A return to the water-bound world of Spatterjay, teeming with bizarre characters and gruesome monsters
The Voyage of the Sable Keech (Spatterjay)
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'As well as...narrative energy, another of Asher's strengths lies in his world-creation...his detailed imagining of a demented ecology...' -- Interzone
'What's most striking about The Voyage of the Sable Keech is its sense of supreme story-telling confidence' -- Interzone
'a thrilling page-turner, but...also an unsettling reinvention of an already monstrous world...and a hell of a lot of fun.' -- Interzone
'What's most striking about The Voyage of the Sable Keech is its sense of supreme story-telling confidence' -- Interzone
'a thrilling page-turner, but...also an unsettling reinvention of an already monstrous world...and a hell of a lot of fun.' -- Interzone
Book Description
Sable Keech is a walking dead man, and the only one to have been resurrected by nanochanger. Did he succeed because he was infected by the Spatterjay virus, or because he came late to resurrection in a tank of seawater? Tracing the man's last-known seaborne journey, Taylor Bloc wants to know the truth. He also wants so much else – adulation, power, control – and will go to any lengths to achieve them. An ancient hive mind, almost incomprehensible to the human race, has sent an agent to this uncertain world. Does it simply want to obtain the poison 'sprine' that is crucial to immortality – and, if so, maybe Janer must find it and stop it. Meanwhile, still faced with the ennui of immortality, Erlin has her solitude rudely interrupted by a very angry whelkus titanicus, and begins the strangest of journeys. Deep in the ocean the Spatterjay virus has wrought a terrible change that will affect them all. Something dormant for ten years is breaking free, and once again the aftershocks of an ancient war will focus on this watery world. And Sniper, for ten years the Warden of Spatterjay, finally takes delivery of his new drone shell. It's much better than his old one: powerful engines, more lethal weapons, thicker armour. He's going to need them.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Following on from The Skinner and an off-shoot of Asher's 'Ian Cormac/Polity' series we are returned to the world of Spatterjay, where life on the planet is insanely vicious due to the regenerative effects of a common virus which gives those infected a massively increased resistance to pain and damage.
The Sable Keech of the title is a boat built for 'Reifications'. These 'Reifs' are people who have been killed but their bodies and minds held together by technology. The name of the boat refers to the only reification who ever successfully 'rose from the dead' through a combination of the Spatterjay virus and nanotechnology and whose re-animation has inspired a cult to follow in his footsteps.
Nothing is quite as it seems however: the WindCatchers getting 'auged' and waking up to the possibilities of their world, the re-appearance of a Prador adult, the robot drone Sniper getting his new (and fully militarised) drone body after 10 years as the planets AI warden and a coup amongst the Reifs and, of course the normal everyday issues of trying to survive on a planet where pretty much everything is lethal.
Neal Asher is one of the few British sci-fi writers that can be mentioned in the same name as Iain M Banks. He has a fluid writing style with a great sense of plot timing that makes for a gripping and exciting story set in an entirely believable possible future. If I have any issues with this book, it's the authors tendency to rely a little too much on the lifeforms of Spatterjay and other Polity planets at the expense of the developments of the main characters but that is really a minor gripe compared to the excellence of the book.
You will enjoy this book more if you have read the previous book [...], but this book is certainly good enough to stand on it's own. A definite 5 stars.
The Sable Keech of the title is a boat built for 'Reifications'. These 'Reifs' are people who have been killed but their bodies and minds held together by technology. The name of the boat refers to the only reification who ever successfully 'rose from the dead' through a combination of the Spatterjay virus and nanotechnology and whose re-animation has inspired a cult to follow in his footsteps.
Nothing is quite as it seems however: the WindCatchers getting 'auged' and waking up to the possibilities of their world, the re-appearance of a Prador adult, the robot drone Sniper getting his new (and fully militarised) drone body after 10 years as the planets AI warden and a coup amongst the Reifs and, of course the normal everyday issues of trying to survive on a planet where pretty much everything is lethal.
