The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac, Book 2)
by Neal Asher
Our Price: $44.79
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Neal AsherEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-30
ISBN: 0330484354
Number of pages: 672
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Book Reviews of The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac, Book 2)
Book Review: Mad Scientist and Evil Pope vs. Secret Agent Man
Summary: 3 Stars
THE LINE OF POLITY is bigger in scope and page count than the first Ian Cormac novel, GRIDLINKED, but it doesn't have the focus and punch of its predecessor. In fact, LINE feels like a product rushed to market before its time. There are many scenes that add nothing to the story and many bits of inane dialogue, particularly between humans and AIs, that should have been cut. Worse, there is so much similarity between events in GRIDLINKED and LINE, and between events that occur earlier in LINE and events that occur later in LINE that it is difficult not to feel a numbing deja vu over and over again.
While GRIDLINKED and LINE are by no means identical, they are similar in structure and driven by similar conflicts. In GRIDLINKED, Earth Central Security Agent Cormac had to battle a terrorist bent on killing him, track down the culprit(s) behind the destruction of a Polity base, and struggle to regain his own lost humanity. In LINE, Cormac battles a mad scientist bent on killing him, tracks down the people behind the destruction of a different Polity base, and assists the oppressed masses of planet Masada in their efforts to overthrow a theocratic oligarchy. What we learn about the "Line" of the title--the leading edge of the Human Polity's expansion into neighboring areas of space--advances our overall understanding of the Polity and the larger universe it inhabits, but it could have done so in fewer than 663 pages.
On the plus side, Asher delivers another action-packed story that takes place in a variety of well-imagined exotic locales packed with deadly and bizarre fauna. In a reader-friendly move, he also carries over many characters familiar to readers of GRIDLOCKED, including super-agent Horace Blegg, storm troopers Gant and Thorn, mercenaries Jarvellis and John Stanton, and trickster alien Dragon. Also, his writing remains lucid and vivid.
My biggest beef with LINE, however, is that the bad guys are too comic-book-villainesque for a novel that isn't aiming for Austin Powers-level silliness. Bad guy Skellor is a familiar type, a scientist who will do anything to master dangerous technologies, regardless of the cost to others. When Cormac gives Skellor's work a temporary setback, Skellor decides that me must kill Cormac, he must inflict horrible suffering on as many other people as possible, and he must do this in the most baroque and impractical ways conceivable. He's an evil guy who does evil stuff just because he's evil and for little or no other reason. The theocratic oligarchy of Masada is slightly more complex; living in orbital habitats far above the planetbound laboring classes, their oppressive social order keeps them in power and relative luxury while using religion to justify both their exaltation and the debasement of the masses. (It's a mildly disguised and transfigured medieval Catholic Church.) Still, these theocrats are, like Skellor, black-and-white villains who have no self-doubt and no redeeming value. This is in keeping with the view expressed by a passage in the novel arguing that criminals are the cause of crime (and, implicitly, that evil people are the source of evil deeds), and that any attempts to look for deeper social/environmental explanations represent namby-pamby liberalism. I hope for his and our sake that this bit of Bushian philosophy is not his final word on the subject.
All that being said, LINE offers enough pleasures to those who enjoyed GRIDLINKED to overbalance the boring bits and the occasional insult. Conditionally recommended.
Summary of The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac, Book 2)
Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ...and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.64
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Orbus (Spatterjay 3)by Neal Asher
Pan Macmillan; Published: 2010-08-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.26
Hilldiggers (Novel of the Polity)by Neal Asher
Pan Macmillan; Published: 2008-04-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops:
Shadow of the Scorpionby Neal Asher
Night Shade Books; Published: 2009-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
The Voyage of the Sable Keech (Spatterjay, Book 2)by Neal Asher
Trans-Atlantic Publications, Inc.; Published: 2006-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Line War (Ian Cormac, Book 5)by Neal Asher
Pan Macmillan; Published: 2009-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.61
Price in other shops:
Polity Agent (Ian Cormac, Book 4)by Neal Asher
Trans-Atlantic Publications, Inc.; Published: 2007-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
The Skinner (Spatterjay, Book 1)by Neal Asher
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 2005-05-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.60
Price in other shops:
The Technician. Neal Asherby Neal L. Asher
Tor Books; Published: 2011-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.42
Price in other shops:
Brass Man (Ian Cormac, Book 3)by Neal Asher
Tor Books; Published: 2007-01-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.93
Price in other shops:
Gridlinked (Ian Cormac, Book 1)by Neal Asher
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 2004-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: