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kurwaczytaj's review against another edition
4.0
Určitě nadprůměrná sci fi. Spusta nápadá, neokoukaný a originální svět, kde se děj odehrává, stejně tak postavy. Spousta zajímavých myšlenek a motivů. Možná ty zoologické vsuvky do příběhu mohly být strečnější ale zas to tolik nevadilo. Za mně dobrý.
timmyb's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
doompidgeon's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I found the character concepts very interesting and it had a few ideas I hadn't encountered before. As there are characters who are incredibly old I hoped they would have gone into the way people deal with that a bit more but understand that it may have interfered with the pacing.
gavreads's review
Review in a sentence:
Sci-fi on the high seas exploring long lives, betrayals and sentient sails.
The trouble with having a wide circle of tastes in reading can sometimes feel like working through that moving belt in sushi bar. It’s hard sometimes to resist the new foods right in front of you in order wait for what you’ve had before and loved to come around. Especially when you trust the chef to serve only foods that you’ll like.
Or at least that’s my current excuse for why I’ve been filling my time with new to me authors rather than working my way through author back catalogues. That and last year I got into the silly habit of reading more than one book at a time. It really doesn’t work.
And The Skinner became a victim of that failed multi tasking and in some ways it’s also the solution. This is the first audiobook review I’ve done. But The Skinner isn’t my first audiobook.
What got me into audiobooks was joining the gym last year and needing something to listen to. Music just doesn’t do it for me. But audiobooks fill my mind and keep my going on treadmills and weight machines. Or they did now I’m more likely to listen on breaks and whilst relaxing in the bath.
Anyway, after two goes at getting into The Skinner on paper and failing to get past 149 pages on the second go I found it on Audible a couple of months ago. Now I always have to listen to them and decide if the narrator is absorbing or annoying and William Gaminara is absorbing and perfect for this book.
Partly why he worked for me because of not only the voices he uses but he also gives them accents – the sea captains remind me of gruff Scotts, the mercenaries as Africans – which you may feel is stereotyping but it’s more about encompassing character and attitude. And it adds texture.
But an absorbing reader needs material is what Gaminara has to read at that really makes something worth listening to or not. And the story of The Skinner is multifaceted to say the list. To start with you have Erlin, searching for an ancient sea captain who can teach her a meaning to life, Janer, bringing hornets and their Hive mind to Spatterjay, and Sable Keech, on a vendetta to avenge the events of the past.
Each of these three character are distinct in their backgrounds and their reasons for being on Spatterjay and their connections to the Polity universe. The Polity is an AI led technologically advanced society. Spatterjay is not part of the Polity but does fall under it’s protection and has it’s own warden AI, which is handy as the alien Prador are about to interfere in Spatterjay affairs.
I can’t decide my favourite thread but I’m torn between that of the warden and Sable Keech but only because the bits that contain the warden and his subminds were fun to listen to especially the fighting banter. Keech being the investigator of the tale is the most active and his explorations give the context to not only the origins of the skinner (as a character) but also the current state of Spatterjay that has remained the same for several hundred years.
Though this story is all about changing the status quo on this brutal world. Asher is clever how he shows this brutality from showing a character having his guts spilled out from a wound opening his stomach only to be walking around as if nothing happened a short time later as well and from de-fleshed fish that swims away quite happily afterwards.
Splatterjay contains a complex virus that not only repairs it’s hosts but also converts them into leech like creatures if they aren’t careful and all the creatures of Splatterjay are susceptible in some way with most carrying the virus.
Now a world filled with character that hard to kill and a character called the skinner you might be able to imagine what could happen. But whatever has happened is in the past but is part of the reaons for Sable Keech’s arrival.
This is very much a book of transformation and survival. And through each of the threads all the main and several of the secondary characters go through their own transformations as they try to survive.
Asher’s skill is not only in creation but using those ideas, even in a book that’s mostly about boats to look into the meaning of life and the potential for humanity as well as using some awesome weapons and technology.
Luckily this only the beginning as The Voyage of the Stable Keech (again read by William Gaminara) carries on from where this one finishes but I have no idea where that ship is sailing mostly because Erlin, Janer and Keech are internally and in some cases external changed by their journey so far and I think Asher has a few more secrets as well as tricks up his sleeve.
Sci-fi on the high seas exploring long lives, betrayals and sentient sails.
