Cowl

Neal Asher is on top form in Cowl, his fast-paced space opera.

Cowl was a human.
Now he's the nightmare you never imagined . . .

In the far-future, the Heliothane Dominion triumphed after a bitter war. But some enemies escaped into the past, to wreak havoc across time. The worst is Cowl originally human, until artificially-forced evolution made him something else entirely.

Polly is unprepared for her involvement with Nandru Jurgens. Hes a Taskforce soldier, now hunted by killers. Nor can Polly resist the alien 'tor' shes compelled to attach to her arm. But when shes dragged through time, she learns fast. Tack has a tor fragment embedded in his wrist a bloody reminder of Heliothanes government. As their vat-grown assassin, hes no stranger to violence. But the extent of this mission is different.

Meanwhile, a beast hunts its targets through times alternate dimensions. This is Cowl's pet tor and its eager to feed.