Dark Diamond

Time's Shadow #1

by Neal Asher

Doomed to die. And die again.
Dark Diamond is the first in a high-octane space opera trilogy from Neal Asher, creator of the Polity universe.

Captain Blite knows that someone, or something, is trying to kill him. But a device he possesses, known only as the dark diamond, won't let that happen. After surviving a series of catastrophic accidents and assassination attempts, Blite realizes that whenever he dies the dark diamond reverses time to a moment before his death. He must go through the traumatic experience again and again until he escapes.

Every encounter Blite survives generates a time flash which reveals potential futures. This extraordinary phenomenon attracts the attention of Polity agents and the crab-like p-Prador who wish to acquire this power for themselves. Hunted across space and time, Blite must uncover the true nature of the dark diamond before it causes his destruction . . .

Praise for Neal Asher

'Neal Asher's books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly at the brain' – John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War

'Non-stop action and unimaginable stakes' – Yoon Ha Lee on The Soldier

'Imaginative, energetic and insane' – SFX on Brass Man

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Audiobook, Fiction, Aliens, Time Travel, Artificial Intelligence

703 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 10, 2025

About the author

I’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...

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story was interesting but the book finished with an ode to the world’s richest fascist which tainted the whole read for me.

[Mike Boyson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pan Macmillan needs to review Neal’s love song to Elon. Perhaps consider how he is standing up to totalitarianism

[Abruma · Rating 1 out of 5]

A dedication to Elon Musk should've been warning enough. The book immediately entered in what has become Neal Asher's formulaic for his novels of hyper-intense space battles. But now, new and improved with toxic masculinity. As soon as I came across the reference to a woman with "heavy jugs" I knew I was finished.

[stephen m newberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointing. Asher used to do really fine work. About half a dozen books ago or so he started just phoning it in. This most recent start of a new group is better than that last half dozen, but only a bit. He keep sticking to characters that have been along for the ride forever and trying to turn bad guys into good guys, be he is just not really a good enough writer to make that work. And this time around the book is not even a complete novel. It just stops in the middle of the story. Asher's first decade or so of writing had him looking like he was going to be a replacement for Iain Banks, though not as excellent a writer, but since then it has really just not worked out, which is most unfortunate.

[Reuben Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Diamond is a stellar return to the Polity universe… fast-paced, richly layered, and packed with the high-concept tech and brutal action Asher fans expect. What stood out most for me was the return of familiar characters who’ve shaped this universe in critical ways. Seeing them back in action added depth and emotional weight, reinforcing the continuity of Asher’s broader narrative arc.

The stakes are high, the pacing relentless, and the scale immense… but it’s the character-driven moments, the callbacks, and the interconnectedness that truly elevated this one.

A solid 5/5! essential reading for anyone invested in the Polity saga. Asher delivers, again.

[Peter Tillman]

The paean to Elon Musk was an immediate turnoff. I'll pass on this one.

[Adah Udechukwu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel was longer than I expected but I enjoyed it. All major characters made the novel to be worth my time

[Owen Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

bloody amazing - Asher back to his best!

riveting reading from cover to cover - and very excited that its the first in a trilogy!

[Jesse Ward-Bond · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting at first. The setting was a mix of classic space opera and AI futurism, which was new to me. After a few hundred pages, I realized the setting was just a tool for the author to write one continuous overly-masculine fantasy action sequences.

There was a point, early in the book, where a character thought something along the lines of "I liked her large boobs". The author actually said "boobs". Is this progressive? Describing things so bluntly instead of hedging around "womanly mounds" or something male-fantasy-author-pilled like that?

Turns out no. Not offensive, not egregious (for me), but definitely not the mark of a progressive author! *shrug*

[Erik Martenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Diamond

Dark Diamond is (at the moment) the newest novel by sci-fi overlord Neal Asher. It’s the first in a new trilogy, and it contains every aspect of his world we have all come to love: The Prador, cool war drones, lethal androids, and our favorite agent, Ian Cormac. This 700 page brick is filled with action, suspense, and mind-wrenching twists. You’ll love it!

