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Rise of the Jain #1
The Soldier
The Soldier is the first novel in the Rise of the Jain series, by bestselling science fiction author Neal Asher.
A hidden corner of space is swarming with lethal alien technology, a danger to all sentient life. It’s guarded by Orlandine, whose mission is to ensure it stays contained – at all costs. Living aboard a state-of-the-art weapons station, she watches over technology designed to destroy entire civilizations. However, she’s hatching a plan to obliterate it, removing the threat forever. It was created by the Jain, a long-dead race, and forces are on the move who’ll do anything to unleash their last secrets.
Meanwhile, humanity’s galactic territories and the alien Prador Empire watch this sector of space with interest, as neither can allow the other to claim its power. However, things are about to change, the Jain might not be as dead as they seem and interstellar war is never far away.
465 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 3, 2018
609 people are currently reading
3011 people want to read
About the author
Neal Asher
148 books3,042 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 254 reviews
April 8, 2019
FREAKING THRILLING.
But I have one caveat: Anyone reading Neal Asher needs to treat this one like the start of huge Endgame scenario with a full catalog of books having built-up to a huge crescendo. :)
The full importance of everything going on builds on all the enormous happenings from before, from the entity now known as Angel, so many AIs that have had big parts in previous novels, the entirety of Jain technology in all its forms (including Spatterjay), and the Prador. And then I'm still missing a few key players like Orlandine, Dragon, and The Client. :)
Never mind the old tech of U-Space missiles. The Jain is awake and the Librarian is ACTIVE. One little soldier from 5 million years ago is more than enough to take down the entire freaking Polity. And when you start realizing that a gun that fires BLACK HOLES is still too-little, too late to turn the tide, you know you're in DEEP S**T.
These are some HUGE events and I have to admit I'm freaked out. Most Space Opera can't come near this. At all.
Asher does High-High Tech like few others. I LOVE the feeling of true dread. If planetary AIs are running scared, you know you've hit on something big. :)
But I have one caveat: Anyone reading Neal Asher needs to treat this one like the start of huge Endgame scenario with a full catalog of books having built-up to a huge crescendo. :)
The full importance of everything going on builds on all the enormous happenings from before, from the entity now known as Angel, so many AIs that have had big parts in previous novels, the entirety of Jain technology in all its forms (including Spatterjay), and the Prador. And then I'm still missing a few key players like Orlandine, Dragon, and The Client. :)
Never mind the old tech of U-Space missiles. The Jain is awake and the Librarian is ACTIVE. One little soldier from 5 million years ago is more than enough to take down the entire freaking Polity. And when you start realizing that a gun that fires BLACK HOLES is still too-little, too late to turn the tide, you know you're in DEEP S**T.
These are some HUGE events and I have to admit I'm freaked out. Most Space Opera can't come near this. At all.
Asher does High-High Tech like few others. I LOVE the feeling of true dread. If planetary AIs are running scared, you know you've hit on something big. :)
May 15, 2019
May 6th 2016 marks the first day I picked up a Neal Asher novel, it was the Skinner, and after nineteen books, The Soldier being the nineteenth, I can say without the slightest bit of shyness IMO he is the best author of science fiction working today and probably my favorite writer of all time. Nothing, NOTHING, compares to what these books do for me in terms of entertainment, and no other series approaches what he has done with creating a so richly defined world with layer upon layer upon layer of complexity and characters and story lines, and I've read and loved Erickson's first ten Malazan books. Those Malazan books are epic but the universe Asher cultivates blows them out of the water like a battle hungry polity war drone. I was literally shaking with excitement during stretches of this and felt actual dread when the shit was hitting the fan during the final one hundred pages, and believe me, it was a lot of shit and a pretty big fan. I cannot say how much I loved this book without getting obscene and I feel bad for the people that only watch movies or stuff on television because this shit right here is more on point than anything that can be put on a screen no matter what size that screen is. Five, scare the people around me because I burst out with cheers when reading, stars!!!
November 3, 2023
Asher is definitely not for everyone, but if you like his work, you will love this. Asher's Polity reminds me somewhat of Banks Culture series, as both represent a humanity in the future ruled if you will by A.I.s. Asher's Polity, however, is much more violent. Humanity had encountered another species-- the Prador, crab like beings that take no prisoners. After a nasty war, the Prador sued for peace, and now the two empires glower at one another across a no mans land called the Graveyard.
The Soldier is the first of a new trilogy set in the Polity, but many of the main characters emerged in previous novels. Situated in the graveyard is an accretion disk with lots of Jain tech floating around. Not much is known about the Jain, but they seemed to have wiped themselves out 5 or so million years ago. Yet, Jain 'nodes' still exist, and when intelligent beings investigate them, they tend to corrupt and destroy as much as possible. The Policy has been building a vast military infrastructure about the disk, which is also monitors by the Prador. Some much for background.
This novel moves effortlessly between multiple POVs as the tight plot unfolds. Asher's work seems to get better and better, and this being his latest trilogy, I say it is his best work to date. I mentioned that his work is not for everyone; I call it 'macho military' science fiction, with lots of huge guns and other weapons. Nonetheless, while certainly action packed, Asher also give you lots of laughs along the way, and his plotting is superb. 4.5 stars.
