Book Review Time
Jun. 16th, 2005 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
Today's entry is called: The Skinner by Neal Asher. It's sci-fi adventure in the realms of Ian Banks or Larry Niven. I particularly recommend it to my Homeworld War Lexicographers.
There's a planet called Hoop, which is mostly ocean, and pretty much everything is out to consume everything else. At the top of the food chain are the giant leeches that rush in and take out chunks of your flesh. What they leave behind is a virus that helps you heal up quickly (so that the leeches can come back for more later). So the natives who manage to survive on Hoop live for a REAL long time.
Three people come to the islands and get caught up in a search for the ancient pirate who found Hoop and the alien warlord he dealt with.
I really don't want to give too much away, there's a lot of great material in here. From thousand-year-old humans, to sassy AIs, to conversations with the other intelligent life form on earth, it's all really good stuff. The plot moves swiftly, yet knows when to slow down and linger. I'm reminded a bit of The Face of the Waters by Robert Silverberg and some of The Scar, but I think this book finds it's own niche and does a pretty darn good job of it.
It loses points, of course, for not having zeppelins.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book and if you have any interst in the Sci-Fi genre, you should give it a look.
later
Tom
Today's entry is called: The Skinner by Neal Asher. It's sci-fi adventure in the realms of Ian Banks or Larry Niven. I particularly recommend it to my Homeworld War Lexicographers.
There's a planet called Hoop, which is mostly ocean, and pretty much everything is out to consume everything else. At the top of the food chain are the giant leeches that rush in and take out chunks of your flesh. What they leave behind is a virus that helps you heal up quickly (so that the leeches can come back for more later). So the natives who manage to survive on Hoop live for a REAL long time.
Three people come to the islands and get caught up in a search for the ancient pirate who found Hoop and the alien warlord he dealt with.
I really don't want to give too much away, there's a lot of great material in here. From thousand-year-old humans, to sassy AIs, to conversations with the other intelligent life form on earth, it's all really good stuff. The plot moves swiftly, yet knows when to slow down and linger. I'm reminded a bit of The Face of the Waters by Robert Silverberg and some of The Scar, but I think this book finds it's own niche and does a pretty darn good job of it.
It loses points, of course, for not having zeppelins.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book and if you have any interst in the Sci-Fi genre, you should give it a look.
later
Tom
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 12:09 pm (UTC)It's my favorite Asher novel. Gridlinked, his first novel, was pretty damn good too. The third one, Line of Polity, is a direct sequel to Gridlinked and basically the same plot. Good but nothing to rave about.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 02:26 pm (UTC)*openmouth*ponder*closemouth*
Explain, if you would, how you see any connection between the writings of these two gentlemen? I iz most confuzzed.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 03:18 pm (UTC)Um...ok, well, I'm thinking Ringworld here. Large, grandiose technical achievements being just another day-to-day thing. Niven's a bit older so his stuff isn't quite as off-the-wall as Banks gets.
Spatterjay, when dealing with Tech sits more firmly towards Banks, but it has a pretty upbeat ending so that shifts it back towards Niven.
Look, don't try to fathom my author linkage, just go read the book, it's a lot of fun.
Tom
no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 06:54 pm (UTC)OK, I'll take it under advisement. And I may even stop trying to figure out how your brain works. But not likely.
Skinner
Date: 2005-10-25 03:11 pm (UTC)Neal Asher
http://freespace.virgin.net/n.asher