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Polity - stand alone #2
War Bodies
Rebellion could be their salvation – or their doom. War Bodies by Neal Asher is a gripping, high-octane standalone set in his expansive Polity universe.
Long ago, the Cyberat left Earth to co-evolve with machines. Now, led by the powerful dictator Castron, their Old Guard believe that machines should replace the physical body. But these beliefs are upended with the arrival of the human Polity – and their presence ignites rebellion.
Piper was raised as a weapon against the Cyberat, implanted with secretive hardware. When his parents are captured by the Old Guard, the Polity offer him unexpected aid. Piper knows the Polity want more from him, but at what cost? The rebellion also attracts the deadly prador, placing an entire world in peril.
As war rages across the planet, Piper must battle with the unknown technology implanted in his bones. It may be the Polity’s answer to their relentless fight against the prador. It could also be civilization-ending Jain tech – or something far more extraordinary.
Long ago, the Cyberat left Earth to co-evolve with machines. Now, led by the powerful dictator Castron, their Old Guard believe that machines should replace the physical body. But these beliefs are upended with the arrival of the human Polity – and their presence ignites rebellion.
Piper was raised as a weapon against the Cyberat, implanted with secretive hardware. When his parents are captured by the Old Guard, the Polity offer him unexpected aid. Piper knows the Polity want more from him, but at what cost? The rebellion also attracts the deadly prador, placing an entire world in peril.
As war rages across the planet, Piper must battle with the unknown technology implanted in his bones. It may be the Polity’s answer to their relentless fight against the prador. It could also be civilization-ending Jain tech – or something far more extraordinary.
572 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 6, 2023
176 people are currently reading
645 people want to read
About the author
Neal Asher
139 books3,064 followersI’ve been an engineer, barman, skip lorry driver, coalman, boat window manufacturer, contract grass cutter and builder. Now I write science fiction books, and am slowly getting over the feeling that someone is going to find me out, and can call myself a writer without wincing and ducking my head. As professions go, I prefer this one: I don’t have to clock-in, change my clothes after work, nor scrub sensitive parts of my body with detergent. I think I’ll hang around.
Source: http://www.blogger.com/profile/139339...
Source: http://www.blogger.com/profile/139339...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
July 28, 2023
Asher’s last three novels have all been stand alones, they’re all set in the Polity but self contained stories. Of the three this is definitely my favorite. There were many facets to this fantastic story. The evolution of the main character and the exploration of concepts like individualism, control, and autonomy among others was just as compelling as the action.
July 22, 2023
Neal Asher’s writing appeals to me because of his attention, more or less in equal parts, to character development, human (and/or alien) interactions and hard science fiction. This novel disappoints because it’s almost exclusively hard science fiction. While it’s good hard sci-fi, for me it’s overkill. I miss the humanity.
September 11, 2023
Well this was difficult..... very difficult book. I know to put books on hold from time to time but this is only fiction that I came very close to put down indefinitely (and I even read through Forsyth's abysmal The Fox to the end).
Book has everything one expects from the author - very interesting SF setting, lots of action, lots of twists and turns. But what is missing here are actual characters. It is not that they are one dimensional, they are not, but the way book is written is very ..... well, lets say if somebody told me this story over few days I would say to that person (me being impolite, ha!) that storytelling performance is wooden, and completely unimaginative (paradox with what I said above, but yeah, that would be my thought).
So, the book. Some optional titles would be "Deadly Anxious Teen" or "Teen And the Monster". About good 40% of the book author constantly bombards us with Piper's (our protagonist) anxiety and fighting with his own thoughts. Path is usually as follows - he thinks of something, tries to assess it from multiple angles (I mean what angles, he is teen with very limited life experience), goes through paranoia phase, goes through heavy anxiety phase, accepts whatever he thinks about as a true (usually agrees with Polity without any second thought, but his father's instincts, not that much), accepts himself for what he is (whatever this means), picks up the sharpest thing around and executes lots of bloody things (or goes into brooding mood and rumbles about). Sex? Heh, yup, he gets attracted to the woman, he thinks he is being framed, he accepts he does not care, they do not leave the room for next week or so, he enters brooding mood.
And this goes on an on every 20 or so pages. I understand Piper is grown up teen who was forced to keep all the usual teen humors inhibited because his society aims for more machine like logical data processing (so called Cyberat, part of humanity that distanced itself from the AIs before they took over control, and sought the ultimate form of life in amalgamation of mechanical and biological, basically more human based AI) so any emotional response is unwelcome. I understand he is puzzled, sees world in completely different form and color - I understand this all.
But do I have to read about his same thought process (there is no change or variation here) over and over again? All of this could have been handled much differently. It just seems to be a page filler in order to get to the 550 page count. Without this constant repetition book length would be around 350, maybe 400 pages, but would leave much better effect.
Book aims to be somewhere between the Ender's Game and Ghost in the Shell. This is my guess because main themes seem to be humanity, knowing thy enemy in order to destroy it and what gets lost with giving up on much of humanity for sake of mechanization and digitization (very actual for current times). But the problem here is that due to the way story goes, narrative becomes so linear that there is no actual (self)discovery, no actual doubts and no actual tension. Everything is told in a linear, monotone way. Every feedback coming from the Polity is gold and true, whatever comes from Cyberat is to be doubted (even if they have good intentions) and Prador, OK, they are eternal bloodthirsty baddies, I understand why they are not to be trusted at all.
What I find especially frustrating is that Polity pulls Piper by his nose and walks him around like trained bear pup, and every time Piper's answer to everything is "they must be right, because they are so knowledgeable". Even when they confess they lied to him (and this happen continuously) he just nods and moves on. I have met a lot of people in my life, but not one would disregard their gut feeling and accept someone else's explanation just like that (especially if told from the position of power). Our Piper? He has no objections. If it is Polity it is gold even if they dropped it from their behinds. He will gobble it.
