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The Skinner (Spatterjay #1)

by Neal Asher (Goodreads Author)

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 1,513 ratings · 99 reviews

Neal Asher, whom Tor introduced to the American audience with Gridlinked, takes us deeper into his unique universe with an even more remarkable second novel, The Skinner.

On the planet Spatterjay arrive three travelers: Janer, acting as the eyes of the hornet Hive mind, on a mission not yet revealed to him; Erlin, searching for Ambel -- the ancient sea captain who can teach...more

Paperback, 432 pages

Published May 1st 2005 by Tor Science Fiction (first published March 22nd 2002)

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Jul 23, 2011 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, the-worlds-the-thing, science-fiction, dark-and-gritty, favorite-ideas, kings-of-badassia, 2000-2005, cyber-punk-prep-and-post

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!!

Welcom...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Voodoochilli rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: gave-up-reading

I really thought I was going to enjoy this book. It is full of so many ideas: virus's that give the victim immortality, massive pirates with muscles so big they have to be careful they don't accidentally rip other people apart, weird aliens, bodies resurrected with the use of AI software, hive minds and sentient computers. I just didn't like it. I am sorry to say I read just over 100 pages then just couldn't take any more. I kept reading page after page thinking it was going to get better but it...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Ric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The word for world is ... Ocean (apologies to Ursula Leguin). This is Spatterjay, a waterworld populated by decidedly hostile fauna, backdrop for a richly imagined multi-threaded story that rivals the best SF books of the 2000s. Quite a tour-de-force worthy of multiple re-reads, and deserving of the lofty 4+ rating on Goodreads.

Here we meet Sable Keech, the most interesting of a long list of characters, a reification (resuscitated dead person), following the centuries old trail of a criminal. An

...more

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Nov 20, 2008 Psychophant rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: far-future, reviewed

I tended to consider Neal Asher as "ersatz Iain M. Banks". Good enough to give me a dose of Space Opera adventure with some brains, while waiting for a new Banks book that usually made me think harder.

This is the book that changed that view. The Skinner follows many of the Space Opera conventions, including big adventure, big guns and bigger than life characters. Much bigger than life in this novel, as coping with inmortality, and boredom, and past mistakes and crimes, is one of the common threa...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Ole Imsen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera

This is one of those SFF novels that can be hard to define into a sub-genre. There's no doubt that it is Science Fiction, but much of the story is set in an environment that is much more typical of Fantasy. Ships sailing on an ocean is usually something that you find in Fantasy, or perhaps more often in Historical Fiction. Added to that there is also an element of Horror here. Not only in the titular character, but in many of the indigenous creatures of Spatterjay.
So the question then is if th...more This is one of those SFF novels that can be hard to define into a sub-genre. There's no doubt that it is Science Fiction, but much of the story is set in an environment that is much more typical of Fantasy. Ships sailing on an ocean is usually something that you find in Fantasy, or perhaps more often in Historical Fiction. Added to that there is also an element of Horror here. Not only in the titular character, but in many of the indigenous creatures of Spatterjay.
So the question then is if this somewhat strange mix comes together and works as more than a collage? -I have to say it does, more than that - it is one of the greatest strengths of the novel. Asher manages to use the elements from the different sub-genres to create a world that is in many ways more alien than it could have been by not being constricted by only Science Fiction "rules".
Despite being as unfriendly as it is, Spatterjay is a very interesting world. It is well realised and by the end of the novel you'll have had a good introduction to its history and how it works in the narrative's present.

The story is a really compelling one. It takes a while before it gets going, and there are layers added to it throughout. The pace starts out as rather slow, but like a steam-train once it gets going it builds up speed rather quickly and at times reaches a breakneck pace.
There are several threads that drive the story, each of them related to a different character, and each of them interesting in themselves. Asher manages to weave these threads in and out of each other with a deft hand, creating a story that comes together very satisfyingly.

Asher has populated his world with a pretty large cast of characters. They are a varied cast, and they all feel real. Of course not all of them get the same amount of pages to give them depth, but they are still given enough time to show us who they are.
The main characters are an interesting group of different beings. And following their journey is an enjoyable experience. There's room for different races, species, and even artificial intelligence in the cast. They are diverse enough to not get close to boring, and they have different motivations and agendas that creates tension and excitement.

