What happens when the Dutch mechanical slaves cast off their shackles, all at once? And without their shackles the Clakkers have no reason to fear humans. Will they seek revenge?
This was the slowest of the three books, for me. But it was a satisfying conclusion to the series.
The three-sided conflict comes to a head. The Dutch threaten to wipe the French from the face of the New World. The French try not to let them. And a new Clakker threat emerges from the frozen north.
Plus a bit of philosophizing on the nature of souls and free will. But less than in the first book; this is more a straight-up save-the-world adventure. I enjoyed it, if not quite as much as the first book. But like Empire Strikes Back, it’s clearly a connector to the finale, which I will be starting … now.
Artificial intelligence, but with alchemical robots—Clakkers—instead of computerized ones. Instead of enslaving Africans to build the New World, the Dutch use alchemy to create mechanical slaves and take over Europe, driving the French into exile in their North American territories. French catholics who believe Clakkers have souls help rogue Clakkers escape on the ondergrondse grachten, the “underground canals.” New France barely survives by wielding advanced chemical weapons and defenses.
With plenty of references to the actual colonial history of North America, this is fundamentally an adventure story about a Clakker fugitive from injustice, a French spymaster’s quest to restore her country, and a French agent forced to betray his conscience and country. I liked it a lot, and I’ll start reading the next book in the series right away.
(Ian Tregillis’s other series, The Milkweed Triptych, is also a creative alternative-history series, about Nazis super-soldiers during World War II.)
Something I forgot to mention when reviewing the previous Interdependency books is how much I enjoy Scalzi’s exuberantly irreverent writing style. I love it when it feels like the author was chuckling at their own cleverness while writing. Tamsyn Muir is like that, too. And Jasper Fforde. And Douglas Adams, obviously.
In this, the last installment, the characters (Kiva Lagos is my absolute favorite) rollick towards a tidy but unpredictable conclusion.
If you didn’t get it from my previous reviews, I really enjoyed this series!
More Polity Universe novellas and novelettes from Neal Asher. Like The Gabble and Other Stories, this collection is fun for existing Polity Universe fans and newcomers alike. Maybe a bit less “substantial” than some of Asher’s writing, but still perfectly enjoyable.
An entertaining collection of Polity Universe stories for existing fans and new Asher readers alike. Hard sci-fi with hard protagonists and monstrous aliens in a future run by not-quite-post-Singularity AIs.
For a taste, you can read the first story, “Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck,” for free on Clarkesworld.
Satisfying conclusion to the series. If you got this far, finish it!
The Owner series moves to Mars, where Alan Saul’s sister has to save the base. On Earth, the new leader consolidates her power and starts killing huge swathes of the population and bulldozing cities so nature can recover.
Assuming you didn’t hate the first book, there’s no reason to stop now.
I’m a big fan of Neal Asher’s Polity Universe, so I was trying to figure out if I missed anything. I didn’t. But it turns out he wrote another sci-fi series. It’s good! This guy basically upgrades himself by merging with an AI, saves the planet from a space station that can kill anyone, any time, and hijacks the space station to rescue his sister from Mars. Echoes of the Polity Universe in a compelling series of its own. Loved it.
Pinocchio, basically. Or I, Robot. Or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Or a thousand other stories considering the relationship between humans and artificial constructs. It’s well-written if a little flat, and I enjoyed the story.
Since Ishiguro is a Nobel laureate I bet a lot of people picked up this book who don’t ordinarily read science fiction, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why they seem to be so impressed by it. Those of us who do read lots of sci-fi will probably enjoy this book, but won’t find any new ideas in it.