[Tomáš Wünsch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea: "characters" are 2D caricatures of any má without depth or reality checks.
Boring, self-serving "battles" and nothing else happening on the story development side.
technology is here just to "crush things H A A A R D"!
Evolution just for those without any ethic and universe building is just to show off.

[Mark Visser · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve been a Neal Asher fan for decades. I read Gridlinked soon after it came out and every book he’s written from thence on. I’m a fan. I loved Mr. Crane and Erlin Tazer Three Indomial and the Old Captains and the Prador outcasts. Even Ian Cormac was fun, if a bit too James Bond-y.

But I couldn’t help but notice that something changed in his writing a while back. Something was just… missing. Lockdown Tales felt like a reversion to form - I quite enjoyed the stories. But this… I’m 10% in and:

Her long blonde hair was in a plait coiled at the back of her head. She was showing more than a little of her large boobs, pressed up now by her tightly folded arms. And she still looked as if she could tear someone’s head off.

Wtf? And a bit later:

“Station grav interferes with U-space jumps, which is why we need to be clear of it before jumping,” said Paidon - a black-haired beauty who knew more about drive technology than anyone he’d ever met.

These are his employees the narrator is referring to. Gross.

The love letter to the world’s richest fascist as a prologue doesn’t help, either.

I’m going to forge on, but this reads more like Neal Asher fan-fiction than the Neal Asher I loved. I knew he’d fallen into the alt-right rabbit hole, but I thought he was smart enough to pull himself out. I guess not.

Edit: I finished, and oh boy was that a slog. Sorry Neal, this book is just bad.

[Mr Peter J Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long with disappointing ending

I usually love Neal Asher’s work, but this one was a great disappointment. Whilst it brings back Ian Cormac and the Mr Crane, along with other old favourites, the story takes a long time to get anywhere. Without adding spoilers, the ending is very disappointing, being very abrupt. Maybe it’s supposed to be a cliffhanger for a sequel, but it just feels the author got to an arbitrary word limit and stopped. The story does end, and logically with the story, but left a feeling of dissatisfaction.

[Andy Venn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brings back my favourite characters, Ian Cormac and Mr Crane. I have always enjoyed the Polity story arc, the others are good too but I preferred this.
However, where the earlier Polity novels were quite basic, in a way, this benefits from Neal's development with other storylines. it is more complex than the earlier novels which gives it an extra dimension. It develops the idea that the AI's are not perfect and are subject to the same petty motives that drive humans.
it's nicely left open for a follow up as well. I shall look forward to that.

[Stephen Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Neal "skein of optics" Asher has become a ChatGPT Tom Clancy wankathon parody of himself.

I have virtually all of his books in hardcover, but I'm not going any further with him.

His obvious shift towards conspiracy loon thinking doesn't help either. Disappointing.

His earlier books had the same dodgy qualities, but at a *much* lower level and were genuinely enjoyable. But I'm not enjoying this anymore. Perhaps he's gone as far as he can go with the Polity, and should try something new?

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

too many characters and threads, some of them in different places in the timeline.

[Noémie J. Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to this new series, and I pre ordered the paperback as soon as I was able to. It seems a new trend for Neal to write longer books (from 400 pages to almost 700), and while I do think it, at times, could have been cut short (500 is his sweet spot, I think), I still had a lovely time with this. There's everything from his previous work that I loved - Cormac, Penny Royal, human eating patriarchal mega shrimps. So if you're already a fan of his work, I guess it would be right up your alley, as it was mine. Cannot wait for Dark Agents, and for more of Neal. He is one of my faves, and I love his stories !

[Zeke Zimonick · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time we have seen Cormac in a while. I enjoyed it.

[kym hough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic, Neal Asher. Spoiler alert!....................It's

IT'S A TRILOGY! Today is my birthday, and finding out, at the end of the book, that this is another trilogy is the best gift ever!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A return to Cormac and the Asher of old

Much more like the Asher of old - found myself unable to put it down and coming back for more. Particularly fun to have more insight and return to Cormac especially with expanded powers/skills.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened on audiobook. This story is not for the faint hearted and more suited to the hardcore Neal Asher fans familiar with Agent Cormac and the Polity. Looking forward to a Penny Royal showdown in the future. A bit of a misstep name checking Elon/Space X at the end whose a divisive figure at best, something the editors could have advised against.