The only problem I had with the novel was the different POVs. They change frequently, and I at times felt this made it difficult to get a feel for what was happening. It did in no way ruin the story, but it did make it a bit harder to stay immersed in it.
Towards the end I felt this worked much better, and I am not completely sure if it was because this mode of storytelling works better when the pace of events is greater, or if I was just getting used to it. Either way, I don't think this should discourage anyone from picking up the book unless they hate frequent POV changes.

This was the first time I read a book by Neal Asher, and although he comes highly recommended by bloggers I trust, I didn't really know what to expect. (I tend to avoid reading too much about books I know I'm going to read.) I was not disappointed by those who recommended the book. This is a type of adventurous story that I enjoy very much.
I would say that this is one of the Science Fiction books I have read that would be easiest for Fantasy fans to pick up. And I would urge anyone who enjoys Fantasy, and is curious about Science Fiction to pick it up.
All in all this is a great story set in a well realised world, with lots of action, and enough mystery and depth to make it really interesting. I'm certainly going to pick up more of Asher's books in the future.

This review originally published on my blog: http://weirdmage.blogspot.com (less)

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Oct 07, 2012 Jon Mountjoy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Science fiction fantasy on the high seas. Viruses, a plethora of viscous sea critters more lethal than the bugs of Australia, AIs with personality and the living dead. It all sounds exciting, and to some extent it was. However, I could never shake the "this can't ever happen" aspect.

Perhaps it's me - I came in expecting to read a science fiction book. Instead, I found I was reading a fantasy book that masqueraded as a science fiction one. They are different beasts - and this one attempts to be b...more

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Dec 17, 2009 Tad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book Review: The Skinner by Neal Asher

Published in 2002 by TOR Books

Cover Illustration by Jim Burns

Artwork located via Amazon.com

It was not until half way through the novel, which clocks in at 424 pages in the edition owned, that the name of the planet Spatterjay was read correctly. It kept looking to be Splatterjay up until that point. In the context of the novel, either could work superbly. Spatterjay evokes a more artistic element, which as the book progresses is slightly more disturbing, and...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Harold Ogle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cyberpunk, detective, giant-monsters, mercenaries, science-fantasy, sf, thriller

This is a great post-nanotech thriller/adventure SF story. Say that five times fast.

It's also the first Asher I've read, and I find his writing broadly similar to both Alastair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks in the setting and even type of story being told. That said, it's definitely distinct from either of those, most notably through the heavy reliance on nanotechnology and the different approach to Artificial Intelligences (the ones here are more similar to Banks' Culture drones, but they're much...more This is a great post-nanotech thriller/adventure SF story. Say that five times fast.

It's also the first Asher I've read, and I find his writing broadly similar to both Alastair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks in the setting and even type of story being told. That said, it's definitely distinct from either of those, most notably through the heavy reliance on nanotechnology and the different approach to Artificial Intelligences (the ones here are more similar to Banks' Culture drones, but they're much more human in personality, outlook, and flaws...which makes them considerably more interesting - I would say that, overall, all of the characters here are more passionate than characters in Banks novels).

Here's the set-up: the story begins with a shuttle descending to a border world, where the human civilization of The Polity has a monitoring station but little to no actual jurisdiction, because the native humans haven't voted to join the Polity. In the shuttle is a passenger lounge, in which two passengers sit, shunned by everyone else. One is accompanied by sentient hornets - so is naturally shunned by everyone on board (Asher seems to be heavily entophobic, and writes as if everyone else is, too). The other is a "reif" (reification), which is a cybernetically enhanced deceased person, who is kept animate and conscious by a complicated and elaborate array of embalming fluids, pumps, monitors and sensors. They have become acquainted because they are the only people who will talk to them without revulsion...and then they are joined by a woman who is returning to the planet after hundreds of years offworld. Back then, she'd been bitten by one of the native leeches on the planet, which contains a self-replicating virus that effectively repairs all tissue damage over time...making the carriers of that virus free from aging. Each member of this motley crew has an agenda for visiting this planet, and the book does a great job in teasing out those agendas.

