The Departure
Book 1 of Owner Trilogy
Language: English
Publisher: Tor
Published: Jan 1, 2011
Pages:
498
Book Details
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Description:
TWO WORLDS, ONE ENEMY
Earth
An overpopulated world is under the brutal, high-tech thumb of the Committee. Towering robot shepherds, pain-inducers, and reader guns maintain control over masses of zero-asset citizens, but for the elite this not enough. Twelve billion must human beings must die before the Earth can be stabilized, and the Argus satellite laser network is almost ready.
Waking in a crate destined for an incinerator, Alan Saul remembers only pain and his torturer's face. But he has company: Janus, a rogue AI inhabiting the forbidden hardware in his skull. Saul intends to stop Argus and get his revenge on the Committee-once he finds out who he used to be.
Mars.
Abandoned by the Committee, the Antares Base faces extinction. The colonists there will not be returning to Earth nor will they be receiving any additional supplies or support. Unless they are very ingenious, they will run out of resources and be dead within five years.
As if that's not dire enough, Varalia Delex finds herself caught in a violent power struggle with the base's ruthless political officers-who see everyone else as expendable. As spilled blood turns the Red Planet even redder, Var discovers that Mars holds very new and interesting ways to die
The Argus Space Station looks down on a nightmarish Earth. And from this safe distance, the Committee enforces its despotic rule. There are too many people and too few resources, and they need twelve billion to die before Earth can be stabilised. So corruption is rife, people starve, and the poor are policed by mechanised overseers and identity-reader guns. Citizens already fear the brutal Inspectorate with its pain inducers. But to reach its goals, the Committee will unleash satellite laser weaponry, taking carnage to a new level. This is the world Alan Saul wakes to, travelling in a crate destined for the Calais incinerator. How he got there he doesn't know, but he remembers pain and his tormentor's face. He also has company: Janus, a rogue intelligence inhabiting forbidden hardware in his skull. As Janus shows Saul an Earth stripped of hope, he resolves to annihilate the Committee and their regime. Once he's discovered who he was, and killed his interrogator . . . The Departure is the first in the dark and explosive The Owner Trilogy from master of sci-fi, Neal Asher. 'Full-tilt action sequences ... Delivers plenty of thrills' SFX 'Fast, dramatic stuff ... definitely not one for the faint hearted' SFFWorld.com 'I had an absolute blast with this book ... his work really does get better and better' FalcataTimes blog