The Line of Polity

I greatly enjoyed the first of Neal Asher's “Ian Cormac” books, and this, the second, is, if anything, an improvement. Cormac himself doesn't feature quite so much in this one, although he's still a major presence. But we also have a wider cast of supporting characters getting their moment in the spotlight in a plot concerning a religious dictatorship and a madman with access to planet-destroying technology. It's more explicitly military than the first novel, and manages to explore some different aspects of the universe in which it is set, with more focus here on the situation outside the Polity. There's also a sub-plot that follows on directly from the action of the first novel, but which still leaves that open for further development.

There's a good cast of varied characters, and an imaginative description of an alien and deadly planetary ecology. The action rarely lets up, and the story has more strands to it than the previous offering.

There is a certain ineffable quality to Neal Asher's books. They are first and formost high tech, far future adventure stories. The rare scenes of an idyllic worldscape are usually shattered in moments by explosions, nanomanipulating alien technology, or the occasional AI trying to make the world a safer place. Line of Polity carries that burden well. Following shortly after the events of Gridlinked, Line of Polity continues to follow Ian Cormac, along with a small cast of characters working with and against him. Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed in a way that hints at Dragon, and if anyone is going to go after something related to the moonsized alien, it's Ian Cormac. Asher writes an action packed story well, and this book is no exception. There is a point about 3/4 of the way through that the action began to feel repetitive, but the last 1/4 of the book elevates the crescendo - and the stakes - bringing the book to a most satisfactory conclusion (read: couldn't put the book down for the last 100 pages, really dissapointed it was over).

Beware the gabbleduck, friends.