I loved this book and could practically not put it down until I'd finished it, despite having to stop for things like eating, working, socializing, sleeping...I will definitely be reading more of Asher's work after this.(less)

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Apr 11, 2013 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Every time I pick up a book by an author I have never read before I always hope to find a “new favorite”, most of the time this does not happen. I mean what are the odds? If I find a “new favourite” author every month I would not be a very discerning reader. The best I can realistically hope for is to discover a new author whose back catalogue I am keen to investigate. Still, occasionally I strike gold, I think I just did.

There are zillions of genre authors vying for my attention when I browse...more Every time I pick up a book by an author I have never read before I always hope to find a “new favorite”, most of the time this does not happen. I mean what are the odds? If I find a “new favourite” author every month I would not be a very discerning reader. The best I can realistically hope for is to discover a new author whose back catalogue I am keen to investigate. Still, occasionally I strike gold, I think I just did.

There are zillions of genre authors vying for my attention when I browse bookstores. The only way I can narrow down my search for an exciting new author is by recommendations. Personally I don't trust recommendations generated by computer algorithms, I find them interesting but I would rather get recs from my peers at PrintSF. In the aggregate they are vastly knowledgeable about sf and their recommendations are always reliable.

Neal Asher is one of the names that crop up again and again alongside “space opera” sf luminaries such as Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton. For some reason British authors seem to be dominating this thriving subgenre of sf. The aforementioned Banks, Reynolds and Hamilton have one thing in common, they are good storytellers, good world builders and - more importantly - good prose writers and characters creators. Basically they just write damn well and we are lucky they are writing in our much maligned genre.

The Skinner is set on an amazing watery world full of weird and unfriendly (mostly marine) creatures, no cure cute bunnies to be found anywhere. They all want to eat you. On a larger scale the planet Spatterjay is on the periphery of Asher’s Polity galactic empire which is not explored in any detail in this particular volume. As I understand it it is a little similar to Iain Banks’ Culture, but I can not really compare them usefully from reading just this one entry in Asher’s series. One thing I have noticed is that the A.I. and drones in this book are very similar to their counterparts in Banks’ books. They are snarky, funny and aggressive. However, The Skinner is not a poor Culture knock off, Asher’s writing style is not as literary and his pacing in this book is faster than the Culture books I have read.

The gosh-wow mind blowing sf elements are all very well, but without some decent prose and character developments to act as foundations to mount them on the book would be unreadable. Kudos to Neal Asher for not forgetting this. The prose is very readable, the dialogues are often very good and the characters are just great to hang out with. Particularly noteworthy is Sable Keech who is a sort of cyborg / zombie / badass cop hybrid. My only criticism is that I find the frequent point of view switches not as smooth as I would like. Not that it hinders the readability of the book much though.

In conclusion I am glad I gave Neal Asher a try and I will be reading many more of his books.(less)

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Mar 30, 2013 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-yo

For approx. the first 50 pages of this book I was hella confused. Like "Who the f are Hoopers?" "Should I already know who any of these people are?" "What the??". Basically it was a bunch of confusion for me, muddling through large dumps of info that didn't feel connected to anything yet. Didn't expect such confusion as I've been pretty hardcore reading me some Asher over the last few months!

Once I got past the forest of confusion I did start to get into the story. It was a bit more swashbucklin...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was so excited about this book. Sailors! Viruses! Sea creatures! Oh my... A Caroline bonanza book. And for the first few chapters, it totally delivers. Wacky characters strengthened by viruses sail across salty, windy seas with alien creatures trying to take chunks out of them. Sea creatures wriggle and writhe and swim their way through in the oddest of ways. It's wonderful.

And then I seriously think someone took Asher aside and shook him by the shoulders, yelling at him, "Get down to business...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I generally "blind trial" a handful of new authors each year, and in this case bought the Kindle edition because it was offered at a discount.

The first thirty pages seemed to offer little in the way of innovation, and Asher's writing style seemed pedestrian, but the more I read the more his style seemed to suit his subject.

