Customer Reviews
Excellent Space Opera - By: The Insatiable Reader, 29 Sep 2008 
This one really shows how far Asher has come since writing Gridlinked. The characters are better rounded, the writing itself is better, & Asher's got plenty of new ideas & concepts rolling around. This book was what put Asher firmly amongst the ranks of my favourite authors (Reynolds, Morgan & Gary Gibson being the others).
The basic premise: we have a couple of plot lines going on: one related to Skellor, the derranged scientist containing extremely advanced alien technology, & a few all concerning the rebellion on a church-controlled planet. And before you start yawning, Asher spices up both of these concepts with new ideas & flavours of his own. One of my favourites was the concept of "scoles"- a new way of keeping the populace under control that I don't think anyone's ever really used before.
Just a thing: if you are going to be reading this, make sure you enjoy violence. This one's got even more action than the last one did. There's guns firing, bombs crashing all over the place, & a lot of people are going to be inconvenienced. That said, there is not a hint of any pulpish, shooting-match rubbish either. If you like sophisticated, large scale violence, this should keep you going for a while.
Cracking Read - By: R. Kershaw, 08 May 2008 
New ideas & characters with some of the good old ones from Gridlinked.
Gabbleducks are not quite as comical as the name suggests & again a very good read. Big fan of the stretches the human mind can make with sci fiin space & ASHER does this very well. Still not quite Peter HAMILTON but very close. On to the BRASS MAN
The Line of Polity - By: David Brookes, 01 Apr 2008 Ian Cormac, the Polity Agent of the prequel "Gridlinked", didn't really strike me as a character you'd revisit for a sequel. He was deliberately written flat to emphasise his dehumanisation, but was ultimately as cool as most fictional secret agents & makes a fine comebackin the second of Asher's Cormac series.
"The Line of Polity" fails to "Grinlinked" only on account of it not featuring the attention-grabbing Mr Crane, but it otherwise excels; the main action takes place on a planet with its own bizarre ecosystem that Asher brilliantly brings to life. Most planetsin sci-fi do not have characterin themselves, but the planet Masada is like a living, breathing personality here, with its own food chain & terrifying species. It's wonderful to find such effort put into making the place as interesting as the people that inhabit it.
The story is great & fast-paced, the returning characters become more rounded & the new ones are sufficiently realised to keep you reading. As with the first book this isn't Iain M Banks, but it really is great fiction & well worth reading, doubly so if you liked other novels by Asher.
Gridlinked it is not. - By: Mr. R. D. Turner, 12 Jul 2007 
Gridlinked was a stunning book. The pace & the storyline were top class science fiction. Line of Polity has Ian Cormac back again but this time it is boring.
It is hard to say why, the alien world is good & the plot isn't awful. Basically I think there is too much Dragon (the weakest point of Gridlinked) & the "bad guy" is basically unbelievable. Where Gridlinked had pace & character this book has too many characters & too many subplots. Also, by bringing back the characters from Gridlinked, the book has a soap opera feel to it. The ending is good but I found it a real struggle to get there.
Superb - By: Martin Anderson, 11 May 2006 With the Polity series - Gridlinked, The Line of Polity & Brass Man, Neal Asher has created a compelling & believable vision of a future society.
More than that, this book is a real page turned with great characters & a plot that pulls you in.
Do make sure that you real these booksin order though else you will spoil the endings for yourself.
