The Engineer ReConditioned by Neal Asher

Polity Universe (chronological)

by Neal Asher

Mysterious aliens, ruthless terrorists, androids with attitude, genetic manipulation, punch-ups with lasers and giant spaceships! What more do you want?Reprint of The Engineer with three additional stories.The EngineeSnairls Spatterjay Jable Sharks The ThrakeProctors The OwnerThe Torbeast's Prison Tiger TigerThe Gurnard

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Anthologies, Hard Science Fiction

Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

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 scrub sensitive parts of my body with detergent. I think I’ll hang around.

Source: http://www.blogger.com/profile/139339...

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone has a white whale of reading. An El Dorado in paper and ink that they seek, usually fruitlessly, across the many books they read, whether they even know it or not.

Maybe it’s a novel that makes you feel so much, that you tear up. Maybe a story that expands your mind so much that you can only mouth a silent ‘wow’ when you turn the last page. Maybe you, like me, are looking for an epic novel in an awe inspiring setting that also makes you laugh – my personal white whale.

Anyway, I have a couple of unlikely treasures I seek in my reading, and when I finished The Engineer Reconditioned I knew I had found one of my personal grails, that most rare of things - A science fiction short story collection with no duds. No bum notes. Not even a merely average story, one of the anaemic but still serviceable filler tales of the sort so frequently tacked onto compilation books.

Every story in this collection is solid. Every story.

I can’t remember the last time I encountered that in a short story collection. Usually in an average collection there are flashes of brilliance, a handful of good stories and one or two whose weakness stinks the whole collection up - the long-dead fish under the floorboards of an otherwise lovely home.

From page one, Asher inducts his reader into fascinating universes. The first two stories here are connected to Asher’s ‘Polity’ universe – a world I’m now very keen to explore in his novels.

The first story, The Engineer, is very cool. It’s big SF, with gigantic dreadnoughts, ancient alien races, and the highest of stakes. It has the feel of golden age SF about it, but with a modern sensibility and some damn fine writing behind it. It’s a bloody good story, and well worth your time.

Snairls is as completely different to The Engineer as could be, a story set on a gigantic floating snail populated with gene-modified people who we see from the view of a man who has been indentured to a hive-mind comprised of garden-variety hornets. It’s weird, gross and intriguing all at the same time.

Following from this, Spatterjay is another riot of biological weirdness that takes place in a different one of Asher’s regular settings, a strange world infested with symbiotic parasites that alter everything they come into contact with. We follow a crew of semi-humans who sail a deadly sea with a baseline human researcher trying to understand how they can survive in such a hostile place.

Three of the final four stories are set in Asher’s ‘Owner’ universe – on a world that is owned and controlled by a being who has reached a superior plane of existence – a man who has become almost a god. This man has allowed humans to live on his world, but only if they follow several simple rules, banning them from entering certain places, hunting certain beasts, over-exploiting resources or growing their population beyond a certain number. Should these rules be broken the Owner’s automatons dish out brutal correction, and the interplay between the capriciousness and greed of humanity and the owners rules make for a very interesting backdrop to a trio of fascinating and entertaining stories.

This isn’t to say this is a perfect collection, that every story is a masterpiece. The Tor Beast’s Prison isn’t quite as strong as the others, but it’s still a fine story, told tightly and well, in a way that grabs you and keeps you guessing. In a lesser collection it would rank somewhere in the middle, but it’s the weaker gazelle in this flock of limber, lithe antelope.

Dipping briefly into Asher’s fully realized worlds - worlds he has devoted multiple entire novels to - is great fun, and filled me with a delicious sense of anticipation. It felt kind of like reading Alistair Reynold’s Galactic North, without having read any of his novels. The short stories here give you a taste of an amazing universe, followed by the realization that you have several fantastic full length novels to enjoy in the same vein – the faintly buzzing future echoes of hours of reading pleasure carrying back to the present.

Neal Asher is a hell of a storyteller. I’m very keen to explore the rest of his work, and if it’s of as high a quality as the stories in The Engineer Reconditioned then I think I may have a new go-to writer, the kind of author whose books both relax and elate you when you open their covers – both from the knowledge you are in safe hands and the certainty that those hands will show you a hell of a good time.