Imagine being told half of this by the very Polity (they just confess to every deception once nobody can do anything about it) and never - ever - having any doubts and just keeping the blind faith that Polity is best thing after sliced bread.
At the same time whatever his parents tell him, whatever instinct he feels, anything coming from the mysterious entity - that for some reason is to be discarded without a second thought. Because they are fallible and cannot be trusted.... I guess.
This is third standalone Polity universe book I read. Jack Four was pretty good, gory but OK (all Polity novels are gory). Then came Weaponized - again, well written, too many flashbacks but kept me glued and interested, here was a Polity AI performing a live experiment and regretting it. One common thing with this novel and Weaponized is use of word logistics - it is like author has been told that famous saying that rookies talk about fighting and professionals about logistics, but I am not sure he actually understands what logistics are (how it is used in novel is truly weird).
And then we have this book. While it has all the ingredients of Neal Asher's previous books they just seem to be haphazardly glued together and presented as is, without any comments on - why? Besides veni-vidi-vici what is the point of this story? Besides millions of killed Cyberats (fighting like Nazi mercenaries post WW2, which I guess makes them expendable - and even here Polity manages to revive good part of them) and few Golems losing surface skin, outcome is never brought into question.
While I understand that Cyberat behavior is more robotic than standard human, it is not devoid of human nature - they definitely have doubts, suspicion and ability to backstab and plot. Piper's actions just do not match with what would be expected from normal (or enhanced) human, no matter the age. His allegiance to Polity is never explained, it is just that he accepts them as non-fallible and that is it, no further discussion. And this is teen we are talking about? Hah!
And Polity... dont get me wrong, I admire the civilization but in my eyes they (same as Banks' Culture) are the force that wants to dominate everything and they manage to do that, through politicking and turmoil (rushing up revolution on Cyberat, and leaving everything in a huge mess), use of mercenaries and expendable troops (like Piper's Cyberat), sending out assassination teams where required (again, Cyberat) and very ready to do some crazy genocidal things when required - all of this under the shade of Jain danger, maybe the only danger (for now) to Polity AIs. Once they use their assets Polity AIs just leave them to their own devices (suddenly Darwinian approach is now applicable). Polity is very much current with our own times (all parallels are in). In any case, this must be first book in which I see them as exquisitely unsympathetic to anything but to their own goals (under the ever present mantra of humanity). Even in Weaponized they experimented with their own folks and these were volunteers. Here, everything has a very bad, very nasty taint of very amoral manipulation.
It seems that these standalone books are building blocks for some event. While I am looking forward to finding out about this event, I cannot give more than two stars to this book.
For completionists this will be a book they dont want to miss. For everyone else, wait for it in paperback and in the meantime give other books by this author a chance. Nobody can produce 100% all the time and this book might give you wrong picture of author's truly vivid universe. So, my advice is to start from the beginning :)
There will be more gems after this one, definitely.
Book has everything one expects from the author - very interesting SF setting, lots of action, lots of twists and turns. But what is missing here are actual characters. It is not that they are one dimensional, they are not, but the way book is written is very ..... well, lets say if somebody told me this story over few days I would say to that person (me being impolite, ha!) that storytelling performance is wooden, and completely unimaginative (paradox with what I said above, but yeah, that would be my thought).
So, the book. Some optional titles would be "Deadly Anxious Teen" or "Teen And the Monster". About good 40% of the book author constantly bombards us with Piper's (our protagonist) anxiety and fighting with his own thoughts. Path is usually as follows - he thinks of something, tries to assess it from multiple angles (I mean what angles, he is teen with very limited life experience), goes through paranoia phase, goes through heavy anxiety phase, accepts whatever he thinks about as a true (usually agrees with Polity without any second thought, but his father's instincts, not that much), accepts himself for what he is (whatever this means), picks up the sharpest thing around and executes lots of bloody things (or goes into brooding mood and rumbles about). Sex? Heh, yup, he gets attracted to the woman, he thinks he is being framed, he accepts he does not care, they do not leave the room for next week or so, he enters brooding mood.
And this goes on an on every 20 or so pages. I understand Piper is grown up teen who was forced to keep all the usual teen humors inhibited because his society aims for more machine like logical data processing (so called Cyberat, part of humanity that distanced itself from the AIs before they took over control, and sought the ultimate form of life in amalgamation of mechanical and biological, basically more human based AI) so any emotional response is unwelcome. I understand he is puzzled, sees world in completely different form and color - I understand this all.
But do I have to read about his same thought process (there is no change or variation here) over and over again? All of this could have been handled much differently. It just seems to be a page filler in order to get to the 550 page count. Without this constant repetition book length would be around 350, maybe 400 pages, but would leave much better effect.
Book aims to be somewhere between the Ender's Game and Ghost in the Shell. This is my guess because main themes seem to be humanity, knowing thy enemy in order to destroy it and what gets lost with giving up on much of humanity for sake of mechanization and digitization (very actual for current times). But the problem here is that due to the way story goes, narrative becomes so linear that there is no actual (self)discovery, no actual doubts and no actual tension. Everything is told in a linear, monotone way. Every feedback coming from the Polity is gold and true, whatever comes from Cyberat is to be doubted (even if they have good intentions) and Prador, OK, they are eternal bloodthirsty baddies, I understand why they are not to be trusted at all.
What I find especially frustrating is that Polity pulls Piper by his nose and walks him around like trained bear pup, and every time Piper's answer to everything is "they must be right, because they are so knowledgeable". Even when they confess they lied to him (and this happen continuously) he just nods and moves on. I have met a lot of people in my life, but not one would disregard their gut feeling and accept someone else's explanation just like that (especially if told from the position of power). Our Piper? He has no objections. If it is Polity it is gold even if they dropped it from their behinds. He will gobble it.
