The Line of Polity (Agent Cormac 2) [Paperback]

This is the fifth Asher novel I've read, after the two Spatterjay novels, Prador Moon and Gridlinked. When spaced apart, the novels are a fun read as they typically include wry wit and gruesome battles. The Spatterjay novels also added detailed yet horrific planetary creature, a similar system which Asher employs in Line of Polity: wit, battles and fauna. But after reading the previous novels, the entire system is getting a bit repetitive with the endless battle scenes and homicidal native animals. Line of Polity doesn't stray far at all from Asher's signature plot and is actually quite evident towards the final 20% of the book when there are battles after endless battles all adding very little to the plot itself. A simplification would have been much appreciated to cut down on the amount of superfluous scenes. Asher is the type of battle writer who uses "a short-stock grenade-launcher for more intimate work."

The planet of Masada is where a good chunk of the book takes place, a place "you cannot draw a breath... even if its horrifying wildlife would let you." That's from the back cover of the novel... that's it, meaning not much info to go by before you buy the novel in the bookstore. A better, in book, quote about Masada is a place where "choices are limited to two - fight or die - and they are not mutually exclusive."

One more downside of the book is the villain Skellor. His name reminds me of Skeletor from the fames of He-man, Master of the Universe. Therefore, the name Skellor feels cheesy, as if it was ripped off from He-man. His presence in the novel is straight from the get-go and makes appearances all the way until the end, but what's seriously lacking is Skellor's motivation for being the villain rather than being part of the Polity.

The Polity doesn't play as big of a role in Line of Polity as it did in Gridlinked. There isn't a focus on augmentations or runcibles as it typically found in Polity society. The entire novel takes place on two distant planets and outer space. It lends little the structure of the Polity society but makes up for it by adding to the mystery surrounding the Dragon, which ended in Gridlinked. An apt foreshadowing quote would be, "That was Dragon. And my guess is that things are just about to start getting very complicated - and very deadly."

I'm interested to see how Asher will progress with the Cormac series, whether in the direction of wit and gore, a focus on Polity society or a concentration on the Dragon. The third novel in the series should answer this question- Brass Man.

Its nice to see a modern day sci fi author doing something different, Richard Morgan, William Gibson and Neal Asher all have managed to bring genres together.

In The Line of Polity Asher builds a mixture of a futuristic spy thriller with an awesome imagination and charecterisation.

Ian Cormac, Earth Central Security is in pursuit of his old foe Dragon a confusing malicious intergalactic being. However as ever Cormac picks up a series of enemies who in typical elite spy style are almost beneath his notice. With the witty Gant and a team of powerful individuals the action is non stop.

But wait, theres a story here as well, a story that is very well told. The story of a rebellion against a Theocracy, a tale of a young girl seeking freedom from her environment and a young man coming to terms with a completely new world.

Sound a bit musshy for yah? Don't worry theres still plenty of gun fights, shuruken based decapitations and raging scifi to keep the biggest scifi nut happy.

Damn fine show!

Having just put down this book - and instantly lent it to someone else to enjoy - I have to say that it is an excellent, miss your stop on the tube, read.

If you like Peter Hamilton (and I read this back to back with Pandoro's box which was a mistake cos there is some conceptual overlap between the two) then you will deffo like this.

Its space opera on a grand scale with lots of real believable human (and plenty not so human) characters, hideous monsters and super duper gadgets. The plot is 007-esque with not a dull moment and the various plot strands tie in well to a satisfying crescendo.

It IS worth reading Gridlinked (its prequel) before this, as although Ascher does sufficient back tracking in the text of this to allow a 'cold' reader to keep up, I would think that you would miss large amounts of sub-text otherwise. Luckily that's good news for you, cos Gridlinked is equally excellent.

The bottom line? Dont delay, get it today.