Progress across the galaxy... and around the next corner

Finally finished the next to last Asimov's I have in my possession and I'm a third of the way into Neal Asher's Polity Agent. As it turned out there were some stories in Asimov's that I found quite interesting including the featured novella The Hob Carpet by Ian R. MacLeod which takes the reader to a place where the humans are never alone when the much taken for granted "hobs" cater to their every need. I say again, the art of the short story never ceases to amaze me. As much as I enjoy a good scifi novel the ability to write a narrative that paints a picture of a subject far from reality and then wraps it up within relatively a few pages is an art form in itself. Polity Agent is the fourth book featuring Agent Ian Cormac, Earth Central Security who finds himself on the mend after having his body practically completely destroyed escaping the destruction of the dreadnought Jack Ketch. Ian takes up the investigation of the giant entity known as Dragon while other ECS operatives and those with evil intent pursue the acquisition of the dangerous Jain Technology.