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Jack Four
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
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Jack Four
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Summary
Created to die - determined to live.
Jack Four - one of 20 human clones - has been created to be sold. His purchasers are the alien prador, and they only want him for their experimentation program. But there is something different about Jack. No clone should possess the knowledge that’s been loaded into his mind. And no normal citizen of humanity’s Polity worlds would have this information.
The prador’s king has been mutated by the Spatterjay virus into a creature even more monstrous than the prador themselves. And his children, the King’s Guard, have undergone similar changes. They were infected by the virus during the last humans-versus-prador war, now lapsed into an uneasy truce. But the prador are always looking for new weapons - and their experimentation program might give them the edge they seek.
Suzeal trades human slaves out of the Stratogaster Space Station, re-engineering them to serve the prador. She thinks the rewards are worth the risks, but all that is about to change. The station was once a zoo, containing monsters from across known space. All the monsters now dwell on the planet below, but they aren’t as contained as they seem. And a vengeful clone may be the worst danger of all.
Critic reviews
"Neal Asher’s books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain." (John Scalzi, author of the Old Man’s War series)
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What listeners say about Jack Four
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Garvey
- 08-06-23
Decent space opera
Reminds me of the agent cormac series, 1st person though and some more gross descriptions
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter Comninos
- 18-07-21
One of my favourite SF writers.
Good hard SF book with plenty of action in his familiar universe. Excellent narration.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gavin
- 06-03-24
A very novel scifi story
The Polity is one of the finest settings for fictional adventures I have come across. Much like The Ion Age in its lore and depth.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jono
- 10-03-24
One of my favourite
This was a great adventure and a new favourite from Neal Asher.
There are familiar monsters and familiar archetypes but I enjoyed how they were brought (or clashed) together.
Highly recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jamie Gray
- 04-02-23
Excellent
Loved the high octane pace you always expect from Asher. Another fine thread woven into the polity tapestry.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ChrisH
- 03-08-21
Has the feel of a spaghetti western .
Annoying mispronunciation of Prador throughout which grated during a fast paced action adventure which just happened to be based in the Polity.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Andrey
- 25-07-23
I expected better.
Good, but mediocre compared to the rest of Asher's work.
This one goes in the very small pile of books in the Polity series that I didn't like that much.
There is usually so much interesting stuff going on in these books. And this time there was not much of the aforementioned stuff. I like all that nano-quantum-ancient-alien-race-subspace-cyber-ai-mutant nonsense.
Still better than most of the science fiction on the market.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- BrianP
- 15-05-22
Sorry, Neal, juvenile drivel
I did eventually listen to this all the way through, but it was hard work. Apart from the unnecessary gore-fest, the flaw with this book is that over and over again, the protagonist would be put into a dire situation and then at the last moment, "With one bound, Jack was free". Over and over again, bullets and missiles would just miss him, whereas he killed hundreds of opponents. Over and over again, his armour would stop him from being killed, whereas opponents' armour wouldn't protect them at all. Over and over again, he would be brought back to full health by magic so-called "autodocs", conveniently being given enough time between engagements to fully heal. I hate to criticise someone's creative effort, but this is just juvenile tosh. The narrator does a good job, but like many SF stories set lightyears from Earth, the protagonists seem to have a variety of UK regional accents - necessary I suppose to allow you to distinguish the characters, but bizarre all the same
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Paul J
- 31-08-21
Mediocre at best
Maybe this genre isn't for me, but I don't get the 4.5 current rating. Good imagination and the story rounds off well, but how many times can someone be stupid enough to get captured time and time again? Get tortured? Get eviscerated? Rescued? And start all over again. the 3 stars is because there are some smart ideas in the story, but by the end, I couldn't wait for it to finish, then didn't realised it had until I realised I was listening to the glossary. Do I recommend this one, it's a marmite book obviously. Not for me.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Wayne Fitzgerald
- 27-08-21
Nasty Book
The synopsis for this was quite interesting, there the interest ended. Pity you can’t give a review negative stars! I listened for a couple of hours, you have to give things a chance, It started with violence and rape and quickly went down hill (if that is possible). A nasty piece of work from a mind which seems to me to be very warped. Perhaps the “Author” has spent too much time playing zombie/alien shoot it ups on his chosen console
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4 people found this helpful