Scan barcode
A review by zare_i
Polity Agent by Neal Asher
5.0
Now this was truly a tour de force. Again this is one of those series that I have started reading from the middle but, momentary confusion aside, story flows without any obstacles in this action packed book and reader can connect the majority of dots.
Polity, future human civilization ruled by benevolent AIs (think of it as a variation on Banks' Culture, another great SF series) is under serious threat by mysterious alien technology that seems to be bestowed on specific personas in the universe by unknown forces, people placed at the very breaking points of Polity civilization. We witness huge armada and scientific effort from the Polity fighting this outbreak, trying to put it under control using almost everything at its disposal.
This is time of advanced humans, cyber implants and in some cases almost entire body replacements, high level of connection between people through grid-link system, AIs controlling small drones but also gargantuan spaceships fighting the alien menace, huge alien sentient machines, planets grind down by powerful weapons to the the very core. Same as with the people these AIs have very different characters, from analytical and cold to action prone, let-me-shoot-pleeeeeasseee combat drones fighting on the ground. It is interesting how AIs actually take themselves to be much more human at this point in time than humans themselves.
This is truly an epic story in which enemy is very smart, its technology so advanced that it borders with magic and in conflicts like these people (and AI) die, they fight bravely but unfortunately when fighting against this type of odds it is very hard to remain alive for long. Book ends with quite a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see how story develops in the next book in series.
Main characters (both protagonists and antagonists) are given very well (do note that it is not standalone book but part of the series so knowledge of previous events helps - a lot), their doubts and attempts to finally overcome (or come back to) what you might call "base humanity".
Excellent book, In my mind events from Richard K Morgan novels come first, then Asher novels continue to track the humanity's adventures culminating in Banks' Culture civilization, followed by breakdown portrayed in Puzzler series and finalizing in the Horus Heresy series of books (and any book set in pre-Imperial era).
Highly recommended to all fans of hard action-oriented SF (yup, rejoice this genre actually exists :))
Polity, future human civilization ruled by benevolent AIs (think of it as a variation on Banks' Culture, another great SF series) is under serious threat by mysterious alien technology that seems to be bestowed on specific personas in the universe by unknown forces, people placed at the very breaking points of Polity civilization. We witness huge armada and scientific effort from the Polity fighting this outbreak, trying to put it under control using almost everything at its disposal.
This is time of advanced humans, cyber implants and in some cases almost entire body replacements, high level of connection between people through grid-link system, AIs controlling small drones but also gargantuan spaceships fighting the alien menace, huge alien sentient machines, planets grind down by powerful weapons to the the very core. Same as with the people these AIs have very different characters, from analytical and cold to action prone, let-me-shoot-pleeeeeasseee combat drones fighting on the ground. It is interesting how AIs actually take themselves to be much more human at this point in time than humans themselves.
This is truly an epic story in which enemy is very smart, its technology so advanced that it borders with magic and in conflicts like these people (and AI) die, they fight bravely but unfortunately when fighting against this type of odds it is very hard to remain alive for long. Book ends with quite a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see how story develops in the next book in series.
Main characters (both protagonists and antagonists) are given very well (do note that it is not standalone book but part of the series so knowledge of previous events helps - a lot), their doubts and attempts to finally overcome (or come back to) what you might call "base humanity".
Excellent book, In my mind events from Richard K Morgan novels come first, then Asher novels continue to track the humanity's adventures culminating in Banks' Culture civilization, followed by breakdown portrayed in Puzzler series and finalizing in the Horus Heresy series of books (and any book set in pre-Imperial era).
Highly recommended to all fans of hard action-oriented SF (yup, rejoice this genre actually exists :))