(view spoiler)[**SPOILER ALERT******* - Enjoyed & Would Read Again **** - Enjoyed *** - Not Bad ** - Didn't Like * - Didn't finishDisclaimer: Even though this review is open for everyone to see due to the nature of GoodReads. Please note that this review / notes are just for my own personal use and shouldn't be taken as a genuine reviewTHE WORLDSet in the future where space travel is popular and is used for tourism. The world of Spatterjay is mostly ocean world with small islands. The oceans are filled with dangerous creatures that kill anything that swims in the ocean. This world is where the Spatterjay virus originates which is a virus that makes the person infected live longer and with multiple infections makes the victim stronger. This virus is spread by the "leeches" on Spatterjay. Spatterjay also has relatively intelligent creatures known as Sails which fly on to the Sailors ships and acts as Sails on their ships using their wings to catch the wind.THE CHARACTERS ERLYN: dark skin, white hair, blue eyes. JANER: works as part of a hive mind and carries 2 flying hornets that transmit back to the hive. KEECH: a half dead "Reef" AMBLE: captain on Spatterjay THE WARDEN: an Ai SNIPER: a robotic crab like war machine CAPTAIN RON: captain of a ship WIND BREAKER: the creature that acts as a sail on Rons shipBORIS: one of Ambles crew PLAND: one of Ambles crew PECK: one of Ambles longest serving crewANN: one of Ambles crew TAY: knows the history of Spatterjay REBECCA FRISK:PRADOR: Crab like creatures. EBULAN: Leader of the Prador on Spatterjsy.RELL: one of Ebulans childrenSPAGE: Old Hooper Captain THE STORY .Jenna, Keech and Erlyn arrive on Spatterjay. Jenna is here to explore because that is what the hive mind has told him. Erlyn has come looking for captain Amble who has been infected with the virus so much that he is super strong. Keech is dead but animated by future technology that seems a lot like ancient Egyptian tech. Captain Amble has the head of the Skinner and is feeding it and keeping it alive. Keech takes of on his own across the sea. Erlyn and Jenna go on to Ron's ship and make their way across the sea. The warden talks to Keech and is surprised that he doesn't know that Keech is on Spatterjay, the warden blames Sniper for him not knowing that Keech is on the planet. Keech is arrives at Tay's house to get information on Spatterjay. There he finds a model of a Skinner and humans in different stages of transformation into Skinners. Keech is after J Hooper one of the first people to find Spatterjay, he was a criminal who used the planet as one of his hideouts. Tay explains that he has been infected by the leeches so much that he has gone "native" and turned into a Skinner from the virus. She also explains of the Legend where a captain decapitated J Hooper while he was a skin we and keeps its head and body separate so it can never heal. She explains to Keech that he needs to go speak to some of the old Captains to get more information on where J Hooper is.On Ambles ship Peck keeps hearing the head of the Skinner calling to him. A woman named Rebecca turns up on Spatterjay and speaks to a elderly Prador, she has history with Keech and she keeps trying and failing to kill him.Ambles ship is attacked by a giant leech and they manage to kill it while first harvesting the spinal cord and fluid. Erlyn learns that this fluid is valuable on Spatterjay because it is the only thing that can instantly kill the Hoopers that live on the planet that have been made super strong and heal super fast by the leeches who carry the spatter-jay virus.Janer gets stung by one of the leeches while on Ron's Ship and so becomes infected by the Spatterjay Virus.Rebecca takes a blank from Ebulan, the Prador use humans "Blanks" to do there bidding instead of doing things themselves, they control these blanks sometimes several at a time with their minds.Keech finds Sprage in a bar and explains that he is looking for J Hooper who is now known as the Skinner. While asking Sprage about Hooper his diagnostics tell him that he has been infected by the Spatterjay virus while at Tay's Museum.Keech is ambushed and injured and makes his way to Ron's ship for help. Meanwhile Erlyn tells Janer of how she used to work with amble and how they found Skinners island and how one of the crew Peck was skinned but he survived due to the Spatterjay virus healing him. Keech arrives at Ron's ship and the Spatterjay virus has revived him back to life rather than the half dead state he was in before. The Hive mind that communicates with Janer has also been in contact with Keech and has told him to deliver a package to Janer.Rebecca Frisk attacks Tay but she manages to escape in a secure room she has on her property. Rebecca Frisk and Amble were part of J Hoopers original crew. Rebecca is a feared criminal and sadistic killer. Keech, Erlyn, Janer and Ron's Ship meets up with Ambles ship, where Keech immediately tries to shoot Amble because he recognizes him as one of J Hoopers Original 8 crew but can't remember anything because he lost his mind when he was put through extreme pain and couldn't die. Janer receives the package Keech has for him and realizes that it is a way for the Hive Mind to spread another colony on this planet.The Skinners head has managed to adapt and grow spider like legs that grew from where its neck was and small wings at either side of its head. Using these new limbs the head manages to escape and jump over board and heads towards the Skinners island to find its body. The crew follow the Skinner to the island both to get away from the approaching ship and to go and try and kill the Skinner.The Warden then realizing that someone else has arrived on the planet dispatches several small war drones to investigate. Ron, realizing who Amble is says he wants him to go on trial. Meanwhile Rebecca frisk is on a ship catching up to them, she has stolen someone else's body and is slowly going insane. An adolescent Prador finds its way to Frisks ship and there takes control with several heavily armored blanks. Amble is cleared of any charges as they arrive on the Skinners island.Turns out that the island used to be used by J Hooper to "Core" humans and then send them to the Prador. In Prador politics you can only be convicted of a crime if you have eye witnesses. This is why the Prador have used Rebecca Frisk to lure all the old captains on Spatterjay together to kill her so that he can use a massive bomb to kill them all. Vrell, Ebulan's child is sent to over see the operation, however