The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac) [Paperback]

This is undoubtedly Asher's best novel: a complex, multilayered story... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Full-scale action SF by one of Britain's most popular new writers.

Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ... and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.

Born and still living in Essex, Neal Asher started writing SF at the age of sixteen. Since then he has had numerous stories published in magazines and book form, including Runcible Tales, Mindgames: Fool's Mate, The Parasite, The Enginee, Gridlinked and The Skinner.