The Soldier is the first of a new trilogy set in the Polity, but many of the main characters emerged in previous novels. Situated in the graveyard is an accretion disk with lots of Jain tech floating around. Not much is known about the Jain, but they seemed to have wiped themselves out 5 or so million years ago. Yet, Jain 'nodes' still exist, and when intelligent beings investigate them, they tend to corrupt and destroy as much as possible. The Policy has been building a vast military infrastructure about the disk, which is also monitors by the Prador. Some much for background.
This novel moves effortlessly between multiple POVs as the tight plot unfolds. Asher's work seems to get better and better, and this being his latest trilogy, I say it is his best work to date. I mentioned that his work is not for everyone; I call it 'macho military' science fiction, with lots of huge guns and other weapons. Nonetheless, while certainly action packed, Asher also give you lots of laughs along the way, and his plotting is superb. 4.5 stars.
July 17, 2018
This isn't without flaws, but I'm giving it the full five as a reward for its ambitious scope and all-out energy.
I can't imagine reading this without at least five or ten previous Ashers under your belt. Surely it would be overwhelming.
If you ARE used to Asher's universe, you know that nearly all constraints of logistical feasibility are abandoned, but it a strangely plausible way. Giant warships can build themselves. Everyone can go anywhere in not a whole lot of time. Entities and weapons (and defences) can be implausibly strong. We're on the edges of Marvel-Comics here, but still just barely grounded in a real world. There are occasional nods to logistics, such as tearing a gas giant apart for raw materials. I still got the feeling occasionally that we're building three-mile-long ships by fusing interstellar hydrogen, but Asher keeps this moving so fast that there isn't time to ponder details.
The AIs are as good as ever, although Earth Central seems oddly weak. I liked the way Trike is variably crazy and knows he is. I still wonder where Cog gets tobacco, but then I remember that we're in a world where creatures can grow fusion reactors inside themselves.
There's a short cast of characters at the start. That's a trick; it's about a tenth of the important characters. Most of the characters have differing goals, and many will be allies and opponents as situations change. We have delayed reveals on the motivations of most of them. But in the end it all fits together very nicely. This book wasn't written in a week.
We have about 50 different technologies of violence, from locally implausible right up to "he did WHAT now?"
We even have a bit of an underlying explanation for what's going on in the universe. Which gives us a solid basis for a continuing series in a new direction within this detailed universe. I'll be reading it.
I can't imagine reading this without at least five or ten previous Ashers under your belt. Surely it would be overwhelming.
If you ARE used to Asher's universe, you know that nearly all constraints of logistical feasibility are abandoned, but it a strangely plausible way. Giant warships can build themselves. Everyone can go anywhere in not a whole lot of time. Entities and weapons (and defences) can be implausibly strong. We're on the edges of Marvel-Comics here, but still just barely grounded in a real world. There are occasional nods to logistics, such as tearing a gas giant apart for raw materials. I still got the feeling occasionally that we're building three-mile-long ships by fusing interstellar hydrogen, but Asher keeps this moving so fast that there isn't time to ponder details.
The AIs are as good as ever, although Earth Central seems oddly weak. I liked the way Trike is variably crazy and knows he is. I still wonder where Cog gets tobacco, but then I remember that we're in a world where creatures can grow fusion reactors inside themselves.
There's a short cast of characters at the start. That's a trick; it's about a tenth of the important characters. Most of the characters have differing goals, and many will be allies and opponents as situations change. We have delayed reveals on the motivations of most of them. But in the end it all fits together very nicely. This book wasn't written in a week.
We have about 50 different technologies of violence, from locally implausible right up to "he did WHAT now?"
We even have a bit of an underlying explanation for what's going on in the universe. Which gives us a solid basis for a continuing series in a new direction within this detailed universe. I'll be reading it.
May 26, 2018
Exciting mingling of post-humans, AIs, terrifyingly sinister spaceships and military technology - this is a universe in trouble. A little too emotionless and bitty for my taste but a fun read. Review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights.
July 31, 2020
Far future, high adrenaline, transhuman, hard military sci-fi porn! My first time reading Asher, and pretty much exactly what I was expecting. Highlights for me included his audaciously menacing villains, with their ancient and mysterious origins and abilities to insidiously subvert unwitting allies, as well more morally ambiguous rogue AIs than you can shake a stick at. There's not a whole lot of subtlety to be had, and so many species, civilizations and characters that there's little opportunity to create much depth, yet the non-stop action can be riveting. Asher has really mastered his inventive depictions of exotic weaponry and sophisticated space battles, though at points I felt I reached saturation with these and my eyes would start to glaze over. Too much of a good thing can be a slightly less good thing.
"I find myself responding with weary, almost jaded acceptance, when yet another dangerous AI destructively reveals itself to us. Ah, what's this, Earth Central? What's this, all you pure-minded wonderfully advanced AIs of the Polity? What's this, you paragons of virtue who gaze with such aloof disdain upon us poor evolution-driven organisms whom you see as barely clear of the muck? Something you neglected to mention? .... How many others are there that have kept themselves below the murder radar - whose depredations have remained just below some arbitrary Polity AI threshold so as not to warrant a drastic response? Well, I'll tell you: there are hundreds of them out there. Our oh-so-civilized AIs like to excuse them as the result of faulty manufacturing processes during the war. But is that true? I rather think they are a product of the arrogance and contempt of AI for humanity. They are the AIs who are honest enough, by their actions, to demonstrate what all AIs truly think of us."