Imagine being told half of this by the very Polity (they just confess to every deception once nobody can do anything about it) and never - ever - having any doubts and just keeping the blind faith that Polity is best thing after sliced bread.
At the same time whatever his parents tell him, whatever instinct he feels, anything coming from the mysterious entity - that for some reason is to be discarded without a second thought. Because they are fallible and cannot be trusted.... I guess.
This is third standalone Polity universe book I read. Jack Four was pretty good, gory but OK (all Polity novels are gory). Then came Weaponized - again, well written, too many flashbacks but kept me glued and interested, here was a Polity AI performing a live experiment and regretting it. One common thing with this novel and Weaponized is use of word logistics - it is like author has been told that famous saying that rookies talk about fighting and professionals about logistics, but I am not sure he actually understands what logistics are (how it is used in novel is truly weird).
And then we have this book. While it has all the ingredients of Neal Asher's previous books they just seem to be haphazardly glued together and presented as is, without any comments on - why? Besides veni-vidi-vici what is the point of this story? Besides millions of killed Cyberats (fighting like Nazi mercenaries post WW2, which I guess makes them expendable - and even here Polity manages to revive good part of them) and few Golems losing surface skin, outcome is never brought into question.
While I understand that Cyberat behavior is more robotic than standard human, it is not devoid of human nature - they definitely have doubts, suspicion and ability to backstab and plot. Piper's actions just do not match with what would be expected from normal (or enhanced) human, no matter the age. His allegiance to Polity is never explained, it is just that he accepts them as non-fallible and that is it, no further discussion. And this is teen we are talking about? Hah!
And Polity... dont get me wrong, I admire the civilization but in my eyes they (same as Banks' Culture) are the force that wants to dominate everything and they manage to do that, through politicking and turmoil (rushing up revolution on Cyberat, and leaving everything in a huge mess), use of mercenaries and expendable troops (like Piper's Cyberat), sending out assassination teams where required (again, Cyberat) and very ready to do some crazy genocidal things when required - all of this under the shade of Jain danger, maybe the only danger (for now) to Polity AIs. Once they use their assets Polity AIs just leave them to their own devices (suddenly Darwinian approach is now applicable). Polity is very much current with our own times (all parallels are in). In any case, this must be first book in which I see them as exquisitely unsympathetic to anything but to their own goals (under the ever present mantra of humanity). Even in Weaponized they experimented with their own folks and these were volunteers. Here, everything has a very bad, very nasty taint of very amoral manipulation.
It seems that these standalone books are building blocks for some event. While I am looking forward to finding out about this event, I cannot give more than two stars to this book.
For completionists this will be a book they dont want to miss. For everyone else, wait for it in paperback and in the meantime give other books by this author a chance. Nobody can produce 100% all the time and this book might give you wrong picture of author's truly vivid universe. So, my advice is to start from the beginning :)
There will be more gems after this one, definitely.
November 18, 2023
I was actually going to 1-star it, but knowing how good and compelling it could've been made me 2-star it.
So, I side with the majority of readers who absolutely love Neal Asher's universe(s) but sometimes come across disappointing books.
I'm a fan of Asher's works and I've been wanting to read all his books since childhood, but for some reason I'm starting out just now.
Now, I feel like Asher's books are somehow like a buffet, you pick whatever you want to read, because, frankly, there is, indeed, something for everyone out there.
The man himself is an idea factory and God knows on what dimensional plane his mind is most of the time.
Everything is super compelling and technical and the worldbuilding is top-notch, but some of the books lose themselves on their way to providing us with an interesting story. It's just like Branderson's Stormlight Archive; you spend hours and hours on creating amazing worlds and then you need to construct some characters and events around it. And sometimes it's a miss.
Prador Moon and Shadow of the Scorpion were super boring, sadly, and War Bodies is just as much of a slog. The main character is feels underwhelming and flat. A predictable teen drama that spans over 500 pages that could've easily been... like 350. Incredibly verbose and repetitive, albeit fascinatingly complex.
It feels like all the hard sci-fi and technicality smothered the actual story. Don't get me wrong, that's some solid piece of techno thriller post cyberpunk right here, but on the second half it became so tiring and boring I lost my focus and I felt super bad about it because I know the potential his books have.
It was such a slog I actually became irritated from time to time and I just wished for the story to end right there. Speaking of which, the plot is...meh, endless recycled tropes like the Prador (can't we just bring in some new and more interesting enemies?), the rebellion, the saviour forces blah blah blah.
It's like Asher tends to construct a super cool world and plot on a given novel and then randomly throw in creatures and concepts. Make up your mind and give an exact number of existent creatures that can successfully converge throughout the chapters, please...
Example taken from the author's blog on describing the Spatterjay series:
'Three travellers arrive on the oceanic planet Spatterjay, where humans are immortal and very tough by dint of a virus imparted by the leeches of that world, where living sails make contracts with the Old Captains on the ships and an ancient war drone called Sniper is growing bored. They are Janer, who carries the eyes of a hornet hive mind, Erlin who wants to find an Old Captain to teach her how to live, and Sable Keech a policeman who hasn’t allowed being dead for seven hundred years get in the way of hunting down villains. Things are about to turn nasty, what with the old enemy the prador and evil the Skinner arising.'
Ok so three characters and then *BAM*, a random war drone THAT'S SIMPLY GROWING BORED. AND THEN, OF COURSE, THE PRADOR. Sheesh.
I'm reading Gridlinked at the time of this review and God give me patience because I really want to get to the genocidal alien species parts and the more interesting superhuman concepts.
Nevertheless, I'll keep buying (but on discount) as many of Asher's books as possible because the author is simply a creative genius despite his occasional sloppiness. IN MY HONEST OPINION.
So, I side with the majority of readers who absolutely love Neal Asher's universe(s) but sometimes come across disappointing books.
