Here's another old-ish and previously published review, this time for The Skinner, the first book in the Spatterjay series (3 books so far) by Neal Asher; I found it to be fast paced, captivating, fascinating, and, in classic Neal Asher vein, slightly gory and OTT. Good stuff, then…
The book kicks off with Keech, Janer, and Erin arriving on Splatterjay, named after its most (in)famous founder/settler/criminal’s nickname (Jay ‘Spatterjay’ Hooper), although the name is also the defining characteristic for the planet’s rather unusual and violent biology.
The three protagonists are not your standard fare, either… Keech is (was?) an ECS (Earth Central Security) Monitor, hunting Hooper and his former gang of slave traders for the last 700+ years – and heading for some surprises on Splatterjay. Problem is – he is dead. Has been for a good part of these 700 years, which he spent as a Reif, a re-animated corpse, partially biological (the bits that survived his assassination), and partially machine. Janer is carrying two Hornets, as he’s in the pay of a Hornet Hive Mind, after being indentured to the Hive Mind for two years as punishment for killing a Hornet.
Erin is the only one not new to Splatterjay. She’s been here, she is a ‘Hooper’ (ie carrying the virus that theoretically can make you immortal), she was here when the skinner was beheaded (but not killed… body and head now live independently. Told you the fauna was unusual…), and she has some unfinished business with Ambel, one of the old captains.
This story is part of the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 3 (cover image on the right), and appears to be a take on Steampunk from a pre-industrialization point in time; ie we're looking at a mix of legent/myth and steampunk.
It look interesting - don't wait for me to read it (although I will) and write about (because I most likelty won't), but go ahead and have a look yourself, and if you like the story, consider to obtain the whole anthology
The White Rajah is Tom William's first published Novel. And in contrast to the book of the same name by Nigel Barley this is NOT the story of James Brooke, known as the White Rajah, but, as the only internally displayed subtitle (Being a true and honest account of my life with James Brooke of Sarawak by John Williamson) indicates it is an account, nearly a confessional, purportedly written by John Williamson, one of Brooke's sailors and his main translator (and, later, lover – no, the blurb gives this away, so I don't think that's much of a spoiler...). It is available from the publisher directly, or from Amazon (links below). Londoners can also acquire it from Foyles, no idea if any other bookshops stock it, too.
The story tells how John Williamson first met James Brooke in England, and hired on his first ship to head out East, where he stays at the end of the expedition. They meet again when Brooke returns with his 2nd ship, and Williamson joins him again for his trip to Borneo, to the (to James Brooke) fabled Sultan of Brunei. When Brooke helps him put down a rebellion in one part of his huge island he is given, in return, Sarawak to rule as his own. So the country now has its indigenous population (Dyaks), a ruling class (Malays), foreign traders (Chinese), and now also an English ruler – racial tensions and prejudices are programmed into the set-up from the word go. And so, after the initial adventures and victory they now get caught up in day-to-day business of ruling a country, of administration, taxing, and petty court politics and plotting.
Prador Moon, the first book inNeal Asher's Polity sequence, is exploring some of the history predating The Skinner and the rest of the Spatterjay novels. It is a fast and furious 1st contact novel, Asher Style, i.e. with lots of blood, gore, guts, and action. Not his finest or most sophisticated work, but a quick and entertaining read.
It has to be said that this is a novel that starts as it means to go on – humanity, and the all-powerful artificial intelligences who rule the whole of human space, together known as ‘the Polity’, have encountered an intelligent, space-faring race, for the very first time after a long phase of expansion with nothing more than a few separatists causing trouble. We pick up the story as the human Ambassador welcomes the representatives from the Prador Second Kingdom to Avalon Station. On page 9 Jebel Krong, in charge of security for this encounter, muses (whilst being dragged out of the reception chamber, one arm short of the full complement): Right, thought Jebel, big hostile Aliens with a taste for human flesh. It was the kind of scenario that would have been laughed out of the door by a modern holofiction producer. Jebel could not have been less amused.
Learning the World is Ken MacLeod doing First Contact – and doing it well, and in an interesting and thought-proviking way. Learning the World is also the title of the Biolog (should translate easily enough) of one Atomic Discourse Gale, of the 10th Ship Generation of the Sunliner But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!, which is approaching its target for colonization, their ‘Destiny Star’. They have been travelling for nearly 400 years, and are now raising and training the generation which will colonize, build habitats, mine and connect the planets and asteroids, and fill the ship with fuel and the next founder generation to move on to the next system in the ever-expanding human sphere.
Things don’t go as planned, though, as for the very first time in human history the system they find is populated by intelligent beings. They call themselves humans (we are the aliens, of course, from their point of view), look bat-like (this is our comparison, we look like flightless, stunted creatures to them), and are at an early industrial stage of their development.
It’s Michael Moorcock, Captain, but not as we know him! Here are a few words, written quite a while ago, on the topic of London Bone, a collection of short stories and novellas by Michael Moorcock; a book utterly devoid of any Space Opera, and with no Sword’n’Sorcery anywhere to be found…
OK, firstly – yes, this is THE Michael Moorcock of Jerry Cornelius, Elric of Melnibone/Eternal Champion etc fame (he’s got nearly 100 books to his name meanwhile!), and no, this is NOT Fantasy or SF or Swords’n’Sorcery… instead we’re looking at a fabulous collection of short speculative fiction (for lack of a better term) stories and novellas written over a longer time frame, some of them already published in magazines or other collections before.
The stories cover a wide range of topics, from the classic ‘London Bone’, a haunting tale of the trade in bones from black death mass graves; through the story of the ‘Clapham Antichrist’ and a hidden square in SW London; to a story of an Archaeological dig in Egypt which is visited by Aliens that look a lot like the pictures of less human-like Egyptian Gods the old Egyptians left behind.
The White Raja
Prador Moon
Learning the World
