Product Description
The Polity Collective is the pinnacle of space-faring civilization. Academic and insightful, its dominion stretches from Earth Central into the unfathomable reaches of the galactic void. But when the Polity finally encounters alien life in the form of massive, hostile, crab-like carnivores known as the Prador, there can be only one outcome - total warfare! Starships clash, planets fall, and space stations are overrun, but for Jebel Krong and Moria Salem, two unlikely heroes trapped at the center of the action, this war is far more than a mere clash of cultures, far more than technology versus brute force... this war is personal.
From Publishers Weekly
Asher's enjoyable if violent SF novel pits heavily augmented posthumans and the AIs who rule them, the Polity Collective, against the Prador, vicious, bug-eyed aliens out to conquer all human space. The Polity Collective, an eminently civilized society, despite a small separatist underground that resents the AI's benign rule, stands in contrast to the crablike Prador, who rule by brute force. Since the Prador have a technological advantage in space warfare, two human beings—the super-soldier Jebel Krong and Moria Salem, a technician with an illicit brain augmentation—must combine their talents to try to destroy the impregnable Prador warship threatening humanity. The Polity novels (
Gridlink, etc.) lack the intellectual complexity of the best British space opera by such writers as Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod and Justina Robson, but if you don't mind the gross out (the Prador eat not only their young but also their human enemies), they're invariably a good read.
(July)
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From Booklist
The Polity, a space-faring civilization ruled mostly by AIs because only they can cope with the math for the runcible operation enabling interstellar travel, has just made first contact. No one knew quite what to expect of the crablike Prador's visit to Avalon Station, though the massacre that ensued wasn't on anybody's list. Seems the bloodthirsty Prador are bent on taking over the Polity and its runcible technology, and the Polity powers that be must scrambled to get to have any chance of defeating them. Jebel Krong, a soldier on Avalon when the aliens arrived, and runcible tech Moria Salem, recently cerebrally augmented to handle the technology, are thrown together in a classic space-opera scenario in which two wild cards are the private surgeon who installed Moria's aug--a fugitive--and the aug itself, which is more than ordinary. The Prador invasion and Polity politics are revealed as horribly intertwined, but Moria and Jebel might end the war with a particularly bold plan. A fast and furious spectacle developed with gusto.
Regina Schroeder

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About the Author

Neal Asher is a science fiction writer whose work has been nominated for both the Philip K. Dick and the British Fantasy Society awards. He has published more than fifteen books, many set within his “Polity” universe, including
Gridlinked,
The Skinner, and
Dark Intelligence. He divides his time between Essex and a home in Crete.