Hilldiggers: A Novel of the Polity

Neal Asher is one of a small group of authors (mainly from the UK) who are turning out consistently good hard science fiction. Most of Asher's novels deal with the Polity which is a vast far future galactic empire ruled by artificial intelligences. Hilldiggers is one of the latest, the title referring to vast dreadnought class spaceships used by the planet Sudoria to devastate its neighboring planet Brumallia in a recent war. Both planets were originally settled by human colonists but the extremely difficult environmental conditions on each planet have forced the humans to adopt extensive genetic modifications. David McCrooger is an envoy from the Polity seeking to open diplomatic relations with Sudoria. He immediately runs into complicated and deadly interactions between the various political factions. He also comes across four mysterious quads whose birth appears to have been affected by the worm, a mysterious entity being studied by Sudorian scientists in a space station orbiting Sudoria. This is a fairly typical Polity novel but I didn't find it quite as compelling as some of the others. One of the irritating parts was the frequent swapping between the viewpoints of the characters. Asher does this a lot in his other books but seems to overdo it this time. Also, the story seems to take longer than necessary to reach its conclusion. Overall, still good but could have been better

In something almost of a Culture-like situation, the Polity sends a human (of sorts) agent to try and establish diplomatic contact with a solar system riven by civil war, and two distinct variants of humanity modified to survive in their environments. There's also an AI drone - whereas the Culture drones are smartarse snarky types who you might go to advice for for esoteric quantum physics, perhaps, Asher's Polity machines seem more like ones you could go to the pub with, if they needed to drink and weren't superintelligent compared to you, anyway. Tigger, the drone here, apart from admitting to being too slack to want to be a planetary AI, does some superhero dogooding around the place. The Polity agent sent in is not of the Cormac variety, but rather a younger Old Captain from Spatterjay - someone transformed by a virus to be given longevity, and enhanced strength and regeneration abilities. So, also supermen, really, but this one has a serious illness. He has to deal with four strangely enhanced genius quadruplets from one world, work out what is going on with a strange alien monster, and try and stop the interworld and intraworld tensions from evolving into devastating war. The title of the book comes from the name of some of the Sudorian main ships - the term meaning they have the firepower to remove geographical features. A little more complex plotwise than some of the other Asher novels I have read, as you can see. You still can't accuse Asher of arty writing, or being boring, which I am sure will continue to please his fans. 3.5 out of 5

Damn, Neal Asher, why can't you write more books and faster? I've read all the Polity novels, and love them so much that I can't put them down once started; however, they are addicting and I need more - please, Neal, drink more coffee and write faster!!

The breadth & scope of Asher's Polity universe expands yet again in this tale of two bio-engineered human races on two different planets in the same solar system recovering from, and girding for what could be another interplanetary war. The worlds in this system are not members of the AI-governed Polity, but the Polity is aware of them and has just instituted contact in the form of an agent infused with 2 competing viruses whose conflict could ultimately kill him. As one of Asher's familiar Old Captains, the Spatterjay virus provides McCrooger an imposing presence upon initial contact but quickly becomes a liability. It contributes to a debilitating reaction and procedure that leaves him weaker than he's ever been in his life at a time when he most needs to act. Sudoria is the dominant world. Its space-faring powers are locked in a power struggle vying for ultimate control of local space that is moving their world towards civil war. The platform-driven Orbital Combine has a research vessel in which a completely alien entity has been captured and is being held in 4 containment canisters. Study of this entity has led to technological advances that worry the military Fleet as they help to erode its influence in Parliament. Enter four gifted quad siblings driven to succeed... Born of a researcher who studied the alien and then committed a dramatic suicide shortly after they were delivered. They rise through very separate factions of society into positions of great influence and all have ability to affect the power play in different fashions. There are some very obvious threads about politics, the places of those that have and wield influence, capitalism and the accumulation of wealth, military might and right and taking care of the world that you have amongst others. Knowing that a work touches upon all of these subjects would generally make me very wary. It could easily fall into the category of works like those of Sheri S. Tepper who feels that she has to save the world by battering you over the head and ramming her understanding of all of the world's ills down your throat. This does not fall into that category. Neal deftly positions each storyline so that there is nothing "preachy" about the way events unfold. The reader is left to take what they will out of each action by following the reactions of the characters. This work relies less upon the constant action of many of Neal's previous works. It is also contained within a single solar system which one would think reduces the scope of the work. But it doesn't, this is a very character-driven work that gets deeply into each individual's history and psyche! Initially, I found that the characters were fully realized with the exception of the quads, particularly Harald who was busy climbing his way through the ranks of the Fleet. Because they are all so driven, at times they, and he much more than the others seem fairly one-dimensional. I can't help but think that Neal planned