the Voyage of Sable Keech: Neal Asher

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Sable Keech was a walking dead man, the only one = amongst many = to have been resúrrected by nanochanger. Did he succeed becaust he was infected by the Spatterjay virus, or because he carne late to resurrection in a tank of sekwater? Tracing the man's last-known seaborne journey, Taylor Bloc wants to know the truth. He also wants so much else - adulation, power, control - and will go to any lengths to get them, An ancient hive mind, almost incomprehensible to the human race, has sent an agent ta this uncertaìn world. Does it simply want to, obtain the lethal poison, ‘sprine’? If so, Janer must find ìt and stop it. | | Û Meanwhile, still faced with the ennui of immortality, Erlin has her solitude rudely interrupted by a very angry whelkus titanicus, and begins the strangest of journeys. Deep in the ocean the Spatterjay virus has : wrought a terrible change that will afféct them all. Something dormant for ten years is breaking free, and once again the aftershocks of an ancient war will focus on this watery world. | And Sniper, for ten years the Warden ' Spatterjay, finally takes delivery of his new drone shell. It's much better than his old one: powerful engines, _ more lethal weapons, thicker armour. He's going to need them. | ran on Neal Asher was born in Billericay, Essex, and still lives nearby. He started writing SF and fantasy at the age of sixteen, and has since had many stories published. His previous full-length novels have been Gridlinked, The Skinner, The Line of Polity, Cowl and Brass Man. GRIDLINKED “There's invention and wit here, and firm command of a complex plot’ TIME OUT THE SKINNER ‘A sprawling, witty, adventure-filled tale packed with the truly alien’ THE THIRD ALTERNATIVE THE LINE OF POLITY “This is undoubtedly Asher's best novel’ ‘Neal Asher is delivering hugely entertaining novels’ BOOKSELLER “The sheer number of concepts that Asher catapults at the reader is boggling’ SFX BRASS MAN “Trademark Asher... the links it establishes leave one wanting much, much more’ STARBURST Seeing the creature loom out of the underwater gloom, Vrell immediately recognized it from the bio-files concerning this planet’s fauna. The humans called it a molly carp — the second part of its name resulting from its huge main body resembling a Terran fish called a carp. However, rather than use its tail for propulsion, this creature towed itself along the seabed with masses of belly tentacles. Now, it drew to a halt, those same tentacles winding together to form one trunk, so it came to stand like some strange fleshy tree. Perhaps this was some form of camouflage? No, the trunk twisted, turning the utterly level carp body towards Vrell, and thick lips drew back from a mass of translucent teeth. Vrell felt his guts shrink with fear. Those few weapons he had retained were useless here, as they had been specifically designed for land warfare. Moreover, the natural cowardice of Prador adulthood — which he had only recently attained — had been exacerbated by many recent attempts on his life. He kept moving further down into the depths, his beacon return telling him that his father’s ship was not far away. The carp eagerly closed in and began to circle him, observing. Perhaps it was curious about this potential dinner. Vrell now surmised that his father, Ebulan, had been verging on senility, of which his venture to this hostile world had been just one sign. The war against mankind had been over for most of Ebulan’s lifetime and now trade and better relations were growing between the Prador and the humans. Because of atrocities Ebulan, with the connivance of certain humans, had committed here during that long-ago war — the coring of humans to use as Prador

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Will an ancient terror rise again in Neal Asher's second book in the Spatterjay series? The Voyage of the Sable Keech returns to Neal Asher's water-bound world of Spatterjay, teeming with bizarre characters and gruesome monsters.Taylor Bloc is a walking dead man, determined to live again. He also wants adulation, power and control – and will do anything to get them. Of Bloc’s kind, Sable Keech alone has achieved resurrection. So Bloc will retrace Keech’s journey across Spatterjay’s wild seas, with his crew of killers, to grasp his secret.Erlin wanted solitude to understand her eternal life, until an attack prompts her own strange journey. And Janer returns, with forbidden weaponry. He must stop an agent controlled by a hive mind with a death fixation. But a wider crisis will overshadow personal missions. In the deeps, an alien Prador is stirring, horribly transformed by Spatterjay’s immortality virus. And an enemy ship would destroy the planet to keep this secret.Continue the science fiction adventure series with Orbus, or start at the beginning with The Skinner.