without his fathers control over him he soon matures into an adult and loses his back legs. Ebulan then sees him as a threat and plans to kill him along with the rest of the captains.Amble and Ron and the other finally manage to kill the Skinner by dipping their blades in the Sprine that comes from the leaches then attacking the Skinner. Sniper the war drone destroys ebulans ship and kills him, Sniper is also severely damaged and so the warden offers to upload his consciousness into his own soo he doesn't truly die. While the warden is uploading Sniper, Sniper takes over control of all of the wardens systems and so controls the systems of the whole planet. Rebecca Frisk is captured and put into a storage coffin. The hive that Janer works for try to establish a new colony using the spring as their new stinging venom,which is why they wanted Janer to take that package. All the captains gather on the skinners island and find that amble used to work for J Hooper but secretly he was sabotaging the reactor which then signalled to the authorities where they were hiding, because of this amble is found not guilty. When Janer comes to congratulate amble he seats the hive Queen resting on James shoulder so the new hive cannot be established. MY THOUGHTS (hide spoiler)]
I am ambivalent about this, so bare with me:Neal Asher is a great visionary, maybe an acceptable writer, certainly not a poet: the joy in reading Asher is in the worldbuilding, strange ecologies and technological visions.where it isn't that great, can get outright painful in fact, is in the writing itself: characters are flat and we are not sure we should or want to care for them, plot is secondary, often convoluted, language is at least tedious, at worst grammatically incorrect. Also, Mr Asher is either not a very sophisticated reader himself or believes his readers aren't: there are numerous instances in the book where what was plain 10 pages ago is later doubly clear spelled out again. Don't think your readers are morons, please?So here is an idea Mr Asher: For readers like myself who immensely enjoy your ideas and vision, why not just leave characters and plot out, of once? I'd be very happy to read your books like watching a BBC David Attenborough documentary. I can happily entertain myself by reading the Appendices of Dune or 1984. I don't really need characters or plot. Now this might be extreme, but hey... So that is why still 4 stars, but let me elaborate:Having read and enjoyed Line of Polity years back, I haven't read Neal Asher in years (for exactly the reasons outlined above). Now reading The Skinner, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it certainly alleviated my going cold turkey after Iain Banks' passing away...Asher's worldbuilding and narrative style is certainly the closest I have come to Iain Banks.In fact, I think the Spatterjay worldbuilding is some of the finest I have come across in a long time, and fun it is indeed: It's a mad, mental ecology that is presented, like a BBC David Attenborough documentary on steroids and acid.The premise of an ecology where due to a virus that restores tissue, nothing can die (but at the same time does not necessarily get restored in the 'original' way) is pure genius. And as with his other books, Asher massively indulges in his 'fetish' of coming up with the most nasty, most dangerous and generally most hungry monsters... Excellent fun to read. In fact, I'd have read the book even without plot simply as a description of Spatterjay's flora and fauna.Where The Skinner lacks a tiny bit imo is plot and characters. While reading a bit like Space Opera meets Moby Dick, which is great fun, at 600 pages it feels a bit too long and could simply have done with a third less. As often with Asher, the characters feel a bit life-less and in some cases I wasn't sure whether I wanted to care about their fates or not. Not a big issue in this book but due to its length the issue crops up from time to time.(On a side note, and I might be wrong here, it feels as if the subminds / drones characters' are a bit too close to those of Ian Banks' universes - but maybe that's just two great author's coming up with the same idea individually).As I have said above, it also lacks stylistically,BUT if you can see beyond that, I'd highly recommended this book for fans of Space Operas and big and consistent visionary world building!!!
What do You think about The Skinner (2005)?
A great read with a superbly imagined setting and good pacing.I am a bit of a sucker for books featuring thought-provoking alien ecologies, and this certainly qualifies. Spatterjay is a planet in flux; its entire ecology is still adapting to the appearance, millions of years ago, of a virus which essentially makes everything on the planet (including people) immortal and able to regenerate from severe injury. To drive home the implications of this the book contains a lot of casual violence, which may put some people off, but it is there for a reason.The pace of the novel is managed well throughout - I have re-read this book a few times and there aren't any scenes that feel like 'filler'. Asher also manages to weave several threads together smoothly and successfully delivers a 'big finish'. My only criticism would be that characterisation is pretty thin, although this does help convey the boredom and loneliness that come with indefinite life extension and that several characters are trying to escape, so may be intentional.My first introduction to Neal Asher's Polity universe, and still my favourite of his by far.
—Anthony Wilson
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 SUMMARYSpatterjay 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!!!
—Stephen
I don't know where to start. This book was bloody marvelous. It is dark, violent and entertaining. It is complicated and satisfying. It weaves many, many threads that culminate in splendid conclusions. The huge cast of characters, from the 700-years dead Sable Keech right through to the spunky submind/drone called Sniper, are all awesome. If you are interested in reading a book about killer fish, killer aliens, killer hornets, killer decapitated heads, killer AIs, killer crustaceans and all other kinds of killer objects, then this is the book for you. In fact, if you like science fiction at all, this is the book for you. It really is that good. It is a weirdly exhilarating roller coaster ride that leaves the reader begging for more. I'm certainly going to be looking into the rest of Mr Asher's catalog.
—Dirk Grobbelaar