Neal Asher is one of the few British sci-fi writers that can be mentioned in the same name as Iain M Banks. He has a fluid writing style with a great sense of plot timing that makes for a gripping and exciting story set in an entirely believable possible future. If I have any issues with this book, it's the authors tendency to rely a little too much on the lifeforms of Spatterjay and other Polity planets at the expense of the developments of the main characters but that is really a minor gripe compared to the excellence of the book.
You will enjoy this book more if you have read the previous book [...], but this book is certainly good enough to stand on it's own. A definite 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Ettrick 8
Format:Paperback
I am a big fan of Neil Asher's work but 'Sable Keech' is the poorest book he has written. Like other reviewers I think the book rehashs the ideas from the The Skinner and the characters just aren't fleshed out.
The book is only for the serious fan and should be avoided by any new reader to Mr Asher's work, who should start with Gridlinked, The Skinner or Cowl
The book is only for the serious fan and should be avoided by any new reader to Mr Asher's work, who should start with Gridlinked, The Skinner or Cowl
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I can't quite lay my finger on what exactly makes Mr. Asher's stuff flow so smoothly, or how he seems to create such a fantastic futuristic but dead real seeming world.
Voyage, despite my promises to read it slowly, is one of those books that just swiftly changes your priorities for you. Neal has mastered the art of switching focus between plots and sub-plots, main characters and minor to such a degree, that he switches plots at the exact right moment to hold up momentum for the plot being switched from and cleanly into the next.
it's art.
voyage comes as a follow up to the classic "the skinner" which i suggest you read first, though, he does a brilliant job of making the book stand on it's on, with just the right amount of back story.
the world is Spatterjay, where a virus left to it's own devices for untold time, has produced immortality in it's hosts.
combine this with a dark past with human slave trade with an alien race known as Prador, and mysterious Hive minds jockeying for possession of Sprine, the one substance known to kill the Spatterjay virus, and it's host, and it virtual chaos, as a ship full of "reifs" attempt to re-create the voyage of Sable Keech, the own known reif to successfully come back from the dead.
seems like this would be to busy of a storyline, but asher weaves it together in a style i personally have grown to love.
five stars isn't enough.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wierd
Dont know what goes on in Mr Asher's head but if you like hard core SF plus great writing this is for you.
Published 1 month ago by James Edwards
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent premise, well told
I thoroughly enjoy this whole world that Asher has created. Great characters and an amazing habitat brought to vivid, dangerous life.
Published 2 months ago by Timraven
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Voyage of the Sable Keech (Spatterjay 2)
The Voyage of the Sable Keech (Spatterjay 2)
ordered to complete series, reasonably involving and entertaining, maybe a little difficult to initially become absorbed.
ordered to complete series, reasonably involving and entertaining, maybe a little difficult to initially become absorbed.
Published 2 months ago by user
3.0 out of 5 stars
dull
Maybe me and this book got off on the wrong foot a little, I mean by the time I got to reading it I had read the third spatterjay novel Orbus (highly underrated) and this meant... Read more
Published 9 months ago by action sci-fi
4.0 out of 5 stars
Slow start, fast finish
This sequel to Asher's The Skinner took, I thought, a while longer to get going than it's predecessor - but it was worth the wait. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Steve D
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exhalirating!
A very good read, I enjoy the drones and the stange form life of this planet, the emotions and the whole story. If you like SF this is the kind of author to read!
Published 15 months ago by gersariel
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not enough of my favourite characters from the first book.
Ten years ago Sable Keech was one of the walking dead. A reification; a walking corpse with high tech embalming fluid running through his veins, animated by servo motors at his... Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. Horrigan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic follow on to 'The Skinner'
Having read all of the Neil Asher's Ian Cormac series. I was happy to find that the Spatterjay series (of which this book belongs) was even better. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2010 by Tim Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Weird concepts, but I liked it
This book has some of the weirdest alien concepts yet - but is very readable, enjoyable and I want the next book -its that good. Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2009 by CjW
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, but not gripping
This is not a bad book, but it is not an especially good one either. Asher has written some outstanding stuff, but I'm afraid that The Voyage just doesn't stand up to The Skinner... Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2008 by Dancer
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