BEWARE OF SPOILERS!
This trilogy, in a nutshell, tells the tale of how Alan Saul, dubbed "The Owner", tries to escape the bounds of Earth and its dystopian society and oppressive rulers, the Committee.
For the most part, it is fantastic, especially "Zero Point", of which I can find barely any problems with; in my opinion, this is the perfect realisation of Asher's work and his writing prowess. "The Departure", for me anyway, started out confusing which made me not want to read on at first. However, when you realise what's going on, and that Saul has completely lost his memory, it really is worth it. From here, we see Saul trying to piece his previous life back together as he fights against the Committee and the brutal Inspectorate, trying to find his torturer, Political Director Smith. This brings him into contact with Hannah, a character who struggles to accept what he has become. Nonetheless, she helps him and the rogue AI, Janus. Unfortunately, Janus dies midway through the novel, which was disappointing but necessary.
As Saul hunts for Smith, his journey takes him to Argus station, a giant space station at the centre of a vast satellite network, and resolves in a series of beautiful combat and strategic scenes, which are some of the best Asher has written. The intensity and emotions of the characters are captured truly and seeing Saul kill his torturer was quick, yet oh-so satisfying. From there, Saul captures the surviving members of the Committee, including Chairman Mesina (more on that later), and drops most of the Argus Network onto Committee bases on Earth, effectively crippling the government.
Meanwhile on Mars, the area the cover depicts is in trouble. And this is the aspect of the book I dislike; Var Delex. I hated this character. Not because she is boring, as she certainly is not, of for the events around her, although they do go on for a bit longer than necessary, but just her attitude and changing personalities. Later on in the trilogy, it is revealed that she is Saul's sister, so this may explain the personality defects; Saul too was emotionally crippled. However, I am leaving my criticism of the Mars plot firmly in "The Departure", mainly because it was much better in "Zero Point", as was the character.