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Transformation #1
Dark Intelligence
"Dark Intelligence is the first novel in the Transformation series, a no-holds-barred adventure set in Neal Asher's popular Polity universe.
One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed . . .
Thorvald Spear wakes in hospital, where he finds he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war which ended a whole century ago. But when he relives his traumatic final moments, he finds the spark to keep on living. That spark is vengeance. Trapped and desperate on a world surrounded by alien Prador forces, Spear had seen a rescue ship arriving. But instead of providing backup, Penny Royal, the AI within the destroyer turned rogue. It annihilated friendly forces in a frenzy of destruction, and, years later, it's still free. Spear vows to track it across worlds and do whatever it takes to bring it down.
Isobel Satomi ran a successful crime syndicate. But after competitors attacked, she needed more power. Yet she got more than she bargained for when she negotiated with Penny Royal. She paid it to turn her part-AI herself, but the upgrades hid a horrifying secret. The Dark AI had triggered a transformation in Isobel that would turn her into a monster, rapidly evolving into something far from human.
Spear hires Isobel to take him to the Penny Royal AI's last known whereabouts. But he cheats her in the process and he becomes a target for her vengeance. And as she is evolves further into a monstrous predator, rage soon wins over reason. Will Spear finish his hunt, before he becomes the hunted?"
One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed . . .
Thorvald Spear wakes in hospital, where he finds he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war which ended a whole century ago. But when he relives his traumatic final moments, he finds the spark to keep on living. That spark is vengeance. Trapped and desperate on a world surrounded by alien Prador forces, Spear had seen a rescue ship arriving. But instead of providing backup, Penny Royal, the AI within the destroyer turned rogue. It annihilated friendly forces in a frenzy of destruction, and, years later, it's still free. Spear vows to track it across worlds and do whatever it takes to bring it down.
Isobel Satomi ran a successful crime syndicate. But after competitors attacked, she needed more power. Yet she got more than she bargained for when she negotiated with Penny Royal. She paid it to turn her part-AI herself, but the upgrades hid a horrifying secret. The Dark AI had triggered a transformation in Isobel that would turn her into a monster, rapidly evolving into something far from human.
Spear hires Isobel to take him to the Penny Royal AI's last known whereabouts. But he cheats her in the process and he becomes a target for her vengeance. And as she is evolves further into a monstrous predator, rage soon wins over reason. Will Spear finish his hunt, before he becomes the hunted?"
402 pages, Hardcover
First published January 29, 2015
440 people are currently reading
6742 people want to read
About the author
Neal Asher
139 books3,062 followersI’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...
Source: http://www.blogger.com/profile/139339...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 460 reviews
December 14, 2016
Beautiful artwork by Jon Sullivan.
I wasn't sure I was going to finish this book at first. I was confused as to what was going on in the beginning. I'm not all together sure I still understand it but as the story moves on I figured some things out.
If your wanting a really dark sci-fi read then this one is for you.
There are these octopus type aliens called the Prador that either eat you or do other horrific things to you.
You have rogue AI's that do some really messed up stuff to you! And the number one evil AI dude thing is called Penny Royal.
Thorvald Spear is the main character in the book. He was brought back from a century ago because they CAN do that if you have things set up. Now Spear is on a mission to take down Penny Royal, but will he?
Spear also hires Isobel and her two man crew. Isobel was stupid enough to make a deal with Penny Royal to do some (lets just say) augmentations to her. Yeah...............
Either way, I'm going to read the next book and hope I can continue to keep up in this world.
Once again, I think all hard core sci-fi peeps will like this one!
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
I wasn't sure I was going to finish this book at first. I was confused as to what was going on in the beginning. I'm not all together sure I still understand it but as the story moves on I figured some things out.
If your wanting a really dark sci-fi read then this one is for you.
There are these octopus type aliens called the Prador that either eat you or do other horrific things to you.
You have rogue AI's that do some really messed up stuff to you! And the number one evil AI dude thing is called Penny Royal.
Thorvald Spear is the main character in the book. He was brought back from a century ago because they CAN do that if you have things set up. Now Spear is on a mission to take down Penny Royal, but will he?
Spear also hires Isobel and her two man crew. Isobel was stupid enough to make a deal with Penny Royal to do some (lets just say) augmentations to her. Yeah...............
Either way, I'm going to read the next book and hope I can continue to keep up in this world.
Once again, I think all hard core sci-fi peeps will like this one!
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
May 10, 2023
When it comes to Neal Asher I'm like those ladies in the black and white videos screaming for Elvis and the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. I can't tell you how much I love him. Another great book expanding on what is already a vast universe.
Reread 2023= even better the second time around.
Reread 2023= even better the second time around.
October 14, 2018
This is easily the best Asher novel I've read. I'm kinda surprised.
I mean, between Pennyroyal and the whole hooder transformation, with so much body horror, memory modifications, and the multiple-revenge storylines with all these characters clashing against each other, I was blown away.
Most of the other Asher novels had big action, flashy action, and a plethora of great ideas, but the characters were often hitting the level of interesting or adequate. There was something cartoonish about them.
Not this. I loved this. Every single character felt like an ensemble cast all converging upon something really awesome and hardcore... and it delivers. :) These AIs are MESSED UP. :)
Two thumbs up! :) :)
I mean, between Pennyroyal and the whole hooder transformation, with so much body horror, memory modifications, and the multiple-revenge storylines with all these characters clashing against each other, I was blown away.
Most of the other Asher novels had big action, flashy action, and a plethora of great ideas, but the characters were often hitting the level of interesting or adequate. There was something cartoonish about them.
Not this. I loved this. Every single character felt like an ensemble cast all converging upon something really awesome and hardcore... and it delivers. :) These AIs are MESSED UP. :)
Two thumbs up! :) :)
March 3, 2016
I have seen these Asher/Polity books around for years but never felt compelled to give them a go. For whatever reason the blurb for this book caught my attention and I was able to jump on a digital library loan quickly. This ended up as a pretty solid four star read for me with some cool sci/fi ideas and interesting characters. Although this was my first read in the Polity universe, I never felt completely lost but do regret not trying some other titles so that I had a more complete feel for the world.
Two primary POVs, Thorvald Spear and Isobel Satomi with several secondary characters to drive the story. You also have the third main character in the story, the rogue black AI known as Penny Royal but until the very end of the story, most of the contact with this AI is through the secondary characters. Part of the fun for me was trying to figure out the meaning behind the actions of Penny Royal. Asher does a pretty good job of keeping that mystery intact throughout the story.
Thorvald Spear(love that name) and Isobel Satomi both have had run-ins with Penny Royal in the past and the story starts out as revenge/action but then adds the mystery element as you try to piece together the thread that ties these characters together. I enjoyed the way Asher used these three characters to examine some questions that might arise in the future when you think about AI and what it means to be human.
Vague? Damn right. Part of the joy in this book was stumbling along trying to figure out what was going on so I think you should do the same. If you like moderately hard sci/fi or AI stories or just like a decent mystery I think you will enjoy this book. It certainly made me want to go back and check out more of the books in this world.
Two primary POVs, Thorvald Spear and Isobel Satomi with several secondary characters to drive the story. You also have the third main character in the story, the rogue black AI known as Penny Royal but until the very end of the story, most of the contact with this AI is through the secondary characters. Part of the fun for me was trying to figure out the meaning behind the actions of Penny Royal. Asher does a pretty good job of keeping that mystery intact throughout the story.
Thorvald Spear(love that name) and Isobel Satomi both have had run-ins with Penny Royal in the past and the story starts out as revenge/action but then adds the mystery element as you try to piece together the thread that ties these characters together. I enjoyed the way Asher used these three characters to examine some questions that might arise in the future when you think about AI and what it means to be human.
Vague? Damn right. Part of the joy in this book was stumbling along trying to figure out what was going on so I think you should do the same. If you like moderately hard sci/fi or AI stories or just like a decent mystery I think you will enjoy this book. It certainly made me want to go back and check out more of the books in this world.
February 9, 2016
Neal Asher and his Polity series has been floating around for a while, but I had read mixed reviews and was never overly interested. However, the first book in his latest series was another Audible sale, so generally willing to give a new space opera a chance, I went ahead and downloaded it.
