The Departure (Owner Trilogy 1) by Neal Asher [Book Review]

Sep 202011

Bourne Identity Space Opera

Welcome to a future where a lot of things have gone wrong. Democracy is a thing of the past. The bureaucracies of the world have taken over. The Commission sounds suspiciously close to the European Commission which I guess is not something Neal Asher is fond of. The environment is unpleasant and overpopulation needs a final solution. At least that’s what the people in power seem to be planning. Rebellion is hard since the Commission controls orbital laser weapons that can destroy any riot in seconds. They also dispatch robots troops straight out of the war of the worlds to pick up any ringleaders for torture and brainwashing.

It is a chilling world where people are classified after their usefulness to society. Zero-assets are more or less dumped to fetch for themselves. Usefulness is of course assigned by The Commission.

This is the world where this electrifying story takes place. Saul is a man with extraordinary skills and intellect but who can’t remember what the things you put on your feet and walk in are. He wakes up in a box on the verge of incineration but escape bent on revenge. We get to follow his trail through what is left of Europe and Russia as he learns the world again. In a way this reminded me of a story by A. E. Van Vogt named Tyranpolis (aka Future Glitter from 1973) where the hero instead has a scientific breakthrough in an all-seeing kind of technology while Saul here goes for the AI interfaced brain that Neal seems so fond of (See Gridlinked).

The Yin of the story is a woman called Var who probably is Saul’s lost sister. She struggles at the abandoned colony on Mars where the political officer is trying to kill off all none essential people to make the resources last longer. Her story and Paul’s take turns in a way that fits well with the story and keep the reader interested.

There is a lot of good action down on earth and up at an orbital fortress but you never feel that the ending is in any doubt which is a bit sad in an otherwise excellent story. I can live with that and still enjoy the story but I have a high tolerance for characters like that.

The Departure is a good first novel in the Owner trilogy and the significance of that name for the series intrigues me. I want to know what happens next. I don’t think The Departure is for everyone but it is a good standard fare science fiction with a bit of social critique and a lot of action.

The next book in the series Zero Point will be out next year probably around the same time as this one.

Book information

The Departure (Owner Trilogy 1) by Neal Asher (Tor UK 2011) – Amazon US | UK

Visible in the night sky the Argus Station, its twin smelting plants like glowing eyes, looks down on nightmare Earth. From Argus the Committee keep an oppressive control: citizens are watched by cams systems and political officers, it’s a world inhabited by shepherds, reader guns, razor birds and the brutal Inspectorate with its white tiled cells and pain inducers.

Soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human being need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online . . .

This is the world Alan Saul wakes to in his crate on the conveyor to the Calais incinerator. How he got there he does not know, but he does remember the pain and the face of his interrogator. Informed by Janus, through the hardware implanted in his skull, about the world as it is now Saul is determined to destroy it, just as soon as he has found out who he was, and killed his interrogator . . .

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Germline (The Subterrene War Trilogy 1) by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit)

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Aug 162011

Gritty and Painfully Realistic

There is something I like with war correspondents. This is the second book about one this year that I have been impressed by.

Oscar Wendell is down on his luck, addicted to drugs but assigned to be the first reporter allowed to the frontline when the story starts. I have seldom read a story so gritty and painfully realistic about war as this one given of course it is military science fiction.

In the near future wars are fought over metals in the earth crust. The soldiers fight deep underground to protect miners and no one fight more fiercely than the genetics or the Gs as they are called here.

We follow Oscar on a personal journey through different battlefields as he is changed by battle and strife. It is so intense and emotional at times that I can believe myself being there feeling what he feels.

The Gs on the US side are all female so there is the obvious and welcome love connection for Oscar but not without its problems as these soldiers have been created with a best before date and feed a belief system making themselves want to die on their 18th birthday. At first only the US forces have Gs but that soon changes as does the success in the war.

Not all the action takes place underground. We get to experience war from many different sides before the satisfying conclusion. Even though it is mostly about the characters Germline has some interesting technologies and gadgets. Like the battle armor and plasma grenades.

Germline is the first in a trilogy of standalone books that view the Subterrene war from different points of views. The next one Exogene is about one of the Gs and it will be out in March next year.

T. C. McCarthy impresses the hell out of me with this hard-hitting debut. Germline is a gritty and painfully realistic military science fiction that can stand on its own against the best in the genre. It is dark but also very personal up close. If you have the slightest interest in war stories you should read this.

