It seems like a guy called Paul enjoyed The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus on Audible:
I’ve been a huge fan of Iain M Banks for a long time, loved the early works of Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and read the hardcopy of Neal Asher’s first full length published novel ‘Gridlinked’ years ago, not long after it’s publication.
Somehow I then lost track of Neal, but fortunately rediscovered him via Audible. I’ve listened to The Skinner (Book 1), The Voyage of The Sable Keech (Book 2) and am currently a few chapters into Orbus (Book 3). I’ve listened to these back to back, unremittingly, and with great relish.
Over the years I’ve always been excited to learn of a favorite author’s new work, and somehow ‘losing touch’ with Asher is great – all of a sudden I have a wealth of published material to enjoy en masse, rather then being drip-fed as novels are published. Of course now, as I’m engrossed in the third and final Spatterjay audiobook, I am hoping that Audible and Neal’s publisher get together and publish more of Neal’s back catalog in audio format.
So a few words about the series. Spatterjay is a very interesting place – from it’s ecology, to it’s early colonisation, to it’s present situation on the edge of the Polity – all of these diverse influences come together through rich characterisations of visiting Polity humans (both alive and dead), Polity AI, Prador with dirty secrets that need to be forgotten, 700 year old virally-modified superhumans who can handle a sailing boat and bend steel, and my personal favorite, drones with Attitude.
I’m not talking about snotty Culture drones, replete with sarcasm and irony. No, I’m talking about 700 year old Polity War Drones with secret upgrades and a Northern accent. The type of Drone that says ‘F*** me!’ when it sees a Prador, or ‘B******s!’ when it doesn’t believe a ship AI. If you thought Skaffen-Amtiskaw was cool, wait until you meet Sniper!
William Gaminara does a fabulous job on the reading, and has the characters down pat – he brings the books to life.
More Asher on Audible please!
The audble link is over to the right of this post between ‘followers’ and ‘uptweets’. If you go there you can listen to samples of the books being read by Mr Gaminara.