[James Delahunty · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all I have no issue with the prose the authors work seems fine if not really my style. But going into this book I had not expected it to lie to me. Even this goodreads page is subtly lying.

It claims to be book one of a series called Times Shadow. While this is technically true its more accurate to say its something like book 20 in an ongoing series and this entire story, from who these people are down to basic setting information, assumes you have read those previous books. There is a glossary but its very surface level information presumably to avoid spoilers for the earlier works.

Had I known that I wouldn't have bought it but nowhere on this book does it tell you that its an ongoing series. Something felt off while reading it (nothing was really being explained) so I had to look that up separately.

it's quite difficult to enjoy the story when key details are left out because you didnt read 20 other novels that it doesn't tell you exist. If you are going to call it book 1 make sure its an entry to the setting even if you include references or characters from previous works in the setting.

[Camilla Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story would’ve probably gotten a 5 if it wasn’t pointlessly long and convoluted. I won’t be reading any more of Asher’s books unless they come up as an audiobook on my library app.
I agree with other readers that the Elon Musk gush at the start is also off putting.

[Jochen Potzkoten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Konsequent steigert Asher die Zerstörungsorgie weiter. Die Story ist spannend und schnell. Leider spielt darin meine persönliche Nemesis eine große Rolle: Zeitreise 😵‍💫

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started ok, but then tailed off. Pages of hyper tech filler - boring..

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for Concatenation:

Neal’s been writing space opera for a while now. His blend of fast action, strange alien species and violence have been published for over 25 years by now, and with 35 (by my reckoning) published to date, it may be a little difficult to know where to start.

With that in mind, then, this actually might not be a bad place. Dark Diamond is the first in a new series and whilst it incorporates lots of characters, situations and aliens from other Asher novels, it is not essential to know all of this background detail.

What Asher does here is incorporate his trademark SF style (already mentioned) with time travel.

In Dark Diamond we meet Captain Blite, a space pirate who owns the dark diamond - a death-defying device that's coveted by powerful factions across space and time.

Blite knows that someone is trying to kill him. His device reverses time to the moment before his death and he goes through it again and again until he finds a way to escape… Each reiteration creates a time flash of alternate futures. This attracts the attention of Polity agents…

Fast paced, bone-crunchingly violent, Asher knows what his readers want and like, and delivers. Whilst the ideas are not too original, the pace is fast, the characters manage to do what is required and expected – except when they don’t – and the reader is kept guessing for much of the narrative. It is quite a big book but Asher manages to maintain the pace with a clever combination of SF tropes, identifiable characters and unusual creatures – not to mention the use of time travel itself.

Amongst all of the usual SF tropes he manages to throw a few curveballs the reader’s way. I was wrong-footed a few times by the point that Blite, like Tom Cruise before him, is able to go back in time and take an alternative timeline until he gets things the way he wants them.

Familiar readers will, like Avengers Assemble, appreciate the reappearance of characters and plotlines from other books. Although it’s not essential to know too much about their past here, there’s some nice little moments, Easter Eggs along the way that may give readers a little smile.

The set scenes of battle, both on planets and in space, are typically Asher-epic. Asher imaginatively creates super-high tech and then extrapolates this further to new levels. Weapons are thrown around planets and in space with seemingly gay abandon, people and aliens are mutated into something new, usually quite unpleasant. The level of thought and detail Asher gives to such things is seriously impressive.

The counterbalance of this is that this level of activity became a little too much for me, like a war movie with no remittance or lee-way – at times, it was actually quite exhausting. It may be that this book is too big to deal with such a situation effectively. As impressive as the elements are, 600+ plus pages of such action diminishes the overall effect for me. I remember this too with the Transformers movies – as impressively good looking as they were, it did get to the point where I was going, “What: ANOTHER robot fight?”