Dark Intelligence is a rather grimdark space opera full of big ideas: deadly AIs, planet-busting spaceships, ancient alien civilizations, hellaciously destructive weapons, obsessive protagonists and antagonists, and massive amounts of grotesque violence. It's a bit like the Expanse series with more gore (and the Expanse series is not exactly light on gore), or something by Peter F. Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds but bloodier and darker. (Neal Asher, it turns out, is also a British SF author. They do seem to be fonder of modern-day retellings of Lensmen-level space epics that have kind of gone out of style in the US.)
The main character (though only one of the POV ones) is Thorvald Spear. I can just imagine Neal Asher sitting with his writing buddies at a pub, shooting names back and forth. "So what should I call my protagonist?"
"Sigmund Fist."
"Karnak the Crusher."
"Johnny Starkiller."
"Balls McGee."
And after many rounds, he finally settles on Thorvald Spear.
Okay, that's how it happened in my imagination. So anyway, Thorvald wakes up after being "dead" for a hundred years. His last memory was of being a soldier who'd been captured by a nasty alien race called the Prador, who were at war with the human Polity. Asher's previous books in the Polity series covered the war against the Prador, and there are many references to events and characters that evidently appeared there first. I didn't find it too hard to figure out what's going on, since the Prador are standard-issue genocidal Bug-Eyed Monsters who torture and eat their enemies. In the tradition of such alien enemies from the Kzinti to the Gorn, they got their asses kicked by mankind and thereby became slightly more civilized.
Thorvald's grievance is not against his old enemy the Prador - it's against a "black AI" that controlled a Polity destroyer that turned on his side on the planet where he was fighting the Prador. When he wakes up, he learns that the AI, Penny Royal, is still around, still a fugitive from Polity justice, and causing trouble all over the galaxy. So he goes after it.
Spear isn't the only one after Penny Royal. There's also a psychopathic crime boss named Isobel Satomi, who was granted "upgrades" from Penny Royal and learned that the AI is rather like a traditional djinn in that it might grant your wish, but you usually won't like the results. There is also a Prador leader, similarly modified by Penny Royal, who wants to track it down to get some questions answered.
They all end up meeting along with several other secondary characters at a planet called Masada, in a big bloody showdown that sets Penny Royal up to be an enigmatic recurring character in what I'm sure will be more books in this series.
The mystery for much of the book was what Penny Royal was up to. Is it evil, insane, or playing some long game?
Along the way, though, there is lots and lots of evisceration, dismemberment, heads blown off, people being eaten, people being transformed into monstrous H.R. Giger-like things, and AIs threatening and trash-talking each other and every life form they meet.
This all sounds very exciting, and I was reasonably entertained, but there's one problem: when it was over, I had trouble recalling all the twists and turns and big reveals, and moreover, I didn't much care. All the characters, from Thorvald Spear to Isobel Satomi to Penny Royal, were flat, with a very limited personality range. I was most interested in the alien and AI characters, just because they were different, but really, while I appreciated the big ideas and the epic scope of the story, it was epic in a scene-by-scene kind of way ("Oh wow, she just fell to the surface of a planet from orbit and got up to keep fighting...") but without really getting me interested in the universe, which as I said, is not unlike similar ones written by Hamilton, Reynolds, or Iain Banks. And I had the same reaction I've had to those other British SF authors - interesting, creative universes with lots of scope for adventure and intrigue, but nothing that quite hooks me enough to care a lot what happens next. So I might read something else by Neal Asher, but I'm rather indifferent as far as reading the next book in this series goes.
Dark Intelligence is a rather grimdark space opera full of big ideas: deadly AIs, planet-busting spaceships, ancient alien civilizations, hellaciously destructive weapons, obsessive protagonists and antagonists, and massive amounts of grotesque violence. It's a bit like the Expanse series with more gore (and the Expanse series is not exactly light on gore), or something by Peter F. Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds but bloodier and darker. (Neal Asher, it turns out, is also a British SF author. They do seem to be fonder of modern-day retellings of Lensmen-level space epics that have kind of gone out of style in the US.)
The main character (though only one of the POV ones) is Thorvald Spear. I can just imagine Neal Asher sitting with his writing buddies at a pub, shooting names back and forth. "So what should I call my protagonist?"
"Sigmund Fist."
"Karnak the Crusher."
"Johnny Starkiller."
"Balls McGee."
And after many rounds, he finally settles on Thorvald Spear.
Okay, that's how it happened in my imagination. So anyway, Thorvald wakes up after being "dead" for a hundred years. His last memory was of being a soldier who'd been captured by a nasty alien race called the Prador, who were at war with the human Polity. Asher's previous books in the Polity series covered the war against the Prador, and there are many references to events and characters that evidently appeared there first. I didn't find it too hard to figure out what's going on, since the Prador are standard-issue genocidal Bug-Eyed Monsters who torture and eat their enemies. In the tradition of such alien enemies from the Kzinti to the Gorn, they got their asses kicked by mankind and thereby became slightly more civilized.
Thorvald's grievance is not against his old enemy the Prador - it's against a "black AI" that controlled a Polity destroyer that turned on his side on the planet where he was fighting the Prador. When he wakes up, he learns that the AI, Penny Royal, is still around, still a fugitive from Polity justice, and causing trouble all over the galaxy. So he goes after it.
Spear isn't the only one after Penny Royal. There's also a psychopathic crime boss named Isobel Satomi, who was granted "upgrades" from Penny Royal and learned that the AI is rather like a traditional djinn in that it might grant your wish, but you usually won't like the results. There is also a Prador leader, similarly modified by Penny Royal, who wants to track it down to get some questions answered.
They all end up meeting along with several other secondary characters at a planet called Masada, in a big bloody showdown that sets Penny Royal up to be an enigmatic recurring character in what I'm sure will be more books in this series.
The mystery for much of the book was what Penny Royal was up to. Is it evil, insane, or playing some long game?
Along the way, though, there is lots and lots of evisceration, dismemberment, heads blown off, people being eaten, people being transformed into monstrous H.R. Giger-like things, and AIs threatening and trash-talking each other and every life form they meet.
This all sounds very exciting, and I was reasonably entertained, but there's one problem: when it was over, I had trouble recalling all the twists and turns and big reveals, and moreover, I didn't much care. All the characters, from Thorvald Spear to Isobel Satomi to Penny Royal, were flat, with a very limited personality range. I was most interested in the alien and AI characters, just because they were different, but really, while I appreciated the big ideas and the epic scope of the story, it was epic in a scene-by-scene kind of way ("Oh wow, she just fell to the surface of a planet from orbit and got up to keep fighting...") but without really getting me interested in the universe, which as I said, is not unlike similar ones written by Hamilton, Reynolds, or Iain Banks. And I had the same reaction I've had to those other British SF authors - interesting, creative universes with lots of scope for adventure and intrigue, but nothing that quite hooks me enough to care a lot what happens next. So I might read something else by Neal Asher, but I'm rather indifferent as far as reading the next book in this series goes.
March 6, 2024
A deliciously twisty tale.
Dark Intelligence could possibly be a good entry point into the Polity Universe for new readers. Even though it references events from The Technician and The Line of Polity / Line War it carries itself well enough when read in isolation and provides just enough information for readers to fill the gaps on their own.
I would still recommend starting at the beginning and just reading all the Polity novels (it obviously makes for a more enriching and rewarding reading experience), but this might actually be a good little taster of what it’s all about.
I have to say (and I have mentioned this in one of my other Polity reviews as well), Asher is super dependable. You just know what you’re going to get, and that it’s going to be good. This time round is no exception.
Nothing is as it seems, and the author takes us on a delightfully wicked romp through the Polity Universe, encompassing different star systems and featuring a handful of colourful characters. We also get to learn more about the Prador War, and the Prador themselves, which is a bonus. In fact, one of the point-of-view characters introduced late in the novel is a Prador Father-Captain.
This could possibly be one of my favourite entries so far, which is saying a hell of a lot, since I have been enjoying the Polity novels a lot. It’s slightly leaner than some of the other entries I have read, and the pacing is impeccable, which could speak to the author having honed his craft (he has been quite prolific, which is a good thing, since these books are great).
I like the new characters as well, which is important, since this is the first in a trilogy. Highly recommended.
