In BRASS MAN, Neal Asher takes you into a future world completely unlike our own, weaving the reader through a dizzying plot as good hunts evil, and evil does what it always will. In Asher’s universe, artificial intelligence – or AI – is literally everywhere and in everything, even allowing one to become immortal. Once a human body wears out or someone decides to try and cut it short, just upload your consciousness into an android and keep on livin’.
I found BRASS MAN to be a fun, if detailed read. Asher has a talent for creating an entire universe from scratch. As I wandered through the story, I felt like Buck Rogers awakening into a new reality. Asher has created his universe from the ground up and his machines don’t adhere to Issac Asimov’s rules of robotics. With many of them having a human conscious, how could they?
In many sci-fi adventures, spaceships – although not alive – take on a persona. Asher turns this thread on its ear; his ships are alive, have a sense of self and make their own decisions, usually calculating and cold. Cyborg and robot technology run wild throughout the book, and Asher bends both, reflecting a new light.
BRASS MAN delves deep into the evils of AI. One character is tortured by having her body broken down at the nanoscopic level while simultaneously being put back together. Nerves, skin, bone and flesh are rebuilt as it’s destroyed, allowing the process to continue indefinitely.
I latched onto the character of Cento, one tough S.O.B. Reduced by the antagonistic Crane to merely a head, torso and one arm, Cento is left for dead, trapped in a rock bubble next to a magma flow. Cento claws his way to life, making wonderful analytical decisions along the way. As any good machine would, he allows his arm to discontinue, using the aesthetic arm motions of a human and turning it into a lever and crane, pulling his way up a tall crevice, using his arm, head and what’s left of his leg sockets.
I was literally on the edge of my seat. Bravo and well done. –Bart Brunscheen
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Thank you very kindly!