Cowl

April 4, 2005
Like "Kage Baker on steroids," says David Hartwell in his promotional letter, and indeed Asher's latest SF novel (after 2004's The Skinner
) bears definite similarities to Baker's popular tales of the Company. Both involve near-immortal time travelers who pursue complex, often mysterious objectives. But where Baker tends toward the literary and satirical, Asher prefers over-the-top violence and pyrotechnic super-science. In the near-future, Polly, a prostitute, and Tack, a government-programmed killer, get caught up in a war fought by superhuman antagonists from the future, the Heliothane and the Umbrathane. Neither side is particularly sympathetic, but the latter group is allied with the monstrous Cowl, an even more advanced being that threatens all human life. Cowl has let loose the torbeast, a ravening interdimensional creature the size of a small planet, and the Heliothane have reprogrammed Tack to go back in time and assassinate the monster. Well-done battle sequences, serviceable characters and an old-fashioned sense of wonder help offset a sometimes overly byzantine plot and a too-abstract depiction of time travel. Overall, this is an excellent read and should increase the author's growing reputation.

May 15, 2005
In a far-distant future, the Heliothane Dominion has defeated the Umbrathane and rules the galaxy, but one of the enemy, a destructive killer known as Cowl, has survived to wreak havoc across the universe. Dragged into the future by the torbeast, Cowl's vicious "pet," vat-grown government killer Tack heads for a momentous meeting with the future's greatest threat. Asher's third novel (after "Gridlinked" and "The Skinner") delivers a rapid-fire sf adventure that hurtles between past, present, and future with the precision of a runaway roller coaster. Fans of techno-military sf should find this tale satisfying. For large sf collections.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2005
Caught by the scale of a torbeast, an organic time machine, Polly is dragged inexorably backward in time. Programmed and cloned U-gov assassin Tack is also dragged back and is picked up by an agent of the Heliothane Dominion. The Heliothane haven't quite won their war against the Umbrathane, who have taken refuge in the past. In his stronghold on the cusp of life's beginning, Cowl, leader of the Umbrathane, is bent on destroying life as we know it. Trapped by the tor, Polly struggles to survive in ever-earlier eras as it carries her toward Cowl. Tack, his U-gov programming replaced by the Heliothane, becomes their tool. Still an assassin, but dramatically changed by Heliothane teaching and given an element of free will by Heliothane reprogramming, he, too, plunges into the past. Polly and Tack's paths lead to the same place and the final defeat of Cowl and the Umbrathane, but the Heliothane haven't told Tack everything. A sprawling time-travel epic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)