I also believe that this may be the first book I have read that has an actual soundtrack written for it (to listen to while reading) titled “Original Music for Neal Asher’s Dark Intelligence” by Evokescape / Steve Buick)
Bonus points if you have the edition with the Jon Sullivan cover art, it looks fantastic!
You are newborn from the furnace and about to enter Hell.
An easy 5.
Dark Intelligence could possibly be a good entry point into the Polity Universe for new readers. Even though it references events from The Technician and The Line of Polity / Line War it carries itself well enough when read in isolation and provides just enough information for readers to fill the gaps on their own.
I would still recommend starting at the beginning and just reading all the Polity novels (it obviously makes for a more enriching and rewarding reading experience), but this might actually be a good little taster of what it’s all about.
I have to say (and I have mentioned this in one of my other Polity reviews as well), Asher is super dependable. You just know what you’re going to get, and that it’s going to be good. This time round is no exception.
Nothing is as it seems, and the author takes us on a delightfully wicked romp through the Polity Universe, encompassing different star systems and featuring a handful of colourful characters. We also get to learn more about the Prador War, and the Prador themselves, which is a bonus. In fact, one of the point-of-view characters introduced late in the novel is a Prador Father-Captain.
This could possibly be one of my favourite entries so far, which is saying a hell of a lot, since I have been enjoying the Polity novels a lot. It’s slightly leaner than some of the other entries I have read, and the pacing is impeccable, which could speak to the author having honed his craft (he has been quite prolific, which is a good thing, since these books are great).
I like the new characters as well, which is important, since this is the first in a trilogy. Highly recommended.
I also believe that this may be the first book I have read that has an actual soundtrack written for it (to listen to while reading) titled “Original Music for Neal Asher’s Dark Intelligence” by Evokescape / Steve Buick)
Bonus points if you have the edition with the Jon Sullivan cover art, it looks fantastic!
You are newborn from the furnace and about to enter Hell.
An easy 5.
November 11, 2023
This takes place about 100 years after the prador/AI polity war, and primarily concerns the exploits of Penny Royal, a 'black' AI. Relentless pacing and enough action to satisfy just about anyone. If you like Asher, you will love this.
Reread notes 11-2023. While Dark Intelligence starts a new trilogy in the policy universe, many of the events and characters were introduced in previous volumes, including our star here, Penny Royal. It seems Penny Royal is playing some sort of deep game here, attempting some atonement. When Penny went rogue, she killed thousands of humans and Polity A.I.s. One of them, Spear, was a bioengineer tasked with a group of soldiers on a planet being besieged by the Prador during the war; Penny wiped them out. Now, 100 years later, Spear comes to life once again, as his memcrystal was recovered and a new body grown. Spear really wants to even the score with Penny, but he is not the only one.
Asher also introduces a crime boss in the 'Graveyard', a DMZ between the Policy and Prador empires. She, Isobal, asked Penny to make her more powerful and Penny induced changes to make her turn into a hooder. A Prador ship captain also asked for a favor from Penny and now he is slowly transforming into a human/AI/prador hybrid. We also have some smugglers who inadvertently helped Penny escape from the world of Masada, and now they have a role to play in her schemes...
Dark Intelligence unfolds as something of a mystery-- what does Penny Royal want?-- as all the characters in the story are being subtly and not so subtly incorporated into her long game. Lots of action as you might expect from Asher, but the mystery of Penny Royal really drives the story. 3.5 dark stars, rounding up!
Reread notes 11-2023. While Dark Intelligence starts a new trilogy in the policy universe, many of the events and characters were introduced in previous volumes, including our star here, Penny Royal. It seems Penny Royal is playing some sort of deep game here, attempting some atonement. When Penny went rogue, she killed thousands of humans and Polity A.I.s. One of them, Spear, was a bioengineer tasked with a group of soldiers on a planet being besieged by the Prador during the war; Penny wiped them out. Now, 100 years later, Spear comes to life once again, as his memcrystal was recovered and a new body grown. Spear really wants to even the score with Penny, but he is not the only one.
Asher also introduces a crime boss in the 'Graveyard', a DMZ between the Policy and Prador empires. She, Isobal, asked Penny to make her more powerful and Penny induced changes to make her turn into a hooder. A Prador ship captain also asked for a favor from Penny and now he is slowly transforming into a human/AI/prador hybrid. We also have some smugglers who inadvertently helped Penny escape from the world of Masada, and now they have a role to play in her schemes...
Dark Intelligence unfolds as something of a mystery-- what does Penny Royal want?-- as all the characters in the story are being subtly and not so subtly incorporated into her long game. Lots of action as you might expect from Asher, but the mystery of Penny Royal really drives the story. 3.5 dark stars, rounding up!
May 23, 2017
Review to follow after Hols 😀
Well, here I am back in the UK after my hols, and Ive been thinking about this book since I finished it a week ago. If I could give it 4.5 stars I would, it is a very enjoyable and exciting book. Why is it not 5, well i don't know, there was nothing wrong with it, great story, good characters and well written. Maybe if I read more Neil Asher (this was my first) I may end up giving a 5.
Some people have said that you need to read about the Polity Universe before reading this book, now I must admit I really had to concentrate, but I never struggled too hard to follow the story. Is that why I didn't give 5 stars, maybe.
All that said I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it has made me want to read more by Neil Asher.
Well, here I am back in the UK after my hols, and Ive been thinking about this book since I finished it a week ago. If I could give it 4.5 stars I would, it is a very enjoyable and exciting book. Why is it not 5, well i don't know, there was nothing wrong with it, great story, good characters and well written. Maybe if I read more Neil Asher (this was my first) I may end up giving a 5.
Some people have said that you need to read about the Polity Universe before reading this book, now I must admit I really had to concentrate, but I never struggled too hard to follow the story. Is that why I didn't give 5 stars, maybe.
All that said I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it has made me want to read more by Neil Asher.
February 3, 2015
Review: DARK INTELLIGENCE by Neal Asher (TRANSFORMATION BOOK 1)
Gloriously engrossing science fiction in the classic mode, both military space opera and expansive futuristic philosophizing, DARK INTELLIGENCE is the first in an all-new series by accomplished and prolific author Neal Asher. From a soldier killed in battle against seriously ugly, hostile aggressive, aliens, to the renegade AI (artificial intelligence) who resurrects, repairs, and restores him a century later, and beyond--this new series set in the Polity universe will have readers enrapt.
I reviewed a digital ARC provided by the publisher via edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com, for review purposes. No fees were exchanged.
Gloriously engrossing science fiction in the classic mode, both military space opera and expansive futuristic philosophizing, DARK INTELLIGENCE is the first in an all-new series by accomplished and prolific author Neal Asher. From a soldier killed in battle against seriously ugly, hostile aggressive, aliens, to the renegade AI (artificial intelligence) who resurrects, repairs, and restores him a century later, and beyond--this new series set in the Polity universe will have readers enrapt.
I reviewed a digital ARC provided by the publisher via edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com, for review purposes. No fees were exchanged.
February 2, 2015
high expectations and a novel that not many years past would maybe have been a favorite, but now it did not work that well as it basically lacks a human scale with everyone here starting from superhuman and getting to technological semi-deity; still liked the prose well enough to get through, but did not care about pretty much anything else, especially the characters which just lack any semblance of humanity to be interesting
March 19, 2015
Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher je jedan od najboljih SF romana objavljenih ove godine, a i prethodnih, ali i snažan podsetnik da tvrdi sf itekako ima smisla u uslovima koji vladaju na dašnjem tržištu i da takođe ima čitalaca. Samo ako se napiše kako treba.
Dark Intelligence je napisan pomalo šizofreno. Poglavlja koja posmatramo iz ugla protagoniste napisana su u prvom licu, dok su poglavlja nekoliko drugih likova koje pratimo napisana u trećem. Meni je to remetilo užitak u čitanju, ali može biti da nekome drugom neće smetati.
Što se radnje tiče, ona je zamršenija od prosečnog ASOIaF romana i to najmanje za red veličine, tako da čitalac tek pred sam kraj otkriva o čemu je tu reč, a i to tek kada se pisac smiluje da mu objasni. To samo po sebi nije loše i nije mi smetalo u čitanju.
