutal.
Looking forward to the next one in the series.
This one however romps along with its two parallel stories that gradually converge at a pace that ratchets up through the book. I preferred the action elements of the current timeline, elements which were very robust - painful, surprising, and brutal.
Looking forward to the next one in the series.
I enjoyed this. A nice ending to the Cormac story. Close with a prequel. Nice!
Asher, Neal. Shadow of the Scorpion. Polity Universe No. 2 (Chronological). Tor, 2008.
Here’s how I think it must have gone down. Neal Asher is reading Ian M. Banks’s Culture series in the 1990s and thinks, “That’s cool. I bet I could one-up that.” And maybe he did. In Asher’s Polity Universe there are more AIs in more kinds of machines, more humans, posthumans and aliens, more strange locales, badass beasts, selfish-gene viruses, and more biotech of all kinds. As of April 2020, the series has grown to 17 novels in several different subseries. By 2008, Asher concluded that the Agent Cormac series needed a prequel—Shadow of the Scorpion—that delves into the childhood of Earth Central Security’s super soldier, Agent Ian Cormac (the name has to be an homage). He finds that, because he was traumatized by war as a child, his memories were selectively deleted. It is a neat treatment for post-traumatic stress if you can make it work. But is it a good idea? If you want the trauma back, can the memories be retrieved? How should you feel about the people who did the editing? Which way has more survival value? Eventually, Cormac will have to find out.
Here’s how I think it must have gone down. Neal Asher is reading Ian M. Banks’s Culture series in the 1990s and thinks, “That’s cool. I bet I could one-up that.” And maybe he did. In Asher’s Polity Universe there are more AIs in more kinds of machines, more humans, posthumans and aliens, more strange locales, badass beasts, selfish-gene viruses, and more biotech of all kinds. As of April 2020, the series has grown to 17 novels in several different subseries. By 2008, Asher concluded that the Agent Cormac series needed a prequel—Shadow of the Scorpion—that delves into the childhood of Earth Central Security’s super soldier, Agent Ian Cormac (the name has to be an homage). He finds that, because he was traumatized by war as a child, his memories were selectively deleted. It is a neat treatment for post-traumatic stress if you can make it work. But is it a good idea? If you want the trauma back, can the memories be retrieved? How should you feel about the people who did the editing? Which way has more survival value? Eventually, Cormac will have to find out.