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Neal L. Asher
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Orbus (A Spatterjay Novel) Kindle Edition

by Neal Asher (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,582 ratings
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This is a follow-up to The Voyage of the Sable Keech tracing the journey of an Old Captain, Orbus – a sadist in charge of a crew of masochists - to a planetary wasteland called The Graveyard’ lying between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom. An ancient war drone by the name of Sniper has stowed away aboard his spaceship, and the purpose of the journey is not entirely what the captain expected. Also heading in the same direction is the Prador king and the Prador Vrell. Vrell, having been mutated by the Spatterjay virus into something powerful and dangerous, has seized control of a Prador dreadnought, killing much of its crew, and is intent on heading back to the Prador Third Kingdom to exact vengeance on the King of the Prador, who tried to have him killed. All three ships are heading towards a climatic confrontation to The Graveyard, where underlying truths about the virus are revealed and an ancient menace to civilization reappears…
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  1. Book 3 of 3
    Spatterjay
  2. Print length
    449 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Night Shade Books
  6. Publication date
    November 8, 2013
  7. File size
    721 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
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  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

General Praise for Neal Asher:

“Neal Asher’s books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain.” —New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi

“With mind-blowing complexity, characters, and combat, Asher’s work continues to combine the best of advanced cybertech and military SF.” ?Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Asher is a modern master of sci-fi.” —Starburst magazine

“A wide-screen special-effects extravaganza, a space opera featuring gods and monsters . . . Doc Smith and Olaf Stapledon in a blender, turned up to eleven, with the contents splattering across the ceiling.” ?Russell Letson, Locus

“Asher has an amazing talent for world-building, for writing larger-than-life characters, for weaving gripping plots and for imagining exotic alien races and wonderful technologies. Huge ships! Big weapons! Space battles! Ground battles! Treason! Revenge! This is New Space Opera at its best.” —Sense of Wonder

“Hardboiled, fast-paced space opera . . . Asher’s books are similar to the world of Iain M. Banks’ Culture universe, but the Polity is arguably a much darker and more vicious environment—and all the better for it.” —The Register

About the Author

Neal Asher is a science fiction writer whose work has been nominated for both the Philip K. Dick and the British Fantasy Society awards. He has published more than fifteen books, many set within his “Polity” universe, including Gridlinked, The Skinner, and Prador Moon. He divides his time between Essex and a home in Crete.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07H478XYV
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Night Shade Books (November 8, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 721 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 449 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0330457608
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,582 ratings

About the author

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Neal L. Asher

Neal L. Asher

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Neal Asher lives sometimes in England, sometimes in Crete and mostly at a keyboard. Having over twenty-five books published he has been accused of overproduction (despite spending far too much time on the social media, or kayaking and walking) but doesn’t intend to slow down just yet.

http://theskinner.blogspot.com/

https://www.nealasher.co.uk

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,582 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Howie
5.0 out of 5 stars Orbus Was Great!!!
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2012
Verified Purchase
I was hooked on the "Polity" universe right from the first book by Neal Asher (GridLinked). The Spatterjay series is an off-shoot of the Polity series (involved in this book). Combine old guard Norton, with Larry Niven, and Hamilton, and you get a series of books that are very enjoyable to read. For some reason, the Asher books are not as well distributed in the U.S. as the U.K. Although not deeply intellectual, it is a fun read, really entertaining, don't want to put down kind of book, loaded with action. This book (if you are a hard sci-fi aficionado) is a book that will make you glad you spent the money. WARNING: Even though this book can be read as a stand alone novel, reading the first two Spatterjay novels, before reading Orbus, definitely improves the experience.
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ReyDog
4.0 out of 5 stars Spatterjay-Splatterjay
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2009
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First things first...I am a huge Asher fan. I have read everything he has offered and eagerly await each new volume and when I heard this was a "Spatterjay" novel I could hardly contain my enthusiasm. Asher has consistently delivered breathless action, gory violence, interesting characters, laugh out loud humor, and sumptuous galactic eon spanning stories all set in his rich "Polity" universe.

