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Cowl
 
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Cowl (Paperback)
by Neal Asher (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars 16 customer reviews (16 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

Product Description
Synopsis
In the far future, the Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the solar system, after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the enemy have escaped into the past, intent on wreaking havoc across time. The worst of these is Cowl, an artificially forced advance in human evolution but one who is no longer human. Polly, desperate to obtain funds to support her habits, is unprepared for her involvement with Nandru Jurgens, a Taskforce soldier, and the killers pursuing him. Nor can she resist the the alien 'tor' which she feels impelled to attach to her arm. But she must learn fast, as she is dragged back through time, not least that to the denizens of some earlier eras, she is little more than a convenience food. Initially, the fragment of tor imbedded in Tack's wrist sums up his value to the Heliothane - a point brought home to him with bloody abruptness. But, as a vat-grown programmable killer employed by U-gov, he is no stranger to violence. His long journey into the lethal world of the Heliothane is only beginning, the extent of his mission just becoming apparent.

Meanwhile, hunting throughout time and the alternates, Cowl's pet, the tor beast, grows vast and dangerous. And the beast continues to feed.


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Customer Reviews
16 Reviews
5 star: 25%  (4)
4 star: 43%  (7)
3 star: 18%  (3)
2 star: 12%  (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A SF book that isn't a sequel? I might have to sit down!, 20 Jun 2004
This review is from: Cowl (Paperback)
At just over 400 pages, Cowl certainly deserved credit for being a sleek, self-contained little book, that doesn't commit you to buying another endless series of novels just to find out what happened. The book never outstays its welcome, the pace is brisk and nothing seems extraneous. The plot, hackneyed though it might be, has enough polish to feel fresh and comes with enough new ideas to persuade you that Cowl is original.

Asher has sat down, come up with a series of fabulous SF ideas (biological time machines anyone?), thought up two lead characters that you care about - and yes, might even like and then put them up against a truly diabolical baddie. It sounds simple - but so many books don't get these basics right.

Enjoy the rollicking good pace, the superb action and the novel characterisations - Cowl is a fine book that stands apart on shelves filled with derivative bloated monstrosities.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Reads like a space opera but through time instead, 18 Jan 2006
By A Customer
The book progresses at a good pace and the time travel aspect is handled well. By using the time travel to expand the scope, the book reads like a space opera - instead of fighting a war across the universe, the war is fought across time. The two central characters are likable and I was genuinely intrigued to see how it would end.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Cowl, 18 April 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Cowl (Paperback)
Not sure I entirely agree with the other reviewers. The time travel concept is well handled and works. The author has really thought it through. Also there's some very good twists in the plot and an interesting resolution. But Cowl's motivation doesn't really stack up and there are a lot of unanswered questions by the end.

A good read nonetheless but I don't think it's as good as Gridlinked or The Skinner, both of which are absolutely excellent.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars If you like the Polity novels, you might be a little disappointed with this one...
I bought this (though not on Amazon) as an impulse purchase knowing it wasn't related to Asher's excellent Polity series. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Jeff Eldridge

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice time travel idea done with Neal's trademark action.
Cowl, the genetically modified preterhuman of the title, has travelled back to beyond the Nodus (where life first began) in an attempt to change the future of life on earth to... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mark Chitty

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost in Time
As A fan Of ashers Work, reading all his work in the last six months, i deliberately left this till last as the premises did not excite me and I'm always a little weary of time... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. J. E. Butler

4.0 out of 5 stars Who needs Ian Cormac?
Asher takes a slightly welcome break from the Polity and gosh.

Draawing on some of his earlier short stories he takes an alternitive view of humanities future, this... Read more
Published 14 months ago by J. Lyon

4.0 out of 5 stars My 100-word book review
From the writer of the Polity series, Cowl is a stand-alone novel, which nonetheless has all the elements that make Asher's other books immense fun to read. Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. J. Cull

3.0 out of 5 stars Average for anybody least of all Asher
It's okay but no more than that. When compared to the superb Polity/Ian Cormac series it's a real let down; the superlative Grindlinked, Line of Polity and Brass Man (The Skinner... Read more
Published on 11 May 2006 by Martin Anderson

2.0 out of 5 stars incomprehensible, obtuse, much too clever
Time travel is always difficult to get right. If you then add in the writing style of starting with a snippet of some future point in the narrative at the beginning of each... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2006 by M. R. Parashchak