You might also want to read The Big Idea: T. C. McCarthy over at Whatever for more background.

Book information

Germline (The Subterrene War Trilogy 1) by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit) – review copy – Amazon US | UK

Germline (n.) the genetic material contained in a cellular lineage which can be passed to the next generation. Also: secret military program to develop genetically engineered super-soldiers (slang).

War is Oscar Wendell’s ticket to greatness. A reporter for The Stars and Stripes, he has the only one way pass to the front lines of a brutal war over natural resources buried underneath the icy, mineral rich mountains of Kazakhstan.

But war is nothing like he expected. Heavily armored soldiers battle genetically engineered troops hundreds of meters below the surface. The genetics-the germline soldiers-are the key to winning this war, but some inventions can’t be un-done. Some technologies can’t be put back in the box.

Kaz will change everything, not least Oscar himself. Hooked on a dangerous cocktail of adrenaline and drugs, Oscar doesn’t find the war, the war finds him.

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Reality 36 (Richard & Klein 1) by Guy Haley [Book Review]

Books 4 Responses »

Aug 052011

Explosive PI Meets Singularity Debut

I love new authors especially if they write science fiction. This is Guy Haley’s debut and the first Richard & Klein novel. The second part, Omega Point is scheduled for April next year. If you want to sample the book you may do so below. You may also check out a free Richard & Klein novella at Guy Haley’s home page Haley’s Comment. I wonder if this is the first book out of Angry Robot’s open submission month earlier this year.

I totally misunderstood the blurb thinking it was about an Ai with a fetish for π but it is obviously about a Private Investigator (PI) fetish. The novel is basically a murder case but evolve to a novel take on singularity. The main characters are a class Five AI, Richard and Otto Klein, a former German special operations cyborg. They have an entertaining buddy relationship with some dry humor and a lot of respect even if Otto sometimes want to kill all machines including his partner. You might think Richard is the brain and Otto is the muscles but it is not that easy. One of the more entertaining scenes is when Richard has to make a full frontal attack in a battle mech.

Each chapter has a point-of-view character.

This takes place some hundred and fifty years in the future after the AI wars. In the EU and USNA all sentients have rights including the non player characters in the gaming realms so they have been closed to gamers and the individuals in there are allowed to live their own lives without influence from human ‘gods’. There are now 36 such realms. Virtual emersion is a crime. Each chapter starts with: All members of the Community of Equals are created free and equal in dignity and rights to emphasis this rule.

One of the foremost activists for machine rights, Professor Zhang Qifang is being murdered at least twice and Richard & Klein are conned into taking the case by Hughie, the EuroPol AI. Hughie and Richard have a funny deadpan kind of dialog and an I-am-not-showing-any-feeling kind of friendship going on.

Prominent in the story are also the Professor’s assistant Veronique Valdaire and her abusive cheerful phone Chloe. There is something I really like about intelligent and witty computer companions like Chloe. She reminds me of Kris Longknife’s Nelly and Ingrid that philosophy discussing Nokia phone from the Netherworld Trilogy by Christopher Rowley. Bickering is fun especially if it is a machine that does it.

Veronique goes on the run early in the novel and we get to follow her and the detectives as they try to unravel the mystery. They also try to avoid being captured by The Virtualities Investigation Authority, VIA which sounds like soap to me but here it is the organization that protect and police the Neukinds.

Guy Haley has created a fascinating world with The People’s Dynasty hiding behind the Great Firewall of China and the United States of North America governed by the three Sams. The AIs’ have started to clean up centuries of pollution and live in a not to secure peace with humanity. Near-I and AI machines is part of life. There are no info dumps just details glimpsed. It feels believable and well thought out. It is a world I would like to learn more of.

As you understand by now I really liked Realm 36. It got a fast pace, is humorous in tone, filled with action, combat and robots a great debut. Guy Haley is a writer to watch. This is not a standalone book it ends in a cliffhanger hopefully concluded in Omega Point next spring. I warmly recommend this explosive PI meets Singularity debut.

Book Information

Reality 36 (Richard & Klein 1) by Guy Haley (Angry Robot 2011) – review copy – Amazon US | UK

Meet Richards and Klein – the Holmes and Watson of the 22nd century.

