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.
★★★★☆

I never heard of this series before…but I have to say it sounds pretty cool and intriguing! 😀😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you like AI, aliens and bloody violence, then Asher is your new best friend. He’s got quite a backlog of books by now, so if you read some of his earlier stuff, you have a lot to look forward to.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice, definitely like the sound of that!👍😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think I’m going no need a bigger dictionary to understand a synopsis like this; is a soldier Jane the same as a GI Jane?
LikeLiked by 1 person
What you need is a Polity Dictionary!
Ahhh, you caught that clever work in, did you? See, I told you, a good reviewer can work GI Jane into anything military 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aha, so the lessons continue even though the course seemed to be over. I continue to learn from the master!
LikeLiked by 1 person
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….
LikeLiked by 1 person
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…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never seen him in anything besides Spiderman. So I pretend he’s simply not in anything else 😀
Demi Moore deserves more of our undivided attention. That’s a campaign I can get behind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is that who he is? Obviously I only see him in pretentious violent Netflix films.
Maybe we can work some GI Jane into the constitution?
LikeLiked by 1 person
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!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tom Holland giving him a run for his money…we should contact Demi immediately, get her on board…
LikeLiked by 1 person
With Star Power like Demi, we’ll be more powerful than Mario AND Luigi, COMBINED!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you should use these well-chosen words to write a formal approach letter…
LikeLiked by 1 person
And if you and I can fake the accents like Mario and Luigi, well, what woman could resist that!?!?
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a cheque you can take to the bank! She’ll jump at the chance to be involved with our new constitution!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just hope she’s not allergic to werewolves. Because while I’d be willing to negotiate on the number in our werewolf army, they simply can’t “go”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How many werewolves are we talking about?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I want One Million werewolves in our army. But for Demi, IF she’s allergic, I’d settle for 5. But there’d have to be some big concessions from her…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t know. I was kind of counting on you to be the backbone as I’d just be putty in her hands.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That I could believe. I’ll ask her for some kind of ballpark figure, upper and lower limits.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to leave the negotiations to you then. I trust you completely to not stab me in the back and make me look bad in front of her….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok, I promise to totally not do that…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I knew I could count on you to make me look good…
Especially after I taught you so much about reviewing movies!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every time I see a Asher cover pass by on your blog I am sad I have such a backlog of WH to get through before I can ever hope to get to his books. They are amazing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😀 For once, I’m all about judging a book by its cover and his stuff passes with flying colors every time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This sounds interesting. Great review!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.
Asher is a consistently enjoyable author for me and I’m very thankful for that. There aren’t a lot of modern authors like that for me 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
What is a good starting point for the polity books? I haven’t read anything by Asher yet
LikeLiked by 1 person
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spatterjay.
Then read according to publication date…
LikeLiked by 1 person
All right! 👍 Thanks for the rec. Do I remember correctly that you considered Spatterjay the most gory Polity series?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Correct.
Sadly, it also showcases Asher’s interest in snail sex, so be warned 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
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 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you consider “real” snails to be the size of ships, then yes? Better think of it as house sized alien snails…
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL, forewarned is forearmed! 🤣
LikeLiked by 1 person
The sheer size of this narrative universe is simply staggering – and that might be the reason I keep postponing my approach to it. Cowardly, I know… 😀 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
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 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love how you’re able to recall and note the interconnectedness of all his various series while pointing out the necessity of them or not before tackling this one. Hope the rest of the series continues to be this strong! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
The only reason I can remember those connections is because of my recent re-read. Amazing how reading a series within 2 years pays dividends 😀
I have high hopes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hope you enjoy the rest of the trilogy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. I have faith in Asher’s ability to entertain me 😀
LikeLike