The Jupiter War is the Third part and the conclusion of “The Owner Trilogy” Series by Neal Asher.
I normally adore Neal Asher’s writing – his Ian Cormac Series, the Skinner series, anything with Sniper the War Drone – let me throw my money at him.
But I had a hard time with this series.
The meta plot: some time in the future- Earth is over populated, the planet’s resources are taxed and a large majority of the people are “zero assets” meaning that they have essentially no value to society. They survive on the dole which is provided by a world government. The government – run by “The Committee” has evolved to become one giant police state – seems to be mostly Europe based – no mention made of the Americas. I can’t help but notice the political subtext – it appears that “nanny, socialist state” of the EU has become evil and now manages the “zero assets” with automated guns, concentration camps and pain inducers. The “Committee” has further decided that the only way to stabilize the world is by eliminating 12billion people using a new satellite network.
So this cheery world is where our hero – Alan Saul – awakens (he is in a box on his way to an incinerator) . Across three books (The Departure, Zero Point and The Jupiter War) Alan fights against the Committee, evolves and modifies his mind and body into part human/part machine, steals a planetoid with a group of rebels called “Argus Station” and engages in a war with Serene Galahad – who has taken over the Committee through extreme brutality.
The first book was OK, the second book…ok and finally this book. Which I purchased and read basically to find out what happens and get closure. What’ s the problem? its all just so …Mega. and Meta and big. Extreme brutality. Giant space battles between an evolving super intelligent machine/man and his robots/arm and the evil committee. It’s so big and epic but it lacks a soul somehow. Alan Saul is not a very likeable character. – and the remaining characters are not compelling.
Sped read this one and went on to other things.