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Agent Cormac #4
Polity Agent: The Fourth Agent Cormac Novel
The thrilling saga of Agent Cormac continues as a rogue alien technology begins its devastating spread through the worlds of the Polity. . .
From eight hundred years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity, allowing a ragged tide of refugees through as they attempt to take the alien “Maker” back to its home civilization. But the gate itself is rapidly shut down and dumped into a nearby sun—something alien is pursuing them.
From the refugees, Agent Ian Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by a virus: the Jain technology. This, of course, raises questions: Why was Dragon, a massive bioconstruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity? Why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it?
And all the while, an entity called the Legate is distributing pernicious Jain nodes . . . and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself.
Night Shade Books is proud to reissue Neal Asher’s Agent Cormac series, a fast-moving, edge-of-your-seat science fiction adventure from one of today’s most exciting SF talents.
From eight hundred years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity, allowing a ragged tide of refugees through as they attempt to take the alien “Maker” back to its home civilization. But the gate itself is rapidly shut down and dumped into a nearby sun—something alien is pursuing them.
From the refugees, Agent Ian Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by a virus: the Jain technology. This, of course, raises questions: Why was Dragon, a massive bioconstruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity? Why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it?
And all the while, an entity called the Legate is distributing pernicious Jain nodes . . . and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself.
Night Shade Books is proud to reissue Neal Asher’s Agent Cormac series, a fast-moving, edge-of-your-seat science fiction adventure from one of today’s most exciting SF talents.
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 28, 2006
179 people are currently reading
1847 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 163 reviews
July 22, 2018
This kind of popcorn fiction requires a certain kind of mindset. A transhumanist mindset. One that keeps slipping between the lines of AI and Human and horrifying alien trap-technology.
Of course, since I'm half machine anyway, I'm perfectly at home with these shifting lines of self-definition. Screw sex-politics as a subset for SF idea exploration. Let's get right down to transforming the human race into something barely recognizable as human now, or if we can recognize it, it's constantly flying away from the norms. :)
This is the WILD future SF series. It's up there with Alastair Reynolds and Jack McDevitt and so many other Hard SF greatness. Never mind the heavy nanotech and alien technologies turning whole civilizations into slag through greed or the wonderful above-and-beyond enemies who are SERIOUS badasses.
These novels are genuine character-driven monstrosities. Unlike certain series, these heroes and baddies don't really die. They have backups and come back changed or crazy or on the side of the angels. Same thing is true for the good guys. :) It's like a flashy video game from the far future with all the tech in the world. AI ships and drones and even intelligent landmines... landminds. :)
In this novel really stood out for me with all the reveals about our incumbent wandering immortal, including snippets through all the Polity history. :) Pretty awesome, in fact. But the rest really steps up the game for the Jain trap.
While I can't call this the penultimate book of SF to end all SF, the tech, the aliens, the baddies and the reveals does something tingly to my insides. Like an extra jolt of electricity. Or nuclear fission. Total popcorn? Yeah, but of the So Much Better Than Pulp variety of popcorn. :)
What? I'm 6 or 7 books into the series? Yeah. And they all build on each other gloriously. Fortunately, the quality is consistent and fun. :)
Of course, since I'm half machine anyway, I'm perfectly at home with these shifting lines of self-definition. Screw sex-politics as a subset for SF idea exploration. Let's get right down to transforming the human race into something barely recognizable as human now, or if we can recognize it, it's constantly flying away from the norms. :)
This is the WILD future SF series. It's up there with Alastair Reynolds and Jack McDevitt and so many other Hard SF greatness. Never mind the heavy nanotech and alien technologies turning whole civilizations into slag through greed or the wonderful above-and-beyond enemies who are SERIOUS badasses.
These novels are genuine character-driven monstrosities. Unlike certain series, these heroes and baddies don't really die. They have backups and come back changed or crazy or on the side of the angels. Same thing is true for the good guys. :) It's like a flashy video game from the far future with all the tech in the world. AI ships and drones and even intelligent landmines... landminds. :)
In this novel really stood out for me with all the reveals about our incumbent wandering immortal, including snippets through all the Polity history. :) Pretty awesome, in fact. But the rest really steps up the game for the Jain trap.
While I can't call this the penultimate book of SF to end all SF, the tech, the aliens, the baddies and the reveals does something tingly to my insides. Like an extra jolt of electricity. Or nuclear fission. Total popcorn? Yeah, but of the So Much Better Than Pulp variety of popcorn. :)
What? I'm 6 or 7 books into the series? Yeah. And they all build on each other gloriously. Fortunately, the quality is consistent and fun. :)
December 7, 2023
”Run to your ship. You cannot survive here.”
Once more into the breach.
The Polity series is certainly one of the best out there. It has just about everything you could ask for: big battles, big tech, big cosmos, big bad, big boom, etc. An edgy Hard Space Opera with trimmings of Military Science Fiction, Cyberpunk and Horror. I mean, come on, what’s not to like?
The snarky war drones and ships are only the icing on the cake.
If you haven’t read any of this yet: it is like Iain M. Banks' Culture novels on crack cocaine, or Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy trimmed of all the fat.
Then it started.
Polity Agent is the fourth and penultimate novel in the Agent Cormac sequence (in which the story has just gotten bigger and the stakes higher with each instalment). While there are other Polity novels that can be read as stand-alones, these ones really have to be read in sequence, and it is particularly obvious in this entry. Asher is here starting to really bring the threads together and setting things up for the grand finale. We finally learn more about key characters like Horace Blegg and Dragon, and the enigmatic Makers. Not to mention the nasty Jain Tech. I daresay Polity Agent is so good it may actually succeed in isolation (on some levels), but as part of the bigger picture it really shines; the action here is also much more widespread, and on a bigger scale, than the previous novels in the sequence.
It’s just a bit awkward to try and review a book like this, while at the same time telling people to go back and start at the beginning (Gridlinked): if you’ve made it this far you certainly won’t be disappointed. Suffice to say, I think this is one of the best so far, hopefully that sums it up.
The entire craft rippled, emitted a tearing crash, and bucked as if someone had taken hold of the very fabric of space and snapped it up and down like shaking dust from a carpet.
Asher is pretty damn dependable. Line War looks set to be a doozy!
Fantastic, gripping stuff. 5 stars easy peasy.
Once more into the breach.
The Polity series is certainly one of the best out there. It has just about everything you could ask for: big battles, big tech, big cosmos, big bad, big boom, etc. An edgy Hard Space Opera with trimmings of Military Science Fiction, Cyberpunk and Horror. I mean, come on, what’s not to like?
The snarky war drones and ships are only the icing on the cake.
If you haven’t read any of this yet: it is like Iain M. Banks' Culture novels on crack cocaine, or Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy trimmed of all the fat.
Then it started.
