Worth the time - Rated 
Asher has dropped the ball a couple of times in his previous "Polity" novels - Line of Polity ends in a confusing blur, Brass Man just isn't very good, treading cautiously between fantasy and sci-fi, and Polity Agent basically has too much going on all the way to the end. Prador Moon might be great, but until the paperback is a fiver, I'm not paying any more for a 220-page novel.
I'm happy to say that Line War brings many threads of the Cormac series to a satisfying conclusion. Inside the first 50 pages you'll find an easily digestible 3-page summary of the plot shambles that was Line of Polity, Brass Man and Polity Agent. In unambigous terms, the origins of Erebus, Jain nodes, the fate of the Aetheter, and more are all revealed, then the current plot kicks off. This is an enjoyable and well-paced read, making it a stark contrast to the last 3 books.
The ending is a little unexpected in plot terms, and a couple of plot elements have been carefully held back, probably for future novels - which is good, since Asher is currently one of the best sci-fi novelists still actively writing.
A satisfying conclusion to the Cormac series - Rated 
As far as I can make out this is the final instalment of the Cormac books, and it does tie up pretty much all the various threads of the Cormac series quite nicely.
As some other reviewers have said, although this is a good book in of itself, it is not the best Cormac book, nor is it the ideal introduction to Neal Asher's works.
The book is happily of similar length to the other Cormac books, so you're not going to finish it in a few hours.
The first half of the book feels a bit 'been there, done that', nothing much new and therefore not quite as compelling as I'd hoped.
The second half does get up to speed and I did not put the book down until I'd finished it.
Definitely worth getting to complete the series. A good book but not Mr Asher's best.
What ain't he got? He ain't got style - Rated 
He's got the plotting. He's got the ideas. He's got the sweep. So he gets a couple of stars.
But the prose...I suppose the most flattering description I can muster is "workmanlike". The sentences are gramatically well constructed and communicate what's happening clearly. And that's about it. I was interested in what was going on, but utterly bored by the words being used to describe it. It's always been a problem with Asher, but it seems to be getting worse, rather than better. Unless I hear evidence to the contrary, I'm not sure I'll bother with his next one.
A good pager turner but lacks the oomph factor of his other books. - Rated 
If you are reading a review for this book, chances are you're a Neal Asher fan already. This is the 5th and supposedly final installment of the Ian Cormac series, so no persuasion to read it is needed. If not yet a fan, then a description of his writing for me is akin to a magic eye picture, in that his books are always interesting to start but not always very clear what they're all about. Then, suddenly concepts and stories, the brain did not think previously comprehensible, are thrust in to view. This is true of Line War but when it all becomes clear this book just slightly lacks that oomph factor of the other books. It pains me to give only 3 stars to an author of stratospheric dimensions, but, despite being a good page turner, for me Asher has not added anything extra to what has gone before. The Cormac books are all a bit bleaker and less humourous than the others, but even knowing this I did not root for the characters quite as much as I wanted. Gimme Sniper the War Drone over Knobbler any day. Brass Man was the zenith of the series in my opinion. For the uninitiated, read The Skinner and Voyage of the Sable Keech. They're the best sci-fi books I've ever read.
Just as good as its brothers and sisters - Rated
My fifth ASHER read and just as good quality as the last 4. A good read, well established story and a fitting conclusion to the series with a more solid ending than the others - will he be following on?
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