Series: Polity #20
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 329
Words: 151K
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Synopsis: |
A collection of short stories about the Polity as it becomes the Post-Polity. This consists of:
The Relict
Monitor Logan
Bad Boy
Plenty
Dr Whip
Raising
Moloch
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My Thoughts: |
From what I could gather, the Polity didn't collapse so much as it simply ceased to exist as the AI's bootstrapped most of humanity up to their level and they all decided to stop playing government. The little clues make it seem like this all took less than 100,000 years. There's no mention, that I can remember, of the newly raised Atheter or any mention of what happened to the Prador. While it all might have made sense in Asher's head, to me it felt very “I'm bored with this particular literary construct, thus I'll wave my authorial hand and …..”
Don't get me wrong. Besides the first story where Asher lets his vitriol against religion take front and center, I enjoyed these stories. They all had his ultra-violence that I've come to expect from him as well as the techno-babble that I just skim over now.
What threw me for a loop was that these were not ALL post-Polity. Monitor Logan takes place squarely during the height of the Polity/Prador standoff and Bad Boy takes place on Spatterjay and involves a situation where the AI lets things run their course hoping the inhabitants will apply for Polity membership. It just made me feel like the secondary title on the cover What Comes After the Polity was misleading.
I think this might be a very good jumping on place for anyone new to the Polity. There are 19 previous Polity books and I can imagine it is daunting to a new person to figure out where they want to start.
★★★✬☆
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