The Warship by Neal Asher

[Vertigo]

The Warship is the second book in Asher’s Rise of the Jain trilogy that is possibly shaping up to be my favourite series yet of Asher’s Polity books. The Warship is packed with action from start to finish; my edition has a brief quote from Locus magazine – ‘Titanic battle sequences’ – that pretty much sums it up. As ever Asher’s imagination is startling in its mind-expanding detail. This book has everything that has made his Polity books such a success - Dragon, drones, AIs, Hoopers, Prador, vast space battles, etc. – all wrapped up in a plot that keeps the pages turning and the late night candle burning.

As always Asher manages to juggle all the elements of the story so deftly that the reader is seamlessly led from wondering how all this can possibly come together to a dramatic and yet natural conclusion that manages to be both satisfying and a cliff hanger at the same time. I strongly recommend anyone starting this book to be ready to quickly purchase the sequel or have it to hand already. I have it and it surely will not be long before I make a start on it.

 

[Rodders]

I read this recently and loved it. Asher just gets better and better.

 

[AE35Unit]

Sounds good. I just wish authors would do standalones. Tracking down books in a series isn't fun.

 

[Vertigo]

Sounds good. I just wish authors would do standalones. Tracking down books in a series isn't fun.

To be fair it would have been hard for Asher to have done justice to this (fantastic) story as a standalone; it would have had to be something like 1500 pages long. I confess it doesn't really bother me at all, I enjoy the immersion of extended stories and I generally take my time over series, I would guess I'm probably in the middle of at least a dozen different series at the moment and generally only read each volume in a series at 3-5 month intervals. I often re read the final chapter or two of the previous book before starting the next.

Though I do accept that this approach is not so easy if reading books from libraries and that my preference is very much a personal one.

 

[AE35Unit]

To be fair it would have been hard for Asher to have done justice to this (fantastic) story as a standalone; it would have had to be something like 1500 pages long. I confess it doesn't really bother me at all, I enjoy the immersion of extended stories and I generally take my time over series, I would guess I'm probably in the middle of at least a dozen different series at the moment and generally only read each volume in a series at 3-5 month intervals. I often re read the final chapter or two of the previous book before starting the next.

Though I do accept that this approach is not so easy if reading books from libraries and that my preference is very much a personal one.

Its great if you have the money to buy the series, but I don't have that option. I have quite a few series to keep up with, EdMcbain's 87th Precinct and F Paul Wilson's two series. Luckily they're not continuous like many series. You can pretty much jump in anywhere.

 

[Vertigo]

Its great if you have the money to buy the series, but I don't have that option. I have quite a few series to keep up with, EdMcbain's 87th Precinct and F Paul Wilson's two series. Luckily they're not continuous like many series. You can pretty much jump in anywhere.

Yeah I can appreciate that. One of the reasons I stopped using libraries was the hassle of dealing with series. Even with ordering available it was a pain. Fortunately it coincided with me finally getting my business up to a level where I wasn't virtually destitute (it can be very depressing when literally all your staff are being paid more than yourself!!!).

 

[AE35Unit]

Yeah I can appreciate that. One of the reasons I stopped using libraries was the hassle of dealing with series. Even with ordering available it was a pain. Fortunately it coincided with me finally getting my business up to a level where I wasn't virtually destitute (it can be very depressing when literally all your staff are being paid more than yourself!!!).

I haven't visited our libraries for ages!

 

[Vertigo]

I haven't visited our libraries for ages!

Worth taking a look. most of them will order a book for you if they haven't actually got it. I did this many times with my local library.

 

[AE35Unit]

Worth taking a look. most of them will order a book for you if they haven't actually got it. I did this many times with my local library.

Our main library is pretty useless now. They had a major clearout a while ago when the building was threatened with being sold off.