Second things second...To truly appreciate the characters, personalities, and Polity infrastructure of Orbus I highly recommend you at least read the two previous Spatterjay novels..."The Skinner" and "The Voyage of the Sable Keach" prior to reading "Orbus". Although the cover jacket for Orbus states this is a Spatterjay novel, it seemed more like a self-contained stand alone novel populated with Spatterjay characters persuing the type of political interests and intrigues usually found in his Ian Cormac ECS Polity Agent storylines.

I am going to quote Budd from Kill Bill to help set the parameters for this review...
"If you're gonna compare a Hanzo sword, you compare it to every other sword ever made...that wasn't made by Hattori Hanzo."

Likewise...this Neal Asher story compared to any other sci-fi space opera novel that wasn't written by Neal Asher would garnish an enthusiastic 5 star rating, but compared to his earlier work it seems to fall just a little short.

What's great about Orbus...

Orbus-an Old Captain...to steal and paraphrase from Jerry Maguire..."You had me at Old Captain", I love these ancient, intelligent, belligerent, interesting, and immensely powerful characters.

Sniper-War Drone...a mechanical version of an Old Captain. Old, menacing, intelligent, dangerous, unruly, and also the funniest character in the Asher cannon.

The Prador-old alien war adversaries are back with Vrell, King Oberon, and The Golgoloth. Each are cunning, powerful and treacherous as they pursue there own conflicting interests and fight old prejudices before unleashing and encountering a much more dangerous common enemy.

The return of an ancient deadly race (NO SPOILERS)..."and something that has been dead for four million years starts to open its eyes".

What's not so great about Orbus...Bollocks!

-It's frustrating reading when characters as familiar as old friends react in "un-characteristic" ways.
-Placing these same characters in situations where they can not play to their strengths and in the case of one central character actually taking away a portion of their key essence, knowledge, and personality...permanently? I don't know how or if Asher can fix this and keep this character as significant and interesting in future novels.
-It all seems a bit formulaic as if Asher painted this by numbers.

With all that being said, Orbus is still a great read and is the case with all Asher's work...Huge Fun!
Hopefully the "taking an Old Captain into space" story framework might be expanded in future Polity/Spatterjay novels.

Again...I can hardly wait!
13 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars That was fun!
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2010
Verified Purchase
If you are new to Neal Asher's work, be aware that this is book 3 of the SpatterJay series.
You will want to read "The Skinner" and "The Voyage of the Sable Keech" before reading this book.

Now...onto the review!

If you're here then we can assume you have read at least the previous 2 books in this series and perhaps some of his other books set in the same universe. So what you really want to know is...Is the book any good?

This book was surprisingly good!

I say surprisingly because the title character (Orbus) is not a terribly likable fellow in the previous books--being a sadist operating a sailing ship crewed by masochists--and I was not expecting Asher to give him his own story, and in fact...I was rather wondering if I would even *like* a book based on such a character.

It turns out that--although the title character features prominently throughout--there are so many supporting character brought rapidly into play that the story is nonstop action from start to finish.
We've got tons of fan favorites showing up here like...the War drone Sniper...Sub Mind 13...the Prador Vrell...the Jain...the SpatterJay virus itself...the Prador King. Questions are raised. Questions are answered. Battles are fought, things are blown up and when all was said and done I sat back and said...Wow! That was fun!

What more can you ask for?
One person found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Good Sci Fi
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is a classic sci fi adventure in the vein of Heinlein and Asimov, with a helpful sprinkling of David Drake. This entire trilogy is a heady brew that mixes hard sci fi with character driven storytelling and some fantastic character arcs.

