Hilldiggers

By Neal Asher

Discover action, intrigue and mind-bending science in Hilldiggers, a gripping science fiction novel from Neal Asher where four siblings holding the keys to unthinkable power.

Two planets, bound by the same solar system, were once locked in war. Then a cosmic super-string overflowing with alien technology - or life - was discovered. For safety, it was stored within a maximum-security space station.

Sometime later, a female scientist from the station became pregnant and gave birth to quadruplets. But she inexplicably committed suicide by walking directly out into space.

When war finally ends, one planet is devastated. It has been decimated by the other planet's hilldigger weaponry, so named as their blasts are capable of transforming landscapes into mountains.

As the remnants of their society rebuild, the quadruplets, adults now, begin their ascension to power. One of them has his sights set on claiming the hilldiggers and their power for himself. But with what consequences for humanity?

Set in the aftermath of Neal Asher's Spatterjay trilogy, Hilldiggers is an action-packed science fiction story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Aug 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9780330465274

Neal Asher

Neal Asher divides his time between Essex and Crete, mostly at a keyboard and mentally light years away. His full-length novels are as follows. First is the Agent Cormac series: Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent and Line War. Next comes the Spatterjay series: The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus. Also set in the same world of the Polity are these standalone novels: Hilldiggers, Prador Moon, Shadow of the Scorpion, The Technician, Jack Four and Weaponized. The Transformation trilogy is also based in the Polity: Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine. Set in a dystopian future are The Departure, Zero Point and Jupiter War, while Cowl takes us across time. The Rise of the Jain trilogy is comprised of The Soldier, The Warship and The Human, and is also set in the Polity universe.

Reviews for Hilldiggers

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Neal Asher has gotten me hooked on space opera, and this one is excellent.

[will0hart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've only discovered Neal Asher in the last year or so and in many ways his space opera books are filling the giant hole left by Iain Banks. Asher's style is more aggressive and "in your face", yet "Hilldiggers" had enough mystery to keep me reading. The novel weaves a number of threads together, following the lives of five or six characters and jumping around in time.The setting for the novel is an interesting "post human" system where two massively altered races are suffering the after effects of a catastrophic decades long war. Into the mix rides the Polity, represented by Consul Assessor McGrooger, trying to re-establish relations with the two groups, but instead getting caught in between two sides of locked in a renewed struggle.

[libgirl69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

great story

[mikefarquhar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hilldiggers by Neal Asher is the latest addition to Asher's Polity books. This one is a relatively stand-alone one, as an Old Captain from Spatterjay (from some of Asher's previous books) is sent by one of the Polity AIs to handle First (re)Contact with a human civilisation on the Line, formed from a lost colony ship generations previously which had splintered into two and have just concluded a brutal war against each other. The complicating factor is the presence of an alien entity called the Worm which has been imprisoned by one of the two splinter colony societies, and has been subtly, and not so subtly, influencing events.As with most of Asher's fiction, Hilldiggers bowls along happily with a tightly controlled narrative fleshed out with his usual mix of characters that hold your interest and random SF ideas thrown in for good measure. This suffers sightly from being a little pedestrian for him (the twin planet set up with one dry, hot and arid, and the other wet and green, verges somewhat on the simplistic Star Trek approach to planetary ecologies; and the major plot twists are all telegraphed well in advance), but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. My major gripe is that it's NOT the continuation of the main Polity story last seen in Polity Agent for which I'm still having to wait. Still, he writes quickly...

[lewispike · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I feel a bit let down by the end of this book - the first 90% was excellent with two different, modified, human stocks from the same ship but on different planets in the same solar system having been at war, but now at (uneasy) peace and in a tentative contact with the polity situation.The cultures were interesting, and well drawn in and plausible, always good. The steps to make sure both were explored were well handled and didn't scream of plot device too loudly.Finding a Hooper/Old Captain who has vulnerabilities was interesting. Even if it felt a little contrived, it added to the story from time to time.But the end was... bleuh. All the tension got solved in double quick time with no obvious trigger, and was allowed to just dissipate in a most unsatisfactory fashion. Rather than a climax, or a denial of climax, it was all a damp squib at the end.If it hadn't have ended this way, this might have got 5 stars, but the end really was that poor IMO.