The intensity and breadth of what technology fiction and fable fiction is adjustments with each passing 12 months. Year's Best SF 17 by. Retail ePub of this each year technology Fiction brief tale assortment edited by means of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. Once back, the best short-form sf choices of the 12 months were accumulated in one quantity. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer reveal the fantastic intensity and tool of latest speculative fiction, showcasing fabulous tales from a number of the genre's most valuable names in addition to interesting new writers to observe. For both these human types are merely obedient, each after its fashion, to their respective interests.
You want men to display an interest in you? Which, from the moment that I bid it farewell, perishes and starts to rot. Revolt wants to see us rise up or stand up.
But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into While everyone is hunting him, Snow does what he can to survive the numerous attempts on his life as well as the dangerous conditions of his hot, arid planet. The intensity and breadth of what technology fiction and fable fiction is adjustments with each passing 12 months. Collection of stories set in the Polity, that introduces characters and history that are explored more fully in the novels. Some can be guessed, I think pretty accurately, but others, not.
The choosing of a constitution was the preoccupation of revolutionary leaders: Putrefactors was like a wild-west town with some horrible company secrets, enforcers, and angry locals. With horrible alien biology involved. Garp and Geronamid was a very fun whodoneit involving a not-quite-dead corpse and an AI finding justice on a non-polity world. The Sea of Death, even though it has a pretty cool concept, kinda left me cold.
Same is true for Adaptogenic. They seemed to have some promise, but I liked all the others much better.
Snow in the Desert was just fun and funny and was full of sex and a weird conspiracy. Now, I can't really say whether this would be a good place to start with Asher's writings or not, but it definitely fills in a few gaps for me and whets my appetite for the rest. I was not disappointed! Indeed, The Gabble ended up being a lot of fun and I enjoyed a lot of the stories in here. Being an anthology, I also went with the assumption that this book would work well as a stand-alone read, and thus a good place to jump on board. I think for the most part my instinct was correct, though I do have more to add to this.
I will go into the details below in my in-depth analysis of each story, but I did notice a couple trends in my overall experience: The Gabbleduck is of course the creature featured on the cover, a cool and scary looking thing with too many limbs and a duck-bill like mouth full of sharp teeth. I wish more of the stories were like this one. Putrefactors — 5 of 5 stars A bounty arrives on a planet to kill his target and instead uncovers a corrupt plot that spells dire consequences for the colonists there. Hands down, this was my favorite story in this collection.
It was totally awesome, featuring concepts that will leave you feeling disgusted and truly horrified. Garp and Geronamid — 3 of 5 stars Garp is a former policeman and a reification, a corpse kept alive through advanced tech because he simply could not stop doing his job even after his death. Geronamid is an AI, who in this particular story is implanted into a body of an allosaur.
Yes, you read that right.
Fascinating ideas in this very cool story, but the heavy involvement of things like politics and the underworld drug trade made this one harder for me to follow. The Sea of Death — 3 of 5 stars Two characters discuss the millions of frozen sarcophagi found below the surface of Orbus, each filled with the remains of aliens that bear some resemblance to humans. This is one of the shorter stories in this collection and can truly be read as a standalone, albeit it is not very exciting and ends quite abruptly.
Alien Archaeology — 2. But what should have been an exciting plot and engaging experience instead left me feeling cold. I could barely keep myself focused while reading, and felt no connection to the characters. Acephalous Dreams — 2. After the discovery of a Csorian node, a death row prisoner is offered the chance to clear his sentence if he agrees to test drive the device. Having a bit of alien brain implanted in your head versus execution…should have been an easy choice, right? I liked it, but with such an ambitious plot, I think this one would have worked better given more pages to develop.
I might have enjoyed it even more if it had been a full-length novel. Snow in the Desert — 4 of 5 stars Snow is an albino living in the desert…and everyone wants his balls. His unique DNA means that he has an exorbitant bounty placed on his testicles. While everyone is hunting him, Snow does what he can to survive the numerous attempts on his life as well as the dangerous conditions of his hot, arid planet. I really liked the crazy, over-the-top premise and nature of this offering. A fun and action-packed novelette. We venture a little into horror territory here.
Adaptogenic — 3 of 5 stars It all began with an auction. Two relic hunters go searching for a missing piece of a puzzle, and their efforts land them on a strange planet at the worst time possible.
An enjoyable yarn, but not the most memorable. I had to go back to the book to remind myself what happened because I hardly remembered the nitty-gritty details of it, especially since some of the better stories have already gone ahead and the bar to impress me now is set pretty high at this point. The Gabble — 4 of 5 stars We end the same way as we began — with a Gabbleduck!
