Line of Polity: The Second Agent Cormac Novel (Agent Cormac 2) [Paperback]

Neal Asher (Author)

Book Description

Series: Agent Cormac 2 | Publication Date: December 9, 2009

Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ...and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Neal Asher was born in Billericay, Essex, and divides his time between there and a home in Crete. His previous full-length novels are Gridlinked, The Skinner, The Line of Polity, Cowl, Brass Man, The Voyage of the Sable Keech, Polity Agent, Hilldiggers, Prador Moon, Line War and The Gabble.

Product Details

• Paperback: 663 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan; 1 edition (December 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330512560
• ISBN-13: 978-0330512565
• Product Dimensions: 1.8 x 5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Continuing strong ..., November 4, 2003

By 

Nic (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac, Book 2) (Paperback)

Whereas The Skinner jumped ahead several centuries from the time of Gridlinked, Line of Polity returns us to the events immediately following Asher's first full novel, and to his enigmatic protagonist Ian Cormac.

Asher's ingenuity continues to flourish. Line of Polity is a worthy successor to his previous works, and yet for me it lacked something of the power of the preceding novels. Perhaps the ending was just too neat (or too telegraphed?), but I feel my dissatisfaction ran deeper. This may have had something to do with the presence of Ian Cormac. In Gridlinked, he was introduced as an ineffable, almost inhuman operator. His motivations and underlying humanity were gradually revealed as the novel unfolded, and yet much of the man was still left as mystery. One would expect Line of Polity to continue these revelations, yet Cormac's character is left almost undeveloped. He swings through the novel in a rather Bond-like fashion, possessing all the answers, but with no internal conflict to give some depth to the narrative.

Asher has often been comapared favourably (and, I think, fairly) with Iain Banks. There is more than just a thematic similarity; the two authors share a sterling command of the english language and a love of the deviant and bizarre. But one of Banks' strengths is the fearlessness with which he kills off main characters, and the moral ambiguity of his framework, where good does not always triumph. Asher's reluctance to do the same, his affinity with letting the good live and the evil die (often horribly), now leave him in danger of becoming predictable.

Asher is a skillful wordsmith with an unbounded imagination and a genius for intriguing characters and complex plotting. He has it in him to produce works of great liturature, but to do this he will need to break out of his comfort zone and explore new territory.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars even works read backwards, March 27, 2007

By 

Julian Boyce "BarkingMad" (Bahrain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac, Book 2) (Paperback)

+1 for rivetting plotline - unbeknownst - I started reading the series backwards from Brass Man but still enjoy it
+1 for fast pace - no-nonsense teeth and claw action
+1 for delightful 'Brit' black sense of humour
+1 Asher does the AI/human thing better than Reynolds, Banks or Hamilton

-1 to Publisher for not MAKING CLEAR on cover this is #2 in series

Bottom line: gimme more, MORE

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mad Scientist and Evil Pope vs. Secret Agent Man, March 22, 2009

By 

Michael Lichter (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Line of Polity (Ian Cormac, Book 2) (Paperback)

THE LINE OF POLITY is bigger in scope and page count than the first Ian Cormac novel, GRIDLINKED, but it doesn't have the focus and punch of its predecessor. In fact, LINE feels like a product rushed to market before its time. There are many scenes that add nothing to the story and many bits of inane dialogue, particularly between humans and AIs, that should have been cut. Worse, there is so much similarity between events in GRIDLINKED and LINE, and between events that occur earlier in LINE and events that occur later in LINE that it is difficult not to feel a numbing deja vu over and over again.

While GRIDLINKED and LINE are by no means identical, they are similar in structure and driven by similar conflicts. In GRIDLINKED, Earth Central Security Agent Cormac had to battle a terrorist bent on killing him, track down the culprit(s) behind the destruction of a Polity base, and struggle to regain his own lost humanity. In LINE, Cormac battles a mad scientist bent on killing him, tracks down the people behind the destruction of a different Polity base, and assists the oppressed masses of planet Masada in their efforts to overthrow a theocratic oligarchy. What we learn about the "Line" of the title--the leading edge of the Human Polity's expansion into neighboring areas of space--advances our overall understanding of the Polity and the larger universe it inhabits, but it could have done so in fewer than 663 pages.

On the plus side, Asher delivers another action-packed story that takes place in a variety of well-imagined exotic locales packed with deadly and bizarre fauna. In a reader-friendly move, he also carries over many characters familiar to readers of GRIDLOCKED, including super-agent Horace Blegg, storm troopers Gant and Thorn, mercenaries Jarvellis and John Stanton, and trickster alien Dragon. Also, his writing remains lucid and vivid.

My biggest beef with LINE, however, is that the bad guys are too comic-book-villainesque for a novel that isn't aiming for Austin Powers-level silliness. Bad guy Skellor is a familiar type, a scientist who will do anything to master dangerous technologies, regardless of the cost to others. When Cormac gives Skellor's work a temporary setback, Skellor decides that me must kill Cormac, he must inflict horrible suffering on as many other people as possible, and he must do this in the most baroque and impractical ways conceivable. He's an evil guy who does evil stuff just because he's evil and for little or no other reason. The theocratic oligarchy of Masada is slightly more complex; living in orbital habitats far above the planetbound laboring classes, their oppressive social order keeps them in power and relative luxury while using religion to justify both their exaltation and the debasement of the masses. (It's a mildly disguised and transfigured medieval Catholic Church.) Still, these theocrats are, like Skellor, black-and-white villains who have no self-doubt and no redeeming value. This is in keeping with the view expressed by a passage in the novel arguing that criminals are the cause of crime (and, implicitly, that evil people are the source of evil deeds), and that any attempts to look for deeper social/environmental explanations represent namby-pamby liberalism. I hope for his and our sake that this bit of Bushian philosophy is not his final word on the subject.

All that being said, LINE offers enough pleasures to those who enjoyed GRIDLINKED to overbalance the boring bits and the occasional insult. Conditionally recommended.