Pomalo mi jeste smetalo pozivanje na neka pređašnja dešavanja u univerzumu zajedničkom sa ostalim Ašerovim romanima, ali kako ih pisac objašnjava i pomalo prepričava kada god se na njih poziva, čitalac nije uskraćen za razumevanje trenutnih događaja, iako bi svakako bilo bolje da je pročitao i sve prethodne Ašerove romane.
U svakom slučaju, Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher je mešavina spejs opere, post-kiberpanka i militarističke fantastike, napisana maštovito, izražajno i vođeno Klarkovom maksimom da se dovoljno napredna tehnologija ne može razlikovati od magije. Toliko sam impresioniran ovim romanom da ću se vratiti i pročitati Ašerova sabrana dela (u nekom trenutku).
Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher 5/5 and Nightflier's Seal of Recommendation.
Dark Intelligence je napisan pomalo šizofreno. Poglavlja koja posmatramo iz ugla protagoniste napisana su u prvom licu, dok su poglavlja nekoliko drugih likova koje pratimo napisana u trećem. Meni je to remetilo užitak u čitanju, ali može biti da nekome drugom neće smetati.
Što se radnje tiče, ona je zamršenija od prosečnog ASOIaF romana i to najmanje za red veličine, tako da čitalac tek pred sam kraj otkriva o čemu je tu reč, a i to tek kada se pisac smiluje da mu objasni. To samo po sebi nije loše i nije mi smetalo u čitanju.
Pomalo mi jeste smetalo pozivanje na neka pređašnja dešavanja u univerzumu zajedničkom sa ostalim Ašerovim romanima, ali kako ih pisac objašnjava i pomalo prepričava kada god se na njih poziva, čitalac nije uskraćen za razumevanje trenutnih događaja, iako bi svakako bilo bolje da je pročitao i sve prethodne Ašerove romane.
U svakom slučaju, Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher je mešavina spejs opere, post-kiberpanka i militarističke fantastike, napisana maštovito, izražajno i vođeno Klarkovom maksimom da se dovoljno napredna tehnologija ne može razlikovati od magije. Toliko sam impresioniran ovim romanom da ću se vratiti i pročitati Ašerova sabrana dela (u nekom trenutku).
Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher 5/5 and Nightflier's Seal of Recommendation.
December 22, 2025
Hmmmm. So I wanted 2025 to be a time when I went back to my roots. My roots are deep with scifi. I have always loved astronomy and once had dreams of being an astronaut. I especially loved space operas. Fast forward roughly 30 years. Circa 2010-ish, I sought to rekindle my relationship with reading and especially scifi. In general I've been moderately successful, but scifi has taken a subordinate position to fiction and the scifi I've been reading has been more near future dystopic than space opera. So I made myself try to read space opera novels other than Murderbot this year. I say all of this to come clean to the fact that my tastes have changed significantly. It's no longer enough to have space ships and aliens and super intelligent computers and androids. I need depth, culture, intrigue, well defined and interesting characters etc. Suffice it to say that this did not hit the mark...and it should have. To be honest, this didn't feel epic, it was a little claustrophobic with a basic chase plot and some revenge porn and a rogue AI. This was about 3 entities. A little "by your bootstraps" for my tastes. Even though this was action packed with interesting characters, I found myself a little bored with a been there done that feeling. The book The Quantum Thief came to mind for me. Both are complex chase plots with clever villains and no real winners. And even though two out of 3 of the characters are female entities (the only real human is male) this was definitely a himbo book. And no, not going to talk about how the two villains are gendered female. We aren't going to talk about the systemic villainization of women with power yada yada. Just know that I am classifying this book as himbo for the 21 century characterizations and behaviors of the characters. This is simply not my kind of book anymore. To be honest, I skipped several chapters. I was listening to an audiobook and accidently skipped ahead 5 chapters. I didn't want to go back and listen to the missed chapters and this didn't derail my understanding of the plot. I still love space operas, just...not this one. Asher is an intelligent, exciting and a little grotesque writer with a big imagination, but this was not for me. What makes it worse is that this was one of the better space operas that I've read/listened to in a while. Not sure where I am with this genre but I still have several (10 years or older) books to wade through before I can write the genre completely off. Also, I read The Dark Forest this year and absolutely loved it!! Idk, it truly feels like I'm losing interest in the genre on the whole which is a shame because my imagination is geared toward the future, but I seem to be more earthbound in this phase of my reading journey...
Almost 3.5ish Stars rounded down
Listened to Audible. Jonathan Yen did a great job with this material!
Almost 3.5ish Stars rounded down
Listened to Audible. Jonathan Yen did a great job with this material!
August 26, 2022
8.5/10 stars
Damn, I missed this.
RTC
Damn, I missed this.
RTC
February 7, 2017
5 Stars
Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher deserves full marks for fans of the genre. This is a heavy action based hard science fiction filled with the most amazing technologies, creatures, space faring, fighting, and adventuring. Who cares if there are any short comings with the story, the plot, the characters, or even the writing. None of that takes away from the fact that Asher smartly continues to build on his Polity universe which gives us the reader a highly complex and dynamic world for us to feel right at home. The Polity universe is huge and Asher has written many books and series in it of which I still have many to go. I jumped into this one because the series sounded great to me, regardless of where it falls in the timeline of the Polity universe.
Dark Intelligence is a science fiction action dream. This should be no shock to anyone who has read Neal Asher in the past. A few reasons why I think that this far future science fiction makes a great launching point for new readers. Firstly, there really are no spoilers of previous novels here even though the language, the places, the creatures, and the fauna may be a bit overwhelming for new readers(A good index would take care of this). Secondly, Asher shows his writing style right from the get go wasting no time with getting the reader up to speed. More to come on his style. Finally, Dark Intelligence is a great starting point for people to get exposed to a little bit of everything that is the Polity universe.
Asher writes the perfect action based science fiction through his writing style. Make no mistake, his books excel because they are freaking fun to read. He combines his imagination with hard science and makes me drool. He also gives us characters that are larger than life, sometimes in a comic book style. In Dark Matter the characters all have awesome names...Thorvald Spear, Isobel Satomi, and Penny Royal, as well as many more. The people, the places, and the cool things all add up to perfection.
"“Thorvald Spear, bio-espionage, late of Berners’ division on Panarchia before Penny Royal fried it. I’m a one-time captive of the prador and onetime comrade of Jebel U-cap Krong, in whose service I met a drone just like you. I was recently resurrected after having been dead for over a hundred years.”"
Gush, gush, and gush.
I love Neal Asher...he writes for me!
A couple of snippets that I chose.
"“The aircab was decidedly retro—looked like a groundcar from centuries before I was born and even had wheels. As he took us into the air, whisking me through canyons of buildings, the driver tried some conversational”"
"“The prador were a race without conscience or empathy; vicious monsters whose predation extended beyond necessity into cruelty. They were creatures that surgically converted their children into biological mechanisms, ruthlessly exterminated rivals and would still, given the chance, exterminate rival humanity. They were, I felt, as close to irredeemably evil as you could realistically get.”"
"
Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher deserves full marks for fans of the genre. This is a heavy action based hard science fiction filled with the most amazing technologies, creatures, space faring, fighting, and adventuring. Who cares if there are any short comings with the story, the plot, the characters, or even the writing. None of that takes away from the fact that Asher smartly continues to build on his Polity universe which gives us the reader a highly complex and dynamic world for us to feel right at home. The Polity universe is huge and Asher has written many books and series in it of which I still have many to go. I jumped into this one because the series sounded great to me, regardless of where it falls in the timeline of the Polity universe.
Dark Intelligence is a science fiction action dream. This should be no shock to anyone who has read Neal Asher in the past. A few reasons why I think that this far future science fiction makes a great launching point for new readers. Firstly, there really are no spoilers of previous novels here even though the language, the places, the creatures, and the fauna may be a bit overwhelming for new readers(A good index would take care of this). Secondly, Asher shows his writing style right from the get go wasting no time with getting the reader up to speed. More to come on his style. Finally, Dark Intelligence is a great starting point for people to get exposed to a little bit of everything that is the Polity universe.
Asher writes the perfect action based science fiction through his writing style. Make no mistake, his books excel because they are freaking fun to read. He combines his imagination with hard science and makes me drool. He also gives us characters that are larger than life, sometimes in a comic book style. In Dark Matter the characters all have awesome names...Thorvald Spear, Isobel Satomi, and Penny Royal, as well as many more. The people, the places, and the cool things all add up to perfection.