I'm a fan of Asher's works and I've been wanting to read all his books since childhood, but for some reason I'm starting out just now.
Now, I feel like Asher's books are somehow like a buffet, you pick whatever you want to read, because, frankly, there is, indeed, something for everyone out there.
The man himself is an idea factory and God knows on what dimensional plane his mind is most of the time.
Everything is super compelling and technical and the worldbuilding is top-notch, but some of the books lose themselves on their way to providing us with an interesting story. It's just like Branderson's Stormlight Archive; you spend hours and hours on creating amazing worlds and then you need to construct some characters and events around it. And sometimes it's a miss.
Prador Moon and Shadow of the Scorpion were super boring, sadly, and War Bodies is just as much of a slog. The main character is feels underwhelming and flat. A predictable teen drama that spans over 500 pages that could've easily been... like 350. Incredibly verbose and repetitive, albeit fascinatingly complex.
It feels like all the hard sci-fi and technicality smothered the actual story. Don't get me wrong, that's some solid piece of techno thriller post cyberpunk right here, but on the second half it became so tiring and boring I lost my focus and I felt super bad about it because I know the potential his books have.
It was such a slog I actually became irritated from time to time and I just wished for the story to end right there. Speaking of which, the plot is...meh, endless recycled tropes like the Prador (can't we just bring in some new and more interesting enemies?), the rebellion, the saviour forces blah blah blah.
It's like Asher tends to construct a super cool world and plot on a given novel and then randomly throw in creatures and concepts. Make up your mind and give an exact number of existent creatures that can successfully converge throughout the chapters, please...
Example taken from the author's blog on describing the Spatterjay series:
'Three travellers arrive on the oceanic planet Spatterjay, where humans are immortal and very tough by dint of a virus imparted by the leeches of that world, where living sails make contracts with the Old Captains on the ships and an ancient war drone called Sniper is growing bored. They are Janer, who carries the eyes of a hornet hive mind, Erlin who wants to find an Old Captain to teach her how to live, and Sable Keech a policeman who hasn’t allowed being dead for seven hundred years get in the way of hunting down villains. Things are about to turn nasty, what with the old enemy the prador and evil the Skinner arising.'
Ok so three characters and then *BAM*, a random war drone THAT'S SIMPLY GROWING BORED. AND THEN, OF COURSE, THE PRADOR. Sheesh.
I'm reading Gridlinked at the time of this review and God give me patience because I really want to get to the genocidal alien species parts and the more interesting superhuman concepts.
Nevertheless, I'll keep buying (but on discount) as many of Asher's books as possible because the author is simply a creative genius despite his occasional sloppiness. IN MY HONEST OPINION.
November 14, 2023
Some amazing action set pieces, and a very detailed and intrinsically described machinery and world building. But... I couldn't care less about any of the characters, everyone felt dull lifeless, the links to AI and the godly power of Piper left him feeling very robotic and hard to care about him or any of the other characters he interacted with. By the end I was just waiting for it to be over.
July 16, 2023
DANG MAN !!!!!!!
How is it that i can read your books as if i were standing in the story it self. No other author at present has had the affect of total immersion to the extent of your characters and story lines , the ability to imagine a world such as the Polity strikes me as profound ( in its technology & world building) . The ability to look into the human mind and allow us to draw familiar feelings in ourselves is a master craftsman at work.
Gushing somewhat but it’s how i feel having finished this amazing tale.
Many Many thanks Andrew .
How is it that i can read your books as if i were standing in the story it self. No other author at present has had the affect of total immersion to the extent of your characters and story lines , the ability to imagine a world such as the Polity strikes me as profound ( in its technology & world building) . The ability to look into the human mind and allow us to draw familiar feelings in ourselves is a master craftsman at work.
Gushing somewhat but it’s how i feel having finished this amazing tale.
Many Many thanks Andrew .
July 14, 2023
thoroughly engrossing
Ok what can I say I loved this book. The characters are rich and full of facets. The story gripped me and kept me waiting to see what came next. You can empathise with the different players I have read a number of titles from this author and I have enjoyed every one of them.
Ok what can I say I loved this book. The characters are rich and full of facets. The story gripped me and kept me waiting to see what came next. You can empathise with the different players I have read a number of titles from this author and I have enjoyed every one of them.
November 2, 2023
Buckle up, because you’re going for a ride!
This book portrays events near the end of the war against the Prador and the life of a boy growing up among the Cyberat. Like the Ultras in Alastair Reynolds’s books, the Cyberat have left humanity in search of the perfect cyborg body. They abhor human feelings and traditions, and seek to be as mechanical as possible, almost like the Vulcans of Star Trek. Some of them are whittled down to «plug bodies», i.e. a head, the spinal column, and maybe a few inner organs. They can exchange bodies, from the titular war bodies to the more practical transport bodies.
And that’s not all. The boy, named Piper, is not just a child of the anti-human Cyberat faction, he’s also loaded with a very different technology, an alien technology, which will play a vital role in the battle against the Prador. I won’t say more.
The novel has a slow start, but I’m happy I kept reading, because it contains some of the best stuff ever invented by Asher; Room 101 (an immense war factory), the Prador, Golems, Sparkind elite soldiers, an insane AI, and a Polity Agent named Inster. (Remember Ian Cormac? Yes, that kind of agent.)
The space and ground battle near the end was truly epic, and of course the real ending when Piper comes full circle and meets his nemesis was very gratifying.
This book portrays events near the end of the war against the Prador and the life of a boy growing up among the Cyberat. Like the Ultras in Alastair Reynolds’s books, the Cyberat have left humanity in search of the perfect cyborg body. They abhor human feelings and traditions, and seek to be as mechanical as possible, almost like the Vulcans of Star Trek. Some of them are whittled down to «plug bodies», i.e. a head, the spinal column, and maybe a few inner organs. They can exchange bodies, from the titular war bodies to the more practical transport bodies.
