The Skinner

Spatterjay Book 1

The price of immortality is high, when flesh is a harvest.

His easy style and intriguing plot make for a great story that treats the reader as an adult rather than an educationally subnormal adolescent' -- The Times (Tim Cadman)

'an exhilarating tour through one of the most ingeniously, elaborately deadly worlds since Harry Harrison invented Death World in the 1960s' -- Locus (Russell Letson)

'Wild imagination, rigorous extrapolation, great characters , well-placed humor, clever plotting and a boatload of monsters make this novel a must-buy for any serious science fiction reader' -- Rick Kleffel

 To the Line planet Spatterjay come three travellers: Janer brings the eyes of a hornet Hive mind, and an agenda he would rather not own; Erlin comes to find Ambel – the ancient sea captain who can teach her to live; and Sable Keech is a man with a vendetta he will not give up, though he has been dead for seven hundred years.

The world is mostly ocean, where all but a few visitors from the Human Polity remain safely in the island Dome. Outside, the native hoopers risk the voracious appetite of the planet’s fauna in their struggle for life and life eternal. Somewhere out there is Spatterjay Hoop himself, and monitor Keech will not rest until he can bring this legendary renegade to justice – for crimes so hideous Keech can never forget.

Pursuing rumour, Keech learns that Hoop has become something monstrous: his body roaming free on an island wilderness, whilst his living head is confined in a box on board one of the old captain's ships. Janer, the eternal tourist, is bewildered by this place where sails speak and the people just will not die, but his bewilderment turns to anger when he learns the Hive mind’s intentions. Erlin thinks she has all the time she will ever need to find the answers she requires, and could not be more wrong. And so these three travel and search, not knowing that one of the brutal Prador is about to pay a surreptitious visit, intent on exterminating witnesses to wartime atrocities, nor do they know how terrible is the price of immortality on Spatterjay.

As the fortunes of these travellers unwittingly converge, a major hell is about to erupt in this chaotic waterscape ... where minor hell is already a remorseless fact of everyday life – and death.

'Asher's ready, willing, and more than able to put the fear of...whatever he likes, into you' -- sfsite (Lisa DuMond)

‘a piece of phantasmagoric SF that few aficionados will want to miss' -- The Good Book Guide (Barry Forshaw)'

‘The Skinner is crammed full of inventive technology, organic and artificial intelligence, horrible monsters, and a thick mesh of story lines' -- SFX (Sam Croft)

'And ten seconds in the company of the alien enemy, the Prador, would assuredly be sufficient guarantee a mass avoidance of lobsters' -- Dreamwatch (Colin Baker)

’loads of cool gadgets and enough violence to satisfy even me' -- Waterstones (Mike Rowley)

Published:
Publisher: Tor
Editors:
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Tags:
Excerpt:
Reviews:Tim Cadman on The Times wrote:

His easy style and intriguing plot make for a great story that treats the reader as an adult rather than an educationally subnormal adolescent

Russell Letson on Locus wrote:

An exhilarating tour through one of the most ingeniously, elaborately deadly worlds since Harry Harrison invented Death World in the 1960s

Rick Kleffel wrote:

Wild imagination, rigorous extrapolation, great characters , well-placed humor, clever plotting and a boatload of monsters make this novel a must-buy for any serious science fiction reader

Lisa DuMond on Sfsite wrote:

Asher's ready, willing, and more than able to put the fear of...whatever he likes, into you

Barry Forshaw on The Good Book Guide wrote:

A piece of phantasmagoric SF that few aficionados will want to miss

Sam Croft on SFX wrote:

The Skinner is crammed full of inventive technology, organic and artificial intelligence, horrible monsters, and a thick mesh of story lines

Colin Baker on Dreamwatch wrote:

And ten seconds in the company of the alien enemy, the Prador, would assuredly be sufficient guarantee a mass avoidance of lobsters

Mike Rowley on Waterstones wrote:

Loads of cool gadgets and enough violence to satisfy even me


Foreign or old covers: