Reminds me of the transformation of one of Iain M Banks´ characters infested with the Melding Plague and one of Alastair Reynolds´ grey goo scenarios. may arise out of an inner and outer plot mix of one or all of those technologies going haywire is always a pleasure to read. Seen and described, written on hundreds of pages of all popular Sci-Fi authors, the very detailed description of how assimilation, evolution, symbioses, parasitism, conflicts, etc.

My absolute favorite are my highly appreciated, close to beloved, elements of grey and green goo and alien technology. The mixture of settings integrates elements of horror, fantasy and a cyberpunk-dystopian-middle age world and contrasts it in clear detail, what is always the sense of such constellations, duh, and switches between hardcore primitive to high techie beyond all categories. I would call his work an amalgam of the epic world-building of Hamilton, Scalzi's wit and Banks´ innuendos without any, for some audiences, hard to digest Hard-Sci elements or lengths. It´s how the old ideas are carved to new forms, how they are mixed, combined and confronted with each other and how much is condensed in this amazing novel.Īnd the man is funny, probably just Banks, Scalzi, Hamilton, and some authors mix quick laughs with cool, pointy wit and badass comments and deeper humor, build on the perfectly constructed scenes, plotlines, confrontations, and dialogues. Asher is acceleration, getting better, faster and wittier and taking a place right next to the behemoths of Sci-Fi, especially space opera.

The Line of Polity by Neal Asher