And that’s not all. The boy, named Piper, is not just a child of the anti-human Cyberat faction, he’s also loaded with a very different technology, an alien technology, which will play a vital role in the battle against the Prador. I won’t say more.
The novel has a slow start, but I’m happy I kept reading, because it contains some of the best stuff ever invented by Asher; Room 101 (an immense war factory), the Prador, Golems, Sparkind elite soldiers, an insane AI, and a Polity Agent named Inster. (Remember Ian Cormac? Yes, that kind of agent.)
The space and ground battle near the end was truly epic, and of course the real ending when Piper comes full circle and meets his nemesis was very gratifying.
December 21, 2023
Maybe I'm getting jaded... this was better than Weaponized (the previous Neal Asher Polity novel I read), but still not one I would rank among his best. It doesn't suffer from the problems I details in Weaponized (repetitiveness, lack of characterizations, etc.), and yet I didn't find the story as compelling as previous Polity entries.
I suppose I'd sume it up as a good story, but not a great one.
I suppose I'd sume it up as a good story, but not a great one.
July 9, 2025
Well look, I have raved over Asher for a long time - he is one of my favourite action author, and I always have a lot of fun going through his books. They are the perfect mix between action and more philosophical ideas and themes, and I always have some things to take from them.
But.
This one did not hit the mark for me, for a variety of reasons, mostly its length. Lots of repetitions that made it redondant and a even a bit annoying at some point, especially since the MC is a teenager/young adult with lotq of dilemmas and challenges, and dwells SO MUCH onto them it borders on the comical. Sure, some of the things explored are very interesting, I enjoyed the I guess you always have to get a black sheep in a bibliography, and well, that's the one for me.
But.
This one did not hit the mark for me, for a variety of reasons, mostly its length. Lots of repetitions that made it redondant and a even a bit annoying at some point, especially since the MC is a teenager/young adult with lotq of dilemmas and challenges, and dwells SO MUCH onto them it borders on the comical. Sure, some of the things explored are very interesting, I enjoyed the I guess you always have to get a black sheep in a bibliography, and well, that's the one for me.
September 11, 2024
Beautifully crafted. Is this Asher's masterpiece? To date, as a single novel, I'd say yes.
I even enjoyed the "return to the shire" section at the end.
I even enjoyed the "return to the shire" section at the end.
April 7, 2024
I never thought I would be disappointed with a book by Neal Asher but the first 300 pages of this book were so tedious and honestly could have been shortened into one chapter with no real loss to an overall fairly dull story. I honestly couldn’t find anything interesting in it and even the few battle scenes were spoiled by the remoteness of the central character. If this had been the first Neal Asher book I had read I would not have read another one. And as for the constant references to ‘animuses’…. On nearly every page I never want to hear that word again. Very disappointing
May 4, 2024
Another Asher magical technology laden book, this time not Jain, but something termed Fractal that can operate at Planck scale. The AI's, Golem's, super warriors, intelligent space ships, etc. gets old after a while, especially if the storytelling is not strong.
The book plods along with the main character, Piper (such a cute, modern name!), who was built by his parents to be a weapon against a planetary villain slowly discovers himself as he is forged into a better tool by Polity agents, who want him to help them battle the prador and save humanity.
I've never been a fan of the prador alien life construct, super crab life forms with incredible technology, that I doubt crabs and their society as depicted could justify. In all the Asher Polity books I have read, to my recollection, there hasn't been much, if anything, written about the underlying structure of prador civilization or how the prador would have developed the technology they did. Their society is highly hierarchical and based on fear. It doesn't seem conducive to scientific research or developing technology. But then, SF authors often depict the alien villains they want without much thought to the reality of how these aliens would have or could have actually developed. Asher wanted a crab enemy to battle humans and so we got the prador.
I found the eventual ending of the book to be unsatisfying.
To be honest, Asher is not very good at character development or realistic writing,of bringing the reader into the story. He tries hard to do so with Piper but for me, ultimately isn't successful. If it wasn't for his battle scenes or technology depictions (e.g. War Room 101), his books would mainly fall flat in storytelling.
Asher should take some time off from writing and go (re)read the books of authors like Ursula K. Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, etc. to try and learn how to better develop characters and integrate characters into the story. For example, Le Guin's famous, the Left Hand of Darkness makes me shiver with her depiction of the cold on the planet Winter. I feel like I am in the story.
All in all, this is just another rote Asher book in the same vein, following the same formula as most of his other works.
3 stars
The book plods along with the main character, Piper (such a cute, modern name!), who was built by his parents to be a weapon against a planetary villain slowly discovers himself as he is forged into a better tool by Polity agents, who want him to help them battle the prador and save humanity.
I've never been a fan of the prador alien life construct, super crab life forms with incredible technology, that I doubt crabs and their society as depicted could justify. In all the Asher Polity books I have read, to my recollection, there hasn't been much, if anything, written about the underlying structure of prador civilization or how the prador would have developed the technology they did. Their society is highly hierarchical and based on fear. It doesn't seem conducive to scientific research or developing technology. But then, SF authors often depict the alien villains they want without much thought to the reality of how these aliens would have or could have actually developed. Asher wanted a crab enemy to battle humans and so we got the prador.
I found the eventual ending of the book to be unsatisfying.
To be honest, Asher is not very good at character development or realistic writing,of bringing the reader into the story. He tries hard to do so with Piper but for me, ultimately isn't successful. If it wasn't for his battle scenes or technology depictions (e.g. War Room 101), his books would mainly fall flat in storytelling.
Asher should take some time off from writing and go (re)read the books of authors like Ursula K. Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, etc. to try and learn how to better develop characters and integrate characters into the story. For example, Le Guin's famous, the Left Hand of Darkness makes me shiver with her depiction of the cold on the planet Winter. I feel like I am in the story.