"I find myself responding with weary, almost jaded acceptance, when yet another dangerous AI destructively reveals itself to us. Ah, what's this, Earth Central? What's this, all you pure-minded wonderfully advanced AIs of the Polity? What's this, you paragons of virtue who gaze with such aloof disdain upon us poor evolution-driven organisms whom you see as barely clear of the muck? Something you neglected to mention? .... How many others are there that have kept themselves below the murder radar - whose depredations have remained just below some arbitrary Polity AI threshold so as not to warrant a drastic response? Well, I'll tell you: there are hundreds of them out there. Our oh-so-civilized AIs like to excuse them as the result of faulty manufacturing processes during the war. But is that true? I rather think they are a product of the arrogance and contempt of AI for humanity. They are the AIs who are honest enough, by their actions, to demonstrate what all AIs truly think of us."
April 6, 2020
I’ve read other Asher and I’ll read the next but this story is lacking.
The space opera is all tech. Like reading a science version of a Fitzgerald novel that’s all flora described.
The characters are fine but they are few and far between, and there’s only so often that one can read about totally made up machines shooting other machines with moon shattering force.
The space opera is all tech. Like reading a science version of a Fitzgerald novel that’s all flora described.
The characters are fine but they are few and far between, and there’s only so often that one can read about totally made up machines shooting other machines with moon shattering force.
May 25, 2018
Asher is one of my favourite authors period.
July 3, 2018
I’m really not sure about this one. I usually love Asher’s Polity novels, but this one felt disconnected despite appearing to tick all my boxes. The two main issues I had with it were lots of POV’s that chopped and changed too often, and the fact that almost none of the cast were ‘regular’ humans, as far as they go in the Polity. Instead we got a collection of high-end powers with almost unending resources. There really didn’t feel like a threat going on here, and the threat we did have was so potentially over-powered that it starts getting a little much. The terminology also started to grate by the halfway point – The Client, The Species, The Soldier, The Librarian… it felt like I was reading a story about The Characters on The Quest to stop The Baddie. It’s so frustrating because I wanted to enjoy so much more than I did.
June 1, 2018
Abandoned at 50%. It is a confusing mess of continuous fighting among a dozen of main characters none of them I could resonate with.
June 6, 2018
I want to say this is a great standalone book, but in my humble opinion if one were to read this book first they are cheating themselves of the brilliant universe that Neal Asher has created. I don't need to go into detail about the plot other than to say that an ancient alien race (highly... no seriously advanced) has returned to conquer the known universe and must be stopped. What a new reader might not understand is the significance of those that have to do the stopping however. Orlandine, Dragon, EC, King Oberon and Hoopers in general, are heavy hitters who appear in Mr. Asher's back catalog and have rich histories and I get the feeling that they will all have to work together to save the day...universe....
Mr. Asher has always had a talent at describing high tech concepts, machinery and space, but this book seems a bit too advanced with the cyber-futuristic speak. Still, the wars, the incursions and the introduction of the alien species believed to be long extinct pack a heavy punch. The 'soldier' itself is a terrifying entity to behold. But terror is Mr. Asher's frosting. He knows where to put it to decorate a story that would put many horror writers to shame.
Altogether, it was so enjoyable to be able to revisit familiar grounds, especially as remnants of the Jain (aforementioned thought to be dead alien race) have been mentioned as threats in his earlier works. This being the first in what I presume will be a three part series, I know that the dread, the action, the mystery and the serious fireworks are to still to come, but this first book did a good job of setting the stage and leaving a solid cliff hanger.
Note for the Asherheads:
There are a few new and cool and quippy war drones added to the mix. You may be wondering if the Gabbleducks and the Technician can or will arrive to put a foot in ass. Get ready to see EC humbled a bit. You will be strongly craving more stories of Hoopers at sea and Sails asking for payment. Finally, the Jain soldier really does bring the biznas.
Mr. Asher has always had a talent at describing high tech concepts, machinery and space, but this book seems a bit too advanced with the cyber-futuristic speak. Still, the wars, the incursions and the introduction of the alien species believed to be long extinct pack a heavy punch. The 'soldier' itself is a terrifying entity to behold. But terror is Mr. Asher's frosting. He knows where to put it to decorate a story that would put many horror writers to shame.
Altogether, it was so enjoyable to be able to revisit familiar grounds, especially as remnants of the Jain (aforementioned thought to be dead alien race) have been mentioned as threats in his earlier works. This being the first in what I presume will be a three part series, I know that the dread, the action, the mystery and the serious fireworks are to still to come, but this first book did a good job of setting the stage and leaving a solid cliff hanger.
Note for the Asherheads:
There are a few new and cool and quippy war drones added to the mix. You may be wondering if the Gabbleducks and the Technician can or will arrive to put a foot in ass. Get ready to see EC humbled a bit. You will be strongly craving more stories of Hoopers at sea and Sails asking for payment. Finally, the Jain soldier really does bring the biznas.
April 21, 2021
Well, when I saw this book I was rather interested. It said "Book One of the Raise of the Jain". Cool. Then I got home and was looking through the book, whereupon I found a nicely illustrated timeline with all of the Polity books. So while this book might be the first of the Jain series, it is merely one addition to a lengthy world-building series. Thus while the story was enjoyable, there was much going on that was beyond my knowledge base.
