Good to read about a different set of characters. Not quite as satisfying as previous book for some reason. Possibly it went on a bit in the middle. Possibly because just too much seemed to happen to McCrooger. ( )

I feel a bit let down by the end of this book - the first 90% was excellent with two different, modified, human stocks from the same ship but on different planets in the same solar system having been at war, but now at (uneasy) peace and in a tentative contact with the polity situation.

The cultures were interesting, and well drawn in and plausible, always good. The steps to make sure both were explored were well handled and didn't scream of plot device too loudly.

Finding a Hooper/Old Captain who has vulnerabilities was interesting. Even if it felt a little contrived, it added to the story from time to time.

But the end was... bleuh. All the tension got solved in double quick time with no obvious trigger, and was allowed to just dissipate in a most unsatisfactory fashion. Rather than a climax, or a denial of climax, it was all a damp squib at the end.

If it hadn't have ended this way, this might have got 5 stars, but the end really was that poor IMO. ( )

In something almost of a Culture-like situation, the Polity sends a human (of sorts) agent to try and establish diplomatic contact with a solar system riven by civil war, and two distinct variants of humanity modified to survive in their environments.

There's also an AI drone - whereas the Culture drones are smartarse snarky types who you might go to advice for for esoteric quantum physics, perhaps, Asher's Polity machines seem more like ones you could go to the pub with, if they needed to drink and weren't superintelligent compared to you, anyway. Tigger, the drone here, apart from admitting to being too slack to want to be a planetary AI, does some superhero dogooding around the place.

The Polity agent sent in is not of the Cormac variety, but rather a younger Old Captain from Spatterjay - someone transformed by a virus to be given longevity, and enhanced strength and regeneration abilities. So, also supermen, really, but this one has a serious illness.

He has to deal with four strangely enhanced genius quadruplets from one world, work out what is going on with a strange alien monster, and try and stop the interworld and intraworld tensions from evolving into devastating war. The title of the book comes from the name of some of the Sudorian main ships - the term meaning they have the firepower to remove geographical features.

A little more complex plotwise than some of the other Asher novels I have read, as you can see.

You still can't accuse Asher of arty writing, or being boring, which I am sure will continue to please his fans.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/03...

( )

Hilldiggers by Neal Asher is the latest addition to Asher's Polity books. This one is a relatively stand-alone one, as an Old Captain from Spatterjay (from some of Asher's previous books) is sent by one of the Polity AIs to handle First (re)Contact with a human civilisation on the Line, formed from a lost colony ship generations previously which had splintered into two and have just concluded a brutal war against each other. The complicating factor is the presence of an alien entity called the Worm which has been imprisoned by one of the two splinter colony societies, and has been subtly, and not so subtly, influencing events.
As with most of Asher's fiction, Hilldiggers bowls along happily with a tightly controlled narrative fleshed out with his usual mix of characters that hold your interest and random SF ideas thrown in for good measure. This suffers sightly from being a little pedestrian for him (the twin planet set up with one dry, hot and arid, and the other wet and green, verges somewhat on the simplistic Star Trek approach to planetary ecologies; and the major plot twists are all telegraphed well in advance), but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. My major gripe is that it's NOT the continuation of the main Polity story last seen in Polity Agent for which I'm still having to wait. Still, he writes quickly... ( )