The Soldier (Polity: Rise of the Jain #1) ★★★★☆

~ Bookstooge

soldier (Custom)This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission 
Title: The Soldier
Series: Polity: Rise of the Jain #1
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 343
Words: 138K

Synopsis:

From Kobo.com

In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations.

Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman. She’s assisted by Dragon, a mysterious, spaceship-sized alien entity who has long been suspicious of Jain technology and who suspects the disc is a trap lying-in-wait.

Meanwhile, the android Angel is planning an attack on the Polity, and is searching for a terrible weapon to carry out his plans?a Jain super-soldier. But what exactly the super-soldier is, and what it could be used for if it fell into the wrong hands, will bring Angel and Orlandine’s missions to a head in a way that could forever change the balance of power in the Polity universe.

In The Soldier, British science fiction writer Neal Asher kicks off another Polity-based trilogy in signature fashion, concocting a mind-melting plot filled with far-future technology, lethal weaponry, and bizarre alien creations.

My Thoughts:

Whoowhee, another Polity trilogy to dig into!

I like that we’re getting another storyline from Orlandine. She is a character from the Agent Cormac series and was under-utilized? Well, a side character, so not under-utilized so much as just not the main presence, which makes sense. We also get a couple of Hooper Old Captains from Spatterjay, so the Spatterjay trilogy, while not 100% necessary to understand this, would make this a much better read. Cormac himself is mentioned, so once again, Asher is really tying this into his previous books.

I “think” my only complaint is the lack of what Asher calls a baseline humans, ie, you and me. If you can be bothered to track down a timeline of the Polity, which I can’t as I simply don’t care, I think this is several hundred years after even the Transformation trilogy with the rogue Black AI Penny Royal? Asher seems to deliberately not introduce a hard timeline, even though I’m sure he’s got one. 1 year, 1 decade, 1 century, eh, it is all the same. Anyway, by that time, I wonder if there are even such things as baseline humans. I wouldn’t think so, as they simply couldn’t live in a world with everyone else who is amped up in one way or another. The Separatists aren’t even heard from in this book, and they seemed to be the last sizable holdout against the improvement of humanity in terms of adding machineware to enhance everything.

I do feel like the title is a bit misleading. I was imagining a lone super Jane-soldier taking on the entire Polity and giving them a run for their money. While it does start out small, it quickly turns into a mile long ship size entity that is more intent on fulfilling its secret mission than on taking on the Polity. This trilogy is appearing to be more about revealing secrets of the Jain (and a possible schism that destroyed them) than anything. Whatever, I’m along for the ride!

We also get another alien introduced to us, the Client. It helped the Polity during the Polity/Prador War as the Prador had wiped out its homeworld and species. Turns out it is Jain based and now, with nudgings from Dragon, has pretty much gone exploring. What we don’t get is anything about the Atheter, who seemed to have a big part in the Transformation series. I figured they would turn into a threat, but I guess not.

I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy as it rotates through my kindle.

★★★★☆

46 thoughts on “The Soldier (Polity: Rise of the Jain #1) ★★★★☆”

        1. Yeah, the lessons continue. Especially considering the bank said that address and mothers maiden name belonged to some guy named Tom Holland?
          Shame on you stealing a kids identity! At least pick an old person….

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          1. Funnily enough, watching Holland in a pretty nasty new Netflix film right now. Getting involved in our banking scam wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen to Mr Holland. Now, Demi Moore in GI Jane, that’s a cultural figure to look up to…

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

                1. Oh, wait, are you talking about Daniel Radcliffe? He seems to be in a lot of pretentious yet utterly stupid movies.

                  Maybe Harry Potter and Spiderman can team up and make a movie about not calling Romani gypsies because it will hurt their feelings. They could title it “A Very Message Movie”.

                  If Demi Moore would take part in our Constitution, voluntarily, I’d abdicate being King of Australia in a second!

                  Liked by 1 person

                  Reply

    1. Sadly, the beginning. He’s not the kind of author that makes entries easy.

      So I’d recommend the Agent Cormac series, then the Spatterjay trilogy, then everything else by publication date. I think I have them in the order I recommend, if you want to use the Polity tag in the post.

      I just checked my calibre library and he has around 15+ books.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. Ah, now I don’t know which one to read! I thought I could read this trilogy, but now you’re saying it has bits of Transformation and Spatterjay? Which one should I read first after Cormac?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

          1. Are we talking real snails or just some slimy, oozy stuff? I’m ok with the first type; as for the second, I’ve read something like this once in an Orson Scott Card novel, and it was traumatizing 😉

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

    1. Eh, it happens to everyone. At some point, an authors body of work becomes their own worst enemy, from a readers perspective.
      I know this still happens to me with authors, so you’re in good company 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  10. Pingback: The Warship (Polity: Rise of the Jain #2) ★★★★☆ | Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road
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