The Line of Polity

I think I met hooders and gabbleducks - WHAT an invention, BTW! - in short stories published in Mammoth Books' Best New SF, and was seriously impressed by this new author.

I then got this as my first Asher novel: I didn't realise it was the second Cormac novel, or I would have tried for that one; however, one picks up fast enough that this is a truly excellent stand-alone book.

What impresses me about Asher is the seamless way he meshes serious physics with nanotech with biology with sociology with...with large, intelligent starships.

I am very partial to large, intelligent starships.

As an introduction to the Cormac universe, then, this was a superb book. The rest are as good - and make a GREAT collection.