Polity Agent is the fourth and penultimate novel in the Agent Cormac sequence (in which the story has just gotten bigger and the stakes higher with each instalment). While there are other Polity novels that can be read as stand-alones, these ones really have to be read in sequence, and it is particularly obvious in this entry. Asher is here starting to really bring the threads together and setting things up for the grand finale. We finally learn more about key characters like Horace Blegg and Dragon, and the enigmatic Makers. Not to mention the nasty Jain Tech. I daresay Polity Agent is so good it may actually succeed in isolation (on some levels), but as part of the bigger picture it really shines; the action here is also much more widespread, and on a bigger scale, than the previous novels in the sequence.
It’s just a bit awkward to try and review a book like this, while at the same time telling people to go back and start at the beginning (Gridlinked): if you’ve made it this far you certainly won’t be disappointed. Suffice to say, I think this is one of the best so far, hopefully that sums it up.
The entire craft rippled, emitted a tearing crash, and bucked as if someone had taken hold of the very fabric of space and snapped it up and down like shaking dust from a carpet.
Asher is pretty damn dependable. Line War looks set to be a doozy!
Fantastic, gripping stuff. 5 stars easy peasy.
January 13, 2021
If I was going to describe Neal Asher's Cormac series in one sentence it would be "Iain M. Banks does James Bond".
As a huge fan of Banks' Culture series, this is high praise from me, but while Ian Cormac, the protagonist of these novels is a bit Bond-y, he is a far more nuanced and interesting character than Ian Fleming's 007 and a bit lighter on the martini drinking, womanising, and flagrant racism.
Following on from Brass Man, Polity Agent continues to up the stakes, bringing the Polity to the edge of outright destruction, and raising the engagement stakes too (I found Brass Man to be a bit slower than the other novels in this series, and the return of the titular Brass man a little forced, but thankfully, it seems that Asher has picked the pace up a bit in his follow-up)
So. Four novels in, and things are building up nicely in this series- intergalactic time travel, galaxy-spanning empires and a pernicious and parasitic alien nanotech that threatens to destroy every neuron of advanced life it comes across.
Skellor, the nanotech-infested antagonist of the previous two novels, is finally and definitely dead, crushed into a molecule-thick pancake on the surface of a white dwarf. What he represents, however, lingers on in the Polity, threatening to unleash megadeath havoc at any time. Jain nodes, laced with deadly, intelligent nanotech have found their way in the hands of several entities connected to the Polity, and they did not get there accidentally.
Ian Cormac, meanwhile is dealing with the massive physical and mental injuries he received at the end of Brass Man, and is studiously avoiding the mind-cracking memory of his ability to teleport himself through space that manifested when Skellor almost killed him. On top of this he is starting to wonder if he can trust the near omniscient AIs that run the polity, and decides to keep the truth of his new found powers to himself.
Meanwhile the gigantic alien entity known as Dragon is still getting around (and seems to have played a part in the nano-pocalypse that threatens to drown the Polity) and Rogue warship The King of Hearts re-enters the narrative, now far from the Polity that it betrayed. KOH is following in the footsteps of a fleet of vessels that abandoned their fellow AIs at the end of the Prador War (see: Prador Moon> - it's a fun read) and appear to have met a monstrous fate somewhere in the interstellar darkness.
Anyway, there's a lot going on, as you can tell, and it all adds up to a pretty rollicking space opera, full of tense moments and exciting reveals.
This isn't the deepest SF you'll ever read – it isn’t a Philip K. Dick philosophical exploration of the human condition, but it's a hell of a lot of fun, and is both tightly plotted and well-written. Asher writes a good action sequence, with a pacy, engaging style that I really dig and Polity Agent races the reader along like driftwood in a surging river of intrigue, nightmarish AIs and moon-sized warships.
As a stand alone book, it's a real winner, and as the fourth novel in the Cormac series it's even better, building the narrative to some seriously lofty heights as it sets up for Line War, the final of the five novel sequence.
I gobbled this one up, staying up well beyond a reasonable hour to do so - late nights and bleary mornings be damned. It was well worth it, and if you're an SF fan it's more than worth both your time and your dollars.
Four supernova-bright stars.
As a huge fan of Banks' Culture series, this is high praise from me, but while Ian Cormac, the protagonist of these novels is a bit Bond-y, he is a far more nuanced and interesting character than Ian Fleming's 007 and a bit lighter on the martini drinking, womanising, and flagrant racism.
Following on from Brass Man, Polity Agent continues to up the stakes, bringing the Polity to the edge of outright destruction, and raising the engagement stakes too (I found Brass Man to be a bit slower than the other novels in this series, and the return of the titular Brass man a little forced, but thankfully, it seems that Asher has picked the pace up a bit in his follow-up)
So. Four novels in, and things are building up nicely in this series- intergalactic time travel, galaxy-spanning empires and a pernicious and parasitic alien nanotech that threatens to destroy every neuron of advanced life it comes across.
Skellor, the nanotech-infested antagonist of the previous two novels, is finally and definitely dead, crushed into a molecule-thick pancake on the surface of a white dwarf. What he represents, however, lingers on in the Polity, threatening to unleash megadeath havoc at any time. Jain nodes, laced with deadly, intelligent nanotech have found their way in the hands of several entities connected to the Polity, and they did not get there accidentally.
Ian Cormac, meanwhile is dealing with the massive physical and mental injuries he received at the end of Brass Man, and is studiously avoiding the mind-cracking memory of his ability to teleport himself through space that manifested when Skellor almost killed him. On top of this he is starting to wonder if he can trust the near omniscient AIs that run the polity, and decides to keep the truth of his new found powers to himself.
Meanwhile the gigantic alien entity known as Dragon is still getting around (and seems to have played a part in the nano-pocalypse that threatens to drown the Polity) and Rogue warship The King of Hearts re-enters the narrative, now far from the Polity that it betrayed. KOH is following in the footsteps of a fleet of vessels that abandoned their fellow AIs at the end of the Prador War (see: Prador Moon> - it's a fun read) and appear to have met a monstrous fate somewhere in the interstellar darkness.
Anyway, there's a lot going on, as you can tell, and it all adds up to a pretty rollicking space opera, full of tense moments and exciting reveals.
This isn't the deepest SF you'll ever read – it isn’t a Philip K. Dick philosophical exploration of the human condition, but it's a hell of a lot of fun, and is both tightly plotted and well-written. Asher writes a good action sequence, with a pacy, engaging style that I really dig and Polity Agent races the reader along like driftwood in a surging river of intrigue, nightmarish AIs and moon-sized warships.
As a stand alone book, it's a real winner, and as the fourth novel in the Cormac series it's even better, building the narrative to some seriously lofty heights as it sets up for Line War, the final of the five novel sequence.
I gobbled this one up, staying up well beyond a reasonable hour to do so - late nights and bleary mornings be damned. It was well worth it, and if you're an SF fan it's more than worth both your time and your dollars.
Four supernova-bright stars.