Nevertheless, at its basic level, Dark Diamond has the attributes of a visually stunning, all-action computer game – fast-paced, dazzling to look at, impressive in its breadth, but not too much below the surface once you pause to take a breath. To be fair, I think that Asher fans are not looking for psychological introspection here, more a case of reading about big boys (and girls) showing off their toys. Asher knows this and does this very, very well.

Alternatively, new readers may be wondering what the fuss is about.

On balance, I think that Dark Diamond is a nice reset that takes Asher’s strengths and then adds something new to the mix. As this is the first book in a new series, it will be no surprise that the book ends on a cliffhanger to be taken up in the next book - pretty much written, I understand, and due next year. After so many super-big, super-nasty, super-violent events in this one, I would be interested to read how Neal can surpass this one. I await the next book with interest.

[Mark Schlack]

I'm a sucker for a good space opera. I hadn't sampled Neal Asher and chose to start with his latest, rather than backtrack. He's written more than 20 novels, most of which set the stage for Dark Diamond and his new Time's Shadow series.

My overall issue with the book is that it is boring. Not in the conventional sense. The entire universe he writes about is fundamentally boring. Why? Because there don't seem to be any actual people in it. Oh, one is told that they are there, in the billions actually, but we rarely come in contact with them in his work.

Instead, we get to spend nearly 700 pages with various AIs, cyborgs and people who are no longer really people. They are mostly tech. Their minds are kept in memplants, which can be removed and put into a new body. Their bodies can be repaired with nanotech. In short, they are unlikely to ever die. What drives people in such a time and place?

Well, it turns out, mostly they just fight for power and influence. And to settle old grudges. So, thousands of years in the future, across the galaxy, sentient beings of all sorts mainly just fight over who gets to call the shots. Why are they fighting over that when most of them can produce whatever they need to survive and thrive more or less out of thin air?

Asher's answers seem to be "because." I did a little reading and he's known for his right-wing politics. He seems to be part of the long-running stream of libertarian sci-fi writers who celebrate the brilliant warrior hero archetype. Think Einstein meets Odysseus, with the emphasis on Odysseus. All the movers and shakers depend on extreme tech. They dominate the 99% who don't have it and Asher doesn't seem too fussed about that.

So is this it now? We're going to be treated to an endless parade of novels about AIs and their human foils? Because it's a boring universe. One in which real people are an afterthought.

Longer works like The Expanse, authors like N.K. Jemsin, Kim Stanley Robinson and Corey Doctorow have taken sci-fi beyond the old NASA boy's club it once was. Asher seems to want to pull us back to the days of Jerry Pournelle, when heroes rode spaceships to do battle with evil, landed on planets and had swordfights and fought evil. We never learn why societies capable of such achievements as faster than light travel, or terraforming, or extreme genetic engineering, need to resort to hand to hand combat, or indeed fight over resources at all.

No thanks.

[Justin Madru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Diamond taught me something important about my reading preferences: pacing matters more than I realized. This book helped me understand why certain novels click while others leave me struggling to keep up.

Neal Asher writes action-heavy prose with relentless momentum. Scene after scene delivers detailed descriptions of combat, technology, and movement—but there's precious little dialogue to break up the flow. For me, this created a fundamental reading challenge: I couldn't visualize the action fast enough. Before I could fully picture one sequence, the narrative had already moved on to the next explosion, chase, or technological marvel.

Books with more dialogue naturally provide breathing room. Conversations give readers time to absorb what just happened and mentally construct the scene. Dark Diamond offers few such pauses. It's wall-to-wall descriptive action, and my mind kept falling behind, struggling to render each moment before being pushed forward again.

The novel's structure didn't help. Multiple characters spanning different time periods created a narrative juggling act that often left me disoriented. As my first entry into Asher's extensive Polity universe, I suspect I was missing crucial context that longtime fans would bring to the story. References and characters that might resonate with series veterans simply sailed past me.

Ultimately, Dark Diamond felt like an extended chase sequence stretched across time and space. The plot's simplicity—essentially a pursuit narrative with time-travel complications—didn't give me enough to grab onto emotionally. I never developed investment in the characters or their fates, turning what should be high-stakes drama into something curiously flat despite all the kinetic energy on the page.

