Shall I go on? I believe that by now you get the gist: Polity Agent boasts of a plethora of characters and places and motivations, and is definitely not a good place to start one’s adventure with Asher’s universe. And last but not least, there is Horace Blegg and his particularly dangerous secret let’s not forget Sparkind Thorn and Scar, the dracoman. We have also Orlandine, a haiman (a meld of human and AI) tempted by the poisoned fruit of Jain knowledge. Just take a look at the Legate, an emissary of the Jain technology: imagine Lang’s Metropolis upgraded to Terminator 2 and hell-bent on the destruction of Polity. We also have plenty of AIs, from the nearly omniscient Jerusalem to the rebellious King of Hearts to Jack Ketch who renamed himself to “Not Entirely Jack,” and to the bloodthirsty, adventurous war drone Arach there’s more, and they all seem increasingly divided and not entirely benevolent. As enigmatic as Mister Crane, the Dragon spheres and their aims remain a mystery. We have Mika, still deeply engaged in her Dragon research, but also increasingly engaged in a relationship with Cormac and of course, we have the Dragon. We have our magnificent bastard, Mister Crane what he’s up to is anyone’s guess, but it’s always a wonder to watch him reassemble himself through unending iterations.
We have agent Cormac, undergoing changes he doesn’t understand and is not comfortable with he is becoming (or fears becoming) more machine than a man, and while all the changes are apparently necessary as elements of the life-saving procedure in the aftermath of the Skellor’s attack that almost killed Cormac in Brass Man, he still resents being stripped of choice. And in Polity Agent he must indeed juggle many pieces and characters, all working independently or semi-independently from one another, all moving in separate directions, all motivated by different things.
With book 4, Asher is faced with the ultimate threat to any self-respecting series – getting lost within the intricacies of his own plot and the ever-growing cast.
Well, better late than never, so here it is. In fact, I was so certain that I had, that in the end I checked my blog and Goodreads… twice 😉. I can’t believe I hadn’t written this review before.
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