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Cowl by Neal Asher check out website: www.toruk.com and www.panmacmillan.com
The reader, like the main protagonists, is a bit disorientated by the chaos and complexity of Asher's time travelling world to begin with but after a period of adjustment both protagonist and reader thrive in this excellent novel. In the 22nd Century, heroin junkie and prostitute Polly is used as a pawn by soldier Nandru as he tries to keep a valuable item from programmed government killer Tack. Asher controls the plot deftly though, never letting the reader get lost despite the complexity of the world. The way the time travel device is both original and utterly realistic in its verisimilitude. This isn't achieved by mind-boggling calculations and page-long explanations of the physics, simply by seeing it all in action. When the characters interact with such a vibrant and convincing world, it's not hard to believe in the science keeping it all together. The future society, the Heliothane, seem superior and advanced but Asher does well to keep them familiar enough to be identifiable as characters in their own right. The story really accelerates well, as we learn that the scales or 'tors' on the time travellers arms are designed so that they can be sent back in time to super-being Cowl as he attempts to mould the world in his image. Genetically altered soldier Tack is taken under the wing of a Heliothane and programmed to kill Cowl. For the first fifty or so pages, I couldn't get into this book. The onrush of information is a little hard to take in initially, and the way Asher's time travel works is complex but, after I got over this hurdle, I found myself enjoying the book more and more and read the last half of the book in one sitting. Asher's style and plot build to a satisfying climax and I came out at the end with a very good impression. A complex but rewarding read. Tomas L. Martin
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OTHER REVIEWS - March 2004
Chasing Science by Frederick Pohl Wolves Of The Calla by Stephen King and illustrated by Bernie Wrighton The Mammoth Book Of Native Americans edited by Jon E. Lewis Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin Red Star Rising: More Chronicles Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Three Hearts And Three Lions by Poul Anderson Downward To The Earth by Robert Silverberg Buffy: Seven Crows by John Vornholt The Dragon Of Despair by Jane Lindsjold Gunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove Barry Trotter And The Unnecessary Sequel by Michael Gerber Fitcher’s Brides by Gregory Frost Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 2003 The Moon’s Shadow by Catherine Asaro Which Way To The Future: Selected Essays From Analog by Stanley Schmidt
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'Cowl'
is a book about time travel and various people plucked from their
own time zone and sent rapidly back through the ages to meet a dreadful
enemy. 
In
the process she puts on the strange item, a scale from a terrifying
beast that comes and kills Nandru during the stand-off. The scale,
grafted to Polly's arm, draws her and the merciless Tack back through
time. It gets more complicated from there, evolving into a battle
between two future races across the whole length of time. 
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