"“Thorvald Spear, bio-espionage, late of Berners’ division on Panarchia before Penny Royal fried it. I’m a one-time captive of the prador and onetime comrade of Jebel U-cap Krong, in whose service I met a drone just like you. I was recently resurrected after having been dead for over a hundred years.”"
Gush, gush, and gush.
I love Neal Asher...he writes for me!
A couple of snippets that I chose.
"“The aircab was decidedly retro—looked like a groundcar from centuries before I was born and even had wheels. As he took us into the air, whisking me through canyons of buildings, the driver tried some conversational”"
"“The prador were a race without conscience or empathy; vicious monsters whose predation extended beyond necessity into cruelty. They were creatures that surgically converted their children into biological mechanisms, ruthlessly exterminated rivals and would still, given the chance, exterminate rival humanity. They were, I felt, as close to irredeemably evil as you could realistically get.”"
"
March 21, 2015
3.5 stars
This is my first Neal Asher's book and the first book I've read in his Polity world. Having that in mind, I am certain I missed many of the meanings and nuances, because Asher doesn't linger to explain if it doesn't have a direct impact on this story. I didn't have any trouble following the story though.
Thorvald Spear (what a name!) wakes up after being resurrected a century after his death in the war between humanity/AI union (Polity) and aliens. When his memories resurface, he knows that a war AI, Penny Royal, had gone rogue and killed his entire unit. After finding out that the black AI is still on the loose, he vows revenge. On the way, he runs afoul of Isobel Satomi, who has her own reasons for wanting to get to Penny Royal. She made a bargain with the AI and got more than she wanted - she is slowly turning into something monstrous.
I had the problem with the first part of the novel because Asher kept bludgeoning me over the head with Spear's recurring sense of déjà vu over places he has never been to or people he has never met. After the tenth time, I had the urge to scream at the book: I get it! Something is wrong with him! I get it!!!
Once the other characters started appearing, this was toned down and I started enjoying the book much more. The stories behind Spear, Penny and other characters that interacted with her started developing and interconnecting and soon made me realize that not everything is the way it seems. I particularly enjoyed the various AIs and their distinct personalities. Prador, the crab-like aliens and former enemies, were less interesting considering their unique mentality. The exception was Sverl, a Prador who wanted to understand the unity between the humans and AIs and the reasons his people had lost the war. Penny Royal granted him the wish - in her unique way.
If the book has a deeper flaw, for me it was my inability to connect to the characters. Don't get me wrong, none of them is superfluous or two-dimensional. They all had a distinct personality. But... Starting with Spear who almost seamlessly integrates in the society after 100 years, I had no one to really root for. The closest one was Blite, the captain of the ship Penny Royal co-opted for her own purposes. At least he was fighting for his life and lives of his crew. I'm not certain either Spear or Isobel learned anything from their ordeal. But, we'll see. We know where Penny is going next. The second Transformation novel is called War Factory.
The book made me very curious about Polity. So, I am going to dive into this world and, maybe, in time I'll see everything Asher intended me to see in this book.
This is my first Neal Asher's book and the first book I've read in his Polity world. Having that in mind, I am certain I missed many of the meanings and nuances, because Asher doesn't linger to explain if it doesn't have a direct impact on this story. I didn't have any trouble following the story though.
Thorvald Spear (what a name!) wakes up after being resurrected a century after his death in the war between humanity/AI union (Polity) and aliens. When his memories resurface, he knows that a war AI, Penny Royal, had gone rogue and killed his entire unit. After finding out that the black AI is still on the loose, he vows revenge. On the way, he runs afoul of Isobel Satomi, who has her own reasons for wanting to get to Penny Royal. She made a bargain with the AI and got more than she wanted - she is slowly turning into something monstrous.
I had the problem with the first part of the novel because Asher kept bludgeoning me over the head with Spear's recurring sense of déjà vu over places he has never been to or people he has never met. After the tenth time, I had the urge to scream at the book: I get it! Something is wrong with him! I get it!!!
Once the other characters started appearing, this was toned down and I started enjoying the book much more. The stories behind Spear, Penny and other characters that interacted with her started developing and interconnecting and soon made me realize that not everything is the way it seems. I particularly enjoyed the various AIs and their distinct personalities. Prador, the crab-like aliens and former enemies, were less interesting considering their unique mentality. The exception was Sverl, a Prador who wanted to understand the unity between the humans and AIs and the reasons his people had lost the war. Penny Royal granted him the wish - in her unique way.
If the book has a deeper flaw, for me it was my inability to connect to the characters. Don't get me wrong, none of them is superfluous or two-dimensional. They all had a distinct personality. But... Starting with Spear who almost seamlessly integrates in the society after 100 years, I had no one to really root for. The closest one was Blite, the captain of the ship Penny Royal co-opted for her own purposes. At least he was fighting for his life and lives of his crew. I'm not certain either Spear or Isobel learned anything from their ordeal. But, we'll see. We know where Penny is going next. The second Transformation novel is called War Factory.
The book made me very curious about Polity. So, I am going to dive into this world and, maybe, in time I'll see everything Asher intended me to see in this book.
January 26, 2015
Sweeping, complex... and oddly unengaging. I think the characters were all either too unlikeable or idiosyncratic to be relatable, and all the multi-party scurrying around felt more like epic fantasy plot-coupon-ing than an actual plot; and the prose could have used another editing pass or two. I'll probably keep reading, but not as yet filled with enthusiasm for the rest of the series.
March 8, 2015
A welcome return to the Polity universe, long overdue.
This book should come with a warning, something like;
WELCOME TO THE POLITY
PLEASE DIE CREATIVELY
Thorvald Spear may sound a bit like a Nordic porn star from the 1970's but he is everything but.....
As events unfold after his resurrection, his desire for revenge kicks in.
The "turd heads in a fanward direction" to quote classic Asher.
The story is told from different characters P.O.V within each chapter which is a change of style, (I think, it's been a while since my last Polity novel) Thorvald ends up travelling from place to place trying to piece together the truth from his fractured memories which may not be all his own.
In his hunt for the rogue A.I Penny Royal, who may or may not be the arch villain that he's made out to be. Isobel Satomi is after Spear and Penny Royal for reasons of her own, not a woman to piss off lightly.
The ending is a bit of a let down, after all the action, death and destruction, no one really ever dies, as they can all go to the SoulBank and be revived, bit of a let-down/copout/get out of jail free card.
Loved the A.I characters and there attitudes to events and characters around them.
All in all this is a Star Wars on steroids with bollocks the size of small moons.
This book should come with a warning, something like;
WELCOME TO THE POLITY
PLEASE DIE CREATIVELY
Thorvald Spear may sound a bit like a Nordic porn star from the 1970's but he is everything but.....
As events unfold after his resurrection, his desire for revenge kicks in.
The "turd heads in a fanward direction" to quote classic Asher.
The story is told from different characters P.O.V within each chapter which is a change of style, (I think, it's been a while since my last Polity novel) Thorvald ends up travelling from place to place trying to piece together the truth from his fractured memories which may not be all his own.
In his hunt for the rogue A.I Penny Royal, who may or may not be the arch villain that he's made out to be. Isobel Satomi is after Spear and Penny Royal for reasons of her own, not a woman to piss off lightly.
The ending is a bit of a let down, after all the action, death and destruction, no one really ever dies, as they can all go to the SoulBank and be revived, bit of a let-down/copout/get out of jail free card.
Loved the A.I characters and there attitudes to events and characters around them.
All in all this is a Star Wars on steroids with bollocks the size of small moons.
March 25, 2018
Um. This was an inadvertent partial reread of a 2015 Polity novel. My 2015 booklog notes gave it a B+, but also notes that I'd forgotten it by the end of that year.
This reread reminded me of why I'd quit reading the Prador War books, and most of Asher's stuff. The Prador are just too dark for me -- I mean, giant alien crabs that like to dismember and eat people! This one is the start of a Prador War veteran's search for a rogue AI named Penny Royal, who had killed his comrades back in the war. OK, I did remember Penny Royal.
Anyway, none of the rest was familiar, except I was getting increasingly grossed out by the Prador stuff, and pretty bored with the rest. Asher is capable of good work, but this isn't it. Has moments.