Now that I’ve found a near-perfect SF short story compilation I really only have one task left to me. All that remains for me to do before retiring from reading is to find an SF novel with the scope of Dune, the imagination of Hyperion and the wit of Iain M. Banks – when I’ve found that my quest for the best in Science Fiction will be complete. I’m hoping it will take many years and hundreds of books, numerous of which I expect to have been written by Neal Asher.

Five white whales out of five.

[Stevie Kincade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neal Asher is really damn good at creating aliens. There are a variety of interesting aliens in this collection and none of them are Prador!

I had heard that if you don't like Asher's early stuff to stick with him as he is one of those writers who get better with every book. Reading this collection of his short stories (and first novella) immediately after the brilliant Prador Moon raised my expectations for Asher into the stratosphere.

I LOVED the novella "The Engineer". I found it to be so clear and cinematic, devoid of any fluff. If I ever had the discipline to sit down and try and write a screenplay I would go with "The Engineer" because after reading it I can see the movie so clearly in my mind. The Jain are a fascinating species, I expect nothing less from Asher.

So having loved The Engineer so much I was ready for Gridlinked to rock my world. I think though at this early stage of Asher's writing he was better and more focused in the short format where I found "Gridlinked" to amble on a bit.

"Spatterjay" is one of my favorite short stories of all time. Asher incorporates biology into his fiction as brilliantly as Stephen Baxter does physics. Must avoid spoilers while convincing you to read...can't do it but trust me this is awesome! Made me want to skip straight to "The Skinner" and the Spatterjay trilogy but I am one of those people who have to read things in order.

There are 3 separate "Owner" short stories that have the same twist. I found this to be a fascinating insight into Asher's writing process. How he refines and tells the same story in a different way. The Owner universe feels alive and rich with ideas, an excellent series of short stories. I am sure when I read the novels I will be ready for "the twist" having read it 3 times.

Another great, original alien appears in "The Tor Beast" a time travel story that forms the basis of stand alone novel "Cowl".

The rest of the short stories were in the "good" range, to round out an excellent collection. I still recommend people to start with "Prador Moon" but this was a great "second introduction" to the world of Neal Asher.

In the introduction Asher says "I am a classic overnight success, ie that night was over 20 years long". He describes writing for 5 years before getting his first story published, only for that magazine to immediately fold. He says "Writing is hard. Getting published is hard, and if you want easy money your best bet is to become an estate agent". Thankfully for the book reading public that persistence paid off. I became such an instant fan I have over 12 Neal Asher novels here on my "too read table" and I consider NA to be one of my favourite authors.

[spikeINflorida · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of novellas and short stories; the first two-thirds are great fun and give you a peak into Asher's early ideas that would later spawn novels. As with the trilogy of the same name, the short story SPATTERJAY was my favorite. The last third are disappointing duds.

NOTE: My mass market Cosmos 2006 edition has a seriously fucked up CONTENTS listing. Some short stories are not listed and start abruptly with no space or title; therefore, I have listed page numbers so you won't go insane on the membrane like I did.

THE ENGINEER (10): ☆☆☆☆
SNAIRLS (114): ☆☆☆
SPATTERJAY (132): ☆☆☆☆☆
THE SEA FAGE (151): ☆☆☆☆
THE THRAKE or PAUL THE ORBANNAI (165): ☆☆☆☆
PROCTORS (185): ☆☆☆☆
THE OWNER (218): ☆☆
THE TOR-BEAST'S PRISON (260): ☆☆
TIGER TIGER (274): ☆☆
THE GURNARD (290): ☆☆

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Engineer Reconditioned is a collection of short stories by sci-fi author Neal Asher, some in his popular Polity Universe, some not. One thing for sure is that it's well worth reading. Here's what's contained in this great collection:

The Engineer - 8/10
The Engineer is the title novella in this collection and is a story about the discovery of a stasis pod that turns out to hold a Jain, an ancient race that is been extinct for millions of years. The story follows the science ship as it discovers the pod, a Polity dreadnought as it attempts to reach the science ship, and a group of mercenaries totally against any alien life and want to destroy the Jain and anyone that has had contact with it.
If you've read any of Neal's other novels you'll know that the Jain are a highly advanced species, and one that has held quite a bit of interest for many within the human domain. The story itself is enjoyable, starting off at a slow pace when the discovery is made and follows through with an interesting and action packed finale. I think this is a story to read if you're familiar with Neal's previous novels set in the Polity, but not one for newcomers as it does throw you in at the deep end when it comes to prior knowledge of the setting, although some aspects have small explanations.