The trouble with having a wide circle of tastes in reading can sometimes feel like working through that moving belt in sushi bar. It’s hard sometimes to resist the new foods right in front of you in order wait for what you’ve had before and loved to come around. Especially when you trust the chef to serve only foods that you’ll like.
Or at least that’s my current excuse for why I’ve been filling my time with new to me authors rather than working my way through author back catalogues. That and last year I got into the silly habit of reading more than one book at a time. It really doesn’t work.
And The Skinner became a victim of that failed multi tasking and in some ways it’s also the solution. This is the first audiobook review I’ve done. But The Skinner isn’t my first audiobook.
What got me into audiobooks was joining the gym last year and needing something to listen to. Music just doesn’t do it for me. But audiobooks fill my mind and keep my going on treadmills and weight machines. Or they did now I’m more likely to listen on breaks and whilst relaxing in the bath.
Anyway, after two goes at getting into The Skinner on paper and failing to get past 149 pages on the second go I found it on Audible a couple of months ago. Now I always have to listen to them and decide if the narrator is absorbing or annoying and William Gaminara is absorbing and perfect for this book.
Partly why he worked for me because of not only the voices he uses but he also gives them accents – the sea captains remind me of gruff Scotts, the mercenaries as Africans – which you may feel is stereotyping but it’s more about encompassing character and attitude. And it adds texture.
But an absorbing reader needs material is what Gaminara has to read at that really makes something worth listening to or not. And the story of The Skinner is multifaceted to say the list. To start with you have Erlin, searching for an ancient sea captain who can teach her a meaning to life, Janer, bringing hornets and their Hive mind to Spatterjay, and Sable Keech, on a vendetta to avenge the events of the past.
Each of these three character are distinct in their backgrounds and their reasons for being on Spatterjay and their connections to the Polity universe. The Polity is an AI led technologically advanced society. Spatterjay is not part of the Polity but does fall under it’s protection and has it’s own warden AI, which is handy as the alien Prador are about to interfere in Spatterjay affairs.
I can’t decide my favourite thread but I’m torn between that of the warden and Sable Keech but only because the bits that contain the warden and his subminds were fun to listen to especially the fighting banter. Keech being the investigator of the tale is the most active and his explorations give the context to not only the origins of the skinner (as a character) but also the current state of Spatterjay that has remained the same for several hundred years.
Though this story is all about changing the status quo on this brutal world. Asher is clever how he shows this brutality from showing a character having his guts spilled out from a wound opening his stomach only to be walking around as if nothing happened a short time later as well and from de-fleshed fish that swims away quite happily afterwards.
Splatterjay contains a complex virus that not only repairs it’s hosts but also converts them into leech like creatures if they aren’t careful and all the creatures of Splatterjay are susceptible in some way with most carrying the virus.
Now a world filled with character that hard to kill and a character called the skinner you might be able to imagine what could happen. But whatever has happened is in the past but is part of the reaons for Sable Keech’s arrival.
This is very much a book of transformation and survival. And through each of the threads all the main and several of the secondary characters go through their own transformations as they try to survive.
Asher’s skill is not only in creation but using those ideas, even in a book that’s mostly about boats to look into the meaning of life and the potential for humanity as well as using some awesome weapons and technology.
Luckily this only the beginning as The Voyage of the Stable Keech (again read by William Gaminara) carries on from where this one finishes but I have no idea where that ship is sailing mostly because Erlin, Janer and Keech are internally and in some cases external changed by their journey so far and I think Asher has a few more secrets as well as tricks up his sleeve.
bibliovino's review
2.0
This book is ambitious! Pirates, gore, aliens, AI, romance... the world building is impressive especially considering this is just the first of several installments. It’s a ride.
Meant for a man.
Reading this book is a little like walking into a middle school boys’ locker room: hit with the smell of Axe and desperation. It was far too much testosterone for me.
But I won’t judge you for reading and enjoying this book, guys. I happen to love glittery vampires.
Meant for a man.
Reading this book is a little like walking into a middle school boys’ locker room: hit with the smell of Axe and desperation. It was far too much testosterone for me.
