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Title: War Factory
Series: Polity: Transformation #2
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 472
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
There are viewpoints from: Captain Blight and Crew, who Penny Royal the Black AI hitches rides with; Sverl the Prador who is turning into a human, prador and AI, Thorvald Spear who started out hunting down Penny Royal and now carries out its wishes; Cvorn the Prador who is trying to re-start the war between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom; Oberon the King of the Prador who seems to be a Spatterjay virus infected Prador who is trying to change his subjects so they can survive long term; and finally The Brockle, a forensic AI who pretty much tortures people and other AI who have committed crimes until the Polity gets what they want from the criminals, the Brockle considers Penny Royal to be the biggest criminal in the Polity to date.
Penny Royal seems to be trying to figure something out but nobody is sure exactly what that is. In the process it is fixing many of its past mistakes, most of which are included in the list of POV’s above.
The End Point is Room 101, a War Factory (hence the name of the book) from the war and the journey is getting everyone there at the proper time.
| My Thoughts: |
It has only been 3 years since I last read this but really, aside from from a couple of overall things, it was like reading a brand new book. It probably doesn’t help that the synopsis is so vague because of how many viewpoints there are that are interweaving for the whole book.
Speaking of viewpoints, Asher handled them like a champ. Unlike that rat custard Gwynne, I never got annoyed reading them during this book. When a view point would change, I never felt like I was leaving something undone and wanted to stay. Asher wove his story adroitly and expertly and I for one appreciated that.
The only real downside was that Asher once again delves into crustacean sex, like he did in one of his spatterjay books. I don’t know why he finds giant crabs doing it exciting, but he sure does. Doesn’t matter if it is used as a device to kill Cvorn later on, but having Cvorn cut off a younger crabs genitals, stitch them on himself and then use them to have sex for again for the first time in decades is just not something I really want to read about. However, it is unique. So if you are looking for a unique reading experience, you’ll get that here!
I did like how Asher delves into what is murder. Being an atheist, he approaches it from the complete cessation of existence. So a society that can recreate an entity if they’ve recorded themselves onto crystal has to decide what is murder. Asher, like many technologists of today, simply assumes that the brain and every biological part, CAN be recorded and that we are nothing but a collection of data. It doesn’t bother me because this is a universe in which AI exist. Throw in some dragons and the probability factor doesn’t actually change, if you know what I mean.
Half of the action was spaceship oriented, which isn’t my thing, but thankfully the other half was all groundpounder action. Now THAT is my thing.
★★★★☆
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Crustacean sex? Hmm…it does sound unique but probably not one I’d pick up. Great review though and glad you enjoyed the reread.
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Yeah, Asher seems to have a “thing” for that. It’s happened in one of his other books. Makes you wonder just what is going on his mind 😀
I’ll be glad to enjoy the Polity for you 🙂
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That’s an interesting point about the take on murder. It’s not something that I’ve seen addressed much, even when there’s AI & recording personalities like this in a story.
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I think Asher has tangentially brought it up before, but never so starkly. Makes for a great talking point if you want to get down and gritty with SF and Philosophy…
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And that’s one of the things that SF is great for! I love when it makes us take a look at our beliefs with a new viewpoint.
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Right so I think I’d be wanting to avoid that crab sex thing…that’s just weird!
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Yeah, it is one of those things about Asher that makes me scratch my head and go “now why did he feel the need to include that?”
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Well, the crustacean sex angle seems to be the detail that stands out more in your review, which makes me think the author used it as a sort of… advertising scam (?). In love, war and SF everything works. Maybe.
😀
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It is certainly what stuck in my mind, and that is NOT something I want stuck in my mind. So it might very well be intentional. Things like that make me want to go trawl Devilreads and see what great unwashed masses wrote about it.
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Oh my, the crab sex sounds hilarious. I’m not sure if I’ll find it funny or end up being impressed by how it’ll be handled when I get around to trying this out in the future hahah
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It isn’t salacious (how could it be?) and it really does affect the story, but my goodness, you just don’t expect that kind of thing when reading 🙂
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ok wow, that crab sex part sounds… unexpected. It’s good the viewpoints were handled well. Excellent review!
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Thank you.
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You got me interested in Asher and the other day I found all five Agent Cormac books in a charity shop. I’m super excited to start reading them. Just thought I’d share that with you. 🙂 And, of course, thank you!
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Hurray! I think that Dune, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Neal Asher and McKillip are probably the book’ish things I push the most.
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Well we already agree on Dune and McKillip, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of Tchaikovsky so far too. So I’m really looking forward to starting Gridlinked. 🙂
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Hopefully this won’t be the point where our opinions diverge 🙂
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I’m feeling pretty confident that it won’t be. 🙂
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