Great 👍

Very enjoyable if somewhat hard to follow because of the jumps. Some sort of transportation would make it better.

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2 people found this helpful

Very unique Sci Fi fantasy

Somehow a Sci Fi story has been successfully mashed with a sea tale for this ambitious but interesting book. It was narrated well but sometimes it was a struggle to work out which ship the narrative was following. Overall though I loved it and will probably listen to it again in a year or two.

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brilliant adventure

I do like this book especially the narration. I have probably listened to this over 5 times. humans hardened by virus, viscous crab like aliens, and AI with dubious moral values. what's not to love!!!!!

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Great space opera, excellent narrator.

I like Neal Asher anyway and have most of his paper books. However William Gaminara is so good at bringing these works to life that I am buying them again on Audible.

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Good Neal Aaher

totally loved it. slow to get going but then the best ones usually are. can't wait to listen to the next one in the series

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Excellent intro to Neal Asher

loved it !!! Cant wait to get started on the next book in the trilogy.

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Great plot-and-world driven SciFi

Pretty early in this book I was beating the air with relief that, finally in my 2023 reading list, I'd found something with genuinely witty and engaging prose. Something that reminded me of my favourite aspects of Chris Wooding's 'Tales of the Ketty Jay'. Asher has a great writing style, and expertly navigates the requirement to convey a sense of his intricately alien world without losing the reader's attention. One quickly realises that despite the futuristic setting, there is a real 'low tech' aspect to this world as well, so it's a little different to a lot of space opera you might have read. (High tech fun is still there too, though, so don't panic.)

I really loved the way each chapter began with the continuation of a natural story taking place deep beneath the waves, boosting the sense of moral nihilism in which this book is heavily marinated.

As I read on, I enjoyed myself at every stage, but I became increasingly aware of two minor niggles that prevented this book from ever becoming a 5-star read for me. (Indeed, it might have been a 3-star read but for the very cleverly tied-together conclusion which boosted it in my estimation considerably.) The first was that the book seemed to be all plot and almost no story. To explain, I subscribe to the idea that "plot" is the events that take place external to the characters, and "story" is the journey that takes place within the characters. I wouldn't say that this book has a great deal of hear - regard the note of moral nihilism above - and, in some ways, following the author on social media has convinced me that this is by design: towards the end of the book, one character says something like "I don't care about what's right, I only care about what's true", and I get the impression this may have been the author's true voice at play. It's not a major problem, but if you're especially married to character-driven fiction, this may disappoint you.

The other was that, despite this being billed as the first in a series, there were frequent references to previous events that made me worry I was missing out on something. It wasn't that the plot didn't make sense - it absolutely did, and all historical context was explained to my satisfaction - but rather than I felt like I'd arrived to the party late and maybe missed out on some fun. I've since learned that The Skinner is the first of the Spatterjay series, but not the first in the "Polity Universe" books, either in terms of publication or chronology. Which only makes me wish I'd made a plan of which order to read the books in before I started.

But despite two negative paragraphs of review, I actually really enjoyed this book and would definitely read more from Neal Asher. But if I decided to work through his list, I'd probably have to break it up with some other books that have a little more soul!

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First class horror Sci-Fi

This is my first Asher and as far as I'm concerned he's up there now in my top three for concept SF, along with Banks and Reynolds. However I have to agree with Thomas about the seamless transitions in the narration makling the plot difficult to follow. This is a shame as otherwise the reading is excellent, and I'm still giving five because the book is that good. It's a complex plot with a large number of characters so it helps to have a printed copy to refer to if you get confused. I'll be moving on to the other two volumes in the set and then...more Asher please, Audible!

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4 people found this helpful

Great book. Great narrator. Needs pauses...

Any additional comments?

This a terrific story, well read. The world is distinctive and original. Can't wait to read the rest of the Spatterjay books.

The characters of Sniper, Ketch and the vile Frisk are superbly drawn. And it's a joy to read a high-tech drone battle that is both creative and yet seems to make visual sense.

One nitpick.
Would the producers of the audio please please please please make the pauses between scenes longer than the pauses between normal sentences! It is SO confusing – especially in a book that has cross-cut scenes with three different ships – to run the sentences on. It often takes about a paragraph to realise that the new text is not a continuation of the previous scene.

It is the norm on all audio books, so I can't understand why it was not done on this title.

Thanks.

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Brilliant book from a great author

What did you like most about The Skinner?

Intelligent, funny, gruesome

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Skinner?

I love the universe created by Neal Asher (alien nanotech, super-intelligent fatherly AIs, war machines with graveyard senses of humour, etc) and this book is a great addition to the collection with some neat ideas

What about William Gaminara’s performance did you like?

All of it, his characterisation, particularly his relaxed northern drawl for a super intelligent, quietly psychotic war drone is brilliant

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Here comes the BOOOM!

Any additional comments?

Can you please get more Neal Asher on to Audible

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