Almost ridiculously hyperbolic and breathless. I lost count of the number of times that fabulously powerful planet shattering weapons were described only to be trumped by even more fabulously powerful weapons. Some potentially interesting characters who never got fully developed , a basically interesting premise that might have been better over 2 books and 400 less pages and dialing down the incredibly breathless prose from 18 to 12 would also have helped. Having started the series I had to complete it, but it followed a downward trajectory and the 3rd book became a bit of a chore to finish. Shame, it had so much potential. ( )

Roars along in the usual satisfying way. ( )

Looking at how assorted readers have reacted to this book, with the overall effect leaving them feeling bludgeoned, I can see where they're coming from. This is, essentially, Asher giving an uncompromising accounting of a set-piece battle with all the trimmings, and that will not be to everyone's taste. As for myself, what I really wanted to see is how the disparate collection of characters were going to fit together in the end, and I'm pleased to report that I think that Asher stuck the landing. I think the title is an on-point commentary on the theme, as to whether the Jain menace can be averted without the various players losing their own humanity; which would still be a win for the Jain. That said, this is not where you want to start with Asher's Polity universe. ( )

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Title: The Human
Series: Polity: Rise of the Jain #3
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 402
Words: 159.5K

Synopsis:

Publishers Blurb and Me

A Jain warship has risen from the depths of space, emerging with a deadly grudge and a wealth of ancient yet lethal technology. It is determined to hunt down the alien Client, and will annihilate all those who stand in its way. So Orlandine must prepare humanity’s defense.

Both humanity and the Prador thought their ancient foe—the Jain—had perished in a past age. And they resolve to destroy these outliers at any cost. Orlandine wants the Client’s inside knowledge to act, but the Client has her own agenda. Earth Central therefore looks to the Prador for alliance, after the Jain destroy their fleet. However, not everyone is happy with this, and some will do anything to shatter this fragile coalition.

As the Jain warship makes its way across the galaxy, it seems unstoppable. Human and Prador forces alike struggle to withstand its devastating weaponry. Orlandine’s life work is to neutralize Jain technology, so if she can't triumph, no one can.

Riker, the Hooper with Jain tech, takes on the Jain warship, believing that the only way to conquer the Jain is to subsume the ship. In the process, Riker becomes what he's trying to subsume and he takes down Orlandine, now a Jain entity infesting an entire world. The Client was prepared for such an eventuality and prepared a weapon that the other Hooper, Cogulus, uses against Riker. It spreads out in a chain reaction, destroying all the jain connections.

The jain entity survives, but only its mostly dead body. It hides and begins building its strength for the millennia when the galaxy will have forgotten about it.

My Thoughts:

This was the longest book in the trilogy but Asher needed every page to wrap things up. I was concerned when I didn't see a clear solution by the 75% mark. I was afraid he was going to pull some sort of shenanigans like some other authors, but thankfully, I shouldn't have worried. And what's more, the jain are still around to be the bogeyman if he ever needs it in the future. I like that.

The main reason this got a 4 star instead of higher, at least this time around, was because of Asher's penchant to describe all the “stuff”. He really likes getting into the nitty gritty of what a starship looks like or how many and what kind of weapons it has and what they look like. And the techno-babble about communications and upgrades, etc, it was just a bit much for me this time around. I don't think it was actually any more indepth than in previous books, but this time I just didn't care.

The battles were awesome, as always. Asher has done a good job of keeping things interesting. There is always the danger of just making things bigger or badder or both but describing it in the same manner and thus losing your audience. I think he's skirting that line in places but so far, I'm still interested. Part of that is the continued use of the Hoopers and the Spatterjay virus.

Now I have to wait for him to write some more, sigh. He's written some standalone books before and I wouldn't mind if he went that route for a couple of books instead of another trilogy. I guess only time will tell.

★★★★☆ ( )

The author, Neil Asher, created a universe built around Jain tech. Fortunately, I read The Soldier: Rise of the Jain, the first book in the Rise of the Jain series, otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the background needed to understand references made to former events and character enhanced abilities in The Human book. Even at that, the amount of detail that Asher goes into describing Jain tech was hard to follow in the first half of the book. With the technical background base built, the space opera story took off in the rest of the book.

The story is about Orlandine, a girl that I first encountered in “The Soldier”. In this book episode, she’s frantic to save her world against the takeover of a Jain tech invasion. In desperation, she gives in to the lure of greater power with the acceptance of her innate Jain tech capabilities and the power it provides when controlled by letting it grow within and about her. Becoming what she abhors ultimately helps her neutralize damage from the Jain tech invasion, but only at the cost of utilizing every resource on her planet and at the sequestration of the planet’s human residents and animal life. Fortunately for the planet and for Orlandine, an alien, known as the Client, whom Orlandine has allowed to exist unharassed in the solar system, intervenes by creating a virus that destroys Jain tech, reverses its effects, and ultimately results in freeing Orlandine from Jain tech’s dehumanizing entrapment.

At 576 pages, this was a long and tedious book to read. I don’t normally notice the length of a book with a good and engaging storyline; to be honest, I secretly don’t want such stories to end. But The Human was a struggle to read. While I like Neal Asher’s stories, I think he went overboard on the Jain tech background in this book. ( )