I'll give Asher this: the technology is genuinely cool. The dark diamond itself, the AI constructs, the alien Prador, the temporal mechanics—all of it paints a fascinating science fiction universe with creative world-building. I'd absolutely watch a television series or movie set in this universe, where the visual medium could handle the pacing and I could see the tech in action without needing to construct it in my imagination.

Dark Diamond isn't a bad book—it's just not the right book for me. Readers who visualize quickly, who love breathless action, and who have history with the Polity universe will likely find much to enjoy. But if you're like me and need dialogue-driven pacing to fully absorb what you're reading, or if you're jumping into this massive universe cold, you might find yourself perpetually playing catch-up.

[Bryan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the beginning of a new trilogy set in the Polity universe. A lot of time has passed since the Polity was founded after the Quiet War (I for one welcome the oncoming Quiet War) and the elements of the Polity are drifting in different directions. This wasn't so important in the beginning but now as AI's become more and more post-human the goals and even interests are widening.

All that leads to increased conflict between AI and humans. Into that puzzle steps legendary hero Ian Cormac, of Gridlinked fame. He's been around a long time and has somehow developed special abilities that allow him to act as a sort of policeman for AI mis-behavior. The AI don't like this. But Ian has held his own so far.

One of the humans the AI are interested in dissecting is Captain Blight who has a tiny piece of the AI Penny Royal that has some sort of temporal effect that makes it impossible to kill him because the AI bit will reset temporality to make sure he lives. That causes all sorts of U-Space disruptions though which at least some of the AI want to exploit.

I find the Polity a fascinating place to visit, but I suspect the golden age was the period post Quiet War and pre Prador War. The period where AI were benevolent overlords and humans allowed to chase their own pursuits without constraint other than maintaining order by the AI. Now, later in the Polity, the AI have multiple factions and each succeeding generation of AI seems to be less interested in furthering the humans who were their original creators.

In spite of this philosophy weaved throughout the story is action packed and does not feel to drag ever. In typical Asher fashion the viewpoints shift from character to character, primarily focused on the AI Streager, Ian Cormac, Captain Blight, and the Golem The Brass Man, along with some surrounding characters giving a more human POV to keep us connected to the story. The second volume in the trilogy is released and on my wish list, the third is near completion according to Twitter posts from Asher and I am sure to purchase and read both of them.

If you haven't read any Polity books, grab yourself a copy of Gridlinked and give it a whirl.

[Zak · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a honestly at a loss for words as to how boring, repetitive, and pointless most of this book is, and also a handful of recent excursions Asher's taken.

I got as far as 500 pages with this one before I stopped.

When it takes me over two and a half weeks to read a book by an author I usually go gaga over, I think it is a sign to give up and move on.

My attention was flitting in and out; the consistency of how varied the reading experience was felt like whip lash, where I am bored senseless one moment, then with a flip of a coin, I am frustrated the next, because Asher then weaves in something rather awesome; whether a character beat or some cool action.

There is little here to find interesting. The visionary obsessive nature just gets stale and fatigue inducing.

Mostly this book is about the tech, the new rules of the Polity universe and it is as boring as it sounds.

The tech is so advanced, to God-like levels, there is nowhere to go but... further, and the further Asher goes, the more nonsensical and dire it is.

On occasion there is a one off book release, that is pure early years Asher, Jack Four being the perfect example, and I get excited.

Much like War Bodies, this book was a struggle.

Sadly, I feel Asher is trying to fight off something, a Spatterjay virus of his own, and the only way to work through it is write endlessly, and rather generically about these new Polity narrative rules/canon blunders.

I find the whole obsessive and repetitive descriptions of Jain tech, or an evolved Spatterjay virus and how Agent Cormac can U-Jump painful.

I also hate myself for writing this because Asher is a really fascinating and skilled writer. He is my favourite Sci-Fi writer.

He is also a really no bullshit type of personality and I am a huge fan of his work and manner.

This guy opened up new horizons for me 12 years ago when I picked up Gridlinked, and since then I have become a real Sci-Fi nut.

Sometimes it is best to say, Nah not for me.