I am in the process of reading through Neal Asher’s series of books so there will be plenty of posts in here for them. So, I don’t want to repeat his bio each time as I assume you will get tired of reading it. Neal is an amazing British Science Fiction author with a massive universe built around the Polity.
Line of Polity is the second novel in the Ian Cormac sub-series of the Polity novels. Cormac is put in the middle of a war on the planet Masada between rebels and the Theocracy, who have forced the population into a slave trade on the harsh planet, enforced with the use of a laser array from orbit. The Theocracy lives on the cylindrical worlds in orbit of the planet. An Outlinker station is attacked by something reminiscent of Dragon, the mysterious alien entity in previous books. A former separatist and enemy of the polity has used ancient Jain technology and is hunting Cormac.
I love a good space opera and linked books within a shared universe and this one continues in good order. We have this new planet of Masada which is on the Line of Polity space and controlled by the Theocracy. The Polity would very much like to control this world as it’s known for supplying the Separatists. But the Polity doesn’t just invade worlds, instead, they wait for the world to reach a certain percentage of the population that wants Polity intervention, then they can intervene without upsetting the independent worlds. There are many viewpoints in this book as we go through this story. Eldene, a local who was saved by the mysterious Fethan, her journey as she learns more about her world and her place in it. Lelan is the rebel leader who is desperately trying to ensure her people are saved from the Theocracy. We get some old favorites of mine in John Stanton and Cormac and his team. All in all, it was a great adventure and a worthy addition to the polity books, each book has been a separate adventure that if you really wanted you could read on its own. However together the books tell their own story while also moving the overarching plot on further. It’s annoying that I have way too many books on the go so I will have to wait a couple of books before I can pick up the next one in the series “Brass Man.”
If you are a fan of science fiction and space opera then I am sure you will enjoy this book.
While I was reading this book my copy got waterlogged when a glass bottle shattered in the bag. The book was still readable but I still had to rebuy it as I wanted it in my library undamaged.
You can purchase Gridlinked from your local Bookshop supporting indie bookshops is important and something I am very in favor of. I like nothing more than to browse physical books. Or if you want you can shop at your local Waterstones, or online at Amazon
