o awash in blood and gore is the planet Spatterjay that it might be more accurately termed "Splatterjay." Tennyson's formulation of "Nature, red in tooth and claw" doesn't even begin to describe this beautiful but deadly world, whose every ecological niche overflows with nasty critters evolved into gruesomely effective killing machines.
Spatterjay is mostly ocean, and its inhabitants have adapted to life on, beneath and around the water. Boxies, leeches, glisters, whelks, turbul and heirodonts are just a few of the variously sized, voraciously bloodthirsty aquatic life forms that keep Spatterjay's human population, known as Hoopers, in a constant state of anxiety bordering on terror. Nor is it much safer on land or, for that matter, in the air. The planet would be of little interest if not for a virus carried by the leeches that has the side effect of endowing those it infects with astonishing recuperative abilities. Infected humans, provided they continue to eat Earth foods, grow steadily stronger, more impervious to injury and sickness. The oldest of the Hoopers, the Old Captains, who have been sailing the seas for centuries, could probably go toe to toe with the Incredible Hulk. The downside is that infected Hoopers aren't quite human anymore, and if they stop eating Earth food the virus turns them as monstrous as any of Spatterjay's indigenes. Little wonder the planet is under a loose quarantine administered by the Warden, an all-but-omniscient AI.
The Skinner begins as three visitors arrive on planet. One is Janer, a man who serves as the agent of Earth's other sentient species: hornets. The hornet hive mind is interested in Spatterjay for reasons it has not divulged to Janer. Another is Erlin, a woman infected with the virus herself. Erlin is returning to Spatterjay to find Capt. Ambel, a former lover. Finally, there is Sable Keech, a lawman who has not let the inconvenient fact of his own death interfere with his quest to administer justice to the man for whom the planet is named: Spatterjay Hoop, guilty of crimes against humanity during the Prador Wars, when he supplied humans to the alien Prador as slaves and, well, food. The wars ended militarily some time ago, but it is only now that a diplomatic conclusion is finally being negotiated.
This impending peace has compelled one of Hoop's former Prador customers to return to the planet. The Prador's purpose is to eliminate any and all witnesses to his former activities there. This includes but is by no means limited to Spatterjay Hoop himself, whose head and body, thanks to the wonders or horrors of the virus, are now leading independent lives, and whose penchant for a certain type of torture gives the novel its title.
Moby Dick meets Philip K. Dick
The above summary does not begin to do justice to the sheer twisty exuberance and witty inventiveness of Asher's plot. In a brief acknowledgment, the author extends his thanks to "all those excellent people whose names stretch through the alphabet from Aldiss to Zelazny," and in reading The Skinner it is easy to believe that no lesson in the art of writing vivid and entertaining science fiction as practiced by those masters was lost on him.
This book has got it all. Cute but vicious creatures that seem to have been devised through some unholy combination of exposure to Walt Disney-style animation and bad acid. Wisecracking AIs that use their advanced intellects to scheme against each other and pursue the main chance. Scary and believable aliens. The clash of complex cultures. World-building with a vengeance—literally. And a contagious sense of fun.
As if that weren't enough, Asher's characters, alien and human, are drawn with care and depth. Even minor characters, including AI subminds of the Warden, are distinctive and engaging, with fully developed personalities. Thanks to Asher's prowess with character, The Skinner, for all its violence, good humor and zestful creativity, is also a poignant, emotionally satisfying read. This is only Asher's second novel, but it serves notice that a talent of the first order has arrived.
