The Skinner Neal Asher is a science fiction book that brings together speculative ideas, technology, and future possibilities. It is suited to readers interested in speculative storytelling, imaginative technology, and questions about possible futures.
The Skinner by Neal Asher is in the public domain, so you can read it online here in short, easy pages or save a copy for your phone, tablet or computer.
Neal Asher, whom Tor introduced to the American audience with Gridlinked, takes us deeper into his unique universe with an even more remarkable second novel, The Skinner.
On the planet Spatterjay arrive three travelers: Janer, acting as the eyes of the hornet Hive mind, on a mission not yet revealed to him; Erlin, searching for Ambel -- the ancient sea captain who can teach her how to live; and Sable Keech, on a vendetta he cannot abandon, though he himself has been dead for 700 years. This remote world is mostly ocean, and it is a rare visitor who ventures beyond the safety of the island Dome. Outside it, only the native Hoopers dare risk the voracious appetites of the planet's wildlife. But somewhere out there is Spatterjay Hoop -- and Keech will not rest until he brings this legendary renegade to justice for hideous crimes committed centuries ago during the Prador Wars.
While Keech is discovering that Hoop is now a monster -- his body and head living apart from each other -- Janer is bewildered by a place where the native inhabitants just will not die and angry when he finally learns the Hive mind's intentions for him. Meanwhile, Erlin thinks she has plenty of time to find the answers she seeks, but could not be more wrong. For one of the most brutal of the alien Prador is about to pay the planet a surreptitious visit, intent on exterminating all remaining witnesses to his wartime atrocities. As the visitors' paths converge, major hell is about to erupt in a chaotic waterscape where minor hell is already a remorseless fact of everyday life . . . and death.
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About Neal Asher
Neal Asher is a British science fiction author best known for his fast-paced, imaginative novels set in futuristic worlds filled with artificial intelligence, advanced technology, alien civilizations, dangerous political conflicts, and extraordinary scientific discoveries. He is particularly famous for his Polity universe, an expansive science fiction setting in which powerful artificial intelligences, human societies, alien species, and technologically enhanced individuals struggle to coexist. Asher's books combine space opera, military science fiction, cyberpunk influences, biological horror, and philosophical questions about the future of humanity. His writing is especially appealing to readers who enjoy complicated futuristic societies, high-stakes adventures, unusual alien creatures, and stories that examine what happens when technology becomes more intelligent and powerful than its creators. Rather than presenting the future as a simple improvement over the present, Asher often imagines a universe where technological progress creates extraordinary opportunities alongside frightening new dangers.
Early Life and Literary Beginnings
Neal Asher was born in Billericay, Essex, England, in 1961. He developed an interest in science fiction and imaginative storytelling before becoming a full-time professional novelist. Like many writers attracted to speculative fiction, he uses invented technologies and futuristic settings to explore questions that cannot always be examined as easily through realistic contemporary stories. His early writing helped establish the foundations of a fictional universe that would later grow into one of his most recognizable literary achievements.
Asher's background and interests have contributed to a writing style that combines technological imagination with physical action. His characters frequently encounter unfamiliar environments, complex machines, and intelligent beings whose motivations are difficult to predict. Scientific ideas are not merely decorative details in these stories; they often determine what characters can do, what threats they face, and which decisions are possible. This gives his fiction a strong sense of cause and effect, even when the events involve extraordinary inventions or alien biology.
The Polity Universe
The Polity universe is the central achievement of Asher's science fiction career. It depicts a future in which artificial intelligences have become essential to the operation of human civilization. These powerful machine intelligences administer systems, influence political decisions, coordinate technology, and in many situations possess capabilities that exceed those of ordinary humans. Their presence raises an important question: what happens when humanity creates systems that can solve problems more efficiently than people but may also develop priorities that humans do not fully understand?
The Polity is not a perfectly peaceful technological paradise. Although advanced artificial...Read More