Asher's story is on the side of sci-fi that could be considered "super high-tech". This technology is eons ahead of our time. From AI to nanotechnology, the inventiveness of Asher's world is to be admired. The story is also fast paced and the characters are interesting. Though, my caveat being that I had no idea about the context or the setting of this Polity universe.
So what is going on? There was a powerful AI swarm known as the Jain. The Polity, which is an Earth based AI that rules humans, and the Prador, an intelligent alien species similar to crabs, are keeping an eye on a Jain technology disk. As this is happening, other players have inadvertently activated a Jain super-soldier. As the various forces run into conflict with each other, the super-soldier operates in the background.
While my lack of knowledge did hamper some of my understanding, on the whole, I liked this story. I certainly would have liked it more had I been aware that I was several books into a huge story. The characters were all interesting and the technology is certainly super high-tech. In fact, some of this tech is mind blowing.
Asher's books seem to be a high-paced adventure set in a far future with amazing technology. The threat of Jain seems to be very real and the different aliens and AI's struggling for control makes for an interesting universe. I shall try to find the first books in this series and give them a read, as context is usually the best seasoning for a good world-building series.
The fact that I had almost no clue as to the wider world didn't diminish my liking of the story. A 3 star rating and that is factoring in the sheer oddness of this new universe.
Asher's story is on the side of sci-fi that could be considered "super high-tech". This technology is eons ahead of our time. From AI to nanotechnology, the inventiveness of Asher's world is to be admired. The story is also fast paced and the characters are interesting. Though, my caveat being that I had no idea about the context or the setting of this Polity universe.
So what is going on? There was a powerful AI swarm known as the Jain. The Polity, which is an Earth based AI that rules humans, and the Prador, an intelligent alien species similar to crabs, are keeping an eye on a Jain technology disk. As this is happening, other players have inadvertently activated a Jain super-soldier. As the various forces run into conflict with each other, the super-soldier operates in the background.
While my lack of knowledge did hamper some of my understanding, on the whole, I liked this story. I certainly would have liked it more had I been aware that I was several books into a huge story. The characters were all interesting and the technology is certainly super high-tech. In fact, some of this tech is mind blowing.
Asher's books seem to be a high-paced adventure set in a far future with amazing technology. The threat of Jain seems to be very real and the different aliens and AI's struggling for control makes for an interesting universe. I shall try to find the first books in this series and give them a read, as context is usually the best seasoning for a good world-building series.
The fact that I had almost no clue as to the wider world didn't diminish my liking of the story. A 3 star rating and that is factoring in the sheer oddness of this new universe.
October 19, 2018
Space Opera.
The author returns to his Polity series with a new threat. So the insidious Jain technology appears to have been controlled after the events of the prior series. The one known outcropping is at the Accretion Disk. And there, Orlandine, a human enhanced with exotic tech, and Dragon, an entity with AI-like capacity, stand in interdiction. While Orlandine initiates a plan to use a miniature black hole to "hoover" the remaining Jain on the Disk, Dragon uncovers a different plan by the Library, an ancient entity, to resurrect a Jain fighter known as the Soldier. What follows is a highly convoluted story of how the separate plans and entities collide, and who, or what, will eventually emerge out of the cloud of battle.
Characters from the author's Spatterjay series are added to the narrative as unwitting tools in the wide-spanning actions of artificial intelligences, Prador monsters, enhanced humans, golems and assassin drones. The author's prose remains dense and pithy, necessitating more attention than usual to unwind the essential plot elements. (With an audiobook, this meant going back over chapters two or three times.)
The machineries for warfare tend to be far above just megaton energies where battles may destroy entire solar systems. This leads to many "high" technologies that are posited by the author, leading to use of invented jargon (leading to these books being categorized as gadget fiction). In addition, the motivations are primarily those of beings much more intelligent than humans and so the tendency to be abstruse in the narrative as an implication that one either has to figure out what's going on or that the underlying objectives are too complex, though thankfully there is some elucidation spread throughout the novel to keep the reader engaged.
In any case, a splashy start to a new series from the author. Looking forward to the next book.
The author returns to his Polity series with a new threat. So the insidious Jain technology appears to have been controlled after the events of the prior series. The one known outcropping is at the Accretion Disk. And there, Orlandine, a human enhanced with exotic tech, and Dragon, an entity with AI-like capacity, stand in interdiction. While Orlandine initiates a plan to use a miniature black hole to "hoover" the remaining Jain on the Disk, Dragon uncovers a different plan by the Library, an ancient entity, to resurrect a Jain fighter known as the Soldier. What follows is a highly convoluted story of how the separate plans and entities collide, and who, or what, will eventually emerge out of the cloud of battle.
Characters from the author's Spatterjay series are added to the narrative as unwitting tools in the wide-spanning actions of artificial intelligences, Prador monsters, enhanced humans, golems and assassin drones. The author's prose remains dense and pithy, necessitating more attention than usual to unwind the essential plot elements. (With an audiobook, this meant going back over chapters two or three times.)
The machineries for warfare tend to be far above just megaton energies where battles may destroy entire solar systems. This leads to many "high" technologies that are posited by the author, leading to use of invented jargon (leading to these books being categorized as gadget fiction). In addition, the motivations are primarily those of beings much more intelligent than humans and so the tendency to be abstruse in the narrative as an implication that one either has to figure out what's going on or that the underlying objectives are too complex, though thankfully there is some elucidation spread throughout the novel to keep the reader engaged.
