Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A SF book that isn't a sequel? I might have to sit down!, 20 Jun 2004
This review is from: Cowl (Hardcover)
At just over 400 pages, Cowl certainly deserved credit for being a sleek, self-contained little book, that doesn't commit you to buying another endless series of novels just to find out what happened. The book never outstays its welcome, the pace is brisk and nothing seems extraneous. The plot, hackneyed though it might be, has enough polish to feel fresh and comes with enough new ideas to persuade you that Cowl is original. Asher has sat down, come up with a series of fabulous SF ideas (biological time machines anyone?), thought up two lead characters that you care about - and yes, might even like and then put them up against a truly diabolical baddie. It sounds simple - but so many books don't get these basics right. Enjoy the rollicking good pace, the superb action and the novel characterisations - Cowl is a fine book that stands apart on shelves filled with derivative bloated monstrosities.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like a space opera but through time instead, 18 Jan 2006
By A Customer
The book progresses at a good pace and the time travel aspect is handled well. By using the time travel to expand the scope, the book reads like a space opera - instead of fighting a war across the universe, the war is fought across time. The two central characters are likable and I was genuinely intrigued to see how it would end.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who needs Ian Cormac?, 22 Mar 2007
Asher takes a slightly welcome break from the Polity and gosh.
Draawing on some of his earlier short stories he takes an alternitive view of humanities future, this time with eugenic ssuper-humans in charge instead of Benevoloant A.I (HAH!) Alot of its setting of it rings true with the modern world, increasingly toltalitarin centeral government, endless taxes, and over reliance on things that aren't really that good for us, and where this may end up.
The characters are abcolutly fantasttic, who needs a super villian when you have Cowl or the Umbrathane who seem to live by a hybrid of Spatan, Dawrinist and Macivellian ideals. There are no good guys, they are all shades of grey, and thats what makes Asher's work so compelling, his characters have depth, they may do good, but that doesn't mean that they are nice people.
This is a great book, so why the 4 stars, well because there isn't a four and a half option, and this nearly scrapes a five but isn't quite there. The ending feels a little bit too rushed but this does leave room for a sequal.
I too just want to see dinosaurs.
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