Farspace: The Expansion Book

Neal Asher is really damn good at creating aliens. There are a variety of interesting aliens in this collection and none of them are Prador!

I had heard that if you don't like Asher's early stuff to stick with him as he is one of those writers who get better with every book. Reading this collection of his short stories (and first novella) immediately after the brilliant Prador Moon raised my expectations for Asher into the stratosphere.

I LOVED the novella "The Engineer". I found it to be so clear and cinematic, devoid of any fluff. If I ever had the discipline to sit down and try and write a screenplay I would go with "The Engineer" because after reading it I can see the movie so clearly in my mind. The Jain are a fascinating species, I expect nothing less from Asher.

So having loved The Engineer so much I was ready for Gridlinked to rock my world. I think though at this early stage of Asher's writing he was better and more focused in the short format where I found "Gridlinked" to amble on a bit.

"Spatterjay" is one of my favorite short stories of all time. Asher incorporates biology into his fiction as brilliantly as Stephen Baxter does physics. Must avoid spoilers while convincing you to read...can't do it but trust me this is awesome! Made me want to skip straight to "The Skinner" and the Spatterjay trilogy but I am one of those people who have to read things in order.

There are 3 separate "Owner" short stories that have the same twist. I found this to be a fascinating insight into Asher's writing process. How he refines and tells the same story in a different way. The Owner universe feels alive and rich with ideas, an excellent series of short stories. I am sure when I read the novels I will be ready for "the twist" having read it 3 times.

Another great, original alien appears in "The Tor Beast" a time travel story that forms the basis of stand alone novel "Cowl".

The rest of the short stories were in the "good" range, to round out an excellent collection. I still recommend people to start with "Prador Moon" but this was a great "second introduction" to the world of Neal Asher.

In the introduction Asher says "I am a classic overnight success, ie that night was over 20 years long". He describes writing for 5 years before getting his first story published, only for that magazine to immediately fold. He says "Writing is hard. Getting published is hard, and if you want easy money your best bet is to become an estate agent". Thankfully for the book reading public that persistence paid off. I became such an instant fan I have over 12 Neal Asher novels here on my "too read table" and I consider NA to be one of my favourite authors.