Neal Asher usually writes far-future space operas on an epic scale that would make E. E. “Doc” Smith blush. But, as he notes in a publisher’s blog, Jupiter War is set closer to home, necessitating more plausible extrapolations from current technology than he usually provides. To that end, we have brain implants, gene banks, clever insectile robots, strongish AI, and some really fast sub-light spacecraft. There is much political chicanery and plenty of battles with futuristic weapons and armor. Why don’t I love the book? Well, I loathe all the characters. I root for them to die, and indeed, most of them do. Despite all the action, the book was a slow read, not especially long, just slow. ( )

Although it's more like two and a half stars, really. I just thought the space battles were a little unrealistic. There was also a undertone of misogyny that I found a little off putting. ( )

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Title: Jupiter War
Series: Owner Sequence #3
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 350
Words: 139.5K

Synopsis:

Saul continues to upgrade the Argus station into an interstellar spaceship. He must deal with his sister who is jealous of Saul's abilities but won't admit it to herself, other scientists on board who have come to consider him near-omniscient to former Committee members who want to displace Saul and take over the ship and “be free”. While all of this internal conflict is happening, Saul must also deal with the continued threat presented by Serene Gallahad and her drive to recover the Gene Bank from him to restore the biosphere of Earth. This results in a battle out by Jupiter where Saul ends up destroying the two Committee ships but almost being destroyed in the process.

Gallahad continues to tighten her control of Earth and has become more powerful than ever. Unfortunately for her, several rogue elements working in tandem destroy her powerbase and leave her vulnerable. Her own bodyguard kills her and the lower level Committee members end up all working against each other, thus delaying Earth's return to space for almost a century. This enables Saul to complete his upgrades and leave the Solar System.

My Thoughts:

I have enjoyed this re-read of the Owner Sequence so much more this time around than I did back in '11-'13. I think a big part is that back then I was expecting it to be more tightly tied to Asher's Polity universe and so my expectations were a bit different. Now that I know this isn't another Polity spinoff, I can appreciate it for itself. It excels as an origin story for the Owner.

As my 5stars should indicate, I had a great time reading this. I've been trying to think how to adequately describe the action here. It still gets the ultra-violent tag but at the same time it wasn't frenzied and frenetic. I never felt like I had run out of breath after the battles like I do in some books. That's not a bad thing at all, mind you, just a quirk that stuck out to me.

The Proctors, the nigh-indestructable helpers of Saul, provide a sounding board for Saul to bounce ideas about human nature and freedom off of. While I wish they had been used more as ultimate Killing Machines, I can understand why Asher wrote them the way he did. They are supposed to help keep Saul from losing all touch with what's left of his own humanity.

I know that Asher has written another Polity trilogy recently, which I plan on reading next (Rise of the Jain) but after re-reading this, I wouldn't mind at all if he decided to write another Owner trilogy. I'd be even happier if he just wrote a book of short stories exclusively about the Owner and various adventures he has throughout space.

★★★★★ ( )

Space Opera!
Pew pew!
Best read by people who don't know any science, like Asher himself.
I often criticise Asher for have lots of Pew! Pew! and no subtext but in this case I think that would be a bit unfair: There's a discussion of what it means to be "free" going on here, which concludes that here is no such thing as complete freedom. In practice, within any society, you only have the rights and freedoms that society allows. On the other hand, the society provides policing and justice. Therefore, the real question is how to organise a society that maximises individual freedom whilst minimising crime. Asher doesn't really offer any good answers to this perennial political poser, instead focusing on the dangers of corruption and bureaucracy. (I get the impression Asher hates the European Union in general and the European Commission in particular.)

Another issue raised is that of human over-population and its impact on the general planetary ecology. The power crazed dictator presented here wants to personally genetically control both human life-span and fertility, an idea branded as morally defective essentially just by association with its deranged progenitor. Again, Asher is not offering any alternatives he'd prefer. The fact is that population control is the most important political and moral issue of our time and nobody is talking about it, let alone taking any action, except the Chinese - and this ties directly back in to the question of personal freedom: should it be an individual's choice whether or not to have children? Should the State forcibly limit the number of children one can have? If you're against such Draconian action by the State, what do you propose instead? The likelihood is that unless concerted action is taken, an uncontrolled Malthusian population crash is in the offing. It is likely that this will be accompanied by resource wars across the globe as food, water and material resources become scarce. Indeed, some argue the resource wars started in 1991 in Iraq and haven't yet ceased.

Now, I can't really criticise Asher for not presenting a solution to all this; I don't have one and I haven't ever heard of one that isn't either a)State control with loss of individual rights over one's own body or b)educate people and hope most people act responsibly or c)give everybody access to a high energy society because this correlates with a drop in the birth-rate.

The last of these is, unfortunately, not going to work: as migrants from less developed nations have entered the highest-energy Western economies, the birth-rate decline has reversed. Additionally, a global population of 7 billion with an individual resource-use equivalent to that of the USA or even of Western Europe (we're somewhat more efficient here but not extremely) is unsustainable: a somewhat old stat is that the mean energy use of one USA citizen is equivalent to that of 8 Africans.

So what are we supposed to do? Well done, Neal, for at least raising the issue, even if your understanding of science remains terrible and your space operas remain bloated and somewhat incoherently plotted.

Pew! Pew! BOOM!

( )

Author: Neal Asher   4 of 5 Stars (1 extra star for ultra-awesome violence)   Synopsis Saul must turn "his" space station into a spaceship capable of interstellar flight to escape the powers of earth. All the while fending off those same powers who desperately want him back on earth for vengeance and the data and tech he now owns.     My Thoughts This was really a 3star book. We get Saul transforming the station into the ship, chipped humans on the ship rebelling, Saul debating the true meaning of freewill, responsibility and freedom, Galahad having her delusions of grandeur even while the whole structure on earth is falling to pieces, and finally, we get fighting. And that is why I gave it 4 stars.   Asher knows how to write a gritty, awesome, massively bloody fight, in space and with ground troops. That is the main thing I read his books for, awesome ideas about humanity/tech and violence. He does them both so well.   I didn't like Saul in the first book, and I still don't like him here in the third, as a person. As the Owner, however, he makes a kickbutt demi-god.   While it appears obvious that Asher has more to write in the Owner series, I really hope he returns to the main Polity Universe soon and gives us new stuff there. " ( )