Review: Weaponized

Weaponized by Neal Asher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What the frickin heck is this stinking pile of science?!

AWFUL. IT IS GOD AWFUL.

I will try and make this a coherent review but please prepare yourselves now for some ranting.

PROS
- Fascinating creatures
- Intriguing episodes
- Nursum and The Fig

CONS
- Timeline jumps
- Overcomplicated language
- Overcomplicated science
- Long, tedious descriptions of basically everything
- Very little characterisation to cling to
- Obvious 'twist' from the beginning
- Way too longwinded
- JUST LET IT GO, DUDE

Basically, this is an interesting idea COMPLETELY BURIED in tedium and confusion.

The timeline is divided between Present, Near Past and Past, and there is zero continuity when these portions jump around. For example, you might read a Past chapter that seems to be set like 10 years ago, but then the next Past chapter is set more like 50 years previous. It is EXCRUIATINGLY MADDENING to jump around like this, and it makes it nigh impossible to understand what's actually happening. This was hands down my biggest issue with this book.

Added to that, sometimes things that are occurring in the Past and the Near Past are actually very similar. Characters, locations and events all kind of blur together in a frustrating mess. There were some really interesting moments - such as the episodes relating to Nursum and the Fig - but they lost any real context because you halfway through the episode before realising something interesting was actually happening.

There's also a lot of speculation about adaptation to the point that it just becomes ridiculously repetitive. Ursula and her colonists are 'adapting', but she's determined to remain human. There are some interesting considerations on the definition of humanity, but they get lost in the monotony of repetition - we can get the point quite easily without the author hammering it in like this. This is what I'm referring to with my con of 'LET IT GO', because the same point is just overworked to the point that it's hard to care after a while.

I also want to talk about the complete disconnect between the blurb and the actual story I read. Half the stuff in the blurb doesn't actually happen til the end of the book, and it seems to promote a story much more exciting than what I read. I also need to say this very important gripe: (view spoiler)[THE TITLE IS A FRIGGIN SPOILER. As soon as Ursula starts questioning the upgrades and Oren having 'secrets', it was obvious to me that they were somehow being 'adapted' into weapons. DON'T PUT THE TWIST IN THE TITLE FFS. (hide spoiler)] Ursula is supposed to be super intelligent, yet she can't see what is obvious to the reader almost immediately. It's beyond ridiculous.

There are ideas and creations here that could easily have made for a brilliant story, but it was padded out with an excessive word count, and the intentional lack of continuity was overwhelmingly more confusing than clever. I came pretty close to throwing it on the DNF shelf, and the only reason I didn't is because the publisher sent me a copy and I felt obliged to review it in its entirety, since it had some redeeming moments. Alas, those moments only bump it up a single star.

Perhaps hardcore science nuts will appreciate this one more than me, but it was far too frustrating a read for me.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

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