• Prador Moon

  • A Novel of the Polity, Book 1
  • By: Neal Asher
  • Narrated by: David Marantz
  • Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (541 ratings)

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Prador Moon  By  cover art

Prador Moon

By: Neal Asher
Narrated by: David Marantz
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Editorial reviews

Prador Moon, narrated in coolly tense tones by David Marantz, is a violent futuristic science-fiction space story about monstrous, Earth-invading aliens who created a new Earth society. This was accomplished by killing, eating, and destroying whatever humans chose to resist their plans for world domination.

However, human beings can be a resourceful bunch and those that are left will not give in to a new life under Polity rule quietly. In other words, there shall be blood.

Listeners who like space wars and are able to easily suspend belief might appreciate this adventure tale.

Publisher's summary

Neal Asher takes on first contact, Polity style. This original novel recounts the first contact between the aggressive Prador aliens, and the Polity Collective as it is forced to retool its society to a war footing. The overwhelming brute force of the Prador dreadnaughts causes several worlds and space stations to be overrun.

Prador Moon follows the initial Polity defeats, to the first draws, and culminates in what might be the first Polity victory, told from the point of view of two unlikely heroes.

©2006 Neal Asher (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Prador Moon

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

Narration Terrible; Prador’s Moon has Big Ideas and Epic Scale

The Narrator mispronounced many words, including words an average high school student should know. In particular, he mispronounced words that are often found in science fiction in general and words that are in particular an integral part of the detailed universe that Asher created. In addition, the narrator displayed no acting ability; no ear or skill with differentiating voices; and no sense of pace, timing or nuance. Most non professional writers do a better job reading to their children.
At first, I was stunned. Then I blamed the horrible narration on the narrator’s unfamiliarity with Science or Science Fiction. But then I realized it was just a lack of general knowledge that any mildly inquisitive reader should know. Who, after all, has not heard of Occam's razor? In this novel there is a spaceship with that name (although probably “Razor.”) Every time the narrator butchers the name, it’s like fingernails scraped on a blackboard.
At first, I wanted to blame all the problems of “Prador’s Moon” on the narrator. But isn’t there a producer in the control room? Doesn’t an editor have to listen to the production? Doesn’t the author or at least one of his representatives bear any responsibility for checking the work?
The many, many, MANY faults of the narrator detracted greatly from my enjoyment of the production. I continued to listen, because I have read (or listened to) several other works by Asher and knew these were not his mistakes, and I know that he produces quality fiction. If this had been my first Asher book, I would have returned it.
It’s difficult to judge the actual merits of this book apart from the distracting narration. But in brief:”Prador’s Moon” has all the merits of most of Mr. Asher’s work and all of the faults. It has fine, detailed world building, and BIG important ideas set on an epic scale. It does NOT have enough character building or differentiation, and suffers from a lack of interpersonal relationships. Prador’s Moon has a gross excess of minutely described violence and gore, and a panoply of confusing space battles where just a little more clarity would have helped.
Aside from a cocktail or two, Prador’s Moon does not reveal any hint of the free time, fun, enjoyment, and recreation that humans are able to find in all but the most extreme of circumstance.
Peter F Hamilton is my clear cut favorite for epic “space opera” sci-fi writing. Despite my nit-picking, Asher is also one of my favorites, though I am just beginning the “Polity” series. I enjoyed Asher’s “Owner’s Trilogy” with many of the caveats raised above.
I wish more authors had the strength, imagination, and endurance to take up these big ideas and big stories.
Thanks for your time,
And thanks to Mr. Asher for his.
All the Best
Glenn
PS To Audible: please have a Sci Fi fan, someone with a college education, or anyone who knows good story-telling listen to each audio book. There is no excuse for a “professional” narrator to mispronounce words, have a flat emotionless voice, and not seem to have any idea of what is happening in the book he/she is reading. I have listened to several hundred audio books and this was by far the worst narration I have ever endured.

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23 people found this helpful

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

Holy Crap!

How could the performance have been better?

Please pronounce Occam’s Razor correctly – It’s very distracting to the story when a fairly common thing is mispronounced!

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10 people found this helpful

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

Polity / Prador in a 'pp' contest

Neal Asher's Prador Moon describes the initial contact and subsequent 'war' when the Polity, the Earth originated societal / governmental entity that is mostly AI with a liberal sprinkling of humans meets an intelligent alien race, the Prador. With first contact, the Prador pull no punches and initiate the war to obtain Polity technology. Two augmented humans play a central role in the Polity's rapid pivot to a war posture, all while battling an internal separatist movement that believes the Prador offer them the opportunity to shuck off their AI overlords.

While Asher's main focus is on human augmentation, he spend less time with the AI entities themselves. The alien race, the Prador, is a bit disappointing as they are basically anthropomorphized crabs with a social order designed around cage matches and the boss from hell. Along with their total lack of any morality concept and sadistic streak, it's hard to envision how they've managed to ever reach the stars.

The narration is reasonable with moderate character distinction. Pacing is fine for this relatively short offering.

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5 people found this helpful

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

good book poor narration.

the narrator constantly pronounces words incorrectly, its irritating and distracting but possible to get past.

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5 people found this helpful

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

Best served BEFORE subsequent Polity stories

Having read this novel after previously reading the three Spatterjay series books by Asher, it's unfortunate that this decent story is by comparison, made to feel underdeveloped and linear. It has plenty of ferocious action and exotic alien species which are the hallmarks or his writing, but too few parallel converging narratives and plot twists that I have come to expect after those more refined works. While the story's climax had a clever surprise that I found rewarding, it felt like a few more would have been welcome along the way.

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5 people found this helpful

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

What is happening?

Sci-fi is my lens of choice when it comes to story telling. The characters this book do not have depth. You struggle to find their personal motivations in between the lines of the story. I really wanted a galaxy spanning series with multiple books but if I can't find a driving force I lose interest very quickly. Made it about half way through before having to shelve this one. Interesting concepts but hard to sift through.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Decent

Nothing incredible. Certainly no Peter F. Hamilton. But it was enjoyable. I will move on to the next one.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Gory

fun quick story full of action and gore. Good read if you enjoy neal's polity universe.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

boring. pulpy. derivative.

if that is what you want, this is the book for you. also wooden writing and filled with self conscious cliches.

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1 person found this helpful

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

was pretty good.

It was hard for me to get into the crab monsters. The story has a good face and it is an interesting read. Just not super my cup of tea.

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