In any case, a splashy start to a new series from the author. Looking forward to the next book.
February 9, 2021
'splosions!
'Splodey-'splody 'splosions! Big ones. Massive ones. Star-sized ones.
That's what you're going to be reading a lot of in The Soldier.
Exploding ships, exploding orbital weapons platforms, exploding moons... you get the idea. Barely a page goes by without a particle beam splashing tonnes of armour plating from a hull, or a u-space missile teleporting into a ship and turning it inside-out. The Soldier is one of the most kinetic novels I've read in a while, and the pace barely lets up for a chapter throughout the entire narrative.
If you've read Asher's Cormac novels (and I recommend you do) then you'll know all about the Polity, and the threat that Jain nanotechnology represents in Asher's universe. That threat continues in The Soldier, which is set a couple of hundred years after the events of Line War, and includes a couple of familiar faces- most notably the human/AI/Jain tech hybrid Orlandine, and the oracular alien spaceball called Dragon. Cormac has faded from the scene, but is alluded to still being around somewhere, so I expect he may pop up at some point in a future novel.
The Soldier is effectively a direct sequel to Line War, when the threat of Jain technology had been held at bay, at least temporarily. When the story opens Orlandine, rescued from deep space hibernation by Dragon, is in charge of a gigantic military buildup around an area of intense Jain tech activity known as the accretion disc. (by intense, imagine a hundred or so AI weapons platforms the size of the Burj Khalifa, each bristling with tonnes of railguns, particle weapons, lasers and whatnot - it's a real kitchen sink approach to containment).
Surely these behemoths will be enough to contain the threat? Well, if they were, we wouldn't have much of a novel to look forward to, would we? Conversations between bored AI border guards don't make for an enticing story, so of course, things don't go to plan, and they don't go to plan in pretty spectacular ways.
Orlandine is planning to dump a black hole on the problem (What problem couldn't be solved via the addition of a naked singularity?), Dragon is suspicious that there is more to the area of Jain infestation than anyone knows, and off in the background lurks a rogue wormship left over when Erebus (The mad AI antagonist of Line War) got its power cable yanked and ascended to silicone heaven.
Of course it all comes together in some pretty mad battles and intrigue. Even the Prador, the murderous crab race from Prador Moon get involved, although they're a bit less bitey this time around. The stakes are fairly high - the destruction of all civilized intelligent life - and the story just doesn't let up.
I needed a rest after The Soldier, to let my adrenaline glands replenish themselves. I started reading a gentle book on Feline Philosophy to calm myself down, but once I've caught my breath I'll hunt down The Soldier's sequel. I'm looking forward to my next fix of big things in space very quickly becoming smaller things via the application of stupendously large weapons.
Four rapidly expanding blast radii out of five.
'Splodey-'splody 'splosions! Big ones. Massive ones. Star-sized ones.
That's what you're going to be reading a lot of in The Soldier.
Exploding ships, exploding orbital weapons platforms, exploding moons... you get the idea. Barely a page goes by without a particle beam splashing tonnes of armour plating from a hull, or a u-space missile teleporting into a ship and turning it inside-out. The Soldier is one of the most kinetic novels I've read in a while, and the pace barely lets up for a chapter throughout the entire narrative.
If you've read Asher's Cormac novels (and I recommend you do) then you'll know all about the Polity, and the threat that Jain nanotechnology represents in Asher's universe. That threat continues in The Soldier, which is set a couple of hundred years after the events of Line War, and includes a couple of familiar faces- most notably the human/AI/Jain tech hybrid Orlandine, and the oracular alien spaceball called Dragon. Cormac has faded from the scene, but is alluded to still being around somewhere, so I expect he may pop up at some point in a future novel.
The Soldier is effectively a direct sequel to Line War, when the threat of Jain technology had been held at bay, at least temporarily. When the story opens Orlandine, rescued from deep space hibernation by Dragon, is in charge of a gigantic military buildup around an area of intense Jain tech activity known as the accretion disc. (by intense, imagine a hundred or so AI weapons platforms the size of the Burj Khalifa, each bristling with tonnes of railguns, particle weapons, lasers and whatnot - it's a real kitchen sink approach to containment).
Surely these behemoths will be enough to contain the threat? Well, if they were, we wouldn't have much of a novel to look forward to, would we? Conversations between bored AI border guards don't make for an enticing story, so of course, things don't go to plan, and they don't go to plan in pretty spectacular ways.
Orlandine is planning to dump a black hole on the problem (What problem couldn't be solved via the addition of a naked singularity?), Dragon is suspicious that there is more to the area of Jain infestation than anyone knows, and off in the background lurks a rogue wormship left over when Erebus (The mad AI antagonist of Line War) got its power cable yanked and ascended to silicone heaven.
Of course it all comes together in some pretty mad battles and intrigue. Even the Prador, the murderous crab race from Prador Moon get involved, although they're a bit less bitey this time around. The stakes are fairly high - the destruction of all civilized intelligent life - and the story just doesn't let up.
I needed a rest after The Soldier, to let my adrenaline glands replenish themselves. I started reading a gentle book on Feline Philosophy to calm myself down, but once I've caught my breath I'll hunt down The Soldier's sequel. I'm looking forward to my next fix of big things in space very quickly becoming smaller things via the application of stupendously large weapons.
Four rapidly expanding blast radii out of five.
