The Soldier (Rise of the Jain) - Hardcover

Asher, Neal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1509862390 ISBN 13: 9781509862399

Publisher: Macmillan, 2018

Synopsis

In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations.

Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman. She’s assisted by Dragon, a mysterious, spaceship-sized alien entity who has long been suspicious of Jain technology and who suspects the disc is a trap lying-in-wait.

Meanwhile, the android Angel is planning an attack on the Polity, and is searching for a terrible weapon to carry out his plans?a Jain super-soldier. But what exactly the super-soldier is, and what it could be used for if it fell into the wrong hands, will bring Angel and Orlandine’s missions to a head in a way that could forever change the balance of power in the Polity universe.

In The Soldier , British science fiction writer Neal Asher kicks off another Polity-based trilogy in signature fashion, concocting a mind-melting plot filled with far-future technology, lethal weaponry, and bizarre alien creations.

About this title

About the Author

Neal Asher divides his time between Essex and Crete, mostly at a keyboard and mentally light-years away. His full-length novels are the Agent Cormac series: Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent and Line War. The Spatterjay series: The Skinner The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus. Set in the same Polity are: Hilldiggers, PradorMoon, Shadow of the Scorpion, The Technician, and also the Transformation trilogy: Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine. In a dystopian future are: The Departure, Zero Point and Jupiter War, while Cowl takes us across time. The Soldier, the first book in the Rise of the Jain series, returns to the Polity.

Review

Asher is a modern master of Sci-Fi * Starburst * With mind-blowing complexity, characters, and combat, Asher's work continues to combine the best of advanced cybertech and military SF * Publishers Weekly * Neal Asher's coruscating mix of epic space opera, weaponised Darwinism and high-stakes intrigue channels the primal flame of deep-core science fiction -- Paul McAuley, author of Four Hundred Billion Stars A richly imagined, exotic world, nonstop action, and unimaginable stakes - I couldn't put The Soldier down -- Yoon Ha Lee, author of Ninefox Gambit The Soldier provides everything we demand from Asher: a beautifully complex universe where AIs, aliens and post-humans scheme and struggle - magnificently awesome. Then Asher turns it up to eleven -- Peter F. Hamilton Neal Asher's books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain -- John Scalzi

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509862390
• ISBN 13: 9781509862399
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464