The Skinner (Paperback)

The seas teem with hungry monstrosities, but Spatterjay holds immortality. When its giant leeches bite out gobs of flesh, they transmit a virus that forces regrowth, preserving the leech food supply. Some human colonists, the Old Captains, have lived many centuries. But beware of going native, like the legendary, repulsive Skinner whose undying head is now confined to a box...

Other locals include the worried AI Warden who polices Spatterjay, and the old, unruly war drone Sniper--as engagingly sassy as anything from Iain M Banks. Tourists arrive: a woman returning to ask whether her viral immortality was worth it, a human agent of hive-mind intelligence discovered among Earth's hornets, and a man 700 years dead but (thanks to preservatives and cyborg implants) still avenging the atrocities of Spatterjay's founding fathers in an even older war.

That ancient conflict involved the alien Prador, whose own war criminals fear the long memories preserved on Spatterjay, and are taking measures. Illicit intruders lurk, including an immortal sadistic psychopath and a submerged spaceship loaded with continent-busters.

Asher cuts deftly between strands of fast-moving narrative, laced with action, biological inventiveness, grotesque horror, and glints of humour. When Sniper the battle-happy drone gets swallowed by a giant "molly carp"--a protected species--he must wait in disgusted frustration for (ahem) natural processes to release him.

Multiple climaxes of combat, death, justice, sacrifice, and vindication lead to some nicely sneaky or witty reversals. This is an enjoyable, unpretentious, neatly crafted SF adventure. --David Langford

Review
Neal Asher won many readers over with Gridlinked, a truly intoxicating slice of cyber-punk science fiction in which the ideas fizz like fireworks, and this follow-up is equally exciting. Three travellers arrive on the planet Spatterjay. Janer is bringing the eyes of the Hornet Hive Mind, although it is not yet clear to him what his mission might be; Erlin is looking for the elderly sea captain who, she believes, can teach her how to live; and Sable Keech is locked into a vendetta which he has no intention of abandoning - even though he himself has been dead for 700 years. The remote world on which they land is almost entirely covered by ocean, with all but a very few human visitors enjoying safety inside the island's Dome. Only the natives risk the appalling dangers outside. In this remarkable environment, Asher brilliantly interweaves the destinies of his very disparate characters, and the result is a piece of phantasmagoric science fiction that few aficionados will want to miss. A particular achievement is the astutely judged balance between the imperatives of the plot and the necessity of creating a fully imagined world, with all its attendant strangeness. Sterling stuff. (Kirkus UK)

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