Except that Richards is a highly advanced artificial intelligence, and Klein his German ex-military cyborg partner. Their first case takes them into the renegade digital realm known as Reality 36 and through the Great Firewall of China, in search of a missing Artificial Intelligence Rights activist. What they find there will threaten every reality.

File Under: Science Fiction [ The Great Firewall | Net Profit | Don't Upload | Remurder ]

Open publication – Free publishing – More ai

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Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse 1) by James S. A. Corey [Book Review]

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Jul 052011

The Shield meets Firefly

This is a shiny new space opera trilogy called The Expanse. It explores the idea of humanity spreading out in a universe that is stranger and more hostile than they ever expected while keeping it about the characters.

Most of the solar system is colonized with the Belt, Mars and Earth as the major political blocks. Venus was never colonized due to technical and economic difficulties. Tension is high with a looming war of Belter independence the inner planets are not too happy about when they are not plotting against each other.

The two point of view characters are Ice Miner captain Jim Holden and Ceres Detective Josephus Aloisus Miller.

Detective Miller is on a downward spiral as we meet him. He used to be someone in the force. Suspicious thing are happening with the police, but someone don’t want Miller to investigate that. Instead he gets assigned a lost girl case, Julie Mao. Her powerful earth family wants her kidnapped and brought back to earth.

Captain Holden and his crew stumble on a derelict ship and a secret someone is willing to kill for. Now Holden has to find out what is really going on and stay alive. Eventually his search converges with Miller’s.

Miller’s partner Dimitri Havelock from Earth serves as an example of the mistrust the Belter feels. His story is interwoven with Miller’s even if it takes a different path.

This weave of plots eventually becoming one is on par with the best detective novels I have read. Some of the parts are pure horror but most is divided between Miller’s noir reminding of old Hammer novels and Holden’s optimism and camaraderie reminding of Serenity and Firefly. I would compare it to The Shield meets Firefly.

Levithian Wakes is an easy to read cop procedural slash space opera with great ideas. It has what it looks like its own take on the Fermi paradox. The human interest parts are great and Miller’s obsession slash love story is epic if it continues in the next book. I liked it quite a lot.

James S. A. Corey is a pen name for fantasy author Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, George R. R. Martin’s assistant. They are both new to me and this is Ty Franck’s first full length novel. The novel started out as a MMORPG pitch, went through paper and dice rpg before Daniel offered to co write the novel with Ty.

The trilogy continues with Caliban’s War next year before the concluding volume Dandelion Sky 2013.

Bottom-line it is a perfect summer read for you to enjoy.

Book Information

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse 1) by James S. A. Corey (Orbit 2011) – Amazon US | UK

Welcome to the future. Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer, Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

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Dreadnaught (Beyond the Frontier 1) by Jack Campbell [Book Review]

Books 2 Responses »

Jun 212011

Slow start and ends in a cliffhanger

Black Jack Geary slept for a hundred years in a defunct life pod only to be rescued by a doomed fleet trapped behind enemy lines. Against all odds he bought them home and found love at the same time. That was the story told in the six novels in the Lost Fleet series.

The Alliance Government is not happy with the returning heroes and half his own fleet plot to make him tyrant. So when he returns from his honeymoon they give him the fleet and send him off to the other side of the syndic empire against the aliens they now know started the war.

Beyond the Frontier is a new series that brings back most of the fleet and characters from the earlier series. The politics inside the fleet continues to be a challenge to Black John Geary and his new wife.

It starts off a bit slow with a few skirmishes in the middle and more major fighting at the end. You should be warned that the book ends in a cliffhanger but the next volume should be out next spring.

I have had great expectations on the aliens since the last three or four books. But don’t expect too much revelation in the first book. I withhold judgment until I have seen more of them but the little we learn is interesting.

This is more of the same as in Lost Fleet and I was a bit disappointed in the pacing. Dreadnaught was a fast and enjoyable read even so and I will certainly get the next book. I recommend that you read the Lost Fleet before this one.

Book Information

Dreadnaught (Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier 1) by Jack Campbell (Ace 2011) – Amazon US | UK

The Alliance woke Captain John “Black Jack” Geary from cryogenic sleep to take command of the fleet in the century-long conflict against the Syndicate Worlds. Now Fleet Admiral Geary’s victory has earned him the adoration of the people-and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.

Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can’t help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.

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