The fifth Cormac novel, and a good one, too.

I have only read books 1 and 3 previously, not 2 and 4 yet.

Asher ups the ante in this one as a rogue AI named Erebus builds a war machine to attack the Polity.

At times you are watching with eyes-widening horrified fascination for what Doc Smith topping superweapon that he can come up with next.

A complicated plot, here, with many players, Cormac only being one.

Erebus and his fleet and allies.
Orlandine, an ex-ally.
Fiddler Randal - a computer virus modeled on a dead human, antagonistic to Erebus.
Mr. Crane, the Brass Man (with the AI vulture)
Jerusalem, a capital ship AI
The King Of Hearts, now back on the side of the Polity
Dragon, the strange entity, now transporting human expert on it, Mika

Finally, Cormac, and gung-ho war drone buddy Arach.

Everyone here is plotting in highly complex fashion, except for Cormac and Mika, who are trying to work out what the hell is going on, and save as many people in the Polity as they can.

You get references throughout to the Prador War as a backdrop (Prador's Moon, for one).

Cormac begins to smell a very big, very smart rat - and he just may have to team up with The Brass Man himself.

Definitely the best Asher book I have read so far, good, crazy, wide scale space opera in the style we have come to expect.

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