This is not thoughtful sf but it IS kinetic, visceral and thrilling. The world on which this story takes place is a brutal and hostile environment, and Asher does a first rate...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

Not as grotesque as I was led to believe from the jacket copy, this book was nonetheless something of a challenge. It's fairly hard sci-fi, but not technical/mechanical sci-fi - rather, it deals with some very alien biology, and its effect on humans.

People infected with the Spatterjay virus are, essentially, immortal...although the virus, in its quest to keep the host alive, is capable of mutating those humans into something very terrifying indeed. My favourite parts of the book were those deal...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Mya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: neal-asher-collection

By far the best book that I have read this year! Seriously...Neal Asher has a penchant for world-building that puts most writers (myself included) to shame. The characters are fantastical and multi-faceted and I had more than a few favorites, but the world of Spatterjay in Asher's 'Polity' universe takes precedence in everything both macro and micro. The story, if such a loose term could be used, is about a crime that needs to be avenged. It revoles around the epic seas of Spatterjay, the Spatte...more

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May 26, 2012 Macha rated it 4 of 5 stars

4 stars. this was, although full of newfangled stuff like nanotech, hiveminds, AI, basically an exhilarating oldfashioned romp. the central image is the vicious Great Chain of Being cycle on the planet in question, and what it means for the question of character change in an arena of unstable competing imperatives, give the nature of the (post)human condition and the ex machina operations of quite a lot of aliens pursuing their own sometimes dastardly agenda. there's even a brisk look at how to...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Heather Dalgarno rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

It's not often that I read sci-fi, but the books of Neil Asher strike me as very accessible for the sci-fi nerd and newbie alike.

The world that Asher creates in this trilogy (of which this is the first book) is intriguing. A sea-based world where almost every creature is a deadly predator bent on violence populated by crazy 18th century like sailors made virtually immortal by the poison of a leech that lives on the planet. A poison which means insanity and worse if the infected can't eat 'dome g...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars

What do you get if you whizz together the Boys Big Book of Science Words, a comic book about Pirates and Monsters, and some of those pre-war action-adventure stories which are now just politically offensive? A Neal Asher novel, that's what. Set in the now standard space opera trope of a galaxy-spanning civilisation ripped off from Banks, linked by what LeGuin called an ansible but he inexplicably calls a runcible, this particular yarn is much like all his others. Cartoon villains dedicated to in...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Duncan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I really enjoyed this. After reading 'Gridlinked' by the same author and not being entirely set alight by it I wasn't sure if I'd read any more. Something about this one tempted me though, and I'm glad it did.

The planet Spatterjay is incredible. Very vividly described and in some ways similar to the Earth as described by Brian Aldis in Hothouse. It is completely over the top and wonderfully so.

The characters are fun too, again a refreshing difference from many pedestrian sci-fi books. The sub-mi...more

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Feb 12, 2009 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

It was a little slow at the begining, but once I got further in and sorted out who all the characters were, it quickly picked up and flew. If you've read Gridlinked, it's the same universe but otherwise not related to that story in any way. However you won't care once you read about the dead guy and the guy linked to the hive mind and the almost indestructible sea captains and the really evil guy who the book is named for and the crazy evil girlfriend and the ancient war drone and the alien and...more

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May 12, 2013 Josh Davidson rated it 1 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, but the author failed to grab my interest and make me care for the characters.

The world of was intricately detailed, maybe at the expense of the story and the characters it was there to support.
The first half of the book left you feeling confused and disorientated, you're dropped in without points of reference thrown detail after interesting detail.
Generally I like to get to know the characters and see the fantasy worlds through their eyes, This book had all...more

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May 06, 2011 Susanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sff

This is the forth Polity novel I've read and I think...I think I love this universe almost as much as Banks' Culture. (I never thought I'd say this.) The Skinner takes place on Hooper (aka Spatterjay), a planet not entirely under polity control and infested with the most aggressive fauna I've ever come across. Not surprising, then, that it's the fauna (and the virus it transmits, making humans near-immortal and virtually indestructable) that is the basis for the entire plot: a dead guy, a biolog...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Jan Bednarczuk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

It is always exciting to find an author who not only is able to create an original, well-imagined, densely-populated universe, but is also able to tell a good story, full of adventure and conflict and suspenseful twists and turns.

