War Bodies

NEAL ASHER WAR BODIES Contents Cover Glossary Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 Epilogue Acknowledgements About the Author Copyright More years ago than I care to think about, I heard of this thing called ‘podcasting’ and pretty much ignored it. I then got invited onto a few and saw their utility but did not get involved beyond that. I am of the generation that spent its evenings getting soma from the TV. But like so many, learning from diverse opinions on the internet, steadily more appalled by the partisan nature of current affairs and agendas shoehorned into entertainment, I’ve turned away from the TV. Social media has become the source of dopamine hits, but where could I go to learn and be entertained during those periods when my mind was tired from writing and my body from exercise? Over the last four or five years I’ve found these from the independent podcasters on health, science, current affairs, politics and more besides. The long form of many of these doesn’t allow for much in the way of bullshit from interviewees, and allows for deep dives into detail. Their independence cuts out the producer shouting through the earphone, ‘You can’t say that!’ I’ve learned more from these podcasts than I ever did from TV soma. So, I dedicate this to the independent podcasters. Keep up the good work! Glossary Augmented: To be ‘augmented’ is to have taken advantage of one or more of the many available cybernetic devices, mechanical additions and, distinctly, cerebral augmentations. In the last case we have, of course, the ubiquitous ‘aug’ and such back-formations as ‘auged’, ‘auging-in’, and the execrable ‘all auged up’. But it does not stop there: the word ‘aug’ 1 Piper visualized the thing inside him, wound through his skeleton and his guts, ready to uncoil and snarl at the world at the slightest provocation. Whenever it occupied him fully, his eyes seemed to become a sick yellow, and claws threatened to break from his fingers. It was as if he had donned it like a suit,