Read Recently -- September -- Very Special Agents
Polity Agent: the fourth Cormac novel by Neal Asher
Following directly on from Brass Man, this one begins with a Polity AI on a distant space station receiving a transmission from the future. It opens a runcible gate to receive, not strange visitors from another time, but the crew of a just-departed ship sent to return a "Maker" alien to its home in the Megallanic clouds. It seems that when they (will have)arrived after 800 or so years in cold sleep, they (will have) found that the Maker civilization was destroyed by the insidious "Jain" technology. The survivors of those encounters managed to construct a runcible and call for evac.
Meanwhile, Ian Cormac awakens aboard Jerusalem. He has been essentially taken apart and put back together after defeating Skellor. He doesn't remember what he did to accomplish that. This is important, as he might have to do it again, soon. He debriefs the returnees, and is soon leading a task force to track down a strange being known only as "The Legate", who is distributing Jain nodes all over the Polity. But the Legate is connected to a new force, which may seriously be the greatest threat the Polity has ever faced.
A good series just keeps going. Recommended.
The Spy Who Haunted Me: a secret histories novel by Simon R. Green
Follow-up to Daemons Are Forever. This time, the Drood family is contacted by Alexander King, aka the Independent Agent, the greatest spy the world has ever known. Except that he's old, and dying, and he intends to get rid of all his secrets--everything he's learned over his long career--by giving them to the winner of a little contest he's holding. So Eddie (of course it's Eddie--he's the narrator, after all) finds himself teamed up with a bunch of agents from different countries (China, the US, the Nightside (no, it's not John. It's Walker), the Elves) as they are teleported from location to location, each containing an esoteric mystery that they must solve to move on to the next one. And someone, one of the group, is killing the others, one by one.
So, the standard refrain: this is a Simon Green novel, much like the others (there's a bit less senseless violence in this one, and a bit more intrigue). If you have liked the others in this series, you should still like this one. I did. On the other hand, there's not much to it. Mildly recommended.
Following directly on from Brass Man, this one begins with a Polity AI on a distant space station receiving a transmission from the future. It opens a runcible gate to receive, not strange visitors from another time, but the crew of a just-departed ship sent to return a "Maker" alien to its home in the Megallanic clouds. It seems that when they (will have)arrived after 800 or so years in cold sleep, they (will have) found that the Maker civilization was destroyed by the insidious "Jain" technology. The survivors of those encounters managed to construct a runcible and call for evac.
Meanwhile, Ian Cormac awakens aboard Jerusalem. He has been essentially taken apart and put back together after defeating Skellor. He doesn't remember what he did to accomplish that. This is important, as he might have to do it again, soon. He debriefs the returnees, and is soon leading a task force to track down a strange being known only as "The Legate", who is distributing Jain nodes all over the Polity. But the Legate is connected to a new force, which may seriously be the greatest threat the Polity has ever faced.
A good series just keeps going. Recommended.
The Spy Who Haunted Me: a secret histories novel by Simon R. Green
Follow-up to Daemons Are Forever. This time, the Drood family is contacted by Alexander King, aka the Independent Agent, the greatest spy the world has ever known. Except that he's old, and dying, and he intends to get rid of all his secrets--everything he's learned over his long career--by giving them to the winner of a little contest he's holding. So Eddie (of course it's Eddie--he's the narrator, after all) finds himself teamed up with a bunch of agents from different countries (China, the US, the Nightside (no, it's not John. It's Walker), the Elves) as they are teleported from location to location, each containing an esoteric mystery that they must solve to move on to the next one. And someone, one of the group, is killing the others, one by one.
So, the standard refrain: this is a Simon Green novel, much like the others (there's a bit less senseless violence in this one, and a bit more intrigue). If you have liked the others in this series, you should still like this one. I did. On the other hand, there's not much to it. Mildly recommended.