The Voyage from the Sable Keech is the second book in Neal Asher’s Spatterjay series, following on from your Skinner.

Sable Keech is usually a walking dead man. Was he resurrected because he was infected with the Spatterjay disease, or it occurred late inside a container of seawater? Taylor Bloc wants to know the reality. He also desires more – adulation, power, control – and can go to any lengths to attain them.

An ancient hive mind provides sent an agent to this uncertain world. Would it merely want to obtain the poison ‘sprine’ that’s imperative to immortality? Erlin, still confronted with the ennui of immortality, can be interrupted by an furious whelkus titanicus, and begins a strange journey.

Deep in the ocean the Spatterjay trojan has wrought a terrible change which will affect all of them. Something long-dormant is definitely breaking free. And Sniper, its Warden, finally receives his new drone shell. It’s better than his aged one: powerful engines, more lethal weaponry, thicker armour. He’ll need them.