heading towards a new age?

love Asher. started with The Skinner, and I was hooked. loved this one too, but scary as thinking about near future.

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1 person found this helpful

Flawed but interesting

Not sure if it was the writing or the narrator that lent most of the female characters such a pathetic status in this book, maybe it was a bit of both. But I must ask the narrator alone why almost every male character was in need of a throat lozenge or two, and why the main antagonist had to sound so ridiculous. Having said that, the story hooked me enough to purchase part 2, and I'm hoping both these complaints feature less.

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It's not easy being green ...

Neal Asher draws his ‘Owner’ universe from the darkest, most fevered Eurogeddon nightmares that haunt the most paranoid of UKIP's members, and he finds his characters and their dialogue in the Daily Mail’s Letters pages. As a Science Fiction author, he is to the Libertarian Right what Iain M. Banks was to the Left, and uses his politics to fuel his image of our destiny, but whereas Banks wrote with wit and mischief, Asher writes in blood and brutality. There’s nothing subtle here, and his cynicism (of the State as well as its citizens) saturates the story almost to the point of dystopian satire, except that you know that he means it and that the future he portrays is very plausible - in his mind, at least. But, though my own politics lay way, way to the left of his, I love his novels; from the visceral set-piece battles, to the wonderfully imagined creatures and technologies he brings to life, I can't help but race through his books, and as soon as I've finished listening to this I'll be getting stuck into part two. And the narrator is just brilliant too.

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10 people found this helpful

Excellent trilogy of quality writing and narration

I have just finished the whole trilogy in about 10 days. It's been a while since I had a story as well written and as well narrated as this was. And having said that, I'm not going to pick holes in either as some reviewers do. I just enjoyed the concept, the continuity, the characters and the excellent narration. Best sifi writing I have experienced in a long time. Thanks.

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9 people found this helpful

Fun sci-fi romp

This is no classic but its a fun book to listen too. Given the number of books the author has written, it's better quality than I thought it would be. The weakest part are the action scenes - they're ok but a bit cliched and unconvincing, eg people don't fly backwards when hit with a bullet.

The narration is generally good but the narrator lacks a good range of voices so people sound a bit samey.

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4 people found this helpful

Very Good Scifi!

I'm always on the look out for excellent scifi and was very pleased with this one. Good concepts, characters and plot progression. Will be purchasing rest of series.

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3 people found this helpful

QUITE GOOD

A bit technical in places with its desciptions. Fascinating insight on a possible future world.

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1 person found this helpful

Too much gore, hero a bit Mary Sue. Naive understanding of power.

Too much gore, hero becomes too Demi godlike.

Still worth listening to.

The idea of an experimental implant is the best part of the story. Needed more drawbacks (see limitless). "The owner" sums up the failure of ego dominance. Even the worst dictators hide behind being public "servants". Could have just called himself "the master". The book fals to transcend the nietzchian master slave relationship. It also fails to understand why administrators rise to power. Logistics and planning. The weaponisation of boredom in meetings. Disturbing subtext of the benevolent dictator. Captains may run a ship but the take orders from democratic leaders. Fails to grasp the need for checks and balances on power. Still worth listening to IMHO

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1 person found this helpful

Super scary near future history storyline...

Given the state of the world and its descent into right wing populism where the people are actually voting for politicians that continuously do them harm, this trilogy is quite remarkable.

Although the following is a Second World War poem, and the book is about Socialist dictators, this might be very relevant

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

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Action packed, but little else

I’m a fan of Neal Asher’s other works, but this one was too heavy on the action and too light on character and story for my taste. Some fantastic story ideas that were only lightly touched on, but loads of graphic descriptions of violence.

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