Monday, March 09, 2009

Shadow Reviews.












Lot’s of nice things being said out there about Shadow of the Scorpion. Here, in no particular order, is a sampling of some of the reviews I’ve come across:


Curled up with a Good Book

Shadow of the Scorpion is fast-paced, with plenty of action, as are Asher’s other scintillating Polity books. Whether you’re already a Polity and Neal Asher fan or are a newbie who enjoys well-written sci_fi, you’re sure to enjoy this fine, action-filled novel. I can hardly wait for the next forthcoming Polity novel, Orbus, to hit bookstores.


Walker of Worlds

As for the story itself, another winning combination of character development, aliens, action and political undertones. If you like Neal's other stuff then this is a novel you can't miss, but it's also an ideal step on point for those new to Neal's work. I thought this was one of Neal's best to date, and if this is any indication of what to expect from the next few novels, we're all in for a real treat.


Cool Shite on the Tube, Literature review

The roundup? A good, fast-moving, active SF yarn with some interesting ideas woven through it. Worth reading, and worth buying.


Mark Chitty at SFFworld

As for the story itself, another winning combination of character development, aliens, action and political undertones. If you like Neal's other stuff then this is a novel you can't miss, but it's also an ideal step on point for those new to Neal's work. I thought this was one of Neal's best to date, and if this is any indication of what to expect from the next few novels, we're all in for a real treat.


Vast Cool and Unsympathetic

Shadow of the Scorpion is well worth reading for any fan of Neal Asher, action stories, vivid far-future societies, or examinations of some of the questions raised by technologies to reshape the human mind. I think you’ll get more out of it if you’re already familiar with Ian Cormac and the Polity (Gridlinked would be the place to start there), but it is a self-contained story that stands well on its own. I highly recommend it, and I hope Nightshade continues to bring this sort of book to the U.S.


Book Calender

This novel is very dark. It asks a lot of philosophical questions. What divides humans from machines? How can we maintain our freedom and individuality in an artificial world? Combined with the philosophical questions are all out fast paced action sequences. The artificial intelligences come across as more human than humanity. I had a hard time putting this novel down.

Green Man Review

Of course, it's still Asher, so this mission still involves terrorists with anti-matter weapons capable of blowing away large chunks of planet, incredibly durable crab-like aliens capable of shrugging off a hit from heavy artillery, and more alien ecologies and far-future technologies than you can shake a stick at.

There's little praise I can lay on this that won't be recycled from previous Polity novel reviews. It's Asher; it's good. Recommended for anyone who's a fan of the series or of good hard science fiction in general.


4 comments:

james philip pratt said...

Neal, I read all of your Cormac and Spatterjay books I can find,
but not all of them are in the U.S. yet. 'The Line of Polity', 'Line War', and 'Orbus' aren't at my local bookseller, a high volume science fiction store in Minneapolis. I have urged the local library to order them, too.
Any news from Nightshade?

Jebel Krong said...

orbus isn't out yet, james.

neal, shadow of the scorpion is great and fully deserves all the plaudits, it's good to see your following growing with each successive novel! :D

Neal Asher said...

James, Tor US have published Gridlinked, The Skinner, Brass Man & Cowl only whilst Night Shade have done Prador Moon & Shadow of the Scorpion. Everything else, I'm afraid, has to come from Britain or via Amazon.com which sometimes runs out.

However this site http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ apparently does free world-wide delivery. I'd be interested to know anyone's experiences with it.

Thanks, Daniel.

Jebel Krong said...

james - amazon.com or amazon.co.uk usually have stock plus their postage rates aren't bad (and they are also very reliable). there doesn't seem to be any problem supplying printed materials transatlantically (and thankfully they can't region-lock books like they can films/games).