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Time's Shadow #2
Dark Agent
‘Balls-to-the-walls levels of exuberance and inventiveness’Locus Magazine on Dark Diamond
FORGE A NEW FUTURE. OR BE CONSUMED BY THE PAST.
Captain Blite and Agent Cormac thought they had defeated the malevolent AI Straeger. But Straeger’s mission to plunge the galaxy into a devastating war is far from over. With a twisted p-prador army bred from the Spatterjay virus, Straeger sets his plans in motion.
Meanwhile, on the war-struck world of Yossander’s Hold, Blite and Cormac are trapped in a maelstrom of betrayal and violence. They must fight their way through the chaos as they seek to repair Blite’s damaged ship. But their escape requires resources from the Bracken, and aboard that ship, a terrifying transformation is underway . . .
Recognizing the threat posed by the p-prador, the Prador Kingdom and the human Polity’s ruling AI form an uneasy alliance. But with Straeger’s plans unfolding and reality itself under threat, the galaxy is poised on the brink of destruction. Can Blite and Cormac survive the escalating war and the collapse of time itself?
* * *
Praise for the series
‘The stakes are high, the pacing relentless, and the scale immense . . . Asher delivers again’ – 5* Goodreads Review, May 2025
‘Filled with action, suspense, and mind-wrenching twists. You’ll love it!’ – 5* Goodreads Review, June 2025
‘What the cosmos really needs is more megalomaniac artificial intelligences, belligerent alien crustaceans, and protagonists who treat death like a minor inconvenience’ – 5* Goodreads Review, July 2025
FORGE A NEW FUTURE. OR BE CONSUMED BY THE PAST.
Captain Blite and Agent Cormac thought they had defeated the malevolent AI Straeger. But Straeger’s mission to plunge the galaxy into a devastating war is far from over. With a twisted p-prador army bred from the Spatterjay virus, Straeger sets his plans in motion.
Meanwhile, on the war-struck world of Yossander’s Hold, Blite and Cormac are trapped in a maelstrom of betrayal and violence. They must fight their way through the chaos as they seek to repair Blite’s damaged ship. But their escape requires resources from the Bracken, and aboard that ship, a terrifying transformation is underway . . .
Recognizing the threat posed by the p-prador, the Prador Kingdom and the human Polity’s ruling AI form an uneasy alliance. But with Straeger’s plans unfolding and reality itself under threat, the galaxy is poised on the brink of destruction. Can Blite and Cormac survive the escalating war and the collapse of time itself?
* * *
Praise for the series
‘The stakes are high, the pacing relentless, and the scale immense . . . Asher delivers again’ – 5* Goodreads Review, May 2025
‘Filled with action, suspense, and mind-wrenching twists. You’ll love it!’ – 5* Goodreads Review, June 2025
‘What the cosmos really needs is more megalomaniac artificial intelligences, belligerent alien crustaceans, and protagonists who treat death like a minor inconvenience’ – 5* Goodreads Review, July 2025
- GenresScience FictionAudiobook
Hardcover
About the author
Neal Asher
129 books3,109 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 15, 2026
First, some bona fides: I've been reading Neal Asher for over 25 years having first purchased the Tanjen-published "The Engineer" for an exorbitant sum from a UK dealer. The rest is history.
Neal Asher improves the story and raises the stakes (and my interest) dramatically in this second book of the Time's Shadow series. I found the first book Dark Diamond a slog on account of Captain Blite, his company of characters and the situations they were put in just not interesting enough to captivate my attention. With this follow-up Asher massively raises the stakes as the events that lead to the scenario Cormac witnessed when he travelled 1000 years into his future begin to come into focus and play themselves out. All of this amidst the backdrop of a Prador invasion makes for a much more action-fueled story.
The story did have a few low spots for me that include: a little too much padding between major events (the trek to the the Gilliad's lair could have been half as long), the Streager mobius AI having a competence level only slightly above a James Bond villain (where's the threat), and most annoyingly, the exhausting descriptions of Meander's constant evolving (there's only so much detail needed to convey that she's turning into a super Mary Sue). And this brings up a concerning theme in some of Asher's books where a lot of characters are essentially comic book-type superhumans who are only thwarted when some random element temporarily knocks them off balance. I suppose you can go ahead and say "well its the far-future, sure we'll have superpowers by then" but that lowers the verisimilitude to a point where the threats and stakes diminish and the writer now has to invent more and more convoluted situations to create tension. I can still remember when Cormac was nearly dysfunctional after removing his gridlink...that was interesting.
Despite the preceding, I found Dark Agent an exciting and captivating read. Improvements over the first book include: a more cohesive storyline bringing together events while maintaining action and interest, more focus on Cormac, Arach and the Brass Man, moving Blite and crew into more of a companion's point-of-view, and a lot more focus on the Prador, to wit: The real standout of the entire book has to be the comprehensive storyline of the Prador children: Valt, Drust and Shaker and their adventure that takes them from guiding a kamikaze asteroid to destroy a civilization, back home to kill their father, to standing before the Prador King himself and then ironically enough back to another kamikaze mission. Those three lovable murder crabs had better make it out alive if Asher knows what's good for him.
Easy 4-stars (for the fun) and I eagerly await the follow up book, Dark Horizon.
A personal note: Aside from my teen years spent shouting at the screen in movie theaters, this is my first review of anything...I hope you found something worthwhile in return for the time you spent reading it.
Neal Asher improves the story and raises the stakes (and my interest) dramatically in this second book of the Time's Shadow series. I found the first book Dark Diamond a slog on account of Captain Blite, his company of characters and the situations they were put in just not interesting enough to captivate my attention. With this follow-up Asher massively raises the stakes as the events that lead to the scenario Cormac witnessed when he travelled 1000 years into his future begin to come into focus and play themselves out. All of this amidst the backdrop of a Prador invasion makes for a much more action-fueled story.
The story did have a few low spots for me that include: a little too much padding between major events (the trek to the the Gilliad's lair could have been half as long), the Streager mobius AI having a competence level only slightly above a James Bond villain (where's the threat), and most annoyingly, the exhausting descriptions of Meander's constant evolving (there's only so much detail needed to convey that she's turning into a super Mary Sue). And this brings up a concerning theme in some of Asher's books where a lot of characters are essentially comic book-type superhumans who are only thwarted when some random element temporarily knocks them off balance. I suppose you can go ahead and say "well its the far-future, sure we'll have superpowers by then" but that lowers the verisimilitude to a point where the threats and stakes diminish and the writer now has to invent more and more convoluted situations to create tension. I can still remember when Cormac was nearly dysfunctional after removing his gridlink...that was interesting.
Despite the preceding, I found Dark Agent an exciting and captivating read. Improvements over the first book include: a more cohesive storyline bringing together events while maintaining action and interest, more focus on Cormac, Arach and the Brass Man, moving Blite and crew into more of a companion's point-of-view, and a lot more focus on the Prador, to wit: The real standout of the entire book has to be the comprehensive storyline of the Prador children: Valt, Drust and Shaker and their adventure that takes them from guiding a kamikaze asteroid to destroy a civilization, back home to kill their father, to standing before the Prador King himself and then ironically enough back to another kamikaze mission. Those three lovable murder crabs had better make it out alive if Asher knows what's good for him.
Easy 4-stars (for the fun) and I eagerly await the follow up book, Dark Horizon.
A personal note: Aside from my teen years spent shouting at the screen in movie theaters, this is my first review of anything...I hope you found something worthwhile in return for the time you spent reading it.
May 18, 2026
Asher has been a favourite of mine for years. Dark Agent picks up where the first in the series left off and somehow manages to up the stakes.
Keep it coming please.
Keep it coming please.
June 2, 2026
Another excellent Asher book
Loved this book as part 2 of this series. Violence, hard science, humour, great characters all on display. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
Loved this book as part 2 of this series. Violence, hard science, humour, great characters all on display. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews