I'd read this a while back - two or more years, I believe - and I'd wanted to read it again. But I didn't remember it fondly enough to want to go spend money one it. So when it popped up in paperbackswap.com, I grabbed it.
Well, I did remember it as a quick read, and that it wasn't bad. Both of those matched up with the memory.
The jacket copy goes like:
In the far future, the Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the solar system, after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the Umbrathane have escaped into the distant past, where they can position themselves to wreak havoc across time and undo their defeat. The most fanatical of them is the superhuman Cowl, more monstrous than any of the creatures outside his prehistoric redoubt.
Cowl sends his terrifying hyperdimensional pet, the torbeast, hunting through all the timelines for human specimens. It sheds its scales -- each one an organic time machine -- where its master orders. Anyone who picks one up is dragged back to the dawn of time, where Cowl awaits. Then the beast can feed, growing ever larger . . .
In our own near-future, Tack is one of U-gov's programmable killers. When a scale latches onto him, his doom seems inevitable, but the Heliothane have other ideas: they can use Tack against Cowl. Tack is no stranger to violence, but the Heliothane, hardened in their struggle for humanity's very existence, have much to teach him. He will need it all for his encounter with Cowl.
Once one of Tack's targets, Polly, escaped with her life when a torbeast scale snatched her. Now, like Tack, she must learn fast as she is dragged back to Day Zero. To cheat death again, she will have to help him save the human race.
With Cowl, Neal Asher, acclaimed author of Gridlinked and The Skinner, has created his most powerful novel yet.
Well, I wouldn't say his most powerful honestly. But I did like it. Its Neal Asher - its violent and gory. He doesn't shy from describing weapon effects for sure (not war porn levels though). But he does tend to leave to the imagination the effects of being devoured by the tor beast, or torture (so I guess I ought to be thankful for that at least).
What I liked:
The 'neat' resolution of time travel and altering history. The more you alter it the less likely you are in the resulting universe and the more power it requires to bring you back to the main line, or average of history. I really need to see if I can summarize it somewhere.
The Cowl. I think I liked him/it more when he was mysterious before his origin was explained.
Polly's decision that she wanted more than to be a time lost castaway. And her ingenuity in surviving the situations she was thrust into.
The Heliothane and Umbrathane future.
Aconite and her goal. For a 'failed' experiment, she didn't think small.
What I disliked:
The sheer unlikeability of the heliothane and mbrathane.
Tack's sudden sprouting of empathy, when he ought to have been one step removed from a cabbage courtesy of Cowl's deprogramming.
If you like Time Travel stories this one may fill the bill. The plot is somewhat convoluted and the science is not detailed but if you accept the basic premise there is plenty to hold your interest. Asher's characters are put through hell on their journey which is typical of his stories. This is not my favorite book by him. I really preferred The Skinner and Gridlocked both to this one. Still, a good read.
I'd read this a while back - two or more years, I believe - and I'd wanted to read it again. But I didn't remember it fondly enough to want to go spend money one it. So when it popped up in paperbackswap.com, I grabbed it.
Well, I did remember it as a quick read, and that it wasn't bad. Both of those matched up with the memory.
The jacket copy goes like:
In the far future, the Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the solar system, after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the Umbrathane have escaped into the distant past, where they can position themselves to wreak havoc across time and undo their defeat. The most fanatical of them is the superhuman Cowl, more monstrous than any of the creatures outside his prehistoric redoubt.
Cowl sends his terrifying hyperdimensional pet, the torbeast, hunting through all the timelines for human specimens. It sheds its scales -- each one an organic time machine -- where its master orders. Anyone who picks one up is dragged back to the dawn of time, where Cowl awaits. Then the beast can feed, growing ever larger . . .
In our own near-future, Tack is one of U-gov's programmable killers. When a scale latches onto him, his doom seems inevitable, but the Heliothane have other ideas: they can use Tack against Cowl. Tack is no stranger to violence, but the Heliothane, hardened in their struggle for humanity's very existence, have much to teach him. He will need it all for his encounter with Cowl.
Once one of Tack's targets, Polly, escaped with her life when a torbeast scale snatched her. Now, like Tack, she must learn fast as she is dragged back to Day Zero. To cheat death again, she will have to help him save the human race.
With Cowl, Neal Asher, acclaimed author of Gridlinked and The Skinner, has created his most powerful novel yet.
Well, I wouldn't say his most powerful honestly. But I did like it. Its Neal Asher - its violent and gory. He doesn't shy from describing weapon effects for sure (not war porn levels though). But he does tend to leave to the imagination the effects of being devoured by the tor beast, or torture (so I guess I ought to be thankful for that at least).
What I liked:
The 'neat' resolution of time travel and altering history. The more you alter it the less likely you are in the resulting universe and the more power it requires to bring you back to the main line, or average of history. I really need to see if I can summarize it somewhere.
The Cowl. I think I liked him/it more when he was mysterious before his origin was explained.
Polly's decision that she wanted more than to be a time lost castaway. And her ingenuity in surviving the situations she was thrust into.
The Heliothane and Umbrathane future.
Aconite and her goal. For a 'failed' experiment, she didn't think small.
What I disliked:
The sheer unlikeability of the heliothane and mbrathane.
Tack's sudden sprouting of empathy, when he ought to have been one step removed from a cabbage courtesy of Cowl's deprogramming.
