ridel reviewed Prador Moon by Neal L. Asher
Prador Moon - A Scatterbrained Prologue
3 stars
Prador Moon is the tip of the iceberg for the Polity Universe, and I picked it up in order to decide if I'm going to invest in the other 10+ novels. If you're in a similar position... well, what I found was a moderately interesting science-fiction setting that was mainly let down by un-engaging characters.
The Polity Universe's defining characteristics (in this novel) appear to be the recognition of AIs as sentient life, as well as teleportation being a commonplace technology. This creates a unique setting, but Prador Moon is about the beginning days of a galactic war with the Prador, and so the military angle consumes most of the page count and it's not the author's strong point. The space battles lack emotion due to a lack of main characters aboard those vessels, and the ground combat is too simplistic and consists mainly of small squad infantry actions. If …
Prador Moon is the tip of the iceberg for the Polity Universe, and I picked it up in order to decide if I'm going to invest in the other 10+ novels. If you're in a similar position... well, what I found was a moderately interesting science-fiction setting that was mainly let down by un-engaging characters.
The Polity Universe's defining characteristics (in this novel) appear to be the recognition of AIs as sentient life, as well as teleportation being a commonplace technology. This creates a unique setting, but Prador Moon is about the beginning days of a galactic war with the Prador, and so the military angle consumes most of the page count and it's not the author's strong point. The space battles lack emotion due to a lack of main characters aboard those vessels, and the ground combat is too simplistic and consists mainly of small squad infantry actions. If scenes with space ships and lasers is boring, you're in trouble.
On the bright side, we are exposed to a number of POVs from the Prador, and this alien race is surprisingly well characterized and is actually more interesting to me than either main character Jebel or Moria. We find out a lot about their culture, their government, and way of thinking that is somewhat stereotypical but still intelligently presented.
In the end, Prador Moon is just too scattershot. There's too much plot to cover with too many character POVs (6?) in too short a page count. As such, I was never invested in any characters, and this novel stands solidly mediocre with a hint of brilliance behind its world-building.
