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Title: The Technician
Series: Polity #12
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 512
Format: Digital Edition
Series: Polity #12
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 512
Format: Digital Edition
Synopsis:
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We the readers are
returned to the world of Masada, introduced in the Agent Cormac
books. Now that the Polity has “been invited in”, things are
changing. One of the few surviving Proctors from the old regime was
attacked by a hooder but not killed. This Hooder, known as the
Technician, left something in the proctors head and the Polity wants
to know what. The proctor goes on a crazy trip for about 20 years
where he just sits as an invalid on a prison island until an AI
decides that it has had enough. Things are orchestrated to start a
chain of events to give the proctor back his memories and for the
Polity to find out what was in his head.
The gabbleducks,
the native life of Masada, are shown to be the devolved descendants
of the space faring race the Atheter that went extinct millions of
years ago. They commited race extinction after being exposed to Jain
tech and left behind a machine whose sole job was to prevent them
from ever regaining sapience again.
Now that the Polity
has an Atheter AI, the gabbleducks and some unknown something inside
the proctors head, all on the same planet, this machine awakens.
There is a climactic showdown between it and the Technician and some
top of the line Polity vessels. The proctor transfers his memories
(or, the last living Atheter's) memories to a gabbleduck and the AI
wakes up. The Atheter appear to be on the rise.
We are also
introduced to Penny Royal, a black AI. It was split into 8 parts and
the 8th was excised, as it contained the psychotic bits.
However, the AI Amistad kept that 8th part for study and
during all of this Penny Royal gets its hands on the 8th
part. It apparently destroys it.
My
Thoughts:
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I somehow messed up and read this before reading The Gabble and
Other Stories, which introduces how the Polity found the Atheter
AI and does a bit of setup for this book. However, Asher does enough
fill in for the reader that it isn't strictly necessary to have read
that book first. It just would have been nicer.
Ok, first. Asher is in fine form with his bashing of religion and
returning to the world of Masada allows him free reign to setup
strawmen that he not only knocks down, but pretty much uses a
flamethrower on. I've stated it before, but Asher's god is Scyenze
and he's as vitriolic and mocking as any old high priest you could
think of. That was pretty much why this stayed at a 4star rating
like the last time I read it. If it wasn't for that, this would have
been approaching 5star easily.
This was AWESOME. Splatterpunk space opera at its finest. The
proctor gets his face eaten off by the Technician and then gets a
prosthetic from the Polity medical team later. On his journey he CUTS
HIS OWN FACE OFF AGAIN because he hates the Polity so much. I'm
sorry, but how can you not love that?!?
The introduction of Penny Royal was good on this re-read. It is a
side character and so when I read this the first time it didn't even
register when Asher ended up writing a whole trilogy about it. Now
that I've read that trilogy, seeing its introduction is pretty cool.
The human side was done just as well. The proctor, with his mix of
literary attendants both for and against, makes for a great survival
story. Between the planet and the wildlife and the Tidy Squad (a
group that hunts down the former regime) and then the Polity forces,
you get a full range of interaction.
Asher does good work on single novels. I won't call this a standalone
because knowledge of the Polity and Masada is pretty vital to really
understand it but I think someone “could” read this and figure
out what they needed. I'm pretty pleased with this read through.
★★★★☆
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