Dark Intelligence

All powerful AI’s, people living in a utopia and/or have transformed themselves into other human like forms, battles happening faster than a standard humans can think and the ability to bring back the dead. It all sounds very much like the Culture Universe but in this case we are in the Polity universe of Neal Asher.

Dark Intelligence* is the first of Neal Asher’s books I have read and is also the first in the transformation series. It successfully weaves together a number of different but linked narratives building to a crescendo at the conclusion of the book.

The main protagonist, Thorvald Spear, has recently woken in hospital having been killed in battle against a dangerous enemy, the Prador, that are brutal and clever in equal measure. But in his case it was not the Prador that killed him and the rest of his unit, but a rouge AI called Penny Royal.

Spear sole purpose from waking, after a quick liaison with a cat-women of course, is to track down this Penny Royal and destroy it. Spear’s quest brings him in to contact with various other protagonists who themselves have had encounters with Penny Royal. The most notable is Isobel Satomi, a human women and head of a powerful crime syndicate, who seeking more power, sought Penny Royal aiming to become part AI. Penny Royal gave her what she wanted and more and as a result is slowly, at first, turning into a monster. Spear takes advantage of this to convince Isobel to transport him across a dangerous region of the galaxy in his quest for vengeance.

There are other players involved as well and not all are as they seem. The plot twists that reveal the different characters true colours are well thought out and executed and helps keeps the readers attention. Overall it is a very satisfying read and I will read on to complete the series but ultimately it is not quite enough to get on my top ten.