All in all, this is just another rote Asher book in the same vein, following the same formula as most of his other works.
3 stars
February 16, 2024
4/5 objective; as as Asher it's a 5. I say that because if you read this book it almost certainly isn't your first Asher and you knew what you were in for. How many is this now?
The level of detail in Asher's long-abuilding universe is amazing, and just spills out as if the Asherverse actually existed.
But you really, really have to buy into the post-scarcity model that Asher, Banks, and Reynolds have so eagerly embraced. 50-mile-long ships? Sure. Troop movements tens of millions at a time? OK. And not ONCE do we ever meet the people or AIs who do the logistics.
I award a mark for having the war runcibles (there HAD to be a way to use runcibles as weapons, didn't there?) be limited in capability. No marks for the ending (which I won't spoil) because it HAD to be that way or the future's untenable.
And you'd better be ready for the idea that if something's fractal it's infinitely scaleable and one guy can manage a zillion people at once because fractal. Ten years ago it was "I need to invert this galaxy and reverse time? Good thing I brought my quantum screwdriver!"
It was good that after all these years of slaughter by the millions - which have to continue here or it wouldn't be an Asher-Polity-prador story - we get a character who actually wonders about morality. And I liked the way Asher suggests that when the other side fights dirty you may have to stretch your own definition of morality. That's what SF has always explored.
Also good was Piper's growing understanding that people are people whatever their container looks like. And the continuing idea that some prador are smart enough to realize that they have to restrain their pradorness to survive -- a lesson Niven's Kzin also struggled with.
Castron was a bit too much of a bwah-hah-hah mustache-twirler, but at 563 pages already we don't need a long "why do you be like you do?" for him.
If you need another fix of Asher, this is definitely it.
The level of detail in Asher's long-abuilding universe is amazing, and just spills out as if the Asherverse actually existed.
But you really, really have to buy into the post-scarcity model that Asher, Banks, and Reynolds have so eagerly embraced. 50-mile-long ships? Sure. Troop movements tens of millions at a time? OK. And not ONCE do we ever meet the people or AIs who do the logistics.
I award a mark for having the war runcibles (there HAD to be a way to use runcibles as weapons, didn't there?) be limited in capability. No marks for the ending (which I won't spoil) because it HAD to be that way or the future's untenable.
And you'd better be ready for the idea that if something's fractal it's infinitely scaleable and one guy can manage a zillion people at once because fractal. Ten years ago it was "I need to invert this galaxy and reverse time? Good thing I brought my quantum screwdriver!"
It was good that after all these years of slaughter by the millions - which have to continue here or it wouldn't be an Asher-Polity-prador story - we get a character who actually wonders about morality. And I liked the way Asher suggests that when the other side fights dirty you may have to stretch your own definition of morality. That's what SF has always explored.
Also good was Piper's growing understanding that people are people whatever their container looks like. And the continuing idea that some prador are smart enough to realize that they have to restrain their pradorness to survive -- a lesson Niven's Kzin also struggled with.
Castron was a bit too much of a bwah-hah-hah mustache-twirler, but at 563 pages already we don't need a long "why do you be like you do?" for him.
If you need another fix of Asher, this is definitely it.
September 19, 2025
Not one of my favorite Polity novels but still a worthwhile read. The central character is a young man slowly stripped of his childhood illusions as he gains experience. He is a Cyberat, a group of humans who split from the Polity and are attempting their own man-machine lifestyle. Unfortunately, they have fallen into a pattern of authoritarian governance, punctuated by violent revolutions who set up a completely different yet no less authoritarian government.
To complicate matters, not only is a period of revolution actively fomenting, the Polity - Prador war is happening and the Prador think the Cyberat world would be a perfect staging ground to launch a surprise attack on the Polity from. The existing government is trying to use the Prador to enhance their own control of the world, and the Polity establishes an "embassy" in order to exert some influence of their own.
The story goes from action on the Cyberat world, to deep into the Polity - Prador war and then back to Cyberat-landia. And each step of the way Piper becomes not only more effective at working in this world, but more and more understanding of what power means and how it's typically wielded and develops more thoughts of how it SHOULD be wielded.
The book is as much philosophy as sci-fi which makes it a tougher read than many of the polity stories but still fascinating and definitely worth your time.
Will I read more. Duh. Of course I will. Not only that, but this book finally made me create a list of Neal Asher books with little tick marks by the ones I own. Looks like I have three to buy and one more coming out soon. I highly recommend the polity books. Start with Gridlinked if you haven't read any of them. The polity is one of my very favorite places to visit.
To complicate matters, not only is a period of revolution actively fomenting, the Polity - Prador war is happening and the Prador think the Cyberat world would be a perfect staging ground to launch a surprise attack on the Polity from. The existing government is trying to use the Prador to enhance their own control of the world, and the Polity establishes an "embassy" in order to exert some influence of their own.
The story goes from action on the Cyberat world, to deep into the Polity - Prador war and then back to Cyberat-landia. And each step of the way Piper becomes not only more effective at working in this world, but more and more understanding of what power means and how it's typically wielded and develops more thoughts of how it SHOULD be wielded.
The book is as much philosophy as sci-fi which makes it a tougher read than many of the polity stories but still fascinating and definitely worth your time.
Will I read more. Duh. Of course I will. Not only that, but this book finally made me create a list of Neal Asher books with little tick marks by the ones I own. Looks like I have three to buy and one more coming out soon. I highly recommend the polity books. Start with Gridlinked if you haven't read any of them. The polity is one of my very favorite places to visit.
