Prador Moon

When the Polity encounters the Prador — massive, carnivorous, technologically ruthless aliens — first contact detonates into all-out war almost immediately. Caught off guard, the sprawling, peace-oriented Polity scrambles to remilitarize as starships clash, worlds fall, and entire space stations are overrun.

The story follows Jebel Krong, an Earth Central Security soldier whose girlfriend dies in the opening Prador assault, and Moria Salem, recruited by a planetary AI's submind to stop the Prador from seizing the runcible network that connects human space — all while Separatist traitors scheme to hand the Polity to the enemy outright. Neal Asher's Prador Moon kicks off the Polity universe with brutal, high-body-count space opera.