Reviews
“Dune meets Master and Commander . . . This sprawling tale boasts baddies who deserve their torturous fate and heroes who merit further evolution.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Every age gets the science fiction it deserves. Neal Asher’s grimly assured novel The Skinner projects the terror-haunted sensibility of our time into a future of limitless brutality. . . . Asher displays great virtuosity in dramatizing Spatterjay’s eat-and-be-eaten ecosystem . . .
Asher keeps raising the stakes so that despite the repetitive nature of the violence, it never becomes merely formulaic. You may not relish your stay on Spatterjay. But you won’t easily forget it.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A rousing space opera . . . Asher will definitely appeal to connoisseurs of sophisticated adventure-oriented SF.” —Publishers Weekly
“[A] riotous far-future SF yarn . . . The whole impressive, ingenious enterprise hurtles along at a high-octane clip while swinging with nonchalant abandon between horror and comedy: call it black slapstick. In sum: a blast.” —Kirkus Reviews [Starred Review]
“As if that weren’t enough, Asher’s characters, alien and human, are drawn with care and depth. Even minor characters . . . are distinctive and engaging, with fully developed personalities. Thanks to Asher’s prowess with character, The Skinner, for all its violence, good humor and zestful creativity, is also a poignant, emotionally satisfying read. This is only Asher’s second novel, but it serves notice that a talent of the first order has arrived.” —SF Weekly
“This is a stunning piece of work. . . . The Skinner is a hugely engrossing read and simply a fantastic piece of entertainment that deserves serious consideration for the Arthur C. Clarke award. I strongly recommend it.” —SFRevu.com
“Crammed full of inventive technology, organic and artificial intelligence, horrible monsters, and a thick mesh of storylines . . . extremely hard to put down.” —SFX
“If anyone still imagines that likening an SF author’s work to action-thriller-horror genres means that it can’t really be SF, or that it can’t be good SF, then they need to pick up one or both of Asher’s novels. Gridlinked and The Skinner demonstrate that zombies, mutants, killer leeches, spies and assassins can all be placed within detailed, scientifically, underpinned and extrapolated worlds, with the strengths of SF literature being used to resurrect dead clichés of popular narrative.” —Interzone
“An exhilarating tour through one of the most ingeniously, elaborately deadly worlds since Harry Harrison invented Deathworld in the 1960s.” —Locus