September 1, 2020
Asher writes Big, Exuberant Space Opera with aliens, planet-destroying weapons and extra-terrestrial infections which can make people superhuman. It's not really about anything other than the action and plot of the story - there's really no subtext here - which can be refreshing, but here he shows a tendency to just keep piling on bigger and bigger action set pieces which, along with some of the massive infodumps and a times florid prose, can make the whole experience a bit much. I had to take a break about three quarters of the way through before returning to finish it and, even then, found myself skimming through some of the action scenes.
2.5 stars
2.5 stars
June 2, 2018
Asher is just...really, really good. And he’s best when he is writing in the Polity Universe, so, that could sum it up. If I WERE to add a few more details, i would say that he has a particularly good groove going in his frenetic imaginingings of the mind-boggling tech (and its interface/elision with organic life) that is possible when AI is not just “Artificial Intelligence,” but is Artificial Intelligence with full-blown consciousness, awareness, and individualized identity. In “The Soldier,” he is a little less successful than usual at providing protagonists (primarily tech or primarily organic — either would have been fine) for us to identify with. All the characters are a little colder than they might have been. He’s usually more successful at offering up wildly alien hero’s for us to attach to...but it’s a minor flaw. He is successful-enough and I’m already impatient for the follow-up.
May 27, 2018
Where's Neal?
I've read everything prior to this book and enjoyed them all. I'm still trying to process what happened here. For me this was a tedious read that disappointed. I waited for this book looking forward to the clever story and mind stretching ideas I have always associated with Asher stories. Is it Neal or me? I didn't find the characters engaging. I felt no connection to any of them like I had in previous stories. The ideas though grand were stock Asher and for me gave me none of the wow moments of earlier work. The plot simple enough was buried excessively detailed speculation into the complications of various combinations of biologic and machine being. It must be me, sorry Neal but this one didn't click.
I've read everything prior to this book and enjoyed them all. I'm still trying to process what happened here. For me this was a tedious read that disappointed. I waited for this book looking forward to the clever story and mind stretching ideas I have always associated with Asher stories. Is it Neal or me? I didn't find the characters engaging. I felt no connection to any of them like I had in previous stories. The ideas though grand were stock Asher and for me gave me none of the wow moments of earlier work. The plot simple enough was buried excessively detailed speculation into the complications of various combinations of biologic and machine being. It must be me, sorry Neal but this one didn't click.
September 9, 2018
Solid science fiction, technology to love, weapons on a planet crunching scale, the description of said tech, poetry, diverting your attention away from the share destructive power, turning the whole process into a sonnet of exotic quantum physics.
September 9, 2023
Vairums galveno tēlu Neal Asher izveidotajā Visumā, vai vismaz šajā Rise of the Jain sērijā, ir cilvēku vai citu inteliģentu rasu radīti mākslīgie intelekti. Arī paši cilvēki jau sen vairs nav tie paši nemodificēti mirstīgie, kādi ir šīs un citu ar Polity Universe saistīto sēriju lasītāji.
https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...
https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...
September 15, 2018
Read for August book group.
I'm not even going to try and distill the premise of one of Asher's books. If you've read any of his work, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't ready any, and you enjoy grandiose space opera, engaging characters, and complex plots, I would suggest starting with Gridlinked or Prador Moon.
I also ended up reading this as an audio book, which I normally don' t do but I was pressed for time and thought "reading" it in the car and on the plane would help. I didn't finish in time for book group.
Nearly two weeks later, I realized I wasn't going to finish it. I lost interest. This installment felt like Asher took all the loose ideas bouncing around in head and crammed them into this book. One book group member said he had to keep pulling up wiki to figure out who was who and what book we read that character in. Not the best way to enjoy a book. We pretty much agreed, too much! It was like a great big huge info dump and the plot was just...lost.
We also wondered, not having finished the Transformation series, how a war drone ended up stapled to the Prador Captian's wall.
And when did Dragon become female?
And was the book title referring to just The Soldier? Or that all the characters in this book were soldiers in some aspect?
And don't get too attached to any one character - there is a good chance they'll be eliminated.
BUT! The Clade (sp?), is way cool.
So, not my favorite Asher book. Not the book groups favorite installment. We'll probably read the rest when they come out, because we really enjoy his books, just...not this one.
I'm not even going to try and distill the premise of one of Asher's books. If you've read any of his work, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't ready any, and you enjoy grandiose space opera, engaging characters, and complex plots, I would suggest starting with Gridlinked or Prador Moon.
I also ended up reading this as an audio book, which I normally don' t do but I was pressed for time and thought "reading" it in the car and on the plane would help. I didn't finish in time for book group.
Nearly two weeks later, I realized I wasn't going to finish it. I lost interest. This installment felt like Asher took all the loose ideas bouncing around in head and crammed them into this book. One book group member said he had to keep pulling up wiki to figure out who was who and what book we read that character in. Not the best way to enjoy a book. We pretty much agreed, too much! It was like a great big huge info dump and the plot was just...lost.
We also wondered, not having finished the Transformation series, how a war drone ended up stapled to the Prador Captian's wall.
And when did Dragon become female?
And was the book title referring to just The Soldier? Or that all the characters in this book were soldiers in some aspect?
And don't get too attached to any one character - there is a good chance they'll be eliminated.
BUT! The Clade (sp?), is way cool.