March 24, 2025
The saga of Agent Cormac continues here, leaving plenty of room for the next installment, the last of the Cormac sequence. After finally dealing with the Jain threat represented by Skellor, several things happen. First, a crew of humans from the future return to the Polity; runcibles can be used for time travel, although the instabilities involved results in massive energy displacement. The returning crew hails from the ship that took the 'Maker' back to its home world. The Makers thought they could control Jain tech, but alas, in the end, no. The crew escaped via runcible and the resultant energy discharge hopefully wiped out the remains of the Makers.
Now, Dragon, a product of the Makers, finds itself in a quandary, as its mission (however opaque) originated from the Makers. Tacked on to that, a mysterious agent known as the Ligate gives a Jain node/egg to a 'separatist' on a planet and he touches it, unleashing the Jain tech there. Mayhem ensues. We also have Orlandine, a Haiman researcher who starts off the tale supervising the construction of a Dyson sphere. She also has a Jain node/egg and plays with it on her spare time. We follow her trials and tribulations as she decides to go full time on the node (which means she has to cover her tracks...).
Finally, Agent Cormac. He escaped the last installment barely and starts off here still recovering. Stationed on Jerusalem, a giant Polity ship devoted to studying Jain tech, his recuperation involves both physical and mental aspects. The Jerusalem AI edited his memories of his latest trauma he barely escaped from, but kept the excerpts; Cormac will get them when the AI deems him ready; all we really know is that within them, he managed to 'translate' himself into U space, something no human should be able to do.
Take all this, mix it into an Asher tale of mayhem and action, and we have Polity Agent. I mentioned in my last review this series is starting to slip into formulaic territory, but it still kept me enthralled. On the next and last! 4.5 Jain nodes, rounding up for nostalgia!
Now, Dragon, a product of the Makers, finds itself in a quandary, as its mission (however opaque) originated from the Makers. Tacked on to that, a mysterious agent known as the Ligate gives a Jain node/egg to a 'separatist' on a planet and he touches it, unleashing the Jain tech there. Mayhem ensues. We also have Orlandine, a Haiman researcher who starts off the tale supervising the construction of a Dyson sphere. She also has a Jain node/egg and plays with it on her spare time. We follow her trials and tribulations as she decides to go full time on the node (which means she has to cover her tracks...).
Finally, Agent Cormac. He escaped the last installment barely and starts off here still recovering. Stationed on Jerusalem, a giant Polity ship devoted to studying Jain tech, his recuperation involves both physical and mental aspects. The Jerusalem AI edited his memories of his latest trauma he barely escaped from, but kept the excerpts; Cormac will get them when the AI deems him ready; all we really know is that within them, he managed to 'translate' himself into U space, something no human should be able to do.
Take all this, mix it into an Asher tale of mayhem and action, and we have Polity Agent. I mentioned in my last review this series is starting to slip into formulaic territory, but it still kept me enthralled. On the next and last! 4.5 Jain nodes, rounding up for nostalgia!
October 16, 2013
Five stars because it is exactly the kind of book it is trying to be; not Great Lit'racheh, just a ripping yarn.
You'll enjoy and understand it more if you have read at least several of the previous Polity books. Having said that, I missed Line of Polity and got along fine.
Imagine all you've ever read about AIs and really honking big spaceships. Take Alastair Reynolds and turn it up a notch. Take anyone else and turn it up to 11. Stir in at least ten forms that intelligence can take. Add hyperspace ("U-space" here) and then start exploring the possibility of using it for time-jumping as well (hint: not without consequences, and it doesn't end well for the Small Magellanic Cloud). Toss in gravity weapons, anti-matter, nano monsters, renegade AIs and one that's not so sure. Memory backups. Demolition by shining light on chlorine. Twenty-mile-long ships exploding. Millions and billions of deaths in single scenes.
Then have a couple of still-mostly-human characters who are starting to wonder how human they really are.
And it's pretty close to non-stop action for the whole large book.
Think roller coaster. Whee!
If we should think outside the box, Asher is thinking outside the house that contains the room the box is in.
You'll enjoy and understand it more if you have read at least several of the previous Polity books. Having said that, I missed Line of Polity and got along fine.
Imagine all you've ever read about AIs and really honking big spaceships. Take Alastair Reynolds and turn it up a notch. Take anyone else and turn it up to 11. Stir in at least ten forms that intelligence can take. Add hyperspace ("U-space" here) and then start exploring the possibility of using it for time-jumping as well (hint: not without consequences, and it doesn't end well for the Small Magellanic Cloud). Toss in gravity weapons, anti-matter, nano monsters, renegade AIs and one that's not so sure. Memory backups. Demolition by shining light on chlorine. Twenty-mile-long ships exploding. Millions and billions of deaths in single scenes.
Then have a couple of still-mostly-human characters who are starting to wonder how human they really are.
And it's pretty close to non-stop action for the whole large book.
Think roller coaster. Whee!
If we should think outside the box, Asher is thinking outside the house that contains the room the box is in.
July 16, 2018
The previous novel in the series Brass Man tended to focus on Mr Crane, the titular golem, the quest of the Rondure knight and our Jain afflicted villian Skellor in addition to juggling a dozen or more characters and AIs. Skellor has , the Rondure Knight is not mentioned again (and thus I forgot his name) and Mr Crane appears in one scene. So this novel is quite different from the previous.
"Polity Agent" consolidates the story after the events of "Brass Man" as we follow the separatist AI King of Hearts, Dragon the creation of the mysterious "makers" and its interactions with the polity, the newest Jain node threat in "the legate", and develop the character of Ian Cormac a bit more. The most interesting aspect of the story involved another new character, a haiman called Orlandine who comes into possession of a Jain node. Less successful were the series of "retroacts" intended to flesh out the previously minor character Horace Blegg. We also have our first mentions of the Prador and Spatterjay which were exciting.
The audiobook is fine, the major problem being that Asher jumps from character POV's fairly rapidly and without Chapter breaks. In audio format one sentence ends and the next is referring to another character but often does not start with that character's name. This can be difficult to follow at times and causes frequent clicks of the "rewind" button.
"Polity Agent" advances plenty of plot. It has constant action and massive space battles. Overall though it feels like the kind of book I have already started forgetting so soon after reading it. The recaps of previous plot are welcome given their complexity but consume a lot of time in this 17 hour audiobook. As with "Brass Man" there are so many characters to keep track of I am constantly forgetting who they are by the time we make a revolution through the cast and get back to their POV and this is the fourth book. I love Asher's aliens and technology but there was a lot of emphasis on technological technobabble. The prose feels like a marked step up from previous novels and I am looking forward to Asher soon hitting the peak of his powers as he did with Prador Moon and the Spatterjay series.
"Polity Agent" consolidates the story after the events of "Brass Man" as we follow the separatist AI King of Hearts, Dragon the creation of the mysterious "makers" and its interactions with the polity, the newest Jain node threat in "the legate", and develop the character of Ian Cormac a bit more. The most interesting aspect of the story involved another new character, a haiman called Orlandine who comes into possession of a Jain node. Less successful were the series of "retroacts" intended to flesh out the previously minor character Horace Blegg. We also have our first mentions of the Prador and Spatterjay which were exciting.
