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The Departure (Owner Novel 1)
 
 

The Departure (Owner Novel 1) [Kindle Edition]

Neal Asher
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

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 . . .

Book Description

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 . . . ‘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

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 825 KB
  • Print Length: 395 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1597804479
  • Publisher: Tor (5 Sep 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005GDZHRW
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #14,445 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, just different 9 Mar 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read a lot of disappointed reviewers' comments on this book before I bought it. I've read all of Neal Asher's 'Polity' novels which I have enjoyed immensely so bought it anyway but expected to come away hugely disappointed.

Well, I didn't. I thought it was a good story in its own right and echoed many themes used in 'Polity' novels from a different perspective and within a more familiar framework.

I think many people may have been disappointed by the fact that the main character, Alan Saul, is not particularly likeable and is portrayed as something of an 'anti-hero'. In many stories, a person/entity such as Saul would be the bad guy. However, as a long time reader of the Thomas Covenant stories, I can deal with the 'anti-hero' concept and didn't feel it was a problem.

There's also been a lot of comment about the amount of violence in the book. I think it is more bloody than other works of his but it's hardly venturing into Shaun Hutson territory. It's there but it's not covered in minute detail.

However, it's not perfect. I would have liked more character definition, even if it only made me dislike them more. A lot of the characters, including the main ones, felt a bit shallow. I'm also not entirely convinced about the basic plotline right now but, given this is the apparently the first of a series, I would assume that there's a bigger picture to be revealed and I'm certainly interested enough in what happens to buy the next instalment and find out.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Give it a go 10 Oct 2012
Format:Paperback
Are we all reading the same book? Reading some of the negative reviews I wondered if perhaps The Departure had been re-written and re-issued prior to my purchasing a copy?

The Departure is very dark.

It really is.

Pretty distasteful in places, but the writing effectively paints a frankly disturbing picture of a society that has surrendered its scary freedoms to the safety of governmental dominance. It seems to me to be a critique of over-reliance on the state, something you can see happening in this country whatever the colours of the ruling party. I certainly didn't read it as a socialist bashing diatribe. In fact to me it reads more like a warning of how a society can fall into subservience to a fascist like governmental/corporate system. A society where things have gone horribly wrong largely through inaction and apathy rather than through subjugation by some overarching bond-like villain. What I think gets under your skin is the link Asher makes between this horrifying future and the actions (or lack thereof) of ordinary people (just like us) in the present day.

As an opening book in a series I feel it sets the scene very clearly. It's quite different to the other works by Asher, which to my mind is a positive. It's an impressive author who can create totally separate immersive worlds and not rely on constantly going back to safe and reliable ground. I normally only read on the Metro on my journeys to and from work (about 15 minutes each way) so it takes me a while to finish a book. I found that I was so engrossed in this one that I had to read through it rather more quickly. Now I'm going to have to buy the second book on the kindle and then probably despair at how long it takes before the third book is ready, not that Asher is slow, heck I've waited for George R R Martin, but just because I'll really want to know how it works out.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Dystopian? No Kidding! 27 Dec 2012
By David Ford TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a longtime reader of Asher's excellent Polity series of science fiction novels, I was extremely interested to see what he'd do with an entirely new series. Well, the first installment in the Owner series is certainly a different beast in many ways, but the best tenets of Asher's writing still carry through.

In the novel, we enter Earth's dark future; the planet is hideously overpopulated, and under the inescapable thumb of a fascistic, all-powerful global government. Into this grim world comes a mysterious man, with no memory beyond the last three years, a knack for advanced technology and a plan to bring the whole rotten mess down...

It's certainly a bleaker, more cynical setting than the Polity books, and at times becomes almost a parody of hopeless future dystopias. But pretty much immediately the first action sequence kicks in, and we're treated to Asher's trademarks: funky technology, bad men, and horrible violence aimed at those bad men. Without ruining anything, the abilities the protagonist utilises to fulfill his goals help the book stand out from similar works, and the mystery of his past keeps you turning the pages.

If there ARE any real problems with the novel, they are a certain lack of sympathy for said protagonist; he remains fairly unlikable for the entire story, albeit for justifiable story reasons. Hopefully this will be rectified somewhat as the series continues. Also, a secondary plotline following a group of colonists on Mars is really interesting, and I thought could have benefited from more than a few short sections interspersed among the main story.

Still, this is a bold new universe from one of the punchiest sci-fi authors out there, and I found myself eager for the next installment as I reached the last page. Fans of his previous work could do worse than taking a punt on this one.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars downhill all the way
This one I started reading because Neal Asher seems to keep coming up in recommendations every time I order books. Read more
Published 12 days ago by paulfhome
2.0 out of 5 stars Boring
Found this tedious in the extreme. The plot was all over the place, the main character was not very likeable and pretty stupid for someone with a genius level intellect.
Published 17 days ago by Sleenius
5.0 out of 5 stars Good start
good start to the series, already have number 2, will keep on the lookout for continuing stories, if any, almost as good as his polity series
Published 19 days ago by Eric Whitmore
5.0 out of 5 stars Hes got a new fan
My first Asher novel and love his style of writing. He reminds me of Gemmel but in Sci-Fi. non stop action and great world creating and characters. Read more
Published 22 days ago by Riyas
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story
I really enjoyed this book; it was a slight "departure" of Neal Asher's other series, not as much a space opera and in the nearer future, but I thought it was a good book. Read more
Published 24 days ago by flyingdutchbird
1.0 out of 5 stars Dull
I've read a few of Neal's books enjoyed them, but this is turgid drivel, laden with the knee jerk politics of the Daily Mail. Avoid.
Published 1 month ago by Tony Bittan
5.0 out of 5 stars The Departure
I like many was put off by early reviews of this book, it really is a departure. Many of his earlier books about the polity paint a more benign future than the one Alan Saul lives... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Shaun Ogden
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking
Stunning

Hooked within half a page of opening The Departure I can't imagine why I'd waited so long before I dipped a toe in Neal Ashers new universe. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Graham Mumford
5.0 out of 5 stars Neal asher does it again
After reading the polity novels I found this book very different in that it is extremely dark and grim in comparison however I think that is what makes this book shine I would... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sparkind
3.0 out of 5 stars not sure...
This is the beginning of a longer story and its main focus concerns a particular mind-machine "melt" (the Owner) and its interactions with the universe, a subject which... Read more
Published 2 months ago by GL
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And, when the revolutionary cries that he is fighting for ‘freedom’, be sure to go running away from him just as fast as you can, for you can be damned certain he’s fighting for the freedom to tell you what to do. &quote;
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Freedom as an absolute does not exist since there are always constraints: genetic predetermination, surrounding environment, the society in which you live and, in the end, everything. &quote;
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politicians as excuses to stifle freedom, kill democracy and grab yet more power. Terrorism, energy crises, financial meltdown, climate catastrophe . . . &quote;
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