Reviews

Prador Moon by Neal Asher

jercox's review against another edition

3.0

I have really enjoyed the spatterjay novels, set in the same universe. This one doesn't feel quite as smooth and well setup as the others, but it is a good background story on the start of the war, and reasonably readable. More of a novella / almost collection of random short stories rather than a full story. And no good reasons why the super intelligent AIs theoretically running the show messed up so badly in putting so many in harms way during early / first contact. With the technology available, it seems that much of the harm and a very long war could have been avoided.

thinde's review against another edition

3.0

This novel had a mix of good and bad. The science ideas were well done and interesting. Sadly the character development was largely absent. While I didn't care much about what happened to the protagonists, the plot was fast-paced enough to hold my attention for the short duration required to read this novelette.

gavreads's review against another edition

Prador Moon is my second piece of Neal Asher and it’s a nice slice too. Actually it’s more than a slice. More like a thick chunk being 222 pages long. The story revolves around The Polity Collective’s first contact with an alien species – The Prador. This is a special occasion and one that doesn’t go well. The crab-like carnivore Prador make their intentions quite clear in the first meeting where they also discover quite quickly that they also like human flesh.

Neal Asher brings together several threads in order to tell this story. You have Jebel, the hero, in direct assault with the Prador. Moira, who got more than she paid for, and the Prador themselves.

Asher is trying to tell a very big story in such a slim volume but at no point do you feel short changed. It’s pack with titbits that I’m hoping will be pulled and explored at in other stories.
At the heart of Prador Moon is the threat of the Prador as they set about to destroy The Polity. The Polity with its A.I. and advanced technology seem stronger. But the Prador have more than one trick that the Polity doesn’t. It’s quite disturbing really especially when they try to convert their human prisons to the same purpose. Asher has a vivid, logical and scientific imagination but this doesn’t detract from the emotional drama.

He invests the Prador with completely alien traits but also a level of humanity. He does the same with A.I Golem George. You get to get to see humanity from all sides. Which is the point really of most stories.

I might be pumping this up a little too much but I greatly enjoyed Prador Moon as you can tell. Asher mixes his three, well four, if you include Occam Razor… storylines and gives each a piece of a the puzzle that comes together in an explosive conclusion.

Asher writes thoughtful and engaging sci-fi and I’m eager to try more.

arian_dragonelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

occam's review

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A

5.0

tarsel's review against another edition

4.0

Blood, guts, aliens, alien guts, a complex and well developed universe with some fun characters - it's classic Asher.

cornosaurus's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

joosty's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

jnnutter's review against another edition

2.0

I wanted to like this book. But this book was a drag to get through, its 196 pages felt twice as long as the 850 page book I read preceding it. The syntax is clunky to say the least. I would read whole pages and find myself so bored that I had no recollection of what I had read. His world building consisted of forced overly pseudotechnical jargon that rarely was delivered with enough context to make sense of easily, or just repeating phrases for the sake of it (chain glass for example). It didn't get vaguely interesting until the last 50 pages. I usually give a book up to 100 to get moving, but in a sub 200 page it should be engaging much sooner than halfway through. The characters were boring and had no dimension whatsoever. The aliens are just evil monsters hellbent on enslaving and eating humans. The separatists are degenerate scum. The scientists only think about tech. The military guy only cares about his vendetta. It tries to say so much in such a short breadth that it seems apparent that it is just trying to get the pages filled with something. A lot of familiar concepts presented in the most trope laden way possible. There is no suspense, no mystery, nothing that really draws me in to see what's going to happen. It is just a this happened then this then this etc conflict story. I genuinely dont know what the point was. If it was just an action story that moved quickly and was dumb fun, then sure, but it put so much in it felt like it was trying to say something, but it didn't know what. I got through it. So I guess that counts for something, 2/2.5 at best

jasonabbott's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5