The audiobook is fine, the major problem being that Asher jumps from character POV's fairly rapidly and without Chapter breaks. In audio format one sentence ends and the next is referring to another character but often does not start with that character's name. This can be difficult to follow at times and causes frequent clicks of the "rewind" button.
"Polity Agent" advances plenty of plot. It has constant action and massive space battles. Overall though it feels like the kind of book I have already started forgetting so soon after reading it. The recaps of previous plot are welcome given their complexity but consume a lot of time in this 17 hour audiobook. As with "Brass Man" there are so many characters to keep track of I am constantly forgetting who they are by the time we make a revolution through the cast and get back to their POV and this is the fourth book. I love Asher's aliens and technology but there was a lot of emphasis on technological technobabble. The prose feels like a marked step up from previous novels and I am looking forward to Asher soon hitting the peak of his powers as he did with Prador Moon and the Spatterjay series.
October 30, 2023
If you were to look at my ratings at the bottom of my review for this series, you'll notice something interesting for the Agent Cormac series. The ratings have progressively gone up a half point with each new installment. At this point in Neal Asher's career, he has a good 4 books under his belt, and the reader can see how much he has improved. Most obvious is, perhaps, the pacing of this novel as well as the cohesive plot. Also, his characters have become less robotic, which is ironic since most of them are AI in the form of golems or ship minds. Either way, each has a distinct voice, for the most part, and I tend to care about their well being more than in his first novels.
Polity Agent picks up shortly after the events of Brass Man. In this novel, we find out more about the lovely enigmatic Horace Blegg in the form of flashback memories and POV chapters. He's been a curiously fun character that finally gets fleshed out. Also, we are treated to a host of new and old characters as the pursuit of the Jain technology and tracking down the source really picks up. It's taken 3 novels to get to this point but the payoffs are plentiful here.
I mentioned the pacing earlier and it's obvious here because, for once, you don't have events happening to characters in the beginning that are so far removed from the main characters that you struggle to gain interest. For the most part, all of the POV characters are a major part of the main plot right away. This helps everything seem to flow quickly and seamlessly as the plot is constantly progressing. Many long standing mysteries of the primary adversaries of the Polity now come into focus as multiple characters we've been introduced to throughout the series thus far are tracking down the bad guys from multiple angles. It really all just coalesces into Neal Asher's best climactic space battle yet.
Speaking of, that last space battle that encompasses the entirety of the last two chapters is mind-blowingly good. Multiple view points of the same battle effectively show the epic scale of the conflict and the reader is thrust through a roller-coaster of emotions where you feel like the good guys are going to win, and then something happens and you feel all hope is lost. This all leads into what, I have no doubt, will be a heart-pounding conclusion to the Agent Cormac series in the next book. Polity Agent doesn't necessarily end on a cliffhanger as it wraps up the story nicely, but there is an absolute promise of mayhem to come. Honestly, if any big fans of science fiction/space opera/Starship Troopers-esque battles is curious, give the Polity universe a try. It may take a few books to really get to where Asher hits his stride in his career, but I have no regrets of starting this series chronologically to see the payoffs I am now starting to see. It's all so satisfying.
Polity Universe
Prador Moon - 7.5/10
Shadow of the Scorpion - 7.0/10
The Technician - 8.0/10
Agent Cormac
Gridlinked - 7.5/10
The Line of Polity - 8.0/10
Brass Man - 8.5/10
Polity Agent - 9.0/10
Line War - 10/10
Polity Agent picks up shortly after the events of Brass Man. In this novel, we find out more about the lovely enigmatic Horace Blegg in the form of flashback memories and POV chapters. He's been a curiously fun character that finally gets fleshed out. Also, we are treated to a host of new and old characters as the pursuit of the Jain technology and tracking down the source really picks up. It's taken 3 novels to get to this point but the payoffs are plentiful here.
I mentioned the pacing earlier and it's obvious here because, for once, you don't have events happening to characters in the beginning that are so far removed from the main characters that you struggle to gain interest. For the most part, all of the POV characters are a major part of the main plot right away. This helps everything seem to flow quickly and seamlessly as the plot is constantly progressing. Many long standing mysteries of the primary adversaries of the Polity now come into focus as multiple characters we've been introduced to throughout the series thus far are tracking down the bad guys from multiple angles. It really all just coalesces into Neal Asher's best climactic space battle yet.
Speaking of, that last space battle that encompasses the entirety of the last two chapters is mind-blowingly good. Multiple view points of the same battle effectively show the epic scale of the conflict and the reader is thrust through a roller-coaster of emotions where you feel like the good guys are going to win, and then something happens and you feel all hope is lost. This all leads into what, I have no doubt, will be a heart-pounding conclusion to the Agent Cormac series in the next book. Polity Agent doesn't necessarily end on a cliffhanger as it wraps up the story nicely, but there is an absolute promise of mayhem to come. Honestly, if any big fans of science fiction/space opera/Starship Troopers-esque battles is curious, give the Polity universe a try. It may take a few books to really get to where Asher hits his stride in his career, but I have no regrets of starting this series chronologically to see the payoffs I am now starting to see. It's all so satisfying.
Polity Universe
Prador Moon - 7.5/10
Shadow of the Scorpion - 7.0/10
The Technician - 8.0/10
Agent Cormac
Gridlinked - 7.5/10
The Line of Polity - 8.0/10
Brass Man - 8.5/10
Polity Agent - 9.0/10
Line War - 10/10
May 28, 2010
Bad Ass...completely. What startes off as semi-slow burn turns into a hectic inferno at the end. This is definitely not a starter novel, the books should be read in sequence, if for nothing more than to comprehend the full scope of the Polity Universe. I won't bother going into backstory but suffice to say that the Uber Agent Cormac is back and laden with a threat that beats the Borg and the Cylons, combined! With the help of starship Titans such as Jack, King, Jerusalem and Battlewagon, they fight for survival against the biggest threat imaginable to the Polity empire.
After reading this mini-tome, I was literally charged and exhausted all at once. If you like space operas, then definitely get yourself an Asher novel...
After reading this mini-tome, I was literally charged and exhausted all at once. If you like space operas, then definitely get yourself an Asher novel...
March 10, 2013
I admit, I'm at a bit of a loss how to describe Polity Agent without giving anything of importance away. It's a bit like trying to describe the universe - it is a big story involving numerous AI ships, Earth Central, Earth Central's emissary Horace Blegg, Earth Central's agent Cormac, a rogue AI, technology that will kill all intelligent life, a scientist, the entity known as Dragon, and a human-AI mix from a construction project....I think I have all the key players.
A robot known as the Legate gives a piece of Jain technology to a mob boss on a arcology world, with the promise of wealth and power. Too late does the mob boss realize he's been duped as the subversive technology subsumes him. The same Legate gives a piece of the same technology to a construction worker, but she takes it and runs, knowing that one should always look a gift horse in the mouth - or in this case, check out it's molecular structure.
