Voyage of the Sable Keech


Okay, time for a pretty picture. This being an author’s blog I’ll start with my most recently published book.
And now the blurb:

It’s highly entertaining and brilliantly imagined stuff, and there can be few readers out there who will fail to enjoy this, and pretty much every other aspect of Asher’s writing. — John Berlyne (SFRevu)

I was ready for a break from real life, and Asher whisked me away without delay. — J. J. S. Boyce (Green Man Review).

No, once you’re plugged in to ‘The Voyage of the Sable Keech’, you’ll want to stay there as long as you can. — Rick Kleffel (The Agony Column)

hardback, trade paperback, mass-market paperback.

The reification Sable Keech, a walking dead man, is the only one to have been resurrected by nanochanger. Did he succeed because he was infected by the Spatterjay virus, or because he came late to resurrection in a tank of seawater? Tracing the man’s journey in a ship also named after him, Taylor Bloc wants to know. He also wants so much else – adulation, power, control – and will go to any lengths to get it. And he has brought the means.

An ancient hive mind, almost incomprehensible to the human race, has sent an agent to the world. Does it want to obtain the poison sprine – effective against those made virtually indestructible by the Spatterjay virus? Janer must find it and stop it.
Erlin, still faced with the ennui of immortality, has her solitude rudely interrupted by a very angry whelkus titanicus, and begins the strangest of journey’s. Captain Ambel’s own journey, from Olian’s – where the currency of death his kept in a vault – is equally as strange. But he must reap the harvest of Erlin’s mistake, and survive.

Deep in the ocean the virus has wrought a terrible change that will affect them all. Something dormant for ten years is breaking free, and once again the aftershocks of an ancient war will focus on this watery world. And Sniper, for ten years the Warden of Spatterjay, finally takes delivery of his new drone shell. It’s much better than his old one: powerful engines, more lethal weapons, thicker armour.

He’s going to need it.

Bear with me here … I’m learning.

8 thoughts on “Voyage of the Sable Keech

  1. Hi Neal – will there be another direct sequel in the Skinner timeline? I'm wondering what new surprises Spatterjay might spring… An attempted invasion by Jain technology might be fun – who would win??
    Cheers,
    Alex

  2. I've been considering a direct sequel, Alex, though not set on Spatterjay. I was thinking about telling the story of a certain captain who sets out on the Gurnard at the end, and maybe involving a certain nasty prador…

  3. Looking forward to reading this! I usually only buy Alastair Reynolds in hardback, but I've really enjoyed my recent "Asher-rush" so I reckon you got me 😉

  4. It's not in the US yet, Adam. The only ones in the US thus far are Gridlinked, The Skinner, Cowl, Brass Man, Prador Moon (Night Shade Books) and The Engineer Reconditioned.

  5. So there i was, gazing at the hundreds of fantasy titles in my local bookshop trying to find something different and my eye caught "Gridlinked", mainly because of the 99p price tag!
    Got me totally lost in a belivable worldscape, 3-D characters and AI's that somehow seem more real than the humans.
    Just finished The Skinner, developed a soft spot for Sniper and captain Ron.
    So here I go, back up the tower crane waiting for the next delivery by Amazon and it's a long time since Asinov has an auther has done that for me.
    Thank you.

  6. Glad you enjoyed it, Cheesey — I think that 99p deal might have worked well considering the feedback I've had. Funnily enough I'm presently reading Asimov's autobiography, I Asimov. Now, if I could produce books at the same rate as him…

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