Jupiter War

I have read this series with mixed feelings - because, on the one hand, I really like Neal Asher's Polity series, and on the other, this is so insanely violent as to verge on the pathological.

Oh, it's good, make no mistake: the action is unremitting; the writing is taut; the characterization is... OK, I suppose - and the story gallops along.

My problem with it is that the WHOLE story - and I go back to the first two books here as well - is really rather depressing. The world that Asher creates is cruel and bleak; the characters are not remotely likeable, and one is never sure whether or not the whole thing will just collapse in a welter of blood. And sharp bits of metal.

Yet... it's good. It holds your attention, it ends satisfactorily, and (dare I say it) almost everyone-lives-happily-ever-after. Or again, possibly. I think I'll have to go and re-read the first one, just to brush up on what happened. Which means the second one too. By which time, I'll have forgotten the third, so... B-)