Snairls - 7/10
Another Polity story, and one focusing on a character we know from The Skinner: Janer. He's still indentured to the hornet hive mind in this one and it's a look at another weird alien creation from Neal. It's not too long, but is Neal through and through, although it contains no action as such.

Spatterjay - 9/10
This is a short story that I really recommend as an intro to the Spatterjay series (The Skinner, Voyage of the Sable Keech, Orbus). It has Erlin, a character from The Skinner, in and we also get to encounter the Skinner himself. It's a great little story and one of the highlights of the collection.

Jable Sharks - 7/10
Another weird one from Neal, but I couldn't be sure if its Polity or not. It sounds like a Spatterjay based story, but clearly isn't, although it is set on a boat and features a creature from the sea. A nice little ending rounds it off as a solid entry.

The Thrake - 7/10
This is one of Neal's stories that has religion as one of the central themes, and I must admit that I do quite like it. It has that 'I'm right because I'm religious' feel to it and the central character always finds ways to justify what he sees as a sign of sentience and religion when the scientists actually know the truth, but he just refuses to believe them.

Proctors - 10/10
Here's the first of three Owner stories in this collection, and probably my favourite stuff Neal has ever done. This one introduces the idea of the Owner and his Proctors which enforce his rules on his planets. The setting is not a high tech one, more like mid-20th century tech in a low population world. One of his rules is that the population of the planet is to not go above a certain amount and when it does the Proctors turn killers to bring the population back down to the required level - one of the reasons they are feared so much. The story follows a couple of groups of activists that go searching for a spaceship that has been seen to land near their town, the first group wanting it for themselves and the second in an attempt to stop them. I love this one!

The Owner - 10/10
The second Owner story and another gem in the collection. This one follows a widow and her daughter with her servant and son while they try to escape those that want to kill them. A code of honour on how they can be challenge is evident from the start and when they meet a new companion, the Daybreak Warrior, the story shifts a gear and more of the Owner's history is revealed. Once again I loved this story and have no issues with it in any way, very, very highly recommended.

The Torbeast's Prison 6/10
This story is related to Neal's novel, Cowl. It's a time travelling story following one man as he shifts from tiem to time trying to escape his inevitable destiny. There's a nice twist to the tale, but ultimately I found it to be the weakest on offer here.

Tiger Tiger - 10/10
The third and final Owner story in the collection. This one is more focused on one of the Owner's rules on the planet: 'Man must not kill tiger and tiger will not kill man.' However, a tiger is killed and many of the residents in the village are fearful of the retribution that will come. Again, Neal has developed a deeper history of the Owner and done so in a great and very interesting way. There are some nice little revelations about the characters and the twist in the tale is not overly unexpected, but brings about a very satisfying conclusion.

The Gurnard - 7/10
The final story in the collection is another looking at religion, but also bring in one of Neal's staples to his writing - alien organism's. There is also a character from Neal's novels here - Erlin - who is studying the gurnard of the title and the religion that has grown around it. It's an interesting story and gives a good look at what the less developed cultures of the Polity are like, especially those around religion. Erlin's perspective is a good addition and made the story worthwhile, at least from the point of view of getting explanations to the central plot.

Conclusion
While The Engineer ReConditioned is a good collection, it's because of three stories that I consider this to be a must-have for any sci-fi fan - The Owner stories. I can't stress enough how amazing I find them and I rate them as my all time favourites. Really, they are that good. Don't get me wrong, the rest of the stories present here will be great for anyone who is familiar to Neal's writing, most of them very accessible to those new to Neal Asher, but it's because of the Owner ones that this totally unmissable.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story behind the publication of this book is quite complicated. The original book, The Engineer, was first published in 1998 by Tanjen Books. Unfortunately, as is often the way, the small press publisher disappeared almost immediately and the story collection has become rather hard to get since.

Of course, since then Neal has hit it big time, going onto novels such as Gridlinked (2001), The Skinner (2002), The Line of Polity (2003), Cowl (2004), Brass Man (2005), The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Prador Moon (2006), and greater critical acclaim.

