This book feels like it is meant as a part of the greater saga. At first I though it was about continuing Jack Four storyline but it is not, this one's story takes place around the same time as Prador Moon which means hundred of years before Jack Four.

That being said I wont go into details except to say that main protagonist here is long-living Polity citizen Ursula who decides to start the enterprise by establishing new colony on a distant world. Her plan is to settle only humans without AI involvement and let colonists develop on their own.

As can be expected it does not go according to the plan.

Author touches lot of interesting topics - almost immortality for Polity citizens, way humans handle what can only be named as middle-age crisis (you, know after first 200 years) - that makes them do crazy stuff out of boredom, discussion abut evolution and adaptation, pros and cons of mechanical and bio-mechanical development and for the first time very intricate ways Polity AIs manipulate and mercilessly use the human race. Also, I think for the first time, we are not given blaze and glory story but more story of logistics and weapon development for the known danger expected to culminate in very near future.

In general, while all elements are in and we have a level of gore as expected from the author story seems a little bit ..... out of context? I mean for the first time I did not find any character that I could link with. All the characters are there to play a role (including Ursula) but at the end there is huge question mark - what was the point? I hope this book is starting point for future story development.

If not .... I dont say it's a bad book. it is not, it is rather good thriller. Only thing is .... well style is rather repetitive (i.e. constant insistence on Ursula's anger and irritation with others - this gets repeated and repeated and repeated (not helped by constant jumps between present and past)..... lets say if this was initially serialized and then collected into book I would understand but I see no need for constant repetition like this in original book release) and after a while it starts to affect the story pace. This and rather open ending make the book not so good if you look at it as standalone story. Jack Four for example is much better in this regard, more to the point and has closure.

I am looking forward to see how this story progresses.

All in all interesting story, with all the trademarks of Polity universe and author's imagination and I wholeheartedly recommend it, especially if you are Polity universe fan.

It is just that I have a feeling something is missing, and so one star goes down. ( )

I was so eager to read Asher's new Polity book, that I ordered it from the UK (it is now available as an ebook in the US). Alas, I was somewhat disappointed. Ursula opts out of civilization to lead a group of long-lived, and thus disaffected, colonists to settle on a world where evolution has gone into high gear such that every organism is fantastically dangerous and out to get humans, including the plants, thus, it's Harry Harrison's "Deathworld" warmed over. (I hope that author's estate gets at least a nod.) There's lot of good set-up and seemingly interesting ideas we're teased with, but unfortunately, the bulk of the book goes from one encounter to the next with the ultra-predators, the unfortunately named cacoraptors, each encounter described in agonizing (and eventually uninteresting) detail. The raptors can morph instantly from a dinosaur to a burrowing worm to a humanoid and are ridiculously overpowered, and even with their own superpowers constantly enhancing, it's not clear why the humans simply aren't stomped out, except, of course: For the plot. This quote from p. 266 pretty much describes the repetitive action in the whole book: "He was right - the creatures were too tough and the weapons he had weren't powerful enough." To make things worse, Asher divides each chapter into Present, Near Past, and Past. Now, of course I know that telling narratives out of order is a feature of modern literature, but Asher really drops the ball with this, the Present chapters give away what happens in the Past narratives, and the Past narratives rarely enlighten us or add any reveals - with the net result of making the story seem even more repetitive. It redeems itself toward the end, where things finally come to a conclusion with reveals that honestly, don't completely surprise (that may be intended, though). For those with an aversion to violence, there is violence on nearly every page here, although it struck me as cartoon violence, your mileage may vary. It was an "okay" book, but disappointing in many respects.