Great fun! I'm thoroughly engaged with this series now and very much appreciating how much groundwork Asher laid in the previous books. With a good solid number of pages — generally 500+ each time — there's a lot of bang, kablam, Dragon and [whatever noise evil mycelia make; I suggest "fzzzzippt"] for your buck.
Indeed, with the various things from the previous books all knitting together very finely indeed, I suspect the next Polity book may even be the last. Meh, hope not.
If I may go into the politics for a second (because it's interesting comparing Asher's Polity with Banksie's Culture), I'm fascinated to see even the AIs struggling with the mandatory capital punishment in their super-cool system of governance. The Polity doesn't go in much for repentance or redemption (I'm using those words free from religious context, of course, because on that topic Asher and I agree 100%), and it's... well, interesting to see Jack and King's take on it especially, them being the brains of gigantic arse-kicking warships.
I've been keeping an eye on Asher's rather cute phobia of using the word "because" ever since I noticed it in the second or third book I read. He conquered this fear at least once in Agent — I think it was the titanic AI Jerusalem who said it, too. But there was a bit of abuse of the word "myself" creeping in (i.e. used as a substitute for "me", which a lot of people do in recent days. I think it reflects a bit of linguistic insecurity; folks think it sounds more correct). Asher's also getting much better at not showing a character thinking something then immediately saying it out loud. The knitting murder mysteries I'm also reading (don't ask) do that ALL THE TIME.
There was one dubious comic-bookish trope Asher used with one of the recurring characters, which bothered me all along, so I was very happy to find that subverted. Not entirely unexpectedly, but all along you weren't sure. So Agent Cormac Cleverclogs gives himself a pat on the back; I would have liked to see more of the reaction of the other person involved to the development, though. I have a liking, nurtured by my KJ Parker habit, for tormenting characters. Ah yes, characters. In general, Asher's are slowly growing more well-rounded. The machines are still by far the most characterful, which should not be taken as a criticism.
We wants more drones, precious! There's always room for more drones!
Also, kinky Dragon sex for the win.
Next on my reading list is Zoltan, Hound of Dracula. The novelisation of the film. I am unabashed. ...Well, a little bit bashed. But it's monster dogs, maaan!