- Paperback: 560 pages
- Publisher: Tor (21 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 033390365X
- ISBN-13: 978-0333903650
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 968,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac)
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Product Description
John Courtenay Grimwood in Guardian (Review), May 2003
This is undoubtedly Asher's best novel: a complex, multilayered story...
Product Description
Come visit a world where you cannot draw breath...should its horrifying wildlife allow you. 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, and also resolve the question of Masada, a world about to be subsumed as the Line of Polity is drawn across it. But the rogue biophysicist Skellor has not yet been captured, and he now controls something so potent that Polity AIs will hunt him down forever to prevent him using it. Meanwhile on 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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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!
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
16 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Asher's latest is a sequel to "Gridlinked" and has all the good and the bad qualities of the latter. It is an action-packed space opera romp. Asher excells at painting alien ecologies with horrifying creatures and never lets the pace of his novel slump below maximum overdrive. However, this manic pace does not do much good to the fleshing out of his main characters (Gant, Cormac, Thorn and Stanton) who are disturbingly similar (tougher-than-thou humans or post-humans, all excelling at various skills of war)and cardboardy shallow. This similarity amongst the main characters is so striking that it becomes confusing : keeping track of who did exactly what in the course of the story got me in trouble several times - but hey, I have never been any good at remembering names. Tough luck : Asher continues to bombard you with new names - and sometimes rather superfluous subplots - all through the novel. The fact that I read "Gridlinked" two years ago - it beats me why Asher first published "The Skinner", before coming up with this sequel - was not very helpful either : in order to enjoy this one you 'd better reread "Gridlinked", as the author often refers to events in that novel, without too much elaboration, so you are expected to have those events very fresh in your memory. I did not. The structure of the story, with its many intertwining subplots, rather lengthy description of war events on the planet Masada and then its pretty abrupt ending (a criticism that was also valid for "Gridlinked"), could have been better.
I don't want to be too harsh. Asher's imaginative universe is well worth exploring, his style is very entertaining and I'll keep buying whatever he hammers out. Of the three novels mentioned here, I personally enjoyed his second,"The Skinner", best. A fact that got my hopes for this one maybe a bit too high up.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I thought this was a Cormac Book.( Still great though )
What can I say as with all the Cormac/polity books by Neal Asher - Awesome .
the only thing I would say that I found a little off putting was the lack of the main character ,... Read more
the only thing I would say that I found a little off putting was the lack of the main character ,... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ian Cleggett ( Cleggsta).
Same old Asher routine, getting old but maturing, too
This is the fifth Asher novel I've read, after the two Spatterjay novels, Prador Moon and Gridlinked. Read more
Published 7 months ago by M-I-K-E 2theD
Good fun despite a little too much religion bashing
The Line of Polity is the second novel in Neal Asher's Cormac series, following on from events in Gridlinked. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mark Chitty
Line of Polity
Ashers Polity series is vivid and contemporary Sci Fi at the top of its game. Brilliant aliens, intelligent plotting and a great cast of good and not so sure good guys is makes... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Malcolm Roy Ash
Scifi to read before you die
If you love tech, monsters and aliens, ships the size of moons, weapons that can tickle or blow up an entire solar system then these are the books for you. Read more
Published 22 months ago by JRScrotes
The Line of Polity
I like to read at night to unwined and Neal Asher has got the ability to let me do just that,but also the story is gripping enough to make me want to read the whole night and miss... Read more
Published on 31 May 2010 by A. C. Kilbourne
A good read
Recently finished this after asking for a recommendation of a book I could get my teeth into. It met my main criteria; Science Fiction, author I had read before and enjoyed and... Read more
Published on 21 April 2010 by John Galt
Loved it
Everyone lese here will wax lyrical about the content; but as a fine read in the traditional Sci-Fi matter;
its very good, engaging entertaining, a good buy and read. Read more
its very good, engaging entertaining, a good buy and read. Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2010 by CjW
Line in the sand
For me this book is all about the world of Masada and the population of critters that inhabit this weird place. Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by Russell G. Pottinger
Grand space opera
Neil Asher's Ian Cormac in a grand space opera setting. Enjoyed this book, which is the second of five in the series (see[...] for the list). Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2009 by Dr. Stephen Culshaw
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