Shadow of the Scorpion Audiobook By Neal Asher cover art

Shadow of the Scorpion

A Novel of the Polity

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Shadow of the Scorpion

By: Neal Asher
Narrated by: David Marantz
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Raised to adulthood during the end of the war, between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn’t remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There, he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans - some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence, and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance.

©2008 Neal Asher (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Adventure Science Fiction Fiction War

Editorial reviews

David Marantz delivers a clear and straightforward performance of Neal Asher’s science fiction narrative Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity. Protagonist Ian Cormac came of age during the end of a war between humans and aliens, Polity versus Prador. Memories of a scorpion-shaped war drone haunt him, but he has trouble remembering everything. As he travels as part of Earth Central Security to war-torn locales, he discovers that humans are far more cruel and violent than the enemy aliens. He’s out for vengeance and nothing can stop him - not even the truth about his own past.
Epic Worldbuilding • Engaging Origin Story • Gritty Cyberpunk Characters • Intricate Story Arcs • Evolving Protagonist
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struggled to care about the story. tried to multitask while listening and it's too hard to follow changing timelines multiple times in a long chapter with very minor voice acting. Very long to an anti-climactic answer to the war drone & MC's dad.

ok, better if u kno the series

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it is a solid sci-fi action book, could have gone without the tacked on adult scenes. but it can be hard to follow when the narrative jumps around time periods.

well somebody heard about nonlinear story telling

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Neal Asher's Shadow of the Scorpion is the origin story for agent Cormac, a long running series located in his Polity universe. The main tale relates Cormac's early years from a young military grunt with his demonstration of fighting, spying, and deductive skills that gets him into the ESC (Earth Central Security). While the Prador is the alien enemy of the Polity, there is an indigenous insurgent movement that is fighting for independence from the the Polity itself. The story alternates between this present day and Cormac's childhood which involves interactions with the Polity war drone Amistad who worked with Cormac's father, missing and presumed dead during the early Prador war, but never fully explained. Cormac progressively evolves over time into the bigger than life character.

Set in the Polity universe, there's less emphasis on the AI dominated culture. At the same time, the Prador play a limited role with the insurgents taking center stage through a classic underground movement. One distinctive feature is the use of selective memory wipes as a way of dealing with painful experiences and preventing PTSD. Cormac comes to learn that he underwent several during his childhood and deals with that reintegration.

The narration is well done with good character distinction and adequate pacing well aligned with the plot.

Origin story for Agent Cormac

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Leaves you wondering. Well played. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't help wondering what comes next. I'm not ready to leave these characters.

Fascinating!

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man, Amistad is just poor misunderstood murder machine that just wanted little cormac to know the truth

it had satisfying ending

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Neal Asher writes such good books that are so engaging. The characters are round and the world is realistic. Can't get enough!

The Crack Cocain of Sci Fi

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Great intro to the Ian Cormac series. Necessary reading the Neal Asher fans who seek the background and origins of Cormac. Must listen!

Excellent First in Cormac Series

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This was a great book and made me wanting more. The origin story for agent Cormac, series located in the Polity universe. Lots of action and excitement. I listened to the audible version and the narration by David Marantz was outstanding. I wish more of the Polity Universe was in Audible.

Outstanding

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Even though the polity series is chuck full of fast pased emersive combat and gritty cyberpunk characters it is not in any sense light reading. Neal Asher is a master of epic world building and interesting character development. The science in his work often esoteric and mysterious yet with a strong foundation in the world he built.
What attracts me most to his writing is that Asher manages to capture the grit and feel of early cyperpunk works and manages to hold on to that through huge and intricate story arcs. Something most early cyberpunk writers never really mastered.

I am relistening the entire polity universe series now since it is finally complete in audiobook form. I do advise anyone with similar ambitions to google the timeline and read the series chronologically. Asher has been writing in this universe for decades, prequels sequels an all, so it can get a little confusing if you just go by audible's inferior sorting options.

Ps: A tip for you audible devs: remember my sorting preferences already, sigh.. Resorting every query to release date got tiresome years ago. The new terminology does not help either.

If you like Neal Asher go check out Peter F. Hamilton too. Not as much grit and action but seriously good at building story arcs . Takes epic out of the spectrum.
Piece

Best sci-fi action writer I know

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One of Asher's best, in my opinion. Love the evolution of techno-Bond. It's great to see how Cormac got his start.

Really good book

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