"The Skinner"

I read this Neal Asher book and went "wow." I have read "hard SF" and "soft SF." SF writers tend to be able to do one thing or the other. Neal does _both_. The book had action, a storyline, characterisation.. I still think Neal does tend to go "overthetop" in his details of gore. I'll see when I get another book from amazon.co.uk to read.