The Technician

By Neal Asher

In Neal Asher's The Technician, the Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada – but it is an order that the rebels of the Tidy Squad cannot accept, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is top of their hitlist.

Its secrets could mean our survival . . .

On the savage planet of Masada, one of the native aliens is spreading terror through the human population. It creates sculptures from its victims’ remains, earning it its nickname: the Technician. And only Jeremiah Tombs has survived an encounter. This sent him mad, but he may have learned something key to humanity’s survival – if he lives to remember it. Jeremiah was a member of a brutal regime, now deposed, and a radical sect still wants its revenge.

The Technician buried something in Jeremiah’s mind about the alien Atheter, an entire race that committed suicide. However, in seeking to understand their disappearance, we may somehow be attracting the same fate. And to unlock Jeremiah’s secrets, Polity operatives must keep him alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Feb 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9780230753433

Neal Asher

Neal Asher divides his time between Essex and Crete, mostly at a keyboard and mentally light years away. His full-length novels are as follows. First is the Agent Cormac series: Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent and Line War. Next comes the Spatterjay series: The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus. Also set in the same world of the Polity are these standalone novels: Hilldiggers, Prador Moon, Shadow of the Scorpion, The Technician, Jack Four and Weaponized. The Transformation trilogy is also based in the Polity: Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine. Set in a dystopian future are The Departure, Zero Point and Jupiter War, while Cowl takes us across time. The Rise of the Jain trilogy is comprised of The Soldier, The Warship and The Human, and is also set in the Polity universe.

Reviews for The Technician

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These days, nobody does space opera like Neal Asher. This is a rollicking read, full of suspense, pyrotechnics, and puzzles, all set within the Polity universe Asher has been working within for so long. The conclusion promises even more complications for future novels set in the Polity universe, and for the planet Masada which is one of several Asher created and keeps returning to.

[simonchamberlain · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of the few books I've read recently and given up on. It includes so much unexplained background information that at one point I stopped to double-check that it wasn't a sequel. It's not. Giving up on Asher after this one - read a couple of others that were OK, but this just doesn't do it for me.

[jkdavies · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I will have to re-read this as I am not sure what was happening towards the end... partly due to reading it in bits, and when jet-lagged. There seemed to be a lot going on, and the gathering on of threads on a vast scale was familiar to me from Iain M Banks; but the sense of this passed me by this time...

[jercox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorites from this universe. Compelling story, well put together, and makes more sense than many of the others (in some ways).