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A review by beyadob
Prador Moon: A Novel of the Polity by Neal Asher
5.0
I finished reading the book today and was absolutely blown away. There's lots of blood and gore, hard sci-fi, and mind bogglingly terrifying aliens. Can't go wrong with this one.
## Augs and AI
The unity between humans and AI really stood out to me. While most authors would've painted AI as evil, Asher chose to depict them as benign, benevolent rulers who have chosen to bond with and work alongside humans. Not only has this resulted in a truly technological society, it also makes for an interesting narrative choice.
Instead of dancing around the same old tropes, Asher cleverly uses the AI to make sense of U-space (faster than light travel) and the impossible logic (illogic?) of such a device. The mathematics behind the runcibles that make up the Polity is absurdly difficult and impossible for human minds to comprehend. The AI are the only ones who are capable of controlling and maintaining the runcibles and travel through them.
This is where the concept of augs (augmentations) come in. Humans and AI can coexist together but can't bond, which is why the augs, which are essentially computers, can be planted in your head. They enable users to do a lot of things we take for granted on our smartphones, and more! The fun part is how they can be turned into supercomputers with the power of the cloud. There are some truly impressive applications, and Asher has only just scratched the surface in this book.
## The Prador
I was terrified from the get-go. There's no beating around it - these aliens are god damn horrifying, especially with their size and total disregard for human life. Prador culture is also distinctly different from ours - the way they treat their children was appalling to watch. Not only do they slice and dice their way through the book, there's an extended chapter where they experiment on prisoners. Asher paints a sickening picture of war atrocities, and the images of Prador chomping on limbs wasn't fun to imagine.
Immanence was quite easily the terrifying of the lot. He was cunning and manipulated not just his 'children', but also outmaneuvered the humans multiple times. Before *Prador Moon*, I hadn't rooted so much for a villain's downfall. I desperately wanted him to eat lead, so the payback he gets was conclusively satisfying.
## Politics
Of course, it wouldn't be hard sci-fi without some politics thrown in - not much, but still enough to make things interesting. The power structure of the Prador struck me as curious and not really conducive to a highly technological society. As Immanence describes it, there's constant in-fighting, which is why the Prador have to be cunning and manipulative, forming and breaking alliances to survive. It's a challenging world, which begs the question: how did they get so advanced? Is it the need to kill each other that drove their technological progress?
Also, the promotion of second-children to first-children and so on was fascinating. Exerting control through pheromones was intriguing, especially in how strong and long-lasting (even after they lose their bodies) the control was. I'm guessing the other books in the series explore the Prador even more.
As for humans, their coexistence with AI was mostly in the background. It seemed like a peaceful one, though the existence of a separatist movement suggests many aren't happy with the arrangement. From what I've read, most of humanity seems content with the AIs in power, mostly because of their benign nature. But the callous nature in which one AI (spoilers) foregoes saving humans in favor of chasing aliens, albeit logical, didn't sit too well with me.
In conclusion, it was refreshing to read something so fast-paced and interesting after such a long time. Now, on to the next in the series!
## Augs and AI
The unity between humans and AI really stood out to me. While most authors would've painted AI as evil, Asher chose to depict them as benign, benevolent rulers who have chosen to bond with and work alongside humans. Not only has this resulted in a truly technological society, it also makes for an interesting narrative choice.
Instead of dancing around the same old tropes, Asher cleverly uses the AI to make sense of U-space (faster than light travel) and the impossible logic (illogic?) of such a device. The mathematics behind the runcibles that make up the Polity is absurdly difficult and impossible for human minds to comprehend. The AI are the only ones who are capable of controlling and maintaining the runcibles and travel through them.
This is where the concept of augs (augmentations) come in. Humans and AI can coexist together but can't bond, which is why the augs, which are essentially computers, can be planted in your head. They enable users to do a lot of things we take for granted on our smartphones, and more! The fun part is how they can be turned into supercomputers with the power of the cloud. There are some truly impressive applications, and Asher has only just scratched the surface in this book.
## The Prador
I was terrified from the get-go. There's no beating around it - these aliens are god damn horrifying, especially with their size and total disregard for human life. Prador culture is also distinctly different from ours - the way they treat their children was appalling to watch. Not only do they slice and dice their way through the book, there's an extended chapter where they experiment on prisoners. Asher paints a sickening picture of war atrocities, and the images of Prador chomping on limbs wasn't fun to imagine.
Immanence was quite easily the terrifying of the lot. He was cunning and manipulated not just his 'children', but also outmaneuvered the humans multiple times. Before *Prador Moon*, I hadn't rooted so much for a villain's downfall. I desperately wanted him to eat lead, so the payback he gets was conclusively satisfying.
## Politics
Of course, it wouldn't be hard sci-fi without some politics thrown in - not much, but still enough to make things interesting. The power structure of the Prador struck me as curious and not really conducive to a highly technological society. As Immanence describes it, there's constant in-fighting, which is why the Prador have to be cunning and manipulative, forming and breaking alliances to survive. It's a challenging world, which begs the question: how did they get so advanced? Is it the need to kill each other that drove their technological progress?
Also, the promotion of second-children to first-children and so on was fascinating. Exerting control through pheromones was intriguing, especially in how strong and long-lasting (even after they lose their bodies) the control was. I'm guessing the other books in the series explore the Prador even more.
As for humans, their coexistence with AI was mostly in the background. It seemed like a peaceful one, though the existence of a separatist movement suggests many aren't happy with the arrangement. From what I've read, most of humanity seems content with the AIs in power, mostly because of their benign nature. But the callous nature in which one AI (spoilers) foregoes saving humans in favor of chasing aliens, albeit logical, didn't sit too well with me.
In conclusion, it was refreshing to read something so fast-paced and interesting after such a long time. Now, on to the next in the series!