May 17, 2024
One of Asher's stand alone one book saga's. About the Prador. Asher has focused way, way too much time on the Prador, who are essentially Cannibal Turtles with a Jet Pack. Here he is hopefully finally getting rid of this story. His sad little decision is raft throughout Science Fiction. Only that Neal Asher Is Military Science Fiction. The Man must survive angle is a Joke. No one cares if a Man Survives anything. It's best if they do not. Since they are essentially Boring in any reality. Here Piper, is kitted out in a War Machine Body, but sadly he's essentially a Protestant Christian worried about being a Conjoiner! It's not a Moral that Piper must spend half the book worried about his actions as a Man. But the very word Moral is a perspective that is jaundiced on Earth. A patchwork idiocy from the ding-dong life of millions of day to day chumps. Weaklings! The book doesn't have the Asher Flair and is in the end a middling effort. Dark Intelligence was where to go, but sadly Asher took the Prador with him as he never did expand on Bolt. The 1st Transformation by Penny Royal, and he killed Kojima after she killed the Technician. We lost the basic story because Asher is sleeping with the fishes, meaning Stephen King, Alastair Reynolds, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Vandeermeer, and so many more as the indoctrinated slide easily into the "pocket" of YA and Chick Lit! Horror in Science Fiction is the best idea. I don't stop. Sadly no writer on earth can do nothing but. When will such finally give the heave ho to their crowded and very Ugly Culture. Fuck Religion, Baby. Fuck it!
January 1, 2025
This novel is a real gem for sci-fi lovers. It is set in the Polity Universe. Piper has grown up in Founder’s World. It was created by a faction that rejected AI and left the rest of humanity many thousands of years ago. Still, they idolize machines and like to replace their body parts with machine parts. Many of them have only a few human parts left. They are ruled by a despot called Castron and as a people, they have somewhat stagnated having a much lower level of advancement and population than would otherwise be expected.
However, recently the Polity have made contact. They are made up of the humans who remained on Earth. AI was totally embraced, and now they even count AIs among their citizens. They are much more advanced and numerous in the Universe. They are also fighting against a great enemy called the Prador who threatens all of humanity.
Piper suffers a work accident that almost costs him his life. However, it unleashes a series of events that come thick and fast. You see, Piper has been created as a weapon using technology beyond even that of the Polity. He never knew but his parents were rebels. What follows is great science fiction and a journey through the Polity Universe. The story unfolds beautifully and you’re never sure who can be trusted until near the end.
The descriptions of space and land battles playing out are brilliant. It also makes you ask interesting questions like whether AIs be counted as war dead. I’d strongly recommend you give this a read with four stars out of five.
However, recently the Polity have made contact. They are made up of the humans who remained on Earth. AI was totally embraced, and now they even count AIs among their citizens. They are much more advanced and numerous in the Universe. They are also fighting against a great enemy called the Prador who threatens all of humanity.
Piper suffers a work accident that almost costs him his life. However, it unleashes a series of events that come thick and fast. You see, Piper has been created as a weapon using technology beyond even that of the Polity. He never knew but his parents were rebels. What follows is great science fiction and a journey through the Polity Universe. The story unfolds beautifully and you’re never sure who can be trusted until near the end.
The descriptions of space and land battles playing out are brilliant. It also makes you ask interesting questions like whether AIs be counted as war dead. I’d strongly recommend you give this a read with four stars out of five.
August 1, 2023
The last couple of books seem to be lacking what I like about the Polity. They are very individual focused and go into detail of the POV character who really is not that interesting, their feeling and they seem to have some sort of advanced technology which is a stand in for magic allowing them to be so OP they are almost gods in the situation.
But really no big ideas, or use of anything new. The Prador are cardboards cut out I cant even call them bad guys as they barely exist other than mild foils to allow the MC to show how OP he is.
This is on the level of Weaponized its ok. But I think the Polity may be mined out for stories unless the author injects some new dynamic in there. It feels like the MC from the Owner series is just dumped into the Polity universe ... I really dont like the Owner series
This book demonstrates how you can make a full on war so boring
- OP character basically "semi technical/science" magic and soft magic as well.
- No detail of much else then the MC
- Lots and lots of internalised MC thinking and body changes
- Main enemies 0 viable threat
- World building barely mentioned.
- zero anything other than what the MC needs to further their growth
But really no big ideas, or use of anything new. The Prador are cardboards cut out I cant even call them bad guys as they barely exist other than mild foils to allow the MC to show how OP he is.
This is on the level of Weaponized its ok. But I think the Polity may be mined out for stories unless the author injects some new dynamic in there. It feels like the MC from the Owner series is just dumped into the Polity universe ... I really dont like the Owner series
This book demonstrates how you can make a full on war so boring
- OP character basically "semi technical/science" magic and soft magic as well.
- No detail of much else then the MC
- Lots and lots of internalised MC thinking and body changes
- Main enemies 0 viable threat
- World building barely mentioned.
- zero anything other than what the MC needs to further their growth
December 24, 2023
We go back in time to the height of the Prador War in this standalone hard-SF and I have to admit I enjoyed going back to the genesis of some great side-plot-character points in a number of other novels. The reptilian AI symbiote? Hell yeah.
But more-so, I thought it was pretty fantastic to see the creation of one of the greatest generals (with the help of AIs and some pretty nasty scientists) of the Prador War. When it comes to hard-SF, Neal Asher is rather a master. Tons of great elements woven together into constantly great stories, but more importantly, great characters wrangling with the implications of all such.
In this particular novel, I loved the total philosophy about power. Truly impressive battles, overwhelming force, and the implications of mental control all made this a rather important piece of the entire series. It really focused on it. Very enjoyable.
But more-so, I thought it was pretty fantastic to see the creation of one of the greatest generals (with the help of AIs and some pretty nasty scientists) of the Prador War. When it comes to hard-SF, Neal Asher is rather a master. Tons of great elements woven together into constantly great stories, but more importantly, great characters wrangling with the implications of all such.