As a recent convert to Neal’s more modern work (EDIT: Or at least I was in 2006!), I thought it would be quite interesting to revisit some of Neal’s earlier labours. And so, appropriately, has appeared The Engineer Reconditioned, which includes not only the original Engineer novella (taking up the first ninety or so pages of this book), and the short stories originally included in the Engineer collection, but also three more not in the original collection, adding about another forty pages to the book.

With all of that in mind, is Neal’s earlier work worth a revisit?

Well: a conditional Yes, (if not a reconditional one!). I found the book a quick but worthwhile read.

These early stories fill in some of the back history mentioned in Neal’s later books. Though there are future histories not covered in the longer novels here, you can visit Neal’s early stories about The Polity, meet for the first time The Jain, (early back-story characters, mentioned in later books), go to Spatterjay (the planet where the events of The Skinner and The Voyage of the Sable Keech take place), and examine the early beginnings of the runcible on interstellar travel (explained further in Gridlinked and other Polity novels).

A lot of the things I liked in the later books are glimpsed here: Neal’s now-trademarks of violence, technology, sassy AI, pirates, regressed societies and nasty creatures (as well as some unusual ones) are all here. There is Alien-style exploration to places and things unknown. There’s even alien sex. The stories are stridently old-style SF, written with Neal’s now recognisable fast pace and obviously with a view for entertainment rather than any deeper concept.

I enjoyed meeting some of the characters of later books in their earlier incarnations. Of course, being in short stories means that some of the depth and deeper elements of the later books are not as apparent here; but there are signs of where Neal was going. The stories include characters we meet later, such as Erlin and Janer from The Skinner and The Voyage of the Sable Keech, though not always in the same story; so too some of the exotic alien lifeforms – giant leeches, rhinoworms, catadapts, lung birds and Golems.

There is also another universe that Neal has developed here that I’ve never come across before but hope Neal will visit again. His ‘Owner’ universe is an intriguing place, and one which is (as far as I know) only in this collection. The Owner is a superhuman God-like figure who visits worlds, uplifts them and then revisits at a later date. Think Gordon R Dickson’s Way of the Pilgrim mixed in with a touch of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but with lots of Neal’s flourishes.

The whole package is completed with some nice introductions from Neal, explaining how and when the stories got published, what he was trying to achieve and so on.

However, (and to be fair Neal is very clear on this in his specially written introduction to the book), they are early stories. Neal is still, here in mainly 1998, developing his craft. Some of the action covers up plotholes, which would’ve been more obvious with a slower pace or greater depth and the dialogue is in places, frankly, a little clunky compared with later efforts. Some stories seem to finish without a satisfactory conclusion. The extra stories are a welcome addition.

On balance though, this was a very satisfying read. Summing up, this is perhaps a good place to try Neal’s work if you’re new to his writing. It gives you a great flavour of his likes and dislikes and his style. If they whet your appetite, then the longer novels such as Gridlinked or The Skinner will be the place to go next. If you are a fan, you will be very pleased to fill some of the gaps and earlier concepts revisited in later books. The Engineer Reconditioned is a very welcome reappearance of earlier material. With that condition, recommended.

[Ren the Unclean · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general, these short stories are not as polished and well realized as Asher's full length novels, but some of them are still very awesome. The Engineer, The Tor-Beast's Prison, and The Gurnard are my faves, in that order.

The organization of this volume is garbage. The stories are broken up randomly. Sometimes by an interlude from the author and a bold print heading, other times only by two regular line breaks. Even the table of contents doesn't list the stories correctly.

I feel like going through each one, for my own reference:
The Engineer: This is the titular story, the longest story, and is probably among the strongest. It has a lot of Jain stuff, which is mentioned in other Asher books I have read, but not explored to this depth.
It is followed by a shorter story that may(?) be tied into The Engineer about Janer from The Skinner exploring a strange alien shell beast.

Spatterjay: I think the first story in this sequence is retold in The Skinner, as I already knew the story. Basically it is about Captain Ambel hunting for the Skinner. The rest of these don't seem to actually take place on Spatterjay.
The second story matches the tone of a Spatterjay story, as it is mostly about messed up creatures from the sea destroying the crew of a ship. Interesting enough.
The third story is more xenobiology mixed with theology. It is about what is basically a missionary who has come to a world to convert an alien species. This story is pretty weird.

