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A review by thirdsaint
Prador Moon by Neal Asher
3.0
I have entered the Polity Universe ready to get my figurative head handed to me on a Prador platter. Well, they don't use platters, but all the same. After doing some initial research, the most informative of which being on Neal Asher's website where he explains the different ways you can read his work in the Polity Universe, which is roughly 20 books long. The main options appeared to be reading them in publishing order or in chronological order. I chose the latter since it's easiest for me to understand what is going on when I read it chronologically. It appears that, no matter which way you go, Prador Moon should be your entry into Asher's dark mind. I found Prador Moon to be a fun romp through the start of an interstellar war that was at times comical, brutal, bloody, and fun.
The Polity Universe is one in which Artificial Intelligence and it's benefits as well as it's boons are a constant subject of conversation. You have Separatists who can't stand the Polity (AI) and want to destroy them. You have other humans that get Augs installed in their head to give them enhanced abilities. You have some that are so entwined with the AI that they aren't even human anymore. It's a fascinating, not too hard to envision of our future. Everything goes south when big, bad space crabs come knocking on a space station's door and start maiming, killing, and eating anything that is fleshy, otherwise known as the Prador.
Prador Moon follows multiple points of view from, literally, all types of angles. You have Jebel Krong, military goon turned superhero who only wants to frag more crabs, Moria the newly aug'ed number-cruncher who can calculate faster than the greatest mathematician, a couple of captains, a sociopath, and, yes, even a Prador! I have to admit, aside from Jebel's POV's later in the book, Captain Immanence's bits are my favorite. I loved going inside of the mind of the coolest crab I've ever known, and you get to see how the Prador hierarchy works. Sometimes it reminds me of the Terran mirror universe in Star Trek in how they rise and fall from power. There's surprisingly a lot of comedy in what is a very dark and bloody book. Also, I don't know how common it is, but I saw the end coming about halfway through the book and I'm pretty proud of myself since I don't think it was too obvious. I feel like it made for a satisfying conclusion.
My main gripe with this story are the characters that are very flat and not at all personable. The good news is there is a difference between each that it doesn't feel like they are interchangeable. They all have their different motives at least. There's just not much in the way of character development of any sort and there's no backstory or caring about anything else other than the task at hand. Moria is quite bland to read and I have no idea who she is or that she even had a life before the beginning of the book. Another frustration, and some of this has to do with the formatting of the book, is that there is often no warning when a POV switches and sometimes the extra space between paragraphs isn't there at all. It was quite disorienting to read at times and the flatness of the characters only made it more difficult when it was mostly headspace exposition. Maybe this is why I enjoyed Captain Immanence's POV so much, there was no doubt when it switched over to him!
Another gripe is the story itself and how quickly events unfold. It was often confusing as to how much time had passed between chapters and sometimes references would be made of big battles or events and all of the characters seemed to just shrug their shoulders and move on. It would be like watching a long movie and whole segments would just be on fast forward until you get to another scene days, weeks, or possibly even months later for all I knew. The pacing of the story is fine as there's constant action. I just wish there were another couple hundred pages in here to let the scale of the war breathe a little and not seem so rushed.
The best thing that can be said about a book in a massive series set in the same universe, is that, when you finish, it has you wanting to come back for another round. Despite it's flaws, Prador Moon has done just that. I knew what to expect going into it, and Asher fulfilled my expectations while instilling in me a need to find out what happens next. For Book 1 of 20, what more can you ask for? Next up in chronological order: Shadow of the Scorpion
Polity Universe
Prador Moon - 7.5/10
Shadow of the Scorpion - 7.0/10
The Technician - 8.0/10
Agent Cormac
Gridlinked - 7.5/10
The Line of Polity - 8.0/10
Brass Man - 8.5/10
Polity Agent - 9.0/10
Line War - 10/10
The Polity Universe is one in which Artificial Intelligence and it's benefits as well as it's boons are a constant subject of conversation. You have Separatists who can't stand the Polity (AI) and want to destroy them. You have other humans that get Augs installed in their head to give them enhanced abilities. You have some that are so entwined with the AI that they aren't even human anymore. It's a fascinating, not too hard to envision of our future. Everything goes south when big, bad space crabs come knocking on a space station's door and start maiming, killing, and eating anything that is fleshy, otherwise known as the Prador.
Prador Moon follows multiple points of view from, literally, all types of angles. You have Jebel Krong, military goon turned superhero who only wants to frag more crabs, Moria the newly aug'ed number-cruncher who can calculate faster than the greatest mathematician, a couple of captains, a sociopath, and, yes, even a Prador! I have to admit, aside from Jebel's POV's later in the book, Captain Immanence's bits are my favorite. I loved going inside of the mind of the coolest crab I've ever known, and you get to see how the Prador hierarchy works. Sometimes it reminds me of the Terran mirror universe in Star Trek in how they rise and fall from power. There's surprisingly a lot of comedy in what is a very dark and bloody book. Also, I don't know how common it is, but I saw the end coming about halfway through the book and I'm pretty proud of myself since I don't think it was too obvious. I feel like it made for a satisfying conclusion.
My main gripe with this story are the characters that are very flat and not at all personable. The good news is there is a difference between each that it doesn't feel like they are interchangeable. They all have their different motives at least. There's just not much in the way of character development of any sort and there's no backstory or caring about anything else other than the task at hand. Moria is quite bland to read and I have no idea who she is or that she even had a life before the beginning of the book. Another frustration, and some of this has to do with the formatting of the book, is that there is often no warning when a POV switches and sometimes the extra space between paragraphs isn't there at all. It was quite disorienting to read at times and the flatness of the characters only made it more difficult when it was mostly headspace exposition. Maybe this is why I enjoyed Captain Immanence's POV so much, there was no doubt when it switched over to him!
Another gripe is the story itself and how quickly events unfold. It was often confusing as to how much time had passed between chapters and sometimes references would be made of big battles or events and all of the characters seemed to just shrug their shoulders and move on. It would be like watching a long movie and whole segments would just be on fast forward until you get to another scene days, weeks, or possibly even months later for all I knew. The pacing of the story is fine as there's constant action. I just wish there were another couple hundred pages in here to let the scale of the war breathe a little and not seem so rushed.
The best thing that can be said about a book in a massive series set in the same universe, is that, when you finish, it has you wanting to come back for another round. Despite it's flaws, Prador Moon has done just that. I knew what to expect going into it, and Asher fulfilled my expectations while instilling in me a need to find out what happens next. For Book 1 of 20, what more can you ask for? Next up in chronological order: Shadow of the Scorpion
Polity Universe
Prador Moon - 7.5/10
Shadow of the Scorpion - 7.0/10
The Technician - 8.0/10
Agent Cormac
Gridlinked - 7.5/10
The Line of Polity - 8.0/10
Brass Man - 8.5/10
Polity Agent - 9.0/10
Line War - 10/10