Here’s the third book I finished during the cruise – the second in internal chronological order in Neal Asher’s Polity series. This is a pretty massive body of work – 15 books with the 16th coming this year. I decided late last year to dive into this because I’ve been intrigued by the most recent trilogy in the series – “Dark Intelligence”, “War Factory” and “Infinity Engine” – but figured I should go back and start from the beginning – experience the universe as Asher has evolved it. The first book – “Prador Moon” – was good enough to keep me going so I took “Shadow of the Scorpion” along on the trip.
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that books and series capture my attention for a whole host of reasons. In “Collapsing Empire”, it was all about one really entertaining, larger than life character. With this book, it was very different. I actually found the central character a bit one-dimensional and the narrative kind of choppy. I mentioned in an earlier post that I also found the same to be true for “Prador Moon” – the first book in the series – but wrote it off to the fact that it was a very early work .
*Quick correction – I mistakenly assumed that “Prador Moon” was an early work – it’s actually a prequel that Asher went back and wrote sometime around the midpoint of his career – same goes for this book.
In that respect, I’m two for two with Asher and multiple impressions along these lines would normally prompt me to move on to other things. Having said that, what I enjoyed about “Prador Moon” was the universe Asher created and that held true for “Shadow of the Scorpion”.
Asher’s universe is one ruled / managed by benevolent AIs who, instead of deciding to eliminate their troublesome human creators, have decided to co-exist in a peaceful, constructive and symbiotic manner. The AIs and the merged society they’ve established are what have really intrigued and entertained me with both of these books. There are utopian aspects to the Polity that I can’t help but find encouraging and attractive. The AIs also make for pretty interesting characters. In these books, I find the Golems – AI subminds resident in ambulatory, humaniod constructs – to be far more interesting than the humans they work with and mentor. They tend to be wise, kindly, self-sacrificing coaches to their messy biological partners.
I’m also glad I started into the novels when I did – given the public debate currently underway regarding artificial intelligence and the ramifications it has for the future of our race. It’s hard not to feel some concern – with luminaries like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk speaking out about the existential threat posed by the technology. As unconnected to any current reality as these books are, it’s nevertheless interesting to see someone describe the possibility of a more positive outcome.
So…while the first two books of the series haven’t actually blown me away – there’s enough here to hold my interest – enough to prompt me to purchase the third book in the series – “Gridlinked”. I’ll tackle it as soon as it arrives.
PS: One final comment related to last night’s post on “The Collapsing Empire”. Writing the post actually prompted me to pull “Old Man’s War” off the shelf and give it a second read. I plowed through about a quarter of the book and I’m really enjoying it – enough so that I’ll try to finally finish up all six books in the series. I’ll post something as soon as I’m done.
PPS: I’ll be offline until Friday – hope to post again on Saturday – should have plenty to write about.
Cheers