Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3404 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-04
• Binding: Hardcover
• 510 pages

SFX Magazine
'Asher is brilliant at conveying the vastness of space, the strangeness of alien life and the sweep of planetary horizons.'

Synopsis
The Polity is under attack from a 'melded' AI entity with control of the lethal Jain technology, yet the attack seems to have no coherence. When one of Erebus's wormships, kills millions on the world of Klurhammon, a high-tech agricultural world of no real tactical significance, agent Ian Cormac is sent to investigate, though he is secretly struggling to control a new ability no human being should possess ...and beginning to question the motives of his AI masters. Further attacks and seemingly indiscriminate slaughter ensue, but only serve to bring some of the most dangerous individuals in the Polity into the war.Mr Crane, the indefatigable brass killing machine sets out for vengeance, while Orlandine, a vastly-augmented haiman who herself controls Jain technology, seeks a weapon of appalling power and finds allies from an ancient war. Meanwhile Mika, scientist and Dragon expert, is again kidnapped by that unfathomable alien entity and dragged into the heart of things: to wake the makers of Jain technology from their five-million-year slumber. But Erebus's attacks are not so indiscriminate, after all, and could very well herald the end of the Polity itself.

Customer Reviews

A good pager turner but lacks the oomph factor of his other books.
If you are reading a review for this book, chances are you're a Neal Asher fan already. This is the 5th and supposedly final installment of the Ian Cormac series, so no persuasion to read it is needed. If not yet a fan, then a description of his writing for me is akin to a magic eye picture, in that his books are always interesting to start but not always very clear what they're all about. Then, suddenly concepts and stories, the brain did not think previously comprehensible, are thrust in to view. This is true of Line War but when it all becomes clear this book just slightly lacks that oomph factor of the other books. It pains me to give only 3 stars to an author of stratospheric dimensions, but, despite being a good page turner, for me Asher has not added anything extra to what has gone before. The Cormac books are all a bit bleaker and less humourous than the others, but even knowing this I did not root for the characters quite as much as I wanted. Gimme Sniper the War Drone over Knobbler any day. Brass Man was the zenith of the series in my opinion. For the uninitiated, read The Skinner and Voyage of the Sable Keech. They're the best sci-fi books I've ever read.

Just as good as its brothers and sisters
My fifth ASHER read and just as good quality as the last 4. A good read, well established story and a fitting conclusion to the series with a more solid ending than the others - will he be following on?

Very entertaining space opera
Asher has overtaken Iain Banks as my current favourite SF author- mainly because of the relative weakness of Bank's most recent output. This latest Cormac novel is a cracking good read - although there's nothing too stunning here in terms of new ideas to be perfectly honest. It's very much a continuation of what's gone before. Cormac is not so central to the narrative, and is probably not the most interesting character in the book either . In fact, I get the impression that the author perhaps feels the same way as some of the best passages feature the `supporting' cast. It's good space opera, not too challenging, but currently about the best thing out there.