Cowl

This is an extremely imaginative novel with compelling characters that kept me thinking about it long after I finished it.

A number of reviewers have commented that they found the story line very difficult to follow in this book. But, it's a story about time travel, where things change based upon what will happen in the future or will happen in the past. So of course it's tough to follow - that's the whole idea. I liked the book a great deal. I haven't found an Asher story yet that I don't like. And for those willing to work their way to the end, it does all come together.

Neal Asher has, in his Polity series, developed a reputation for writing well crafted, hyperviolent stories. In Cowl he ventures into the time travel vein. Time travel stories very often can't sustain enough believability to be immersive. Asher manages to keep the storyline from devolving to this point although there are portions later in the novel when the time travel theme becomes a bit muddled. I particularly liked the concept of a probability slope where timelines that diverge from the main line require ever increasing amounts of energy to escape from. In terms of the characters in Cowl, much of the humor found in Asher's other novels is missing. The world of Cowl is even grimmer than the Polity universe and it comes through in many of the characters. Because of this, I felt detached from the characters and for this reason Cowl gets 4 stars.

In the distant future, the Heliothane Dominion has won the devastating war against the genetically altered Cowl. However, though defeated in their present time, some of the Cowl escape fleeing to different ages in the past. The Heliothane Dominion knows they must follow suit to prevent changes to the time stream and to their victory. In the near future (to us that is) in an austere Britain Polly, a drug using prostitute becomes part of the time war when Nandru an AI "enters" her psyche and she touches a tor-beast taking her even further back in time. Heliothane Dominion Government Agent Tack, who previously killed Nandru, follows to stop the Cowl but instead is brought along with the hooker on a journey to pre-mankind. Tack knows he must stop Polly, an innocent who potentially could alter the war's outcome. COWL is an enjoyable time travel science fiction in which the physics seem plausible enhancing the action-packed trips back through WWII, Ancient Rome, and other stops along the way until ultimately reaching pre-mankind. Intriguingly no one even Polly garners empathy as Neal Asher caustically provides no insight into why the Cowl and the Heliothane Dominion leaderships behave malevolently towards others tossing aside human pawns when expedient; rationales have been forgotten lost to the wells of time. Mr. Asher provides a powerful time military sci fi that reads somewhat like an espionage thriller in which the audience will find it difficult to determine the good vs. the bad guys as both sides have all the time in the world to cause havoc. Harriet Klausner

I've read a couple of Asher's previous books, Gridlinked and Skinner, and enjoyed his rather vicious characters and settings. Cowl follows in these fine steps with an even harsher, indifferent future and a "survival of the fittest" world. This novel involves progressive time travel from a near future back through to a time when life on earth was beginning with machinations by forces whose goals and intentions are unclear but gradually revealed. The historic times encountered are very interesting but tantalizingly brief as they left me wanting more. My only criticism might be that the author could've created more human interest in these characters for me. I can't say I warmed up much to any of the characters, who remained rather cool and distant, but I suppose in some ways this added to the indifference of this book's universe to the individual character's existence and that of all life. I was at all times however curious to their fate and eager to follow their journeys. The best aspect of Asher's novels to me are the great ideas and original plots. Most books have some echo of another book but I can definitely say that I've never come across the likes of Asher's stories anywhere else. The story's pace is fast and the plot wraps up very satisfactorily. All in all it's a very good book.