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A review by voodoochilli
Cowl by Neal Asher
4.0
Damn.
This was a good book, however there was something that ruined it for me. I'll list that at the bottom of this review so you can skip it if you haven't read the book yourself or are not familiar with Neal Asher.
Ok, so last year I tried to read one of Asher's other books, The Skinner. There was something about the simplistic writing style that bothered me. I guess it felt amateurish. Since then I found out that Asher has in fact improved a lot so I decided to give him another shot, after all everyone kept mentioning the guy in the same light as Reynolds, Stross and Banks - authors that I admire greatly.
I started reading Cowl and I just couldn't believe it - it was everything I wanted from a book. Futuristic battles, time travel, argumentation, beings so intelligent it makes your own brain hurt just thinking about it, plenty of action and enough clever stuff to make you wonder what's going to happen next. The book got better and better until the end and my only real criticism is that at times it was a little tricky to know what was going on. The book is essentially a time travel story, but set in a sci-fi universe kind of reminiscent to that of the one created by John Scalzi in Old Man's war. There is a strong military theme but it's not too heavy.
Anyway, I was reading the book amazed that I had turned my nose up at such a great author for so long. I decided it deserved an easy 4/5 losing a point because of the occasional lack of clarity and confusion. But then something happened!
SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read past this if you have not read anything by Asher or intend to read plenty more of him!
When I find an author I like, I tend to research them. I found out Reynolds was an astronomer, Stross a pharmacist and computer programmer and Orson Scott Card was a Mormon. A Mormon I can just about put up with - like I suspect with most other sci-fi fans, I am not a religious person but I managed to tolerate the man's lack of logic in his own personal life. I did occasionally get little hints of his religious philosophy poking it's head into his books but I could just about put up with them since on the whole Mormons are a peaceful people. What I didn't like to find out about Asher though is that he is politically very right wing and more than happy to share his views. On his site he has links to the UKIP party, kind of a watered down version of the BNP - Britain's shameful racist party. The UKIP party wants stronger immigration laws, us to leave the EU and basically keep away from foreigners unless we rule them. Many conservative people look at the UKIP party as too extreme, and as a liberal minded person I find that unacceptable. On his blog he goes on and on about it - these pages have been removed presumably at the request of his publishers now but you can still see some of the posts on googles cache. This guy explains it better than me.
Anyway, the book is still a great book and I'm still giving it a 4/5 stars. I just won't be able to read any more books by him knowing what I do now. It's sad really, I know. Try to imagine your favourite book, and then you find out that the person who wrote it was actually Adolf Hitler acting as a ghost writer, this is kind of how I feel. Maybe I should be bigger and better than this, but when I read a book it is like a personal, intellectual connection is made and considering I am unable to tolerate having a pint with a racist, why should I read one of their books? Ah well. Back to my old favourites. :(
This was a good book, however there was something that ruined it for me. I'll list that at the bottom of this review so you can skip it if you haven't read the book yourself or are not familiar with Neal Asher.
Ok, so last year I tried to read one of Asher's other books, The Skinner. There was something about the simplistic writing style that bothered me. I guess it felt amateurish. Since then I found out that Asher has in fact improved a lot so I decided to give him another shot, after all everyone kept mentioning the guy in the same light as Reynolds, Stross and Banks - authors that I admire greatly.
I started reading Cowl and I just couldn't believe it - it was everything I wanted from a book. Futuristic battles, time travel, argumentation, beings so intelligent it makes your own brain hurt just thinking about it, plenty of action and enough clever stuff to make you wonder what's going to happen next. The book got better and better until the end and my only real criticism is that at times it was a little tricky to know what was going on. The book is essentially a time travel story, but set in a sci-fi universe kind of reminiscent to that of the one created by John Scalzi in Old Man's war. There is a strong military theme but it's not too heavy.
Anyway, I was reading the book amazed that I had turned my nose up at such a great author for so long. I decided it deserved an easy 4/5 losing a point because of the occasional lack of clarity and confusion. But then something happened!
SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read past this if you have not read anything by Asher or intend to read plenty more of him!
When I find an author I like, I tend to research them. I found out Reynolds was an astronomer, Stross a pharmacist and computer programmer and Orson Scott Card was a Mormon. A Mormon I can just about put up with - like I suspect with most other sci-fi fans, I am not a religious person but I managed to tolerate the man's lack of logic in his own personal life. I did occasionally get little hints of his religious philosophy poking it's head into his books but I could just about put up with them since on the whole Mormons are a peaceful people. What I didn't like to find out about Asher though is that he is politically very right wing and more than happy to share his views. On his site he has links to the UKIP party, kind of a watered down version of the BNP - Britain's shameful racist party. The UKIP party wants stronger immigration laws, us to leave the EU and basically keep away from foreigners unless we rule them. Many conservative people look at the UKIP party as too extreme, and as a liberal minded person I find that unacceptable. On his blog he goes on and on about it - these pages have been removed presumably at the request of his publishers now but you can still see some of the posts on googles cache. This guy explains it better than me.
Anyway, the book is still a great book and I'm still giving it a 4/5 stars. I just won't be able to read any more books by him knowing what I do now. It's sad really, I know. Try to imagine your favourite book, and then you find out that the person who wrote it was actually Adolf Hitler acting as a ghost writer, this is kind of how I feel. Maybe I should be bigger and better than this, but when I read a book it is like a personal, intellectual connection is made and considering I am unable to tolerate having a pint with a racist, why should I read one of their books? Ah well. Back to my old favourites. :(