Horace Blegg, our all powerful human emissary on behalf of Earth Central, is slowly having an identity crisis. Cormac, not quite whole from his last mission, is trying to figure out where all this subversive technology is coming from. And out on the far fringes of space lurks yet another entity with it's own agenda.
Overall, I enjoyed Polity Agent. I did realize early on that this was not the best book to be reading right before bed or first thing in the morning, so it took me a bit longer to get through. I'll be honest, there were some sub-plots that I found much more interesting than others, and I did set the book aside at one point just because reading became a bit like a slog. The universe concepts are a bit reminiscent of Ian Bank's Culture worlds - grandiose, universe encompassing, and a combination of AI's and humans at work.
I highly recommend this series.
A robot known as the Legate gives a piece of Jain technology to a mob boss on a arcology world, with the promise of wealth and power. Too late does the mob boss realize he's been duped as the subversive technology subsumes him. The same Legate gives a piece of the same technology to a construction worker, but she takes it and runs, knowing that one should always look a gift horse in the mouth - or in this case, check out it's molecular structure.
Horace Blegg, our all powerful human emissary on behalf of Earth Central, is slowly having an identity crisis. Cormac, not quite whole from his last mission, is trying to figure out where all this subversive technology is coming from. And out on the far fringes of space lurks yet another entity with it's own agenda.
Overall, I enjoyed Polity Agent. I did realize early on that this was not the best book to be reading right before bed or first thing in the morning, so it took me a bit longer to get through. I'll be honest, there were some sub-plots that I found much more interesting than others, and I did set the book aside at one point just because reading became a bit like a slog. The universe concepts are a bit reminiscent of Ian Bank's Culture worlds - grandiose, universe encompassing, and a combination of AI's and humans at work.
I highly recommend this series.
October 27, 2021
AWESOME,GUNG-HO ARSE-KICKING GALACTIC BLOODFEST.
BRING IT ON.
Ok!
I should make notes as I read coz there is a lot to keep track of in this action packed, system hopping cyberpunky thriller.
What it all boils down to is who to trust, who's really who and where is the main puppet master behind the Jain nodes that can and will destroy entire civilisations.
Cormac and co up against the Legate and his master who are hell bent on destroying the Polity.
Old enemies reappear and new friends are made whilst others are lost.
Epic space battles with planet busting weaponary and super A.Is, with Golems, Sparkind soldiers, Dracomen and bored wardrones looking for a piece of the action and perhaps a chance to go out in a blaze of glory.
If this is too low brow for you, then tuff, go read Culture novels by Ian M Banks as they are a bit more soft and cuddlier than Asher's hard, and jagged edge blood filled Polity.
Seriously though I have read the Culture novels and they are well worth it.
BRING IT ON.
Ok!
I should make notes as I read coz there is a lot to keep track of in this action packed, system hopping cyberpunky thriller.
What it all boils down to is who to trust, who's really who and where is the main puppet master behind the Jain nodes that can and will destroy entire civilisations.
Cormac and co up against the Legate and his master who are hell bent on destroying the Polity.
Old enemies reappear and new friends are made whilst others are lost.
Epic space battles with planet busting weaponary and super A.Is, with Golems, Sparkind soldiers, Dracomen and bored wardrones looking for a piece of the action and perhaps a chance to go out in a blaze of glory.
If this is too low brow for you, then tuff, go read Culture novels by Ian M Banks as they are a bit more soft and cuddlier than Asher's hard, and jagged edge blood filled Polity.
Seriously though I have read the Culture novels and they are well worth it.
July 17, 2017
Space opera - chock full of gadgets, action, aliens, AIs.
Note: I started on Book 4 without reading the second and third books in the series, and so any trouble I had finishing this book was my own doing. But still, this turned out to be much more interesting than when I started it a year ago ...
Several things are happening at once, something to do with the Dragon, and Jain nodes, and the King, which is apparently a renegade AI, and an immortal being who was around in WWII, and a powerful intervenor called the Legate, and Cormac, the Polity Agent himself, on a seemingly innocuous assignment, not killing anyone for a change ... and I'm lost. That's where I left this book some time ago, but on the nth re-start, it finally started to make sense. There are about 6 or 7 narrative threads going. But somewhere around midsection, the author starts to pull the disparate threads together, and builds a neat space-battle scenario to focus the reader's attention, and then everything is fine. The resolution is neat and though expected, is still engaging and thought-provoking.
The Dune-style infodumps at the start of each chapter are distracting but ultimately informative. Asher is a master story teller who seems eager to spin a tale out of the plainest details. His exposition of the Polity, its mores and devices, tech and cantankerous AIs is quite dazzling. One may know there's sleight of hand taking place but you willingly accept it, because this is his story and you let Mr. Asher tell it the way he wants it.
Too long a wait to finish what turned out to be an engrossing book. Now the quandary is, should I still read Books 2 and 3 after knowing what happened after? My problem.
5 stars once you get past the midpoint.
Note: I started on Book 4 without reading the second and third books in the series, and so any trouble I had finishing this book was my own doing. But still, this turned out to be much more interesting than when I started it a year ago ...
Several things are happening at once, something to do with the Dragon, and Jain nodes, and the King, which is apparently a renegade AI, and an immortal being who was around in WWII, and a powerful intervenor called the Legate, and Cormac, the Polity Agent himself, on a seemingly innocuous assignment, not killing anyone for a change ... and I'm lost. That's where I left this book some time ago, but on the nth re-start, it finally started to make sense. There are about 6 or 7 narrative threads going. But somewhere around midsection, the author starts to pull the disparate threads together, and builds a neat space-battle scenario to focus the reader's attention, and then everything is fine. The resolution is neat and though expected, is still engaging and thought-provoking.
The Dune-style infodumps at the start of each chapter are distracting but ultimately informative. Asher is a master story teller who seems eager to spin a tale out of the plainest details. His exposition of the Polity, its mores and devices, tech and cantankerous AIs is quite dazzling. One may know there's sleight of hand taking place but you willingly accept it, because this is his story and you let Mr. Asher tell it the way he wants it.
Too long a wait to finish what turned out to be an engrossing book. Now the quandary is, should I still read Books 2 and 3 after knowing what happened after? My problem.
5 stars once you get past the midpoint.
October 11, 2011
Polity Agent is the fourth book in the Agent Cormac series, a series I've been catching up with and thoroughly enjoying. The second and third books in the series, The Line of Polity and Brass Man, dealt with the emergence of Jain tech and Skellor's use of it and was a fairly self-contained duology within the main story. Of course, just because that sub-story concluded it doesn't mean everything is fine, far from it - Jain tech is still out there and Polity Agent hits the ground running.
