Weaponized by Neal Asher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The good:

This establishes the pre-EVERYTHING of the Polity universe, pre-Prador (tho, that war begins here,) pre-AI political dominance, pre-outright-Jain nastiness, and firmly sets the stage for what will be the first Polity novel, ending with the Prador War.

What's so good about this, if ya'll have read the rest?

It is closer to ourselves.

Indeed, we get a more tight look at colonization, needing to change ourselves to adapt to deadly planets, and the lines we draw or completely break when survival is on the line.

Indeed, this novel breaks out all the fun guns with outright transhumanism taking the front stage while a Jain-infested planet tries to kill them. How much of a monster can they all become?

I love this kind of SF. Sure, Asher has done even better in the future, but if we consider just WHERE this takes place in the full timeline, it works extremely well as a starting point for ANYONE interested in the series.

Fair warning, though: It goes all out bloodthirsty and does make a few assumptions about our knowledge of the full universe. It's a compromise, but for anyone wanting blood and guts, with alien, AI, and nanotech nasties, I can't recommend a finer action novel.


The bad:

There's nothing much new here for long-time fans. BUT, that being said, it IS still a fun ride and satisfies many hard-SF urges. Indeed, I can't get enough.



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