The Owner: I don't know as much about this setting; I don't think there is a full length novel on it. It is sort of a wild west type world with a super powered cybernetic being watching over it.
The first story is sort of a police investigation drama at the beginning and a chase/gunfight at the end capped with a deus ex deus. This setting, with the Owner and his Proctors, is pretty interesting, though not much is covered in these short stories.
The world in the second story seems lower tech (dart-like guns instead of rockets) and feudalistic. Political refuges on the run from the government. The world is interesting, but I didn't find much I liked in the story itself.

Tor-Beast: Only one story in this setting, but it is one of the better ones in the book. This is the Cowl universe, so it covers time travel and Tor-Beast scales, but it also has a gravitic prison that is powered by its prisoner feeding on the life force of random people throughout time. This story is pretty mind bending and cool. Worth reading twice.

Tiger Tiger: This is actually an Owner story, but the book split it up. The tech in this story is even further regressed from the other two. Spears mainly. All three Owner stories taken as a whole are more interesting than each individually, and this one is the weakest.

The Gurnard: This should probably have been put in the Spatterjay section, as it is about alien ecosystems again. This one is pretty interesting; it manages to explore a complicated symbiotic relationship between alien life and the humans living on a planet while also being an indictment against blind faith! Nice work Neal!

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friend insisted I needed to read Neal Asher because I'm a... Parasite enthusiast...? And he was right, too. Asher's aliens are all pretty cool-weird, though, not just the parasites among them.

The collection contains stories from several of the author's novel 'verses, so I know for sure which one I want to read next.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rated just for The Gurnard, read on StarShipSofa #205. I absolutely love Neal Asher's alien ecologies, and this story has that on display, including the gritty violence and grim characters sporting "unpleasant" smiles I associate with his writing.

[Tom Oinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of short stories with Neal Asher's trademark edge to them. Unlike, say, the owner trilogy, this never goes too far though and while parasites are a recurring theme they're interesting and cleverly nasty rather than simply unpleasant.

The stories in the collection are mostly ones which were never published due to quirks of circumstance, and if, like me, you've read pretty much everything else he's written you'll find many of them to fill in backstory or to slot neatly into other series (the Spatterjay leeches make an appearance as does the mysterious Jain). Well worth a read.

[Mya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have given this book 4 1/2 stars but it didn't grant me the option. A stunning collection of short stories based on popular Asher universes, I really enjoyed it but there is a sense of rough draft in two of the stories that leads me to believe that it was unfinished. Still to sate the Asher hunger, I found tales of the Polity, SpatterJay and even Owner stories highly entertaining.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others noted, this book appears to have been assembled by someone wearing a blindfold and boxing gloves. Mid-book, one of the stories ends and another starts without a break - not so much as a subhead or italics.

If you overlook that, it's good stuff. A couple of the stories drew me right in, a couple left me as more of an observer. But overall, a good read with some fresh ideas.

[Dean Deters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first taste of Neal Asher, and I'm eager to read more. This collection of short stories was a good way to dip my feet in. He has some interesting ideas about colonization of planets, and some fun aliens to make them realistic.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A string of short stories that are m,ore or less related, and up to the usual gory, scary monster standard of Asher. A diverting read.

[“Gideon” Dave Newell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This creative collection of short stories by Neal Asher will provide an excellent introduction to his work for those unfamiliar with it, as the standalone stories cover his favorite themes and strengths: high-intensity action, richly described alien biologies, villainous religious cults, and much violence. Returning readers will also be rewarded by references and tie-ins to his other future histories, The Polity, and The Owner universes.

The title novella, 'The Engineer', deserves special attention due to its length and polish. A Polity story, it tells of the discovery of an ancient alien escape pod by a science vessel who manage to revive the advanced being within. News of the discovery brings attention from various factions and soon a classic Asher full-scale conflict erupts. I was a little surprised by the altruism and bio-centric technology of the Jain alien in this story, having only the example from Asher's "Orbus" novel to compare with, but as is clearly shown with the various human factions in the Polity stories, species and societies are more diverse that any single specimen would illustrate.

The three "Owner" stories shared a common plot device for their climaxes, so I won't spoil them with a description, other than to say I would have appreciated a more varied 'reveal' in the stories chosen to accompany one another in a collection. Taken individually, all three are thrilling and wholly engaging stories that bring a low-tech fantasy element to Asher's SF which I hadn't seen before.