As a runcible opens from 800 years in the future the team that were sent to return the Maker to its civilisation in the Small Magellanic cloud comes through in a panic, the Makers overrun by Jain tech. With runcible time-travel not recommended by the AI's of the Polity due to the huge power requirements and dangers it involves, this situation is used solely to destroy the Jain infested Maker civilisation and most of the Small Magellanic cloud. This event raises many questions, most prominent of them being the purpose of Dragon, the huge bio-construct that the Makers created and sent to the Polity. Meanwhile an entity called Legate is distributing Jain nodes to certain people within the Polity, one of these being Orlandine, a haiman who takes a whole different approach to studying the Jain technology she has in her possession, while another is a dangerous separatist leader on the planet of Coloron. Meanwhile Horace Blegg, the infamous immortal of legend, is slowly learning more and more about jain tech and of himself, while Cormac continues to discover more about Dragon while trying to limit and eradicate the spread of Jain tech. And then there is the King of Hearts, a renegade AI whose journey out of the Polity leads him to discover something very dangerous indeed.
Where to start? Well, Polity Agent isn't so much a build up of events like previous novels, but an instant hit of what to expect throughout. This really does help the novel, but then it's part four in a series so it shouldn't have to take too much time building up the story. With the future runcible opening early in the book it kicks off a chain of events that has a huge impact on the Polity, but it starts to raise more questions about Dragon, the Makers and the Jain nodes. These questions have been there in the previous novels, but it's only now that the dots are starting to connect and the bigger picture is becoming visible - and boy is it big!
The characters that carry this story forward are all interesting. We've got the returning characters of Cormac, Mika, Thorn, Scar, plus the AI Jerusalem, but it's the new ones I enjoyed reading. Orlandine is one of the main characters here, and her haiman heritage is a very interesting part of this. She's as close to a human-AI hybrid as is possible (a full meld results in the death of both within minutes), and because of this she's got much more knowledge and intelligence than humans and can apply it very specifically. With a Jain node in her possession she hides away to fully investigate it, a story thread that results in some interesting discoveries about the Jain tech. There is also Horace Blegg, the enigmatic immortal we've seen in previous books. This time he gets a major role in the story and we start to learn more and more about him and his status within the Polity, and it's a very interesting journey he goes on. We also meet an Atheter AI - awesome! As for the King of Hearts, well, its journey out of the Polity leads to some startling discoveries that really will effect humanity as it stands.
In my review of Brass Man I said this:
What is most enjoyable about Brass Man is the sheer feeling of threat that faces the Polity. While we only see this through the events on and around Cull, the implications of these events have far reaching effects.
Well, now that threat is wide reaching, and we see it. Asher has done a wonderful job of showing this in Polity Agent and it comes across very well. We aren't restricted to one place, although much of the story does focus on the Jain tech outbreak on Colloron, and it's because of this that Polity Agent steps up the game. The ending doesn't conclude this story at all and instead introduces more of the threat that the Polity will face very soon, and here's hoping Line War will deliver everything that it needs to wrap up this series in style.
So, Polity Agent is a big book dealing with big issues to the Polity. It's not the best place to start with Neal's work, simply because it requires prior knowledge of events that have occurred to get the most out of it. Fortunately Neal does take some steps to help the new reader here with his chapter introductions. These little snippets give the reader either a little reminder about events that have occurred previously, or fill in the gaps for anyone new to the series. These chapter introductions are a presence in all of Neal's novels and are hugely enjoyable to read. Some of them give general background of the Polity and it's technology while others are a direct reference to the story, to give that little bit of world building without being too in your face. I love them though, and enjoy these just as much as the story itself.
Polity Agent is another great SF novel and continues the Cormac series in style. Asher doesn't shy away from anything here and delivers everything you could possibly want in a science fiction story. Simply put, this series has got better with each new novel and Neal Asher is firmly establishing himself as one of the premier science fiction authors writing today.
As a runcible opens from 800 years in the future the team that were sent to return the Maker to its civilisation in the Small Magellanic cloud comes through in a panic, the Makers overrun by Jain tech. With runcible time-travel not recommended by the AI's of the Polity due to the huge power requirements and dangers it involves, this situation is used solely to destroy the Jain infested Maker civilisation and most of the Small Magellanic cloud. This event raises many questions, most prominent of them being the purpose of Dragon, the huge bio-construct that the Makers created and sent to the Polity. Meanwhile an entity called Legate is distributing Jain nodes to certain people within the Polity, one of these being Orlandine, a haiman who takes a whole different approach to studying the Jain technology she has in her possession, while another is a dangerous separatist leader on the planet of Coloron. Meanwhile Horace Blegg, the infamous immortal of legend, is slowly learning more and more about jain tech and of himself, while Cormac continues to discover more about Dragon while trying to limit and eradicate the spread of Jain tech. And then there is the King of Hearts, a renegade AI whose journey out of the Polity leads him to discover something very dangerous indeed.
Where to start? Well, Polity Agent isn't so much a build up of events like previous novels, but an instant hit of what to expect throughout. This really does help the novel, but then it's part four in a series so it shouldn't have to take too much time building up the story. With the future runcible opening early in the book it kicks off a chain of events that has a huge impact on the Polity, but it starts to raise more questions about Dragon, the Makers and the Jain nodes. These questions have been there in the previous novels, but it's only now that the dots are starting to connect and the bigger picture is becoming visible - and boy is it big!
The characters that carry this story forward are all interesting. We've got the returning characters of Cormac, Mika, Thorn, Scar, plus the AI Jerusalem, but it's the new ones I enjoyed reading. Orlandine is one of the main characters here, and her haiman heritage is a very interesting part of this. She's as close to a human-AI hybrid as is possible (a full meld results in the death of both within minutes), and because of this she's got much more knowledge and intelligence than humans and can apply it very specifically. With a Jain node in her possession she hides away to fully investigate it, a story thread that results in some interesting discoveries about the Jain tech. There is also Horace Blegg, the enigmatic immortal we've seen in previous books. This time he gets a major role in the story and we start to learn more and more about him and his status within the Polity, and it's a very interesting journey he goes on. We also meet an Atheter AI - awesome! As for the King of Hearts, well, its journey out of the Polity leads to some startling discoveries that really will effect humanity as it stands.
In my review of Brass Man I said this:
What is most enjoyable about Brass Man is the sheer feeling of threat that faces the Polity. While we only see this through the events on and around Cull, the implications of these events have far reaching effects.
Well, now that threat is wide reaching, and we see it. Asher has done a wonderful job of showing this in Polity Agent and it comes across very well. We aren't restricted to one place, although much of the story does focus on the Jain tech outbreak on Colloron, and it's because of this that Polity Agent steps up the game. The ending doesn't conclude this story at all and instead introduces more of the threat that the Polity will face very soon, and here's hoping Line War will deliver everything that it needs to wrap up this series in style.
So, Polity Agent is a big book dealing with big issues to the Polity. It's not the best place to start with Neal's work, simply because it requires prior knowledge of events that have occurred to get the most out of it. Fortunately Neal does take some steps to help the new reader here with his chapter introductions. These little snippets give the reader either a little reminder about events that have occurred previously, or fill in the gaps for anyone new to the series. These chapter introductions are a presence in all of Neal's novels and are hugely enjoyable to read. Some of them give general background of the Polity and it's technology while others are a direct reference to the story, to give that little bit of world building without being too in your face. I love them though, and enjoy these just as much as the story itself.
