The Gabble - And Other Stories

Neal Asher

23 January 2020
9781509868506
384 pages

Synopsis

An extraordinary collection from the architect of the Polity universe, Neal Asher's The Gabble - And Other Short Stories reveals a universe of unbridled imagination, and each one is a delight in itself.

Much of Neal Asher’s fiction is set in the galactic civilization he calls the Polity, an alliance of human-populated worlds. And in this collection of thirteen marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, Asher is on top form.

You can expect conflicted humans, fiendishly clever plot twists, extraordinary technologies and so much more. The discerning reader can also savour tales of alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont.

No one does weird, wonderful and downright gruesome aliens better than Neal Asher, so prepare to visit his favourites. Sample the lifestyles of creatures such as the gabbleduck and the hooder, as Asher takes you on a wild ride into his vividly-imagined futures.

Asher serves up tales that are economical, crisp and frequently fiendishly clever. The stories featuring the gabbleducks, dangerous aliens who ‘speak’ in a nonsensical language, are particularly impressive. Neal Asher: the Lewis Carroll of space opera anyone?
Fans of Asher's Polity future history will not be disappointed by his third collection . . . Asher delights in depicting the universe as a Hobbesian nightmare. He's superb at detailing, with macabre relish, the frailty of the flesh.
The way his characters interact with the strange locations and technologies creates more than enough to keep the pages turning. If you've never sampled the delights of Asher's work then this rather entertaining collection would be a very good place to start.