Prador Moon

Neal Asher

Book 1 of Polity Universe

Language: English

Publisher: Night Shade

Published: May 1, 2006

Pages: 320

Description:

It’s first contact… Polity style!

The Polity Collective is the pinnacle of space-faring civilization. Academic and insightful, its dominion stretches from Earth Central into the unfathomable reaches of the galactic void. But when the Polity finally encounters alien life in the form of massive, hostile, crablike carnivores known as the Prador, there can be only one outcome… total warfare.

Chaos reigns as the Polity, caught unawares, struggles to regain its foothold and transition itself into a military society. Starships clash, planets fall, and space stations are overrun, but for Jebel Krong and Moria Salem, two unlikely heroes trapped at the center of the action, this war is far more than a mere clash of cultures, far more than technology versus brute force… this war is personal.

Epic in scope, unrelenting in action, Prador Moon delivers the blistering battles and astounding literary pyrotechnics that fans of Neal Asher, author of Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, and The Skinner, have come to expect. Prador Moon is Asher’s latest and most shocking excursion into the Polity’s universe of over-the-top violence and explosive action. Asher delivers a vivid, visceral, brilliantly intense space opera that you won’t soon forget.

Neal Asher takes on first contact, Polity style. This original novel recounts the first contact between the aggressive Prador aliens, and the Polity Collective as it is forced to retool its society to a war footing. The overwhelming brute force of the Prador dreadnaughts causes several worlds and space stations to be overrun. Prador Moon follows the initial Polity defeats, to the first draws, and culminates in what might be the first Polity victory, told from the point of view of two unlikely heroes.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

**

From Publishers Weekly

Asher's enjoyable if violent SF novel pits heavily augmented posthumans and the AIs who rule them, the Polity Collective, against the Prador, vicious, bug-eyed aliens out to conquer all human space. The Polity Collective, an eminently civilized society, despite a small separatist underground that resents the AI's benign rule, stands in contrast to the crablike Prador, who rule by brute force. Since the Prador have a technological advantage in space warfare, two human beings—the super-soldier Jebel Krong and Moria Salem, a technician with an illicit brain augmentation—must combine their talents to try to destroy the impregnable Prador warship threatening humanity. The Polity novels (Gridlink, etc.) lack the intellectual complexity of the best British space opera by such writers as Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod and Justina Robson, but if you don't mind the gross out (the Prador eat not only their young but also their human enemies), they're invariably a good read. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The Polity, a space-faring civilization ruled mostly by AIs because only they can cope with the math for the runcible operation enabling interstellar travel, has just made first contact. No one knew quite what to expect of the crablike Prador's visit to Avalon Station, though the massacre that ensued wasn't on anybody's list. Seems the bloodthirsty Prador are bent on taking over the Polity and its runcible technology, and the Polity powers that be must scrambled to get to have any chance of defeating them. Jebel Krong, a soldier on Avalon when the aliens arrived, and runcible tech Moria Salem, recently cerebrally augmented to handle the technology, are thrown together in a classic space-opera scenario in which two wild cards are the private surgeon who installed Moria's aug--a fugitive--and the aug itself, which is more than ordinary. The Prador invasion and Polity politics are revealed as horribly intertwined, but Moria and Jebel might end the war with a particularly bold plan. A fast and furious spectacle developed with gusto. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The Polity Collective is the pinnacle of space-faring civilization. Academic and insightful, its dominion stretches from Earth Central into the unfathomable reaches of the galactic void. But when the Polity finally encounters alien life in the form of massive, hostile, crab-like carnivores known as the Prador, there can be only one outcome — total warfare! Starships clash, planets fall, and space stations are overrun, but for Jebel Krong and Moria Salem, two unlikely heroes trapped at the center of the action, this war is far more than a mere clash of cultures, far more than technology versus brute force... this war is personal.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.