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sfrench67's review against another edition
5.0
Audiobook
4.5 Stars - Really enjoyed this Cormac novel. I am liking the style of Neal Asher
There were times it was a little long winded.
I am warming to the Narration of Ric Jerrom too.
4.5 Stars - Really enjoyed this Cormac novel. I am liking the style of Neal Asher
There were times it was a little long winded.
I am warming to the Narration of Ric Jerrom too.
pikminguy's review against another edition
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.75
lyndacclark's review against another edition
5.0
Agent Cormac is one of the most kick-ass characters in sci-fi, with Mr Crane giving him a close run for his money. Homicidal serial killing android? Yes please! A wonderful, fast paced blend of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson.
angelic712's review against another edition
4.0
I just love the Wild West type world created within the vast advance of technology
jmoses's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good read. I liked the characters. The world and tech reminded me of Reynolds, with a less...distopian feel.
sl0w_reader's review against another edition
3.0
This is a fairly zippy page-turner, with some cool technologies, lots of weaponised action, lethal androids and aliens, and a slightly vaguely outlined social/political system run by artificial intelligence. It falls down a bit on the rather shallow characterisations, a somewhat unsympathetic lead character, and an anticlimatic and unclear ending (perhaps followed up in later books in the series?). In places it could also do with more clarity in explaining some basic background on the technology and society a little more too (for example I would have liked more on the shuriken, and on the history and basic idea of the Polity, and maybe more on the Sparkind too). However, I enjoyed it as it rattled along and it's very easy to read quickly.
zare_i's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent cyber-SF-action story. Set in a world where AIs have become benevolent tyrants ruling the humanity we follow special agent Ian Cormac as he starts on the new mission with a handicap - he is deemed a liability because of his high dependence on the AI network so while getting engaged on high level case where huge number of people got killed he needs to do it old style - without use of links and augmentation.
Story is fast paced and once it starts (like from page 1 where Cormac clashes with the people rebelling against the AI's) it does not let go. As Cormac starts his investigation several things from his past (terrorist bent on revenge and one very powerful alien with indiscernible motives to mention the few) will start chasing him.
World building is great, technology and various fractions are portrayed wonderfully. If there were elements I had a problem with then it would be the following:
- Artificial slow down - Viridian showdown in my opinion took longer than required and above mentioned terrorist just ..... dimmed out, no big bang nothing, he just..... went away, kinda strange considering the build-up preceding the final show down. If this part of the story was sped up, with lower page count it would have bigger effect.
- Ending - well, it was convoluted, no other way to say it. I read the so called Scooby-Doo article by author and while this ending was pretty much in line with what I understood from the novel, some more info would be appreciated. Could be because this was author's first novel so he wanted to make it more open ended. In any case explaining is not a bad thing :)
In any case, excellent action packed story with wonderful world and characters (that include both biological and non-biological creatures - sentient weapons are amazing). Polity is often compared to Banks' Culture series and they do have things in common. But for me Polity is more vibrant world, it has that frontier-conflict feeling that makes it more relatable to me (Culture novels are also good but majority are rather .... too sterile, there is actually no threat to Culture AIs and accent is on sociological aspects of AI to human relations, while in Polity universe, well lets say everything goes, firefights, AI going psychotic and byzantine plots by both Polity and its adversaries).
Highly recommended to all fans of SF action and adventure.
Story is fast paced and once it starts (like from page 1 where Cormac clashes with the people rebelling against the AI's) it does not let go. As Cormac starts his investigation several things from his past (terrorist bent on revenge and one very powerful alien with indiscernible motives to mention the few) will start chasing him.
World building is great, technology and various fractions are portrayed wonderfully. If there were elements I had a problem with then it would be the following:
- Artificial slow down - Viridian showdown in my opinion took longer than required and above mentioned terrorist just ..... dimmed out, no big bang nothing, he just..... went away, kinda strange considering the build-up preceding the final show down. If this part of the story was sped up, with lower page count it would have bigger effect.
- Ending - well, it was convoluted, no other way to say it. I read the so called Scooby-Doo article by author and while this ending was pretty much in line with what I understood from the novel, some more info would be appreciated. Could be because this was author's first novel so he wanted to make it more open ended. In any case explaining is not a bad thing :)
In any case, excellent action packed story with wonderful world and characters (that include both biological and non-biological creatures - sentient weapons are amazing). Polity is often compared to Banks' Culture series and they do have things in common. But for me Polity is more vibrant world, it has that frontier-conflict feeling that makes it more relatable to me (Culture novels are also good but majority are rather .... too sterile, there is actually no threat to Culture AIs and accent is on sociological aspects of AI to human relations, while in Polity universe, well lets say everything goes, firefights, AI going psychotic and byzantine plots by both Polity and its adversaries).
Highly recommended to all fans of SF action and adventure.
rheren's review against another edition
3.0
This book was somewhat interesting, it's very self-consciously a James Bond clone (it even makes that reference itself a couple of times), so you get pretty much the same tropes, but with a slight sci-fi twist to them. Lots of technobabble, pretty good world-building, cardboard bad guys and our hero sleeps with every female he meets. Not terrible, but not my favorite. Since I havent read anything else in the Polity Universe, I might've been missing some references from that, but I was assured that this was pretty self-contained.
sebfm's review against another edition
3.0
(spoiler free) I love the world that Neal Asher has built and all of the main and the background characters are interesting. Cormac is a great character that you keep rooting for, but has his flaws which keeps things interesting. Asher's writing style is fluent and comprehensive without being verbose. One think I would have liked more of is more description of the environments - sometimes I would get halfway through an event in the book and realise something which I wish I'd known earlier when setting the scene.
I would also suggest that readers look up Neil Asher's original "scooby doo" ending which explains the ending of the story because in the original publication it's left to the reader to work out. I don't really understand this direction - for all of the things that need to be explained to the characters and the reader, why exclude the explanation to the ending? It makes sense that Cormac debriefs his team and that they discuss what happened and the climax of the story especially has Cormac was purposefully retaining information for a big surprise at the end (which is further enhanced when you know why certain things happened).
As I understand, it was a suggested edit to Asher because it felt like a "scooby doo" ending where they explain the plot mysteries plainly to the reader. I can't say I agree, but I was delighted to see that he has since published his original ending on his website.
I would also suggest that readers look up Neil Asher's original "scooby doo" ending which explains the ending of the story because in the original publication it's left to the reader to work out. I don't really understand this direction - for all of the things that need to be explained to the characters and the reader, why exclude the explanation to the ending? It makes sense that Cormac debriefs his team and that they discuss what happened and the climax of the story especially has Cormac was purposefully retaining information for a big surprise at the end (which is further enhanced when you know why certain things happened).
As I understand, it was a suggested edit to Asher because it felt like a "scooby doo" ending where they explain the plot mysteries plainly to the reader. I can't say I agree, but I was delighted to see that he has since published his original ending on his website.
alliebebbs9's review against another edition
3.0
Reminiscent of Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy - just a modern version.