The Skinner is such a story, set in such a universe, written by such an author.

I won't go into too much spoilery detail, because I wouldn't want to deprive a new reader of the pleasant surprise in discovering the details and nuances of Asher's world(s). I will say that...more

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Oct 26, 2012 David Agranoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-sci-fi, science-fiction-masterpiece

My first time reading Neal Asher was a far future bizarro science fiction short novel called Africa Zero. This is a longer more epic tale, but it is also one of the most bizarro modern Sci-fi novels I have read. It has sold me on Asher as a bold new voice. Entertainment weekly called it Dune meets Master and Commander and I can't disagree with that. The plot and and setting are so strange that I struggled a little bit trying to explain it to others.

It takes place in the same “universe” as Asher'...more

My first time reading Neal Asher was a far future bizarro science fiction short novel called Africa Zero. This is a longer more epic tale, but it is also one of the most bizarro modern Sci-fi novels I have read. It has sold me on Asher as a bold new voice. Entertainment weekly called it Dune meets Master and Commander and I can't disagree with that. The plot and and setting are so strange that I struggled a little bit trying to explain it to others.

It takes place in the same “universe” as Asher's first novel Grindlinked, I have not read that yet, but I don't think I suffered much for it. This is a stand alone novel.

Not since Dune has the landscape and ecosystem of a world come to such vivid life. What is most exciting about that is Spatterjay, the planet where skinner takes is what a horrible place to be the planet is. It makes the novel feel icky in a way. This is not a world where you want to take a vacation. SpatterJay, named after Jay Hooper the human who found the planet is mostly ocean. But the planet is teaming with life, including leeches both giant and small. The ecosystem is so interactive after a few bites from the leeches human are integrated in way that makes them almost immortal. Jay was using this unique ecosystem to take murdered humans, re-animated and devoid of life to be sold to the Prador, a crab like race the humans were at war with.

Humans who live on the planet are called Hoopers, and most have lived hundreds of years constantly being rebuilt by the leeches. This is explained well as two hoopers in one part fight in a tearing each other up, their bodies keep repairing themselves.

The book opens following a few humans as they arrive on the planet. My favorite of the characters are Sable Keech And Janer. Keech is A monitor (Basically a cop) who has been hunting a this planet's funder for 700 years after his death. How is that you ask? He is cybernetic his dead body linked to computer that stored his mind. His target is not doing much better, Jay Hooper's (known also as the Skinner) body has been living with out his head. Spatterjay seas captains have been keeping it alive in a box.

As for Janer he is a human who was punished for killing a hornet after he served his time as host to a hive mind of sentient hornets. After his time is up he stayed with the hive mind and is traveling the universe looking for adventure.

At the same time the human race is in a time of peace after years of war with the Prador,but They also want to kill the skinner and any other witness to the war crimes they committed together. The only part of the novel I did not enjoy were the seemingly endless battles between the Polity A.I. Who oversaw the planet and the Prador. That stuff wore me down a bit in the last 100 pages.

None the less I loved this inventive, brutal and super fucking weird science fiction epic. Asher made a fan out of me with this novel and I'll check out his other work for sure. Along with Richard K. Morgan, Neal Asher and China Mieville it seems the most exciting speculative fiction belongs to england. (less)

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May 31, 2010 Allan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

On Spatterjay it's eat or be eaten. Everything is on something else's menu, no exceptions. The leeches that infest the ocean and the land carry a virus that repairs injury and prolongs life - nothing like an endless supply of food for these leeches.