Here's PdF's Locus review, that led me to read it in 2015:
http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2015/...
This reread reminded me of why I'd quit reading the Prador War books, and most of Asher's stuff. The Prador are just too dark for me -- I mean, giant alien crabs that like to dismember and eat people! This one is the start of a Prador War veteran's search for a rogue AI named Penny Royal, who had killed his comrades back in the war. OK, I did remember Penny Royal.
Anyway, none of the rest was familiar, except I was getting increasingly grossed out by the Prador stuff, and pretty bored with the rest. Asher is capable of good work, but this isn't it. Has moments.
Here's PdF's Locus review, that led me to read it in 2015:
http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2015/...
April 21, 2019
Book One in the Transformation trilogy. The first half was 4-star fun with character flashbacks of previous Polity novels. The courageous commando Jebel U-Krong from "Prador Moon", thralled Hoopers and crustacean Pradors from "Spatterjay", the AI Scorpion from, uh, "The Scorpion", and monster Hooders and Gabbleducks from "The Technician". But the second half turned into a 2-star clusterfuck with flat characters and senseless scenes of short-term gratification. I just couldn't thread all the individual plot lines into a logical conclusion. And as always, Asher's excessive exposition created an unnecessary 100 extra pages.
January 29, 2015
4'5/5
Una space-opera genial, ubicada en un universo con un worl-building muy complejo y trabajado, con todos los ingredientes necesarios para pasar un buen rato : batallas espaciales, alienígenas con mala leche, Robots y IA y muchos detalles sorprendentes. Neal Asher me ha convencido totalmente.
http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/201...
Una space-opera genial, ubicada en un universo con un worl-building muy complejo y trabajado, con todos los ingredientes necesarios para pasar un buen rato : batallas espaciales, alienígenas con mala leche, Robots y IA y muchos detalles sorprendentes. Neal Asher me ha convencido totalmente.
http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/201...
January 8, 2016
A fairly entertaining read that takes you places around the galaxy that Neal Asher has crafted out, my first experience with the author. Tasting notes: hard military sci-fi with a slight slashing/piercing-fetish.
Good stuff:
* doesn't get boring
* new characters that are introduced gradually add to the story
* satisfying technobabble that never is too far out as to sound completely unbelievable
* Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis -subplot in sci-fi version!
Less to my liking:
* main characters are sadly quite one-dimensional and "cold"; the AI:s are the most fleshed out characters, actually.
* the main character's (I take it that Thorvald Spear is the protagonist because his chapters are in first person compared to the other chapters - but he still doesn't feel like a lead character) motivation for insane revenge towards a dangerously crazy powerful entity even after waking up rich from a coma remains a mystery to me, although the ending has some explanations. Still, Spear man, enjoy your riches and sex, dude, why risk your life in the manner presented?
* world built around a pretty standard good humans vs. ugly bad aliens (think something out of the Independence Day -movie) -conflict... why can't the humans be the bad guys sometimes? Would be more interesting that way.
* too many obvious references to previous books (which is good for fans, but bad - and possibly spoiling the earlier stories? - for newcomers)
So, I'd classify this as B-grade Alastair Reynolds or Iain M. Banks but hey, even that is pretty OK in my book :) However, Dark Intelligence might not have been the best starting point to the universe of Mr. Asher, it seems like, because many major plot twists seem to reference characters and events in previous books so you might get more out of the adventure if you start in the earlier stories without spoiling the outcome of those with this book.
Good stuff:
* doesn't get boring
* new characters that are introduced gradually add to the story
* satisfying technobabble that never is too far out as to sound completely unbelievable
* Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis -subplot in sci-fi version!
Less to my liking:
* main characters are sadly quite one-dimensional and "cold"; the AI:s are the most fleshed out characters, actually.
* the main character's (I take it that Thorvald Spear is the protagonist because his chapters are in first person compared to the other chapters - but he still doesn't feel like a lead character) motivation for insane revenge towards a dangerously crazy powerful entity even after waking up rich from a coma remains a mystery to me, although the ending has some explanations. Still, Spear man, enjoy your riches and sex, dude, why risk your life in the manner presented?
* world built around a pretty standard good humans vs. ugly bad aliens (think something out of the Independence Day -movie) -conflict... why can't the humans be the bad guys sometimes? Would be more interesting that way.
* too many obvious references to previous books (which is good for fans, but bad - and possibly spoiling the earlier stories? - for newcomers)
So, I'd classify this as B-grade Alastair Reynolds or Iain M. Banks but hey, even that is pretty OK in my book :) However, Dark Intelligence might not have been the best starting point to the universe of Mr. Asher, it seems like, because many major plot twists seem to reference characters and events in previous books so you might get more out of the adventure if you start in the earlier stories without spoiling the outcome of those with this book.
May 20, 2015
Boring.
Perhaps if I had realised that rather than being the first part of a series, and so bringing me in at the beginning of what sounded like a potentially interesting story, instead I was picking up a book which is set in a universe which Asher has already written over a dozen other books about, I may have enjoyed this more.
Having read one other book, Gridlinked and quite liked it, I thought I would give this one a go. However, it did not take long for me to realise that there were references galore to previous books and while an intimate knowledge of Asher's universe was probably not essential, it would probably have enhanced the reading process. This feeling grew as the book went on, and as the general plot became more and more tedious, it became steadily clearer that while for fans this may be an exciting chapter in his world building and adding to the history and perhaps the resolution of certain events, for the casual reader it is tedious trek through a remarkably boring book.
With a total lack of sympathetic characters, a mix of first person and third, space battles which are merely incomprehensible and without any dramatic scenes, aliens which are as horrific as they are stupid and a strong amount of deus ex machina in all senses, this really failed to deliver.
I may go back and try one of his earlier books and give Asher another go, but to be honest this has put me right off. I would rather go back and re-read some superior Ian M. Banks for this kind of thing where I know it is done well.
Perhaps if I had realised that rather than being the first part of a series, and so bringing me in at the beginning of what sounded like a potentially interesting story, instead I was picking up a book which is set in a universe which Asher has already written over a dozen other books about, I may have enjoyed this more.
Having read one other book, Gridlinked and quite liked it, I thought I would give this one a go. However, it did not take long for me to realise that there were references galore to previous books and while an intimate knowledge of Asher's universe was probably not essential, it would probably have enhanced the reading process. This feeling grew as the book went on, and as the general plot became more and more tedious, it became steadily clearer that while for fans this may be an exciting chapter in his world building and adding to the history and perhaps the resolution of certain events, for the casual reader it is tedious trek through a remarkably boring book.
With a total lack of sympathetic characters, a mix of first person and third, space battles which are merely incomprehensible and without any dramatic scenes, aliens which are as horrific as they are stupid and a strong amount of deus ex machina in all senses, this really failed to deliver.
I may go back and try one of his earlier books and give Asher another go, but to be honest this has put me right off. I would rather go back and re-read some superior Ian M. Banks for this kind of thing where I know it is done well.
May 11, 2016
A veces nos ponemos muy trascendentes cuando nos vamos al espacio y viene bien de vez en cuando sacar los cañones de protones y liarse a tiros como mandan los (otros) cánones. Por eso esto es mas space opera que ciencia ficción, porque aquí hemos venido a disfrutar como enanos con la violencia, las idas de olla (o de pinza dependiendo de la especie), los personajes extremos, las naves enormes, los odios viscerales y los jetas espaciales que hacen de las zonas de exclusión o neutrales, su lugar de negocio.
Tenemos un universo bastante rico y que viene de otras novelas que yo no he leído, el universo Politi. Siendo los Politi nosotros y los sistemas añadidos a lo largo del tiempo y siendo los Prador el enemigo. Estos prador son una raza evolucionada de tipo crustaceo, altamente militarizada, violenta, depredadora y con la sana y natural inclinación a aniquilar a los humanos en general y al universo Politi en particular. Pero no va de eso este libro, de hecho por un cambio de poder en el reino Prador, el nuevo rey decreta una paz que parece mas una tregua y por ello hay una zona neutral entre ambos imperios. En los sistemas de dicha zona neutral abundan los forajidos, mafiosos y renegados de cualquier origen o raza.
