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Title: The Gabble and Other Stories
Series: Polity #12
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 384
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
A collection of short stories ranging all throughout Asher’s Polity Universe.
| My Thoughts: |
Several stories deal with the Gabbleducks, which we know are the deliberately devolved descendants of the Atheter. We also get one story about the Csorians, the 2nd alien lifeform wiped out by the jaintech; from how the story goes it appears that they won’t be making any reappearances in Asher’s writings any time soon. Another story has Penny Royal involved. Since Penny Royal got its own trilogy, I’ve been paying a lot more attention any time it is mentioned.
In my last review, The Technician, I mistakenly claimed that this book explained how the Atheter mem-crystal was found. That is not so. Instead, a bit of the original is used as bait in one story and that is how I got things messed up. The Technician should be #11 in the Polity series and this one the 12th.
I gave this 5stars this time around because of several reasons. One, I really do enjoy the short story format when there is a bunch of them all by one author. It really works for me. Two, I enjoyed this just as much as I did back in ’12, if not more. Third, I plan on enjoying this just as much when I re-read it yet again in another decade or so. Finally, I enjoyed this a ton of a lot more than I have the previous 3 SF books I’ve posted on the previous Fridays.
★★★★★
All 3 pretty good reasons for 5 stars
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I have decided to not be as stingy with my 5stars this year. We’ll see how long that impulse lasts though, especially if I have a run of stinkers…
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I’ve actually read this one! It was my first intro to the Polity universe and it was wild, though I probably couldn’t appreciate it to its full extent not knowing what was going on and the fact this was just a collection of stories.
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If you liked this one, chances are pretty good you’ll like his other stuff. It is pretty typical of him 🙂
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I really need to read Asher 😉
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Yes, yes you do. I would love to see what you think of his stories. We share enough similarities in our reading that while I feel comfortable pushing him on you, at the same time I have no idea if he’ll be your cup of tea. Because sometimes our tastes diverge widely at the most unlikely places (in my opinion).
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That’s the fun in all it! 😀
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This appears to be another complex series with a LOT of books to go through, but I try not to despair about my chances of even trying it out…
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Thankfully, it is broken up into sub-series, which makes it a bit easy to bite into. But super space violence isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Sure is mine though!!!!
😀
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“super space violence” sounds just a little too ominous…
On the other hand, I read GRR Martin, so I should be used to that!
😀
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I’ve never read Martin, but I highly doubt Asher could be much worse than what I’ve heard GRRM has in GoT…
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Well, the (in)famous Red Wedding is gruesome enough… (((shudder)))
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[…] The Gabble and Other Stories – 5 Stars […]
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Sounds really great- I definitely need to check out Asher!
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It would be a fantastic antidote to “all” that YA you read 😉
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This series honestly sounds better with each review you dish out. Also got me intrigued by the whole collection of short stories by one author. Especially because it worked here and didn’t feel like it should’ve been much longer for each story.
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Glad to hear that I’m doing my part to spread the Joy of the Polity to all the Uninitiated! 😉
This isn’t a bad place to check out if you like Asher’s style or not. You might not understand everything, but you’ll at least be able to tell if you like his writing or not. Then you can decide to dive deep into the novels…
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I have stated that i put Asher on my list. When i will get to him i cannot say tho
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Well, whenever you do get around to him, I hope you like him as much as I do 🙂
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