Skinner Book

A 700 year old ECS agent who happens to be a resurrected corpse…
A "perpetual" tourist working for the Hornet Hive Mind…
A Planet so dangerous that it can give wedgies to Harry Harrison's Deathworld…
A virus that grants virtual immortality and indestructibility…
A centuries old AI war drone with an attitude and "authority" issues…
An ancient enemy of humanity looking to start smack and raise a ruckus…
A psychotic, sadistic bitcharoony with a serious case of the crankies.
Oh…and...THE SKINNER!!

Welcome to SPATTERJAY folks.


Neal Asher's "polity" novels are a MUCHO more violent, action-based and less cerebral version of Iain Banks "Culture" novels (which I also love). While not as polished or well-written as the Culture novels, Asher's books are still plenty prosey and usually rate higher for me on the "Ahhh" enjoyment level. Before I plot summarize, here is a brief background of "The Polity" for those that have never experience Asher.

THE POLITY

The Polity is an AI-controlled/governed confederation headquartered on Earth (not sure if AIocracy is an accepted term, but that's what I would call it). The Polity is a post-scarcity society where technology has made life's essentials available to everyone. Travel between worlds in the Polity is instantaneous via large teleportation devices called "runcibles" which are the lynchpin to connecting the Polity worlds.

So I don't have to say this numerous times throughout the review, let me quickly say that the parallels between the framework of the Polity and the Culture is very similar with two primary exceptions. First, the Polity seems to be at a much earlier stage of development than the Culture and is still going through growing pains (e.g., there are terrorist separatist groups within Polity worlds that seek to disconnect worlds from Polity control, usually by taking out the afore-mentioned runcibles). Second, Banks and Asher appear to come at their AI-ocracies from two different mind-sets, likely based on their divergent political viewpoints. Thus, where Banks sees the Culture as the ideal form of political evolution with most strife coming from outside the Culture, Asher depicts the Polity as having significantly more warts.

Anyway, because of the general level of contentment inside the Polity, most of the stories take place either outside of Polity space or on Line worlds (i.e., planets bordering Polity space that are not yet fully part of the Polity). The Polity AI deals with these worlds/situations primarily through the ECS (Earth Central Security) made up of mostly human agents.

PLOT SUMMARY

Spatterjay is a Line world on the edge of the Polity. It is mostly ocean with small islands scattered around the planet. Most Polity citizens reside on a single island safely behind a protective Dome which guards the runcible allowing access to Spatterjay.

Outside the dome is Darwinism run amok. Long ago, the native leaches, big FUGLY nasties, evolved the "Spatterjay virus" to ensure a constant food supply. The virus now permeates the planet and makes the native life EXTREMELY hard to kill while also allowing recovery from almost any injury. The original purpose of the virus was to allow the leeches, which feed by ripping chunks of meat from their prey, to eat their fill and then allow the prey to recover so that it could be "harvested" again. It's like a never ending hamburger.

Infected humans who live and work on Spatterjay are some seriously tough, badass hombres. Plus, as time passes, the infected humans (known as "hoopers") continue to get stronger and harder to kill until they are virtually immortal and invulnerable.

This setting act as a perfect backdrop for a gritty, multi-threaded plot that I thought was very well done. ECS agent Sable Keech is a 700 year old "reification" (i.e., living corpse) who has come to Spatterjay to track down and kill Hoop (aka the Skinner) for crimes against humanity committed during the Polity/Prador war centuries before. With Keech is Janer, a human working for the Hornet Hive Mind who has been sent by the Hive for a "mysterious" purposes not known to Janer (I'll let you learn the backstory of the Hive). Janer and Keech are joined by Erlin, a hooper who has returned to Spatterjay to find her old captain who she hopes can help her live with being immortal.

All three of their paths will eventually converge in a plot involving a particularly brutal and savage member of the Prador looking to settle some 700 year old scores. All the while, the Polity AI "Warden" and its various sum-minds are involved in a complex nuance plan of their own that involve all of the players in this little drama.

Blood, gore, mayhem and action infused in a complex, nuanced plot and spiced with some amazingly cool SF ideas and concepts. I had a lot of fun with this and thoroughly enjoyed myself. If you are fan of the Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels or think you might like an action-film version of the Iain Banks' Culture novels, this may be a nice fit. For me, I was in blood-drenched heaven. 5.0 Stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!