Y es en este periodo de paz, 100 años después de las ultimas batallas, donde resucita un tal Thorval Spear. No voy a explicar como o porque la gente puede resucitar, o vivir siglos, etc...pero puede recordarle algo ligeramente parecido a quien haya leído Rogue Trooper de 2000AD... en fin las cosas son así en ese futuro. Lo interesante es que este tipo, junto con toda su compañía fue traicionado y asesinado durante la guerra por un ataque de una Inteligencia Artificial Politi. Como es lógico suponer, lo que Spear busca es venganza, cueste lo que cueste.
Las IAs son tan comunes y tan poderosas que eran en su momento el sustento y mayor ventaja militar de los Politi, ya que los Prador no las usaban. De hecho las IAs son prácticamente una raza sintiente mas de este universo, cada una con su género, sus capacidades, funciones, ideas, manías, formas, paranoias, etc y pueden ser desde drones de ataque con formas animales enormes como escorpiones o serpientes, a comandar flotas enteras o prácticamente gobernar todas las vertientes de un planeta, son parte del imperio Politi, no una herramienta. De entre ellas la mas peligrosa es la IA renegada Penny Royal, la causante de la muerte de Spear y de miles mas. Así como de las transformaciones de otros personajes, que son en parte las que dan nombre a esta nueva saga de novelas.
No digo mas, porque hay mucho que decir, ya que si otros autores tienen un worldbuilding destacable, Asher se luce en crear todo un universo y darle no solo coherencia (dentro de lo loco que es pegarse a misilazos subespaciales con cangrejos del espacio), sino que nos sintamos cómodos en sus particularidades. Personajes inmensos, naves inmensas, problemas universales junto con transformaciones físicas, mentales y metafísicas, hacen que nos lo pasemos teta leyendo y descubriendo el alcance de lo que está ocurriendo en general y de lo que les ocurre a los personajes. En plural, porque es una novela totalmente coral. Spear no es el protagonista de Space Opera arquetípico, es uno mas, tan solo un medio mas para que Penny Royal nos vaya dejando con el culo torcido a cada paso. Grandísimos personajes, como la delincuente espacial Isobel, o mi preferido, el Padre-Capitan Sverl de los Prador, a parte de Riss, Amistad o Penny Royal en lo relativo a las IAs. Cada uno contando la historia desde su punto de vista en ese momento para componer un todo. Me lío mas de la cuenta, disfrutable a rabiar y ahora que acaba de publicarse la segunda parte "War Factory", esta Dark Intelligence la tenéis por 3 miseros euros.
Tenemos un universo bastante rico y que viene de otras novelas que yo no he leído, el universo Politi. Siendo los Politi nosotros y los sistemas añadidos a lo largo del tiempo y siendo los Prador el enemigo. Estos prador son una raza evolucionada de tipo crustaceo, altamente militarizada, violenta, depredadora y con la sana y natural inclinación a aniquilar a los humanos en general y al universo Politi en particular. Pero no va de eso este libro, de hecho por un cambio de poder en el reino Prador, el nuevo rey decreta una paz que parece mas una tregua y por ello hay una zona neutral entre ambos imperios. En los sistemas de dicha zona neutral abundan los forajidos, mafiosos y renegados de cualquier origen o raza.
Y es en este periodo de paz, 100 años después de las ultimas batallas, donde resucita un tal Thorval Spear. No voy a explicar como o porque la gente puede resucitar, o vivir siglos, etc...pero puede recordarle algo ligeramente parecido a quien haya leído Rogue Trooper de 2000AD... en fin las cosas son así en ese futuro. Lo interesante es que este tipo, junto con toda su compañía fue traicionado y asesinado durante la guerra por un ataque de una Inteligencia Artificial Politi. Como es lógico suponer, lo que Spear busca es venganza, cueste lo que cueste.
Las IAs son tan comunes y tan poderosas que eran en su momento el sustento y mayor ventaja militar de los Politi, ya que los Prador no las usaban. De hecho las IAs son prácticamente una raza sintiente mas de este universo, cada una con su género, sus capacidades, funciones, ideas, manías, formas, paranoias, etc y pueden ser desde drones de ataque con formas animales enormes como escorpiones o serpientes, a comandar flotas enteras o prácticamente gobernar todas las vertientes de un planeta, son parte del imperio Politi, no una herramienta. De entre ellas la mas peligrosa es la IA renegada Penny Royal, la causante de la muerte de Spear y de miles mas. Así como de las transformaciones de otros personajes, que son en parte las que dan nombre a esta nueva saga de novelas.
No digo mas, porque hay mucho que decir, ya que si otros autores tienen un worldbuilding destacable, Asher se luce en crear todo un universo y darle no solo coherencia (dentro de lo loco que es pegarse a misilazos subespaciales con cangrejos del espacio), sino que nos sintamos cómodos en sus particularidades. Personajes inmensos, naves inmensas, problemas universales junto con transformaciones físicas, mentales y metafísicas, hacen que nos lo pasemos teta leyendo y descubriendo el alcance de lo que está ocurriendo en general y de lo que les ocurre a los personajes. En plural, porque es una novela totalmente coral. Spear no es el protagonista de Space Opera arquetípico, es uno mas, tan solo un medio mas para que Penny Royal nos vaya dejando con el culo torcido a cada paso. Grandísimos personajes, como la delincuente espacial Isobel, o mi preferido, el Padre-Capitan Sverl de los Prador, a parte de Riss, Amistad o Penny Royal en lo relativo a las IAs. Cada uno contando la historia desde su punto de vista en ese momento para componer un todo. Me lío mas de la cuenta, disfrutable a rabiar y ahora que acaba de publicarse la segunda parte "War Factory", esta Dark Intelligence la tenéis por 3 miseros euros.
February 19, 2015
First off, I love pretty much everything that Neal Asher writes, so I admit to being a tad biased. Whenever Asher drops a new title, I drop whatever I am reading to grab it. While 'Dark Intelligence' is the beginning of a trilogy and could be read alone, to understand why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, is to fully immerse yourself in the world building of his other books.
Oh more than a few of the superstars from his other novels and shorts make reappearances in this new work. Awesome, godlike entities fight for goals that they are both aware of and unaware of. New characters are introduced but they pale in comparison to the bogey man terror of Penny Royal, the elusive by omnipotent Earth Central (Oh I want the book about that AI), the mighty but conflicted race of Prador, the charming-dopey-but-kickass Weaver and...one of my all time Asher favorites, outside of Ian Cormac...Amistad, the scorpion drone. The guest appearances of those components made this book a spectacular read for me, but to the new Asher reader, I don't feel that they would understand the complexity of those characters.
For a new reader to have to base their impression on the weak characters and single-minded obsessions of Thorvald Spear and Isobel Satomi makes me just a little sad, when I want to jump up and down and point to Asher's earlier works and scream 'Look at these first!! Amistad is a bad ass! Earth Central is no joke! Get the Prador backstory! Check out how the Weaver came about!'
I can get carried away when it comes to Asher, but overall 'Dark Intelligence' is a decent beginning and by all means a 10 star book when compared to other books I have read. The world building is still magnificent, the imagery still brilliantly imaginative and the action-- Whoa, its still top notch. But, for Asher, I no longer compare him to other writers. I compare this book to his entire catalog. As I await the second in this series and look forward to another trip into his complex universe, I will hope for more likeable human/haimen protagonists but if I don't get them I won't cry, I'll read it anyway because even a 4 star Asher work reads better than most 5 star science fiction!
Oh more than a few of the superstars from his other novels and shorts make reappearances in this new work. Awesome, godlike entities fight for goals that they are both aware of and unaware of. New characters are introduced but they pale in comparison to the bogey man terror of Penny Royal, the elusive by omnipotent Earth Central (Oh I want the book about that AI), the mighty but conflicted race of Prador, the charming-dopey-but-kickass Weaver and...one of my all time Asher favorites, outside of Ian Cormac...Amistad, the scorpion drone. The guest appearances of those components made this book a spectacular read for me, but to the new Asher reader, I don't feel that they would understand the complexity of those characters.
For a new reader to have to base their impression on the weak characters and single-minded obsessions of Thorvald Spear and Isobel Satomi makes me just a little sad, when I want to jump up and down and point to Asher's earlier works and scream 'Look at these first!! Amistad is a bad ass! Earth Central is no joke! Get the Prador backstory! Check out how the Weaver came about!'