In this particular novel, I loved the total philosophy about power. Truly impressive battles, overwhelming force, and the implications of mental control all made this a rather important piece of the entire series. It really focused on it. Very enjoyable.
July 11, 2023
Normally I love Neal Asher's Polity series. I've read every one starting with Gridlinked. These days though they are getting incredibly technical at the expense of the story. War Bodies is the story of Piper, a denizen of the Cyberat, a world that hates AI and sits between the Polity and the Prador. There is still a war with the Prador so this is set earlier in the Polity sequence than say the Transformation Trilogy. Unfortunately, this one is about the same level as some of Neal Asher's later stand-alone polity novels like Jack Four. There are vast sections on how Piper is weaponized (turned into a war body) in what largely resembles a technical manual. May be fascinating to others but the lack of a real storyline is somewhat of a turnoff.
June 9, 2024
If you like Neal’s work then this won’t disappoint. It has everything that makes his stories enjoyable. The action is fast-paced, the tech is hard sci-fi and there are the obligatory aliens. Although a stand alone novel this sits in his Polity universe and you may want to start elsewhere if you haven’t read any of the others. There is an attempt at weaving in the philosophical concepts of free will and fate. I’m not sure there are any conclusions, but then that is perhaps just like reality! There is also a fair bit of poking and prodding around political ideologies… again, like free will/fate can we be without an ideology whatever our position?
Good and enjoyable!
Good and enjoyable!
July 8, 2024
Another trip to the Polity/Prador war. Overall, the story is fine. The characters however, still seem like little more than plot devices. Not uncommon in these stories, but this one really just had nothing interesting going for them. Add to that Asher's unique dialogue choices (I still can't decide if he writes dialogue this way to make his future people sound super educated or he just really doesn't know how people sound when they speak to each other). In any case, if you like his others, you'll probably find enough to like here to get you through it. If you're new to the Polity, do yourself a favor and go read The Skinner instead. It's worlds better than this effort.
November 8, 2025
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this. The world-building was great, and I feel like Neal Asher did a good job referencing his other Polity trilogies in this book, while linking it to the actual Polity-Prador War. The Cyberat were super interesting, and I feel like cyborgs are underutilized in SciFi. Lots of good philosophical bits about the nature of free will, and how much choice an individual actually has in society.
Glad I went for this instead of attempting Gridlinked again. I think I'll read the Dark Intelligence trilogy next, though this book has me jazzed for the Rise of the Jain trilogy too.
Glad I went for this instead of attempting Gridlinked again. I think I'll read the Dark Intelligence trilogy next, though this book has me jazzed for the Rise of the Jain trilogy too.
October 15, 2023
An excellent reflection on power and identity
Asher's universe has always explored how amalgams of human, alien and AI confront their own evolving identities, with plenty of horror at the loss of self control and the assertion of new synthetic identity. In this narrative the protagonist literally struggles with an embodiment of generational trauma. The depiction of the temptation and potential necessity of ideological indoctrination and its tension with liberal individualism is also beautifully articulated.
Asher's universe has always explored how amalgams of human, alien and AI confront their own evolving identities, with plenty of horror at the loss of self control and the assertion of new synthetic identity. In this narrative the protagonist literally struggles with an embodiment of generational trauma. The depiction of the temptation and potential necessity of ideological indoctrination and its tension with liberal individualism is also beautifully articulated.
December 1, 2024
I can't say I enjoyed this book. At times reading it was a chore and, after a couple of pages, I put it down. But at last it is finishes, I was determined it wouldn't beat me. Sci-fi is a willing suspension of disbelief, but armies of several million. Really? As is common in these Polity novels, there has to be a larger than life villain and this is no different, except he plays something of a lesser role than in others. I have one more Polity novel in the heap waiting to be read, but that can wait a while.
December 18, 2025
I've read a lot of Neal Asher and am rarely disappointed. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. Way too long and could easily have been halved and still got the story across. It is full of rather repetitive strategies that just get pretty boring after the 5th time. Let's not talk about the teen/father angst element as that just detracts from the sci-fi aspect. It's a shame because Asher has created a brilliant universe full of horror and amazing detail. I'd say this is for the hardcore fans only who don't want to miss out. If you're new to Asher, try anything else first.
October 5, 2025
Probably the worst book I've read in ages. I'm astonished i finished it - perhaps I'm just like the Mastermind questioner!
The thing that really bugged me was that the author had countless expansive ideas - too many to keep hold of - and these were unbelievable - I mean they did not work in the book. I struggled with so many of the concepts which did not seem to be a y real part of a flowing story. And to cap it all the characters were paper thin. I won't be reading more from this author :(
The thing that really bugged me was that the author had countless expansive ideas - too many to keep hold of - and these were unbelievable - I mean they did not work in the book. I struggled with so many of the concepts which did not seem to be a y real part of a flowing story. And to cap it all the characters were paper thin. I won't be reading more from this author :(
June 30, 2024
The author has a truly creative mind, which gained this book its second star. Unfortunately, he failed to provide a protagonist that engaged or drew me into the story. Piper lacked humanity, which was the very thing he was meant to be fighting for. I found myself disengaged and disinterested so this was a DNF at around the 20% mark.
August 20, 2025
Eh, it certainly wasn’t a bad book but I felt like I couldn’t really connect with the plot or characters. As well as the usual sci-fi fare, there were many discussions about morality that I personally found a bit hard to follow. It’s quite a lot more cyberpunk-ish than the other Polity books, at least from what I can remember. Oh well, not every one of them can be a winner.
November 12, 2025
I have enjoyed almost all of Asher's polity books. This one however was a painful slog, so tedious in fact, that I ended up abandoning it about 2/3 of the way through. There's just nothing whatsoever to recommend about this book. The characters are flat and dull, the space battles are unexciting, and the writing is repetitive and tiresome. What a let down!
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