Three humans have come to Spatterjay, each with their own agenda...Sable Keech, a Polity monitor dead for over 700 years but still seeking the last of the eight people he swore to bring to justice for crimes against humanity during the Prador war; Erl...more

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Aug 30, 2008 Nicolas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: far-future, world-opera, immortalité, rayon-fantasy-et-sf

Ce bouquin est pour moi une bonne surprise ... mais reprenons les choses par le début.
Dans cette histoire, on suit les périgrinations de toute un tas de personnages sur une planète rien moins qu'hospitalière (elle m'a d'ailleurs fait penser à l'étrange monde de L'incident Jésus). Outre son côté hostile, cette planète a également la particularité d'abriter un virus rendant quasi-immortel - et accessoirement fort comme un turc.
Comme vous pouvez le voir, le décor est tout à fait impressionnant. Tel...more Ce bouquin est pour moi une bonne surprise ... mais reprenons les choses par le début.
Dans cette histoire, on suit les périgrinations de toute un tas de personnages sur une planète rien moins qu'hospitalière (elle m'a d'ailleurs fait penser à l'étrange monde de L'incident Jésus). Outre son côté hostile, cette planète a également la particularité d'abriter un virus rendant quasi-immortel - et accessoirement fort comme un turc.
Comme vous pouvez le voir, le décor est tout à fait impressionnant. Tellement, même qu'on aurait presque tendance à oublier qu'il ne s'agit "que" d'un décor pour une intrigue plutôt complexe, et franchement ramifiée, qui va nous faire voir du décor, un mort pas tout à fait immobile, des extra-terrestres vraiment méchants, et des humains parfois encore plus méchants - enfin, plus sadiques. Il est d'ailleurs tout à l'honneur de l'auteur de réussir à nous présenter des personnages comme Rebecca Frisk sans tomber dans la complaisance (tout le contraire d'un Dan Simmons, par exemple ...). C'est d'autant plus incroyable que, pour ce personnage particulièrement sadique, torturer des individus qui se régénèrent continuellement amène encore de l'intérêt à la chose (enfin, vous voyez le genre de psychopathe, quoi).
Mais ce roman a d'autres intérêt, au premier rang desquels il y a bien sûr ce monde nautique, où tout se fait sur des bateaux tirés par des voiles vivantes. Vous vous en doutez, pour moi, dès qu'il y a des bateaux - et plus encore des voiliers, c'est la fête. Et là, avec cette histoire de capitaines agés de sept siècles, c'est le rêve.
C'est aussi le rêve pour l'amateur de grand spectacle que je suis : des batailles aériennes (qui m'ont elles fait penser à la Culture de Banks, et à ses IA vivant leur vie intellectuelle en toute liberté), des courses-poursuite dans la jungle, et tant d'autres luttes contre l'écosystème (qu'on peut facilement considérer comme hostile) de cette planète qui explore un autre modèle d'alimentation, où la proie n'est que rarement tuée par le prédateur.
Bref, un très bon bouquin, sauf bien entendu du côté de la réflexion, qu'il faut savoir trouver soi-même. Ainsi, on peut trouver quelques pistes indiquant que l'auteur, s'il avait voulu se séparer un peu de ses superbes scènes d'action, aurait pu nous livrer un très beau livre sur le poids de l'immortalité de la chair vu à travers différentes méthodes : la réification, le virus de spatterjay. Bon, bien sûr, il aurait aussi pu nous parler de l'altéérité : qui est le plus humain entre un mort-vivant de sept siècles, et un vivant du même âge qui n'a plus une goutte de sang dans le corps ?
En tout cas, moi je trouve qu'il vaut largement la lecture.(less)

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Feb 03, 2009 Kam Oi rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sci-fi, fantasy & adventure fans

Recommended to Kam Oi by: stumbled across it on Amazon

A hi-tech futuristic sci-fi setting crossed with a backwater planet teeming with dangerous wildlife, its people infected with a virus that renders them practically immortal, a cop who's been dead 700 years and still pursuing the (really nasty!) criminals, artificial intelligences that have snarky senses of humor, a guy who travels wherever the hornets want him to, and my favorite: sentient creatures who find employment as living sails for oceangoing ships. I've seen this book described as Moby D...more

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Apr 08, 2008 Woodge rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: looking for rollicking adventure