But I won’t judge you for reading and enjoying this book, guys. I happen to love glittery vampires.
nicobella's review
3.0
Oof, it took me a long time to get through this book. Asher accomplished some amazing world-building and a cast of intriguing characters. The gaps for me however were that this book was primarily plot-driven and the dialogue mostly felt like it was there to drive the plot forward. After a great start introducing some of the [what felt like 80] characters and the world, the middle slogged for me. By the end I wanted a deeper dive into and relationship building between the main/secondary/tertiary characters. (Really, the secondary/tertiary characters interested me the most, Windcheater and the AI like Sniper are the best.) I just feel like a great opportunity was missed. If you like sci-fi in a really unique setting that is plot-driven and features a large cast, this could be for you.
spinescens's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tome15's review
4.0
Asher, Neal. The Skinner. Spatterjay No. 1. 2002. Tor, 2005.
Neal Asher’s Polity universe has many mansions. It is a large, but still growing, interstellar post-scarcity culture that resembles nothing so much as Iain M. Banks’ Culture, but without the cute names for starships. But the polity isn’t everywhere. On its edges are some very strange and violent places. Spatterjay is a water planet partially quarantined by the polity Warden AIs. There is a domed island base where polity citizens come and go, but Spatterjay is also home to some very nasty predators. It is the kind of place where you might be tempted to go fishing with a railgun. Their food chain also houses a virus that makes the prey hard to kill. So, unless you are completely eaten, you are likely to survive, but you may be more like the thing that ate you than the person you used to be. Polity scientists suspect this virtual immortality virus may be a trojan they don’t want in their ecology. Into this mix come some humans and former humans who have different agendas. These include an agent carrying the consciousness of a hornet hive mind, a scientist looking for his lost love, and a centuries-old police monitor, whose body is kept animate by the local virus and Polity nanotech; virus and nanotech don’t have the same goals in mind. Add to that some human and alien villains and you have the makings for a high-tech outdoor adventure with intriguing characters. On the downside, the novel has a lot of minor characters, and I tend to lose track of some of them and have to scratch my head when they reappear. On the whole, however, it is quite a fish story, in fact, the best science fiction fish story since Roger Zelazny’s early ‘70s story “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth.” I recommend both.
Neal Asher’s Polity universe has many mansions. It is a large, but still growing, interstellar post-scarcity culture that resembles nothing so much as Iain M. Banks’ Culture, but without the cute names for starships. But the polity isn’t everywhere. On its edges are some very strange and violent places. Spatterjay is a water planet partially quarantined by the polity Warden AIs. There is a domed island base where polity citizens come and go, but Spatterjay is also home to some very nasty predators. It is the kind of place where you might be tempted to go fishing with a railgun. Their food chain also houses a virus that makes the prey hard to kill. So, unless you are completely eaten, you are likely to survive, but you may be more like the thing that ate you than the person you used to be. Polity scientists suspect this virtual immortality virus may be a trojan they don’t want in their ecology. Into this mix come some humans and former humans who have different agendas. These include an agent carrying the consciousness of a hornet hive mind, a scientist looking for his lost love, and a centuries-old police monitor, whose body is kept animate by the local virus and Polity nanotech; virus and nanotech don’t have the same goals in mind. Add to that some human and alien villains and you have the makings for a high-tech outdoor adventure with intriguing characters. On the downside, the novel has a lot of minor characters, and I tend to lose track of some of them and have to scratch my head when they reappear. On the whole, however, it is quite a fish story, in fact, the best science fiction fish story since Roger Zelazny’s early ‘70s story “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth.” I recommend both.
carolined314's review
3.0
I was so excited about this book. Sailors! Viruses! Sea creatures! Oh my... A Caroline bonanza book. And for the first few chapters, it totally delivers. Wacky characters strengthened by viruses sail across salty, windy seas with alien creatures trying to take chunks out of them. Sea creatures wriggle and writhe and swim their way through in the oddest of ways. It's wonderful.
And then I seriously think someone took Asher aside and shook him by the shoulders, yelling at him, "Get down to business! What's all this funny nonsense?! Advance the plot... and you have 2 weeks to finish."
At least, that's how it feels when you're reading. All the lovely lush, sciencey description and character hooks vanish into a swarm of plot devices that rapidly rearrange the pieces (that used to be characters) and toss them into coordinated action. It's a neat juggling act. But totally jarring, and disappointing.
And then I seriously think someone took Asher aside and shook him by the shoulders, yelling at him, "Get down to business! What's all this funny nonsense?! Advance the plot... and you have 2 weeks to finish."
At least, that's how it feels when you're reading. All the lovely lush, sciencey description and character hooks vanish into a swarm of plot devices that rapidly rearrange the pieces (that used to be characters) and toss them into coordinated action. It's a neat juggling act. But totally jarring, and disappointing.