My favorite story in the collection, "Spatterjay" is probably the most dependent on a familiarity with Asher's other novels, in this case the Polity trilogy of the same title, as it deals with a setting and characters so vividly colorful that they are difficult to absorb in so few pages. It serves as a prequel to those novels, and even more so than any of the other stories in the collection it brings some wild alien biology to life for the reader- a whole ecology in fact!

The other five stories here each have interesting aspects, but can be grouped and summarized by saying they revolve around unique alien biological oddities which are expanded and extrapolated into skeletons on which to hang a brief story. Interpersonal drama, tension, and subtlety are not really to be found here, but imaginative and intense moments of action will make them memorable for most readers, I believe.

[Psychophant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ten years ago I would have given more points. Even two years ago it might have scored 4. But after reading most of Asher's novels this collection of short stories seems dated, repetitive and less polished.

Yet, I give the book one extra star because of its own interest tracing the genesis of Asher's different universes and tropes, and how some of his great themes were there already from the start.

Another problem is that Asher's ambitious plots and settings are not well suited to the short story format, as it requires space to grow and present itself.

The best part of reading this book is that it made me reread Spatterjay, a good novel.

[Tim Poston · Rating 4 out of 5]

What more do I want?

Mysterious aliens, ruthless terrorists, androids with attitude, genetic manipulation, punch-ups with lasers and giant spaceships are all very well, but some decent proof reading would be nice. Most egregious, missing paragraph breaks across a change in point of view! Produced as a large 'trade paperback', typesetting good where algorithms are enough, but the publisher skimped on humans. Eheu fugaces!

[Andrée · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still reading this as short stories are handy bed time reading - less risk of reading myself back into wakefulness.
I'm enjoying them.
They remind me of Ursula Le Guin stories i.e. very foreign/alien with questions about what it means to be 'human'

Not physically a quality book but not an issue at 50p!

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early and new stories, with additional commentary about each story from Neal Asher. The stories touch on both the Polity and Cowl universes and introduce (to me, at least) the Owner universe.

[mister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories by my favorite author. I normally don't like short stories, but these rock. I love Neil Asher!

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Asher's short stories, including several from his Polity universe. I greatly enjoyed all of them, and would hope some day to read more of his "Owner" setting.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book of short stories. Recommended if you've read any other of Asher's stories.

[Gareth Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

a nice mix, some were brilliant, some were just good, i thought it was better than his other short story collection

[Tim Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun bunch of short stories. They are well written and imaginative. Not really for the squeamish who are bothered by reading things about parasites or creepy-crawlies, though.

[Zen · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far.....OK
A bit of a clunky, funky writing style but I'm getting through it.

1. The Engineer

Started a bit slow for the first 40 pages but once it got rollin' it was a lot of fun.

It's amazing how often NA was pulling ideas from the oeuvre of sci-fi. Some of them recent. Some of them from the 'Classic' days of pulp magazine sci-fi. Yet it never comes off as sounding cliché, which makes for a good read. It even kept me on the edge of my seat for a bit.

I admit I did laugh out loud when Jane said: "I can be repaired." I won't tell you why because that would be a spoiler. Just read it yourself.

One complaint though. The story ends and then NA adds an extra 17 pages onto the end. It has different characters and plot features unconnected to the story just told. I read somewhere there is a whole universe of novels and that this short story acts as a prequel for them. There is no division marks or even a title like 'appendix' separating the two sections and it comes off as a bit clunky. Poor editing choice there. It really doesn't add anything the the just finished story.

2. And Now The rest of The Book:

Wow! What a letdown! The rest of the "stories" in this book are not very good. They're actually not really stories though. They're vignettes, outtakes, descriptive digressions and such that should rightfully be part of a larger story. Standing alone as they do they have no literary merit.

There is some really Kool and interesting world building going on here though. Some creepy body horror and a fairly well thought out nightmarish landscape. I actually quite like it.

The problem is the "stories" all have a 'wash, rinse, recycle' sameness to them. There are no unique, interesting characters, no challenging plot points or any indication of character motive or story progression.

Everything from one story to another, the characters, plot points and etc. are all interchangeable. There is a basic feeling of 'Blah!' about them. They all started to melt together and it became a chore to finish the book.

3. Why only 2 stars?

The construction, editing and general layout of this book is an amateurish mess. The creators of this dog should be ashamed of themselves. At times a new story will start after a paragraph break, with no title or indication you're reading a new story. Minus 1 full star for lack of effort. Utter rubbish!