Polity Agent is another great SF novel and continues the Cormac series in style. Asher doesn't shy away from anything here and delivers everything you could possibly want in a science fiction story. Simply put, this series has got better with each new novel and Neal Asher is firmly establishing himself as one of the premier science fiction authors writing today.
October 9, 2022
Bon, j’avais dit il y a quelques mois que Brass Man était le dernier de la saga Cormac, j’avais tort - il s’agit en fait d’une pentalogie, donc Polity Agent est l’avant dernier tome - nous retrouvons donc notre agent, Dragon l’être bio punk, mais aussi Orlandine, personne connu du cycle Jain. Un mélimélo de personnages bigarrés et barrés, des batailles spatiales, des technologies cybernétiques bio proto punk trop cool - je n’en dirai pas plus parce qu’on est déjà au tome 4, et vous connaissez maintenant mon amour pour l’écriture d’Asher - mais si vous savez lire en anglais, foncez !
March 27, 2015
If a threat to the Polity seemed huge in the previous book, it becomes a runaway train or, rather, a spaceship in this one. The alien technology is spreading and subsuming people and AIs alike. The death toll is enormous and Cormac has to solve the mystery of the Dragon, Horace Blegg and his new abilities. Better than the previous book, it sets the stage for the culmination of the series. While I like all the old characters, I found the new ones - like Orlandine or some of the AIs - I enjoyed the most.
October 30, 2019
Another good book, but I think at this point the series is suffering a bit of "Jain tech overdose". It appears that given the power of the Polity, it gets hard to think of a suitable enemy other than Jain tech.
This particular book starts somewhat slow and takes a while to pick up the pace and get really interesting, but eventually all leads are tied out nicely. There's also some updates on Horace Blegg and (indirectly) Ian Cormac, which was long overdue.
I'd give the book 3.5 stars as the Jain theme is getting very repetitive, but since I can't, it gets 3 stars.
This particular book starts somewhat slow and takes a while to pick up the pace and get really interesting, but eventually all leads are tied out nicely. There's also some updates on Horace Blegg and (indirectly) Ian Cormac, which was long overdue.
I'd give the book 3.5 stars as the Jain theme is getting very repetitive, but since I can't, it gets 3 stars.
October 27, 2020
Was having a pretty good time with this book and the series until I apropos of nothing and with no internal reason found a paragraph in which Neil Asher used the terms "Negroidal Race" and "Negroid" which were considered antiquated and racist even before I was born. Even as someone who doesn't always agree with all the discussions about using certain language, this is way out of line for me. I will be returning the book and not read any more from this author, which is a shame, as his books are quite enjoyable for the most part. For shame.
August 24, 2010
Boss level! This series begs comparison to Banks, but I've already made one, so... book by book the scale is shifting towards the epic interstellar space opera end of the continuum, developing further near-omnipotent AI characters whilst wrapping up the merely human - usually by death. I'm starting to find some of the longer-running plot arc developments perplexing, with a feeling that some of the reveals are really retcons. Still a rollicking good read, though.
April 7, 2019
More adventures of Cormac, his Shuriken and the whole gang. Thorn, Mika, Scar and now a cast of AI characters too.
In this installment, we get a lot more AI ships who behave like people but are actually, ships.
We get to learn more about the mysterious Horace Blegg.
Dragon shows up for a while. Orladine and a few runcible AI are introduced.
There is a huge space battle.
And the book ends. Curious if book 5 will wrap the story up or just end like this one did.
In this installment, we get a lot more AI ships who behave like people but are actually, ships.
We get to learn more about the mysterious Horace Blegg.
Dragon shows up for a while. Orladine and a few runcible AI are introduced.
There is a huge space battle.
And the book ends. Curious if book 5 will wrap the story up or just end like this one did.
March 13, 2008
This book was certainly a page turner but in the end left a few too many things unresolved for my taste. As with many books in this genre it introduced as few things that border on philosophy. In this book since essentially anyone who wants to can effectively live forever, some people just get board and turn themselves off, and I thought that was interesting.
September 5, 2011
Another episode in the events of the Polity universe and the attack on it by the alien Jain technology and now rogue AIs.
A very enjoyable read as Ian Cormac discovers that he is more like Horace Blegg than he thought. With Skellor gone, Jain technology finds new allies and the rogue AI Erebus makes its presence known.
A very enjoyable read as Ian Cormac discovers that he is more like Horace Blegg than he thought. With Skellor gone, Jain technology finds new allies and the rogue AI Erebus makes its presence known.
August 25, 2015
Problema tårnar seg opp i Polity-universet, og Ian Cormac er midt oppi det.
Denne boka er både svært spennande og byr på forklaringar og oppnøsting av ein del lause trådar frå dei førre bøkene. Dessverre har boka òg litt vel mange lause trådar, og dei stor romkrigsscenene blir av og til for uoversiktlege.
Men huhei, for eit litterært prosjekt.
Denne boka er både svært spennande og byr på forklaringar og oppnøsting av ein del lause trådar frå dei førre bøkene. Dessverre har boka òg litt vel mange lause trådar, og dei stor romkrigsscenene blir av og til for uoversiktlege.
Men huhei, for eit litterært prosjekt.
May 31, 2022
The ‘ecosystem’ of the Polity series now fills out and many interesting questions arise. For example, why would AIs well beyond the mental capacity of humans hang around (humans)? I read SF to get you thinking about potential scenarios. This book is a great example. Only drawback were some inconsistencies in what could be done where.
February 5, 2020
Science fiction at its most futuristic and sweeping, yet totally lacking in heart. For all the complex characters, grand ideas and unstoppably momentous tectonic-plate plot clashes, listening to this was the aural equivalent of chewing through cardboard. Aborted at the two-fifths mark.
September 10, 2021
I am left again with what happens next?
The suspense is real, it’s good. I am eager to begin the next and final part of this series. In this particular book, I wonder if AIs are Humanity’s next step of evolution.
The suspense is real, it’s good. I am eager to begin the next and final part of this series. In this particular book, I wonder if AIs are Humanity’s next step of evolution.
Read
May 5, 2023cartea pare bună (nu foarte) dar după 80 de pagini am renunțat, pentru că nu înțeleg mare lucru. Explicația? În mod absolut misterios, Nemira a început seria Polity cu... nr.4. Așa că voi aștepta să apară cărțile 1-3...
September 1, 2023
Another awesome addition to this series . I want to live in the polity universe lol . Where are our A.I overlords ?
Reread.
Reread.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2020
Now this was truly a tour de force. Again this is one of those series that I have started reading from the middle but, momentary confusion aside, story flows without any obstacles in this action packed book and reader can connect the majority of dots.
Polity, future human civilization ruled by benevolent AIs (think of it as a variation on Banks' Culture, another great SF series) is under serious threat by mysterious alien technology that seems to be bestowed on specific personas in the universe by unknown forces, people placed at the very breaking points of Polity civilization. We witness huge armada and scientific effort from the Polity fighting this outbreak, trying to put it under control using almost everything at its disposal.