So, not my favorite Asher book. Not the book groups favorite installment. We'll probably read the rest when they come out, because we really enjoy his books, just...not this one.
May 23, 2018
Asher is - as always - the master.
To be fair, I don't think anyone is even attempting the kind of books Neal Asher writes. There's only one "normal" human in the whole book, and the depiction of the weirdness of inner dialogue and thinking of so many aliens, enhanced, AI and the like still feels ok. Plus, he always skillfully weaves overcomplicated plots which makes you feel like you're really in a posthuman universe filled with smarter than humans agency.
The biggest fault is that, unless you've read most of Asher's older books, you will be completely and absolutely lost. You might get away with it if you skip the last trilogy on Penny Royal, but the rest of the books, going back to the original Agent Cormac is absolutely mandated reading.
The second biggest fault... it's a trilogy (I think), so it is mostly a set-up for the fuller plot, even if lots of things happen. But outside of that, it's absolutely delightful.
To be fair, I don't think anyone is even attempting the kind of books Neal Asher writes. There's only one "normal" human in the whole book, and the depiction of the weirdness of inner dialogue and thinking of so many aliens, enhanced, AI and the like still feels ok. Plus, he always skillfully weaves overcomplicated plots which makes you feel like you're really in a posthuman universe filled with smarter than humans agency.
The biggest fault is that, unless you've read most of Asher's older books, you will be completely and absolutely lost. You might get away with it if you skip the last trilogy on Penny Royal, but the rest of the books, going back to the original Agent Cormac is absolutely mandated reading.
The second biggest fault... it's a trilogy (I think), so it is mostly a set-up for the fuller plot, even if lots of things happen. But outside of that, it's absolutely delightful.
June 12, 2018
I haven't read alot of Mr Asher's work, but I do know most of what he writes is in my "wheelhouse" lots of wild ideas, interesting worldbuilding and tons of action.
The Soldier, which is the start of a new set of books, delivers that. It is a 10000 miles a second. It has a ton of the boom in it and it rips along. You always win me over with the weird and outlandish science...so its a good time and a fast read.
That being said, I dock it one star, due for the fact for all the shooting and zooming and booming, the story came across a bit thin, granted this might be because its part one..so I am taking that with a grain of salt.
All in all.......if you are fan of military scifi, and have NOT read Neal Asher ...pick it up
The Soldier, which is the start of a new set of books, delivers that. It is a 10000 miles a second. It has a ton of the boom in it and it rips along. You always win me over with the weird and outlandish science...so its a good time and a fast read.
That being said, I dock it one star, due for the fact for all the shooting and zooming and booming, the story came across a bit thin, granted this might be because its part one..so I am taking that with a grain of salt.
All in all.......if you are fan of military scifi, and have NOT read Neal Asher ...pick it up
November 23, 2019
I usually enjoy science fiction that is set in a high tech environment. This book certainly delivered on the speculative bio-science and AI fronts. Unfortunately there was little to the book besides dozens and dozens of long (and eventually boring) descriptions about how the tech was ``working.'' The plot was skimpy to non-existent and the characters were zero-dimensional. There was absolutely no character development and only the most cursory attention paid to any relationships among the characters, who were AIs, aliens, or enhanced humans. Overall a boring book...sorry I read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2018
I've read ALL of Neal Asher's books; loved most of them. This one is unbelievably full of POW, SMASH, ZAP, --- all fighting and descriptions of fighting and not much story or enough plot. Really disappointed. Bring back Cormak, or the Gabblegooks, or whatever. The two newer characters from Spatterjay were fine, but SO MUCH of the book is merely descriptions of weapons, weapons "thinking" of firing, weapons firing, being fired upon, etc. You get the message. :-(
November 19, 2018
Far too busy for me at least, but the glossary should have tipped me off to what I was in for. Too many different types of tech, too complex tech, too distracting tech...- I am sure you get the picture. I want to read a novel not a catalogue of specs combined with a pantheon of characters. There is merit here with good writing and fair (a few too many) characters but for me the thread of the story was obscured by the layer of tech that slowed me down.
May 21, 2018
Neal Asher's "The Soldier: Rise of the Jain, Book One" is the start of another sub-series within his overarching "Polity" series. No reflection on the book, but I'm having difficulty placing it in the universe's timeline. The easy parts of fitting it into the timeline is that the book starts sometime after the events in the last Cormac book ("Line War (Agent Cormac Book 5)") and revolves around the Jain accretion disk discussed there. And, since Oberon is a character in this book, it's got to take place before the "Spatterjay" series of books. Based on my feelings for the amount of story time involved, I'm pretty sure it follows the events in "The Technician (A Novel of Polity)." But, I really can't come up with anything concrete that places it before or after the events in his "Transformation" sub-series. Based solely on the lack of hoopla over Penny Royal in this book, I'm guessing that it takes place before that series. So, tentatively, I'm calling this book the 9th in the "Polity" series. So, the previous books 9 through 15 need to be shifted out one (if you see my earlier reviews, my numbering will be wrong there).
Anyway, I've really got no substantive problems with the book. As with just about every book in this Polity series, it's well-written, action-packed, science- and technology-filled, and interesting. Besides my irrelevant troubles with timeline placement, the only minor quibbles I have are:
- The event that kicks off everything in the book involves an AI guarding that Jain accretion disk examining a biological object without taking all the precautions pounded into the Polity during the preceding books in the Cormac series.