I can get carried away when it comes to Asher, but overall 'Dark Intelligence' is a decent beginning and by all means a 10 star book when compared to other books I have read. The world building is still magnificent, the imagery still brilliantly imaginative and the action-- Whoa, its still top notch. But, for Asher, I no longer compare him to other writers. I compare this book to his entire catalog. As I await the second in this series and look forward to another trip into his complex universe, I will hope for more likeable human/haimen protagonists but if I don't get them I won't cry, I'll read it anyway because even a 4 star Asher work reads better than most 5 star science fiction!
April 5, 2016
Major spoilers not only for this book but for Asher's Polity books in general, particularly the Agent Cormac series.
I was gallivanting through this, well entertained by the space opera but grumbling to myself about the lack of subtext and rather too obvious fact that the major protagonists were all being manipulated by a superior intelligence to the extent of being near enough puppets, until fairly near the end. It seems like a lot of SF writers do this in one or more books - oh, look! The people you've been tagging along with and got to care about? They may as well have been robots controlled by this AI! It always comes as a let down, not an exciting revelation, at least for me and it usually isn't even all that well disguised a surprise. Certainly not here.
I began to question the lack of subtext towards the end, when the motivations of said AI that's controlling events start becoming clear, though. In earlier Polity books it's made clear that the AIs in charge hold a strict policy of capital punishment for murder and when the in-chargest-of-them-all AI is found to be untrustworthy and itself a murderer it gets it's own punishment. At the time I took the views espoused on criminality and punishment for Asher's own but in this book we have strong themes of atonement for crimes past, redemption and belief in second chances.
Has Asher changed his views? Were the views of the Polity AIs never his in the first place? Was the real point of Agent Cormac's career simply that it should be the same rule for everybody, including the power elite and if they get caught out doing what they condemn with death when others do it, they shouldn't expect any mercy? This and Jupiter War have provided much more food for thought than I would typically expect from Asher. This one also reminded me of what he's best at; alien ecologies and nefarious politics. It also avoids egregious scientific errors sometimes present in his other books. I think if you've never read any other Polity books it's a bad place to start, however, as it takes few prisoners regarding knowledge of previous events.
I was gallivanting through this, well entertained by the space opera but grumbling to myself about the lack of subtext and rather too obvious fact that the major protagonists were all being manipulated by a superior intelligence to the extent of being near enough puppets, until fairly near the end. It seems like a lot of SF writers do this in one or more books - oh, look! The people you've been tagging along with and got to care about? They may as well have been robots controlled by this AI! It always comes as a let down, not an exciting revelation, at least for me and it usually isn't even all that well disguised a surprise. Certainly not here.
I began to question the lack of subtext towards the end, when the motivations of said AI that's controlling events start becoming clear, though. In earlier Polity books it's made clear that the AIs in charge hold a strict policy of capital punishment for murder and when the in-chargest-of-them-all AI is found to be untrustworthy and itself a murderer it gets it's own punishment. At the time I took the views espoused on criminality and punishment for Asher's own but in this book we have strong themes of atonement for crimes past, redemption and belief in second chances.
Has Asher changed his views? Were the views of the Polity AIs never his in the first place? Was the real point of Agent Cormac's career simply that it should be the same rule for everybody, including the power elite and if they get caught out doing what they condemn with death when others do it, they shouldn't expect any mercy? This and Jupiter War have provided much more food for thought than I would typically expect from Asher. This one also reminded me of what he's best at; alien ecologies and nefarious politics. It also avoids egregious scientific errors sometimes present in his other books. I think if you've never read any other Polity books it's a bad place to start, however, as it takes few prisoners regarding knowledge of previous events.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2015
Dark Intelligence is a very complex story that starts out with the POV of Thorvald Spear and gradually adds new characters and new POV’s. Asher has written books set in the Polity Universe before so much of the background world building was done in previous books. This is book one in a new series so even though I had not read anything by Asher before it worked well as an intro to the Polity.
Penny Royal, a rogue AI, is at the heart of the story. Everyone has some connection to the AI. Most want to end its existence. As the story progresses everyone has a change of attitude about the AI. Thorvald and the rest of the characters find some resolution at the end but transformation is the key and it is clear that there is still a lot of transformation left for both Penny Royal and the rest of the characters.
I found this to be a very well written and plotted story. It held my attention for the entire the book. The action was often different from what I expected which added to my enjoyment. The characters are interesting and the plot crisp. I think any Science Fiction fan would enjoy Dark Intelligence. I found it a great start to a new series.
June 4, 2015
The more books from Asher's Polity setting you've read, the more you'll like this one. It just so much richer when you have the history of the characters and places.
OK, we have smart, wisecracking AIs doing amazing and often creative things. We have species transformations, new ways to break things with physics, some nasty gory scenes that are relevant, and indeed some philosophical examination of the ethics of violence in a universe where death isn't necessarily final and even memories can't be trusted. We have prador and a gabbleduck, an Atheter war drone, moons exploding, and even occasional appearances by the mighty Earth Central AI.
This is a huge book conceptually, but everything ties together neatly.
It's #1 of a series, but it has a satisfactory ending if you choose not to go on.
It has what must be a nod to the late Iain M Banks, with a ship/AI called Michelotto's Garrotte (go on, Google it)
I'll be in line for the next one in this series.
OK, we have smart, wisecracking AIs doing amazing and often creative things. We have species transformations, new ways to break things with physics, some nasty gory scenes that are relevant, and indeed some philosophical examination of the ethics of violence in a universe where death isn't necessarily final and even memories can't be trusted. We have prador and a gabbleduck, an Atheter war drone, moons exploding, and even occasional appearances by the mighty Earth Central AI.
This is a huge book conceptually, but everything ties together neatly.
It's #1 of a series, but it has a satisfactory ending if you choose not to go on.
It has what must be a nod to the late Iain M Banks, with a ship/AI called Michelotto's Garrotte (go on, Google it)
I'll be in line for the next one in this series.
June 7, 2015
The thing that amazes me about Mr. Asher's works in the Polity realm is that all of the books and short stories tie seamlessly into the overall timeline of the Polity Universe. Dark Intelligence is no exception and expands upon the Penny Royal character in many creative and unexpected ways. The worlds of the Polity (such as Masada) are revisited while new worlds are introduced with colorful characters including humans that yearn to be Prador.
I highly recommend this book to folks familiar with previous works from Mr. Asher as well as folks new to the Polity universe. One of the great things about the way Mr. Asher has written over the years is that you can enjoy the books in any order, reading them from the 1st Polity agent book is not a necessity.
Looking forward to Mr. Asher's next work as well as to re-reading Dark Intelligence.
I highly recommend this book to folks familiar with previous works from Mr. Asher as well as folks new to the Polity universe. One of the great things about the way Mr. Asher has written over the years is that you can enjoy the books in any order, reading them from the 1st Polity agent book is not a necessity.
Looking forward to Mr. Asher's next work as well as to re-reading Dark Intelligence.
Want to read
June 27, 2016This copy is an uncorrected bound galley of this book.
September 9, 2017
4.5* great story but couldn't really connect with the characters. Although, not a loss since most are really nasty pieces of work.
First, if you don't want to get lost in the plot you should probably read The Technician first since you probably need to know what a Hooder and a Gabbleduck is.
This is a multi threaded plot following a couple of characters who have been screwed over by a rather nasty rogue AI called Penny Royal and are now hunting it down, intent on a bit of revenge. Other threads follow events on the planet Masada where the AI escaped from and of course, Penny Royal itself. These threads all come together for the inevitable confrontation at the end but not the expected outcome.
The story line does end nicely if you want to read the book as a stand alone but there is still plenty of opportunity to continue the story as you would expect, since it's the first in a trilogy.
First, if you don't want to get lost in the plot you should probably read The Technician first since you probably need to know what a Hooder and a Gabbleduck is.
This is a multi threaded plot following a couple of characters who have been screwed over by a rather nasty rogue AI called Penny Royal and are now hunting it down, intent on a bit of revenge. Other threads follow events on the planet Masada where the AI escaped from and of course, Penny Royal itself. These threads all come together for the inevitable confrontation at the end but not the expected outcome.
The story line does end nicely if you want to read the book as a stand alone but there is still plenty of opportunity to continue the story as you would expect, since it's the first in a trilogy.
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