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The Line of Polity
 
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The Line of Polity (Paperback)

by Neal Asher (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Tor (21 Mar 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 033390365X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0333903650
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 662,606 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, 13 Dec 2003
By C. Woodhead "cwoodhead" (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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!

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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Peter Hamilton's Competition, 22 May 2004
This review is from: The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac) (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.

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Asher's universe continues to mesmerize, but..., 14 Jun 2003
By Danny De Raymaeker (Leuven Belgium) - See all my reviews
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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 24 days ago by Russell G. Pottinger

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand space opera
Neil Asher's Ian Cormac in a grand space opera setting. Enjoyed the book, have now finished the whole saga of Ian Cormac and I'm glad I did. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dr. Stephen Culshaw

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting better and better
I read Gridlinked on a recommendation from a Banks fan. To be honest it didn't live up to expectations, but showed promise for sure: entertaining and a nice mix of AI/human... Read more
Published 4 months ago by HollowSpy

2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of violence does not make for a good plot or a good read
This is the third Neal Asher book I've read but is easily the worst (previously I've read Gridlinked and then The Skinner). Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr Bloke

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Space Opera
This one really shows how far Asher has come since writing Gridlinked. The characters are better rounded, the writing itself is better, and Asher's got plenty of new ideas and... Read more
Published 14 months ago by just another customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Cracking Read
New ideas and characters with some of the good old ones from Gridlinked.
Gabbleducks are not quite as comical as the name suggests and again a very good read. Read more
Published 18 months ago by R. Kershaw

4.0 out of 5 stars The Line of Polity
Ian Cormac, the Polity Agent of the prequel "Gridlinked", didn't really strike me as a character you'd revisit for a sequel. Read more
Published 20 months ago by David Brookes

2.0 out of 5 stars Gridlinked it is not.
Gridlinked was a stunning book. The pace and the storyline were top class science fiction. Line of Polity has Ian Cormac back again but this time it is boring. Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2007 by Mr. R. D. Turner

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
With the Polity series - Gridlinked, The Line of Polity and Brass Man, Neal Asher has created a compelling and believable vision of a future society. Read more
Published on 11 May 2006 by Martin Anderson

3.0 out of 5 stars Pop - SciFi
I just finished this book the other day, and I did enjoy it. But I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoyed a cheap action flick: all flash and no depth. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2006 by Phil Tee

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