I liked this book enough to review it, knowing that absolutely no one would read my review. How’s that for an endorsement?
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Top reviews from other countries

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Giorgio Bellini
4.0 out of 5 stars Scritto bene, forse un po' ripetitivo
Reviewed in Italy on June 8, 2020
Verified Purchase
E' sempre un mistero il fatto che di Ascher in Italia non arrivi nulla (sarà un problema di costo o, come temo, culturale?). Prosa scattante e personaggi ben delineati. Il trittico Spatterjay, di cui Orbus è l'apice, è interessante, e contribuisce a dare alcune informazioni utili (ma non indispensabili) alla comprensione di alcuni avvenimenti descritti in altri libri Polity.
Però stavolta ho notato una certa stanchezza. Quanto raggiunto con Hildiggers in tema di nuove idee è un po' lontano.
Accade, per quanto ho potuto constatare, quando gli scrittori decidono di esplorare tutti i dettagli di un loro filone di idee, per soddisfazione personale (o per soldo).
Ciononostante consiglio l'intera serie.
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James P
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read. Vol 1-3 .
Reviewed in Australia on September 21, 2017
Verified Purchase
Fast paced with interesting and flawed characters. A great story of the future, crazy tech and a broken dangerous future universe. A really good sci fi series and an author I will be reading more of.
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Shaun H
5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite of the Spatterjay series.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2012
Verified Purchase
After reading and thoroughly enjoying book 1 of the Spatterjay series  The Skinner  I was somewhat disappointed in the follow-up  The Voyage of the Sable Keech  which I thought just rehashed a lot of the stroyline from the first book without introducing anything new. The second book also pushed into minor supporting roles all my favourite characters from book 1, including the AI Minds and drones, specifically the cantankerous and wily old war drone known as Sniper and his sidekick Sub-Mind 13. I almost decided not to read this last book in the series, but after reading some of the reviews here I changed my mind and decided to find out how it all ends. I have to say that I am very glad I did!

There is no way I can accuse this third book of rehashing the plots of the first two books as it quite literally takes off in a completely different direction, that direction being off into outer space! I also can't in anyway complain that my favourite characters are not featured heavily as Sniper has a staring role in this book.

With huge set piece space battles, laser, masers, particle-canons, rails guns, plasma torches, smart missiles, an alien race of soldiers, space dreadnaughts fifty miles long, a wonderful steam-punk style spaceship decorated with Victorian brass and cast iron, and dozens of other pieces of high-tech weaponry, this really was my kind of "boys toys" science fiction.

Culminating in one of the best big space battles I have read in ages I absolutely could not put this book down. It really did move at a tremendous pace - such a contrast to book two which to be honest I struggled to finish.

Underneath though there is a complex story of forgiveness and redemption and several sub plots that keep you guessing who really is on which side and who is going to be the victor right up to the end.

Overall: - 5 stars - Brilliant space opera science fiction of the highest calibre! Easily my favourite of the Spatterjay Trilogy!
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Skeptiker
3.0 out of 5 stars same as usual...
Reviewed in Germany on December 6, 2009
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Neal Asher scheint nicht mehr viel Neues einzufallen....
das Buch ist eine ermüdende Wiederholung von Dingen, die in den Spatterjay-Büchern alle irgendwie schon mal vorgekommen sind. Vrell, Sniper, Thirteen,... same as usual.
Und auch der Schreibstil ist diesesmal ganz anders (er schreibt in der Gegenwarts-Form) - gefällt mir aber nicht so gut.
Ich habe die bisherigen Romane von Neal Asher fast durchweg alle gemocht, und war bei Line War erstmals enttäuscht.
Beim Lesen des Buches habe ich irgendwie das Gefühl bekommen, dass sich Asher lieblos etwas aus den Fingern gesaugt hat, weil er ein neues Buch veröffentlichen musste.
Insgesamt ganz nett, aber doch irgendwie enttäuschend. Mal sehen was noch so von ihm kommt - sonst war das mein letzter Neil Asher
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
Reviewed in Australia on October 22, 2018
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Great continuation of a great series that always manages to keep you guessing how things turn out and how those involve survive
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