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone except fans of NA who want to slog through this unprofessional crap.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made of note of this author because my son-in-law Rodney was reading a book my him. This one is the only one the NC Digital library had I could read for free and is series of short stories. Spoilers! First they are on a spaceship and found a sphere with a frozen creature inside. The creature is so advanced it can create clones of people and modify them to withstand harmful environments. The separatists send a space ship to destroy the creature but the creature flees to a nearby planet with the help of the scientists that found it. The ensuing battle causes a couple of the scientists to be caught in a nuclear attack but the creature repairs them and makes them better. They decide to stay with the creature for further scientific study. I wasn't expecting this to be a short novella but it suddenly ended. The next one "Snairl" was about a character riding on a genetically engineered creature/craft made of flesh, etc. This one seemed to be mainly about reproduction of the creature etc and featured a hornet that allowed him to communicate with a central hornet intelligence. The next one "SpatterJay" was about a jungle type island environment with giant leeches and the search for provisions. Then Jable Sharks a nautical story with a murderous mollusk type of shape changing creature brought on board in the belly of a shark. All of the stories are typical sci-fi other-world short stories usually featuring some sort of parasite. The stories even though weird were engaging and kept my interest. I may have to see what else he has written.

[Alex Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably my first foray into 'proper' space-opera style format, and these being short stories of already established 'worlds' that the author has built and expanded on, it tends to throw you right into the thick of things.
For a newcomer like me, it's not always a smooth shift between these worlds/universes, and there were a few occasions when things were so alien from the get-go that I almost gave up on particular stories, only to eventually find myself immersed in every single one not long after.

I can now attest that Neal Asher has a very unique and imaginative mind, with a writing style that is able to complement his worlds and alien narrative in a fairly compelling manner.
And what's more, he doesn't hold back and doesn't play it safe, making this pure adult entertainment that's free of the fluff often found in YA yarns.

On a side note, this specific paperback edition is a bit of a mess.
Only half the stories are mentioned in the Contents page, with new stories simply beginning a couple of line breaks after one of the main stories, and with no title to signify these are indeed, different stories.
It was very confusing, until I looked into this online and discovered that others noticed this gaffe as well.
There were also many typos to be found.
And yet, none of these things truly spoiled my enjoyment of this collection. And that's saying a lot.

[Marcel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of short stories. Especially 'The Engineer' is brilliant.

I would have given this 5 stars if it hadn't included a number of stories from the Owner 'universe' which I personally - across the board - find badly executed. Any story from the Owner universe seems to lack everything that makes stories from the Polity universe so excellent. Even if they weren't so bad that one might be tempted to think they are from a different author - not sure what happened there - the underlying premise and worldbuilding just don't work for more than a single short story at most... I certainly won't ready any other...

But The Engineer, Spatterjay, Jable Sharks and Snairls are so excellent fun that it's certainly worth getting this book.

[Maya White · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of stories. No question, the best is the title story for the collection, The Engineer Reconditioned. It was imaginative, but the prose was definitely self-indulgent. It's a defect of all of the stories in this collection. The author uses archaic terms and scientific terms when simpler language is possible. This appears to be an exercise at times in trying to sound literary. At other times, to impress the reader with the author's vocabulary. In either case, it snaps the reader momentarily out of the story. The Kindle version is poorly edited. There are typos and misspellings.

[Kenneth Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of short stories that span Mr. Asher's career. Some have been published elsewhere and a couple are new to this book.

I quite like Mr. Asher's style of writing, but I find the short stories a bit predictable at times, such that I had discerned the big reveal long before it happened. That said there is still plenty to entertain character wise that will keep you engaged in the story.

If I could change one thing, I would get rid of the author's notes at the beginning. I found they added nothing to my experience of the stories and in some cases contributed to spoiling the reveal within the story.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published 2006. This was a paperback edition by Cosmo Books/Wildside Press which was a bit strange in its arrangement and left on story (at the end) totally off its contents page.
The book is essentially early Asher and his attempts to get published with short stories. Now some of these contain sections very familiar in later works (some verbaitim) along with characters in less complicated plots for the most part.
Its ok for a look see of Asher before he really hit his stride but you'll miss the convoluted and complicated plotting of his later works.