SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this in 2005 and most recently on the 10th April 2012

Nandru Jurgens somehow gets hold of some top secret technology. He's acquired a which appears to be some sort of modern nanotech Vambrace. He's also acquired a military nanotech implant, a Muse184. Quite a haul. Now he plans to ransom it back to the owner. However his chance of getting away with his ransom demand is pitifully low.

I'm not sure about this one. Complex plot, truly unpleasant people, betrayal upon betrayal, I pictured myself in the Heliophane Dominion or the Umbrathane and loathed them both. They'd be astonishingly horrible, gruesome and harsh. Not my cup of tea.

Mr Asher has certainly come up with another monstrous universe.

But some how it feels as if he wrote it on the fly, conjuring appropriate technology as necessary and just throwing in adventurous episode after episode. I know the book doesn't read like that but Neal is such a talented, brilliant writer I always expect something really excellent from him.