Researchers want to uncover the secrets behind these mysterious and frightful beings. Like Alien Archaeology, this story reveals a little more about the history and connections between different species, especially when it comes to Gabbleducks and Hooders. The Gabble is a great closer for this collection, wrapping things up with a solid tale that ties together threads introduced in some of the previous stories in this book.
Like all anthologies, it has its ups and downs, i. Am I supposed to understand this part? My experience with The Gabble was not so different, but I did enjoy myself more than I expected. My interest is certainly piqued; I might have to check out his other books now. The stories in this collection: The gabbleduck in all it magnificence.
While the ten stories all happen in and around the Polity, they are centered on the more exotic elements of Aher's world. From the mysterious gabbleduck, aliens ensconced in ice to albino immortals, the range and depth of Asher's imagination The stories in this collection: From the mysterious gabbleduck, aliens ensconced in ice to albino immortals, the range and depth of Asher's imagination is incredible.
Even the black AI Penny Royal makes an appearance. With the exception of one or two, most of the stories are highly entertaining.
Some of them, like Choudapt , go into the horror territory. While Polity Universe is diverse, often beautiful and awe inspiring, it still holds its share of terrors. After separately reading the short story, Snow in the Desert , included within, I picked up this book of short stories by Neal Asher , based in his Polity Universe, and though I do like the cover art of the edition I purchased, I prefer the cover below a bit more. Dec 16, Guy Haley rated it it was amazing.
Ten tales of the Polity from the entertaining Mr Asher. I love Asher's futuristic hard men, weird monsters and chillingly pragmatic AI. This book serves up a dozen "short" stories set in his Polity universe we say "short" because some of them scrape novella length. I'd like to grumble, his heroes are similar to one another all super-tough killers, with the occasional journalist or researcher thrown in but we just can't. Fact is, Asher's stories do have a fairly narrow range of themes to them, Ten tales of the Polity from the entertaining Mr Asher.
Fact is, Asher's stories do have a fairly narrow range of themes to them, but who cares? And there's a wealth of startlingly alien imagery to distract you besides. We'd be greedy to demand more, but, you know what, he delivers even this too. The first is about a tough bastard murderer it's not that relevant to the story who is given the choice of being host to alien technology instead of being executed. The second is a short weird alien SF story.
Did Imention Asher does good weird aliens too? Three of the stories concern the alien oddities known as Gabbleducks hence the title of the collection , a species that may be more than it appears to be.
Asher's became fascinated by the creatures, and finally revealed their origins in The Technician. Jun 14, Ben Bates rated it liked it. In all honesty there are few others for whom I'd bother reading short story collections. I generally believe that short stories, if they are of any merit, will be developed into novellas and so what you have in a short story collection is ideas that didn't make the cut but where the author didn't quite want to bin them either.
Is this the case with the Gabble? Some of the stories here are little mo I have to state up front that I love Neal Asher books so I knew I would enjoy this. Some of the stories here are little more than Vignettes, others have all the standard Asher excitement but then end too quickly. Is it worth the time? I would say so. As I say, I love Asher and I particularly enjoy the polity world he's created.
So after some heavy intellectual work with Accelerando by Charles Stross I wanted some fast paced easy reading that I knew I'd enjoy. If you like the polity and it's too soon to read the Cormac series again, this isn't a waste of your time. Jan 03, Guy rated it it was ok Shelves: I really like Asher's novels and the universe in which they are set, but his short-stories, although set in the same universe and therefore in theory benefitting from all that background are somehow unsatisfying.
A recurring problem is insufficient character development, in other cases not enough happens in the plot. I liked the book, but I'm not surprised that he didn't manage to sell his short stories until after his novels were successful. I'm a huge Neal Asher fan girl so its really unfair of me to rate this book, when I pretty much love everything the man writes. I bow to his world building skills and I must say that "The Gabble and Other Stories" just impresses me all the more.
There are several stories which hark back to his Spatterjay and Ian Cormac sagas, blending tech, biology, energy weapons and weird science into tales of betrayal, love, revenge and nobility. Truelly for Asher fans, this one is a must!! A series of short stories set primarily in the Polity universe, I found them to not only be entertaining, but also informative on several fronts regarding detail of things in his novels which are not clearly spelled out otherwise.
Aiding in this are a set of thumbnail blurbs for each tale which provide context.
Anyone reading the Cormac tales will love these. Nov 27, Princessjay rated it really liked it Shelves: Collection of stories set in the Polity, that introduces characters and history that are explored more fully in the novels. Shows how AI can still have their loves and wish for revenge.
A visit to Penny Royal's lair.