Neal Asher is truly one of the greats when it comes to unique Science Fiction and “The Skinner” is at the top of that list.
The story takes place on the planet of Spatterjay, a watery world that hosts extremely weird and vicious native fauna, all of which is infected with a virus that makes them virtually invulnerable to harm. Most of the few human inhabitants on the planet live in a protected “Dome” and avoid contact with the wildlife. If the wildlife doesn’t kill you, it will infect you with a virus that will cause you to eventually mutate into a horrendous monster. However, the effects of the virus can be moderated by consuming sufficient quantities of uninfected “dome-grown” food, with the result being a degree of immortality. There is a small population of the quasi-immortal humans, called “Hoopers”, who live outside the Dome.
Hoopers are named after “Spatterjay Hoop”; a notorious war criminal from the “Prador Wars” who fled to Spatterjay after the wars end. The Prador, crab-like aliens, are very brutal and see humans as little more than potential slaves or “thralls” once their nervous systems have been removed (cored). “Jay” Hoop was a human collaborator who engaged in horrendous war atrocities and delivered human “thrall” slaves to the Prador. Hoopers are considered to have “gone native” and are loosely ruled by “The Old Captains” who are superhumanly strong and very old. Old Captains are very old indeed and trace back to the dark days of the Prador war. Jay Hoop has been assumed to be dead, but in fact has mutated into the hideous and dangerous “Skinner”. The Skinner is Jay Hoop’s body running free on an island wilderness, and his living head is confined in a box on one of the Old Captain’s ships.
Our story really starts as three visitors arrive on the planet – each with their own agenda. One is the human agent of hive-mind intelligence discovered among Earth’s hornets. The second is a woman searching for one of the Old Captains and questioning her “virally gained” immortality. The third is Sable Keech; 700 years dead from the time of the Prador Wars but preserved as a “re-ification” (basically an animated dead man). He is a former police officer and he was some scores to settle on Spatterjay. He is definitely one of the more interesting of a very interesting group of characters. But my favorite of all of them is “Sniper”. Sniper is a battle happy AI War Drone from the Prador War. He is snarky, shaped like a giant silver nautilus and a whole lot of wicked fun.
Add to all of this the return of a very evil Prador who is coming to the planet to settle his own scores. Lots of fun. Love this book.