War Factory is the second novel in Neal Asher’s Transformations series, preceded by Dark Intelligence. Based in his ever-popular Polity universe, War Factory takes the events from the first novel and expands on them further, and all done in typical Asher fashion. Not the place to jump in to Asher’s work, but if you liked Dark Intelligence, you’ll love War Factory…
From the publisher:
One seeks judgement, another faces damnation and one man will have his revenge . . .
Thorvald Spear is losing his mind as he drowns in dark memories that aren’t his own. Penny Royal, rogue artificial intelligence, has linked Spear with the stored personalities of those it’s murdered. And whether the AI seeks redemption or has some more sinister motive, Spear needs to destroy it. He feels the anger of the dead and shares their pain.
As Spear tracks the AI across a hostile starscape, he has company. Sverl, an alien prador, has been warped by Penny Royal and hungers to confront it. But will the AI’s pursuers destroy each other or hunt it together? Sverl’s prador enemies aren’t far behind either. They plan to use his transition to prove human meddling, triggering a devastating new war.
Clues suggest Penny Royal’s heading for the defective war factory that made it. So allies and enemies converge, heading for the biggest firestorm that sector of space has ever seen. But will Spear secure vengeance for his unquiet dead?
As we rejoin the action following the events of Dark Intelligence, one of the first noticeable differences is the exclusion of Isobel Satomi. A main character in the first novel who went through a rather shocking and thorough change into a hooder, it was surprising to see her put to one side. However, this doesn’t mean the momentum eases off, for we do continue to follow Spear and Sverl, plus Cvorn, one of Sverl’s children, that moves that plot along very nicely indeed. And let’s not forget the mastermind behind all the events: Penny Royal.
It would be very easy to get caught up in the details of War Factory, to talk about the changes going on to the varied cast. While a large aspect of the novel, and a part that drives the narrative forward at every twist and turn, it really is best left to be discovered by the reader. There are some truly amazing revelations and set pieces as the story moves along – from a rather unique look at time travel through to a meeting with the Prador king – the time spent reading War Factory is well worth the effort.
However, there is only one issue with War Factory – you have to have read Dark Intelligence. This isn’t a stand-alone novel or one that forms a loose series, War Factory is a firm second novel in a trilogy that requires knowledge from the first book to be both enjoyed and understood. In fact, Asher wrote the trilogy as a whole before even turning anything in to his publisher, so seeing such intricately plotted and connected details is expected.
In short, War Factory contains everything that is good about Asher’s writing. It’s thoughtful, yet action-packed, and adds layer upon layer to an already deep setting that is the Polity. With AI, Prador, and human elements to the story this truly takes the series title of Transformations and gives it a spin that is massively enjoyable. Add to this some truly unique and weird aliens that you’re unlikely to see from any other authors and you’ve got a winner. Nobody does science fiction like Neal Asher, and War Factory is yet more proof of that.
Publisher: https://www.panmacmillan.com/imprint-publishers/tor
Author: http://www.nealasher.co.uk
June 2016, 560 Pages
Hardcover, ISBN: 9780330524612
Review copy received from the publisher
© 2016 Mark Chitty
