The soldier Bring the Jain
released OUT NOW! 464 pages | Hardback/ebook
Author Neal asher Publisher Macmillan
It’s not enough in itself, within SF, to turn up the volume to one. For evidence, consider the contrast between Marvel’s Infinity War, both deft and overwhelming, and DC’s Justice League, the cinematic equivalent of a trip down the gym when you’re struggling with a cold. Or any number of literary space operas that end up bludgeoning you with boring starship battles.
In truth, those who can construct action-packed and epic SF stories with an emotional core are surprisingly rare. So rare that we should never underestimate Neal Asher’s sheer achievement in constructing his “Polity” future-history, a sequence that now extends to 16 novels.
Driving the plot of the latest book is a threat that’s been hinted at in previous volumes: the Jain, a seemingly long-extinct alien species. In a downright dangerous corner of the universe, “haiman” Orlandine oversees the AIs and weapons platforms positioned to ensure deadly Jain technology doesn’t escape, lest it destroy planets and civilisations. It’s a job that’s about to get much more difficult, not helped by a decision to reactivate a Jain soldier; the actions of intelligences with motives they themselves may not fully understand; and a bored AI’s curiosity over “a desiccated corpse, like a wasp, six feet long”.
But Asher doesn’t waste too much time investigating his characters’ motivations. Within a very few pages, we’re in the thick of action where spacecraft and protagonists alike (in so far as they can even be separated) have a dizzying capacity for reconfiguration following terrible damage, such is the level of technology on display.
The action is handled quite brilliantly and it’s difficult to imagine Asher’s fans being disappointed. Less happily, there’s a nagging sense of familiarity about parts of the book as it sets up new sub-trilogy Rise Of The Jain. SF universes can suddenly seem overstuffed and Asher needs to keep his stories moving forward to make space for new narratives – something, it’s worth noting, he’s proved more than adept at doing in the past. Jonathan Wright