• The Skinner

  • The Spatterjay Series: Book 1
  • By: Neal Asher
  • Narrated by: William Gaminara
  • Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (326 ratings)

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The Skinner  By  cover art

The Skinner

By: Neal Asher
Narrated by: William Gaminara
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Publisher's summary

Set in a lethal waterworld where sudden death is a way of life, The Skinner is the first novel in the far-future Spatterjay series by Neal Asher.

The savage ocean planet of Spatterjay draws visitors with very different agendas. Erlin is immortal and seeks a reason to keep living. Janer hosts a hive mind, which paid him to find this planet. And Keech is an agent of Earth who’s been dead for seven hundred years – but still hunts a notorious criminal.

On Spatterjay’s vast waterscapes, only the Old Captains risk the native life forms and their voracious appetites. However, they are now barely human. And somewhere out there Keech’s target – the Skinner – runs wild. Keech pursues the Skinner for atrocities committed in a centuries-past war, fought with the alien Prador. But one of these Prador is fast approaching Spatterjay to exterminate witnesses to his own war crimes. And he won’t spare its visitors.

Continue the science fiction adventure with The Voyage of Sable Keech and Orbus.

©2009 Neal Asher (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

What listeners say about The Skinner

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Biology gone wild

Spatterjay is mostly a water world. Almost every creature in the sea is deadly. The native humans, called hoopers, are almost immortal. They become immortal after one of the many leeches that inhabit the world bites them. The leeches fall from trees, swim in the ocean and can be as small as a bat or as large as a whale.

One of the main characters is a Zombie, he has been dead for 700 years. The book has leeches, sentient AI's, Supermen, a hive mind, a living head, a creature that acts as a sail for ships, rhinoworms, humans who are called blanks because they are mindless slaves to lobster like aliens called Pradors, a woman who lives in another woman's body, etc etc.

The action is constant and Asher's imagination is fantastic. There is lots and lots of gore. At the beginning of the book I was extremely excited and really thought I had found a new fantastic author. Toward the end I was getting worn out and was ready for the book to finish. I will be reading more of Asher's books, I just hope he shortens them a little.

As far as the production and the narrator, I was very disappointed. NA changes from one scene to another and then back again very quickly and often the scenes he is switching to have similar action going on, so I often got confused on what characters I was following. The narrator, who is following how the book is written, uses British accents, which combined with the changing scenes made it hard to follow. The zombie is actual called a reif, but they had to say reif about fifty times before I understood what he was saying.

If you like Card's book "Treason" or Harry Harrison's "West of Eden" or Koontz "Frankenstein" or "Moby Dick" you should like this book.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved this book - great Neal Asher story

I only wish that Neal Asher's Gridlinked books (written in the same universe but with different characters, although there is some overlap...) were also in audio.

For the uninitiated - Lots of AIs. Space travel through warping. Seriously funny & snarky writing. LOVE the characters. Spatterjay trilogy has very inventive life forms on the planet that are neat and drive the plot along. Highly recommended.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A good story and reader; spacing needs edit

This was my first Neal Asher story; the authors style is very good, an interesting mix of science fiction, action adventure, space opera, humour, and horror.

The reader is also excellent, his wide range of voices is veery good. The choice of rural english accents may seem odd to american listeners but works very well. Sniper in particular is very well characterised.

The only real failure - as noted by other listeners - is the odd choice of the editor to not leave audible gaps when the character viewpoints change. Its not too distracting as it quickly becomes apparent, but still could do with changing.

This book has led me to listen go/read most of Neal Ashers novels. While they're not in any way mold breaking, they are ripping good yarns, entertaining, and with sufficient intellectual and emotional content to satisfy most readers.

I've now got to the end of the trilogy, and it has proved an interesting voyage. Personally I'd like to hear more of Sniper and 13 adventures, Mr Asher... more please!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Great Asher story

This is not a space opera like many of Asher's works, instead it's largely confined to one planet. And there is no Cormac, although it takes place in the same universe. If you're a fan of his other Cormac works, why listen to this one? Well, for one, the droids are among the best ones he's written in any of his stories.

And despite being largely planet bound there is tons of action & great characters. Good listen & a great intro to the rest of the spatterjay trilogy!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Too Gory

I had to bail-out early. It's like listening to a splatter flick; too bad since their may be a good story amidst the gore.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Still Has Buzz

I can be easily tempted to listen to Sci-Fi which includes AI’s (artificial intelligence), exotic worlds populated by creatures that hunt and eat humans, and life or death battles using futuristic weapons. All included in “The Skinner”.

Echoing some reviews, I found the book hard to follow. Maybe, it was the editing which failed to provide clues that the scene had changed. Maybe, Neal Asher (author) included so many characters and subplots that I became confused. Or maybe, this is a book best read vs. heard. Whatever the reason, I frequently found myself re-listening to sections of the book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed and moving on to Spatterjay, Book 2 thnx!

The Skinner was a great story, happy to be moving on to Spatterjay, book 2, The Voyage of the Sable Keech. Many thanks to Neal Asher for this.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • G
  • 03-19-14

Goes on Forever

I'm almost done with this, but I just don't care anymore. It drags on forever. I gave up 5/6ths of the way through. Now I listen when I'm on my commute, finished with other titles and I haven't bought something new. And it still hasn't caught me. The narrator adds to the dullness . I've never written a review like this. Sorry to author Neal Asher, I'm sure he spent a lot of time on it, and there are imaginative ideas. As a package though, it's a bore.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Couldn't finish....characters, gore, narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I tried but just couldn't finish this book. I never became invested in the characters, the constant gore became distracting, and the narration was not great.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator's regular voice was OK, but his interpretation of characters was poor.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

excellent

original and well read as as for being too gory , the title is the skinner

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2 people found this helpful