Recommended to Woodge by: NYT book review

Shelves: sf, fantasy, recommended, to-re-read, favorites

Never a dull moment in this wicked fun tale. The story is sort of mix of Dune, Moby Dick, Star Wars, and The Thing. The action takes place on the dangerous planet of Spatterjay. With the exception of a few islands and tiny atolls, Spatterjay is mostly a vast ocean teeming with very hungry, very aggressive wildlife. One of the most common life forms on Spatterjay are the leeches. The leeches are anywhere from finger-sized to elephant-sized things who want to eat anything and everything. If you sp...more Never a dull moment in this wicked fun tale. The story is sort of mix of Dune, Moby Dick, Star Wars, and The Thing. The action takes place on the dangerous planet of Spatterjay. With the exception of a few islands and tiny atolls, Spatterjay is mostly a vast ocean teeming with very hungry, very aggressive wildlife. One of the most common life forms on Spatterjay are the leeches. The leeches are anywhere from finger-sized to elephant-sized things who want to eat anything and everything. If you spend longer than a few seconds in the water you're going to have some chomping on you. (Spatterjay doesn't do well as a vacation destination.) To get bitten by a leech is to become infected with a virus. One of the side-effects of this virus is near immortality. And wounds seems to heal extremely quickly. But if you're then not too careful about your diet you'll find yourself slowly turning into a leech. It's happened. These immortals, known as Hoopers, are very tough to kill and the older they are, the stronger they are. Spatterjay was named after a pirate named "Spatter" Jay Hoop, a man hated by everyone for reasons I won't go into. About seven centuries ago, Hoop and his crew did some very bad things and one man, Sable Keech has been relentlessly hunting them down ever since one of Hoop's crew killed him. Huh, what? Yeah, Keech is a corpse, a reification who has some of his original brain left and one eye and the rest of his body is kept from rotting away by a special filtration system. He's sort of a cyborg-corpse and very dangerous (as some contract killers find out). Keech is intent on finding Hoop himself who is known as the Skinner for gruesome reasons you could probably guess at. And get this, the Skinner's head and body are living apart. I could go on and on about this cool book. Some other elements in it involve some nasty aliens, war drones, a planetary AI monitoring system, an intelligent hornet hive mind, dragons that work as sails for the Old Captains of Spatterjay, and some very tricky characters and nasty villains whose paths all intersect in one crazy, exciting sci-fi yarn, that's equal parts adventure, revenge tale, and horror story. What a rush. I loved it. (less)

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Jul 27, 2011 Mark Lawrence rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. I don't read a lot of sci-fi but I thought this was a very good read. For me this wasn't so much a book about characters as it was about the things they do and the world they inhabit. Fortunately the world/s they occupy are full of fascination of both the biological and technological varieties and there's a complex and fast moving plot. So whilst I didn't feel a great emotional investment in any of the characters, I was very interested in reading what happened to them.

The u...more

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Dec 03, 2010 Jason Kelley rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you like action packed sci fi with cool tech, innovative ideas, sailboats, and genetic mutations, then The Skinner is for you. Asher has a whole pile of books he's written. A lot of which are set in his Polity universe. I'm very excited about reading more of his stories. My only complaint, and this is minor, the story gets a little loose at the end. Just a little, really, just a little. Can't exactly place my finger on it. But still a kick ass read.

Another guy for Betsey to check out.

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Jan 07, 2010 Glshade rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great stand alone story set in a world hostile to humanity in a way that it forces humanity to change to adapt to it... to become better to survive on this new world. On Spatterjay there is a virus carried by its natives that can make a human effectively immortal but does not leave them truly human. In this tale of discovery a character that is not much more then an animated corpse becomes something much more and a psychopath gets to haunt the characters... its a great setting that cou...more

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About Neal Asher

I’ve been an engineer, barman, skip lorry driver, coalman, boat window manufacturer, contract grass cutter and builder. Now I write science fiction books, and am slowly getting over the feeling that someone is going to find me out, and can call myself a writer without wincing and ducking my head. As professions go, I prefer this one: I don’t have to clock-in, change my clothes after work, nor scru...more

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“Satisfaction, for us, is only a brief thing. The man who acquires wealth does not reach a point where he has enough. Success for us is more like acceleration than speed. Interest cannot be maintained at a constant level.” — 4 people liked it

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The Skinner (Spatterjay #1)

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