Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

This is the discussion thread for the first book of the month, or group read, for September. Please remember to use the spoiler tags where necessary.

The other group read topic for this month (The Collapsing Empire) can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/....

I so much wanted to like this book. It is obvious that Neal Asher has a very rich imagination (this is my first book by him). I don't know what went wrong. Why I did not connect to it. I felt I was reading a first draft that needed much more work. The structure was off, the characters were underdeveloped and it could have been cut down by at least 100 paged. Somewhere along the way I just lost interest and by the time I finished it I did not even care for the answers to the big questions posed in the beginning.

There is a great story there somewhere but the book needs a lot of work or maybe it was not a good idea to enter this world through this book? Maybe I needed more knowledge of the world to appreciate the book?

Anyway, I do hope someone makes a film or TV series out of it. It is very visual and there are wonderful idea in the book. The problems with the structure and characters could be fixed in the script work.

I previously read Asher's Gridlinked and it was full of good ideas, interesting technological concepts, a mystery and a fascinatingly strange alien but its sub-plot where the hero deals with an interplanetary revolutionary organisation that read more like a mafia mob was disappointing.

I've only read the opening part of The Technician and like it so far so I guess we'll see how it goes. There is a reference to an event in Gridlinked in this opening section but it's not necessary to have read this novel beforehand.

Just wondering if anyone else is still reading this (apart from me). What do people think of Asher's style of writing? For example, his technique of using brief info-dumps in the form of excerpts from faux books/guides at the beginning of each chapter was used in Gridlinked also. Presumably, he uses this technique in all of his Polity novels.

He also moves backwards and forwards in time so that the narrative is a bit discontinuous but not in a way that is detrimental to the story IMO.

I had no problem with his style of writing. I actually think it is one of the best things about the book. How much do you have left?

Thorkell wrote: "I had no problem with his style of writing. I actually think it is one of the best things about the book. How much do you have left?"

Lots! I switched to another book I'm doing for a buddy read but will be back reading it tomorrow.

I'm approaching the half-way point of this novel. Is any one else still reading it?

I skipped this month's group read. I'm currently trying to tackle Ulysses instead, which hasn't been easy

David wrote: "I skipped this month's group read. I'm currently trying to tackle Ulysses instead, which hasn't been easy"

That's not one I've attempted yet. I'm guessing a knowledge of Greek myth and early twentieth-century Dublin would make the reading somewhat easier.

I feel your pain David. The last chapter is the best one, if that helps at all :)

Thanks, Thorkell and Greg :). With all the pages I've had to re-read just to figure out what's going on, I'll probably have read the book twice by the time I finish it.

David wrote: "Thanks, Thorkell and Greg :). With all the pages I've had to re-read just to figure out what's going on, I'll probably have read the book twice by the time I finish it."

:O You could also read it backwards... :P