Africa Zero (Paperback)

by Neal L. Asher (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Collector rampages across a far future Africa populated with gene-spliced vampires, resurrected mammoth and nutters with APWs . . .

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Cosmos Books (November 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809556642
• ISBN-13: 978-0809556649
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,376 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Cinematic Actioner, August 22, 2005

By	Jim Molnar (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa Zero (Paperback)

Neal Asher's work is the perfect translation of comic book energy to big-screen-style narrative. This book, related in the deadpan first person of an Edgar Rice Burroughs type hero, pits a virtually unstoppable cyborg steward of a transformed far-future Africa against environmental vandals, ruthless corporate schemers, and sadistic religious fanatics, but as usual there is more to his larger-than-life characters than at first it seems. Harshly logical and gleefully brutal, this disarmingly juvenile but richly themed work carries forward the best pulp tradition with visceral, steamrolling conviction.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Novella of the Year, May 19, 2006

By	Colin P. Lindsey (Manchester, NH) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Africa Zero (Paperback)

For those of you familiar with Asher's Polity universe the first thing you should know is that this a non-Polity story. The second thing you should know is that you simply won't care. This is trademark Asher all the way, simply resonating with the distinctive and familiar Asher voice. Asher is a natural story-teller and writes with an exuberance that defies comparison. No one crams as much energy, science, terror, adrenaline, blood, explosions, monsters, philosophy, politics, religion, technology, ideas, intelligence, and both the redeemably good and irredeemably evil into his books. The important thing though is no one makes you have a fraction of the fun Asher does when he writes. You ENJOY yourself when reading Asher!!! If there is anything wrong with this novella it is simply that it is a novella not a novel. I wish I could have kept reading indefinitely.

Africe Zero features an ancient cyborg who more less Lone Rangers, albeit somewhat reluctantly, around Africa keeping an eye on the local flora and fauna and the human enclaves that still exist. If you have read the polity books, just think "Golem". The resultings adventures feature all the action, violence, and blood spatters you learn to crave from Asher, the complex plot developments, and as many crazed and insane evil bigots and religious fanatics as your imagination could care to blow away. I suspect that this novella came before the polity novels because you do definitely see the seeds of the idea for the Golems and Dracomen featured there. I whole-heartedly recommend that you shell out the bucks for this one. Asher always delivers more adrenaline charged fun per dollar than any other writer out there.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My 100-word book review, March 19, 2007

By	A. J. Cull (London, UK) - See all my reviews

An early work by Asher, Africa Zero comprises two novellas set in a distant future where the Collector, a lone cyborg with attitude, wages war on an army of religious fanatics. A nice brisk read, this book has the Asher trademarks of high octane action and plenty of big explosions. Fans of his Polity series will recognise the reptilian sauramen as forerunners of the dracomen in later books, but these prototypes are more entertaining. Few science fiction stories are ever set in Africa, let alone feature mammoths, glaciation, vampires and giant crocodiles as well, so this is one to remember.