This is time of advanced humans, cyber implants and in some cases almost entire body replacements, high level of connection between people through grid-link system, AIs controlling small drones but also gargantuan spaceships fighting the alien menace, huge alien sentient machines, planets grind down by powerful weapons to the the very core. Same as with the people these AIs have very different characters, from analytical and cold to action prone, let-me-shoot-pleeeeeasseee combat drones fighting on the ground. It is interesting how AIs actually take themselves to be much more human at this point in time than humans themselves.
This is truly an epic story in which enemy is very smart, its technology so advanced that it borders with magic and in conflicts like these people (and AI) die, they fight bravely but unfortunately when fighting against this type of odds it is very hard to remain alive for long. Book ends with quite a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see how story develops in the next book in series.
Main characters (both protagonists and antagonists) are given very well (do note that it is not standalone book but part of the series so knowledge of previous events helps - a lot), their doubts and attempts to finally overcome (or come back to) what you might call "base humanity".
Excellent book, In my mind events from Richard K Morgan novels come first, then Asher novels continue to track the humanity's adventures culminating in Banks' Culture civilization, followed by breakdown portrayed in Puzzler series and finalizing in the Horus Heresy series of books (and any book set in pre-Imperial era).
Highly recommended to all fans of hard action-oriented SF (yup, rejoice this genre actually exists :))
Polity, future human civilization ruled by benevolent AIs (think of it as a variation on Banks' Culture, another great SF series) is under serious threat by mysterious alien technology that seems to be bestowed on specific personas in the universe by unknown forces, people placed at the very breaking points of Polity civilization. We witness huge armada and scientific effort from the Polity fighting this outbreak, trying to put it under control using almost everything at its disposal.
This is time of advanced humans, cyber implants and in some cases almost entire body replacements, high level of connection between people through grid-link system, AIs controlling small drones but also gargantuan spaceships fighting the alien menace, huge alien sentient machines, planets grind down by powerful weapons to the the very core. Same as with the people these AIs have very different characters, from analytical and cold to action prone, let-me-shoot-pleeeeeasseee combat drones fighting on the ground. It is interesting how AIs actually take themselves to be much more human at this point in time than humans themselves.
This is truly an epic story in which enemy is very smart, its technology so advanced that it borders with magic and in conflicts like these people (and AI) die, they fight bravely but unfortunately when fighting against this type of odds it is very hard to remain alive for long. Book ends with quite a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see how story develops in the next book in series.
Main characters (both protagonists and antagonists) are given very well (do note that it is not standalone book but part of the series so knowledge of previous events helps - a lot), their doubts and attempts to finally overcome (or come back to) what you might call "base humanity".
Excellent book, In my mind events from Richard K Morgan novels come first, then Asher novels continue to track the humanity's adventures culminating in Banks' Culture civilization, followed by breakdown portrayed in Puzzler series and finalizing in the Horus Heresy series of books (and any book set in pre-Imperial era).
Highly recommended to all fans of hard action-oriented SF (yup, rejoice this genre actually exists :))
March 29, 2024
I find it difficult to come to grips with this series, even though in a masochistic way, I am determined to get to the end of book 5. Part of the problem is that the putative main character, Ian Cormac, appears quite infrequently and only when riding to the rescue towards the end of the books, this included. I also find him an unsatisfactory character. We are told so little about him. Yes, we know he's an 'agent' of the Polity. What's his back story? Are there other such agents? Why does the Polity, in fact, need agents? By this book we know that it is the totality of the omniscient, all powerful AIs who nursemaud humanity through a sense of noblesse oblige - the phrase is, in fact, used by an AI in an earlier book. What is Cormac's role exactly. In the very first book, we meet him as he is finishing an undercover operation against a group of separatists, one of whom then chases him around the galaxy. Thereafter, he merely seems to be dropped into planets as a gofer for the AIs. Over the past 18 months or so, I've read a number of sci fi series by a number of authors. I have to say this is the least enjoyable, I hesitate to say the worst. I'm not sure whether to try anymore by this author or try to find another.
August 6, 2019
Op het einde dacht ik: oké, drie sterren, een van de mindere uit de Cormac-reeks. Maar toen moest ik nog beginnen aan de epiloog. Het werden alsnog vier sterren.
De vorige drie delen waren een min of meer afgerond geheel, dit boek gaat erop voort, maar moet noodzakelijkerwijze nieuwe antagonisten introduceren. Daardoor komt het verhaal pas halverwege het boek echt op gang, maar dan krijg je weer alles wat Neal Asher zo goed maakt: duizelingwekkende actie, coole dialogen, zotte thema’s, AI’s die zo sarcastisch zijn dat je ze wilt knuffelen, en die enorme scope waarmee woorden zich ontplooien tot hele sterrenstelsels. Telkens opnieuw bewijst Neal Asher dat SF-literatuur ook gewoon topentertainment kan zijn.
Het boek eindigt met een climax die tegelijk cliffhanger is (enfin, meerdere cliffhangers). Dus ik begin nu gewoon onmiddellijk aan het volgende deel.
De vorige drie delen waren een min of meer afgerond geheel, dit boek gaat erop voort, maar moet noodzakelijkerwijze nieuwe antagonisten introduceren. Daardoor komt het verhaal pas halverwege het boek echt op gang, maar dan krijg je weer alles wat Neal Asher zo goed maakt: duizelingwekkende actie, coole dialogen, zotte thema’s, AI’s die zo sarcastisch zijn dat je ze wilt knuffelen, en die enorme scope waarmee woorden zich ontplooien tot hele sterrenstelsels. Telkens opnieuw bewijst Neal Asher dat SF-literatuur ook gewoon topentertainment kan zijn.
Het boek eindigt met een climax die tegelijk cliffhanger is (enfin, meerdere cliffhangers). Dus ik begin nu gewoon onmiddellijk aan het volgende deel.
October 24, 2016
If you've read the other books in the series, this book takes it up a notch. The action is bigger, the twists and turns more fun, and the exploration of the Polity universe still engaging.
One caveat is that this book really doesn't focus on Agent Cormac as much as some of the others, so if that's what you came back for, you might be slightly disappointed (he's still there, just not on every page).
If anything, this fourth novel in the Agent Cormac series shows this universe has legs, and there can be plenty more written in it.
I won't call Neal Asher a successor to Iain M. Banks, as they were relative contemporaries, but Asher is definitely carrying on the tradition of "big" scifi in new and exciting ways.
One caveat is that this book really doesn't focus on Agent Cormac as much as some of the others, so if that's what you came back for, you might be slightly disappointed (he's still there, just not on every page).
If anything, this fourth novel in the Agent Cormac series shows this universe has legs, and there can be plenty more written in it.
I won't call Neal Asher a successor to Iain M. Banks, as they were relative contemporaries, but Asher is definitely carrying on the tradition of "big" scifi in new and exciting ways.
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