Fiction Reviews
Dark Diamond
(2025) Neal Asher, Tor, £22, hrdbk, xv+671pp, ISBN 978-1-03793-3
Pyr, US$28.95, trdpbk, xv+671pp, ISBN 978-1-645-06089-5
More expansive space opera from Neil Asher with some familiar characters in familiar-ish settings wreaking mayhem as they counter the universe’s seemingly random (and relentless) attempts to destroy them. This is the first novel in a new trilogy, Time’s Shadow, and is set in his well-trodden Polity universe. In this far-future, artificial intelligences (AIs) are in charge of key decision making. It’s a galaxy full of ancient, dangerous tech (The Jain), genetic and mechanical enhancements, a virus (Spatterjay) that generates inhuman strength, but at a cost, and the aggressive Prador. It’s also a galaxy where everything moves at pace and the threats are relentless.
There are temporal irregularities, connected to Captain Blite, whose timeline resets every time he is about to get killed (which is often, since someone really wants to kill him). The reset connects to an object he’s acquired: a black diamond, now embedded in his head (remnant of a once super-powerful AI), which appears to protect him. Some of the superhuman and superbright entities in this universe are aware of the anomalies and seek out the cause – such as a malevolent independent AI, Straeger, and Polity agent Ian Cormac. Cormac has appeared in many Asher novels back to 2001’s Gridlinked and also The Line War and Shadow of the Scorpian both 2008. His job is to seek out and eliminate chaos wherever he finds it. At this point in his improbable career Cormac can jump between different points as if he’s wearing his own private wormhole generator and has enhanced abilities. He needs too – because he’s one step behind Blite at every turn and in need of answers. Sick of his often painful near death experiences, Blite tries to find out what’s going on – starting with a woman who initially steals the diamond but is forced to give it back by the diamond itself. And Cormac, giving chase, finds one of his teleportation jumps goes badly wrong leaving him trapped and in danger. Cue very large and extremely destructive weapons, extensive and seemingly endless battles, devastating explosions and general mayhem.
There’s a glossary at the start of this novel to bring people up to speed in all this but, frankly, it isn’t enough. The characterisation in this novel is too thin to really flesh out what has become over the years an extensive back story, so most of the characters here don’t really stand out, which is a shame. But potential new Asher converts should start with Gridlinked and work up to Dark Diamond after they’ve done their homework. The comparison authors here would be Peter F Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds, though Asher’s frequent viewpoint shifts make the action in Dark Diamond somewhat harder to follow than the stories of those masters of the arts, and the various fights and confrontations often feel like a confusing melange, robbed of any real tension. And more of the same to come. Asher fans will love it. I’m less convinced about the rest of us.
Mark Bilsborough
See also Mark Yon's take on Dark Diamond.
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