- The lack of *explicit* backstory on the origins of the big antagonist are a bit irritating. Sure, by the end, we get some good ideas of what's going on. But, I'd still like to know absolutely.
- The chapters (point-of-view segments from the various characters) are a bit short. It makes the book a tad choppy.
And, that's it. Overall, I'm rating it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5. The problem is that I've got to wait a whole year or so until the next book comes out. Oh, well.
Anyway, I've really got no substantive problems with the book. As with just about every book in this Polity series, it's well-written, action-packed, science- and technology-filled, and interesting. Besides my irrelevant troubles with timeline placement, the only minor quibbles I have are:
- The event that kicks off everything in the book involves an AI guarding that Jain accretion disk examining a biological object without taking all the precautions pounded into the Polity during the preceding books in the Cormac series.
- The lack of *explicit* backstory on the origins of the big antagonist are a bit irritating. Sure, by the end, we get some good ideas of what's going on. But, I'd still like to know absolutely.
- The chapters (point-of-view segments from the various characters) are a bit short. It makes the book a tad choppy.
And, that's it. Overall, I'm rating it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5. The problem is that I've got to wait a whole year or so until the next book comes out. Oh, well.
December 30, 2019
Neal Asher is an author of undeniable talent, thought that talent isn't great. The last of his series (Transformation) amused me for a while, but then it got too much of the same monsters. And so I would have like Asher to move further and imagine something different. But I guess he has invested too much in the prador universe (I think all of his books are placed within) and he is not keen to move on.
The story starts slow, as many entities of ridiculous names (the Client, the Angel, the Olfactine, Root and Trek and Clog, the Wheel, the Clade, the Dragon, the Earth Center, etc) are introduced, all meaning to do something that is not revealed or they don't know themselves. In the meanwhile, the Reader (no, that's not another character) waits half bored for something to happen.
And it takes a long while to finally arrive to what gives the title: the Soldier. At which moment the Reader has to check the page count and decide most of the same dry, random and boring stuff is still ahead. Whilst experiencing the nagging feeling that all adds to nothing, that there'll be no resolution (first book of a planned trilogy, mind you), that monsters will come and go, but essentially nothing will change.
There are many problems with the story and they are all painfully obvious before the mark hits 1/4 length. Far too many monsters to keep track of, all bland and dull and curiously, dumb as fuck and god like powerful at the same time. There's no real plot, nothing definite is unfolding, only many hints that secrets and deeper motivations are still to be revealed. There are no likable or even remotely interesting characters. And probably worst of all: there's nothing substantially new. Asher is pulling the same monsters from the hat for too many books now. It got old.
The story starts slow, as many entities of ridiculous names (the Client, the Angel, the Olfactine, Root and Trek and Clog, the Wheel, the Clade, the Dragon, the Earth Center, etc) are introduced, all meaning to do something that is not revealed or they don't know themselves. In the meanwhile, the Reader (no, that's not another character) waits half bored for something to happen.
And it takes a long while to finally arrive to what gives the title: the Soldier. At which moment the Reader has to check the page count and decide most of the same dry, random and boring stuff is still ahead. Whilst experiencing the nagging feeling that all adds to nothing, that there'll be no resolution (first book of a planned trilogy, mind you), that monsters will come and go, but essentially nothing will change.
There are many problems with the story and they are all painfully obvious before the mark hits 1/4 length. Far too many monsters to keep track of, all bland and dull and curiously, dumb as fuck and god like powerful at the same time. There's no real plot, nothing definite is unfolding, only many hints that secrets and deeper motivations are still to be revealed. There are no likable or even remotely interesting characters. And probably worst of all: there's nothing substantially new. Asher is pulling the same monsters from the hat for too many books now. It got old.
September 4, 2018
I've liked other books from Neal Asher and he's on my list of authors I'd like to read more of, so I gave this one a shot. Perhaps if I was more familiar with his Polity/Prador universe, I would have enjoyed this return more. That said, there weren't any characters that grab you or relationships that evolve or are challenged in some compelling way. Most of the action read like nothing more than a fleshed-out outline. Heretofore I've thought of Asher as being in the same ranks of Ian Banks, but I'm not so sure. Maybe time to go back to the beginning, but this entry is just not that compelling.
August 27, 2019
Why is it so hard to identify with MCs in Ashers books? Is it their weirdness or their lack of empathy or the fact that they are not so relevant in the grand scheme of things. I realize that I dont care too much about what is happening with mostMCs, and that makes reading sluggish and creates more distance between the story and me than I would like to. The hard sci-fi is top notch though and I want to read more of it. Im really torn between these things.
For the rest: Asher is really firing on all cylinders. I think he is the best hard sci-fi writer at the moment. 4 stars.
For the rest: Asher is really firing on all cylinders. I think he is the best hard sci-fi writer at the moment. 4 stars.
May 17, 2018
When you start to wonder where Mr. Asher is going to go since he's already started hurling around planetary bodies and he sits back and smiles as there's only one direction to go and that's up.
Continuing the Polity timeline we're not involved with keeping a cluster of Jain tech from escaping its stellar confines. A few old faces appear along with some welcome new ones and don't you just know it, no plan ever comes off unscathed.
Continuing the Polity timeline we're not involved with keeping a cluster of Jain tech from escaping its stellar confines. A few old faces appear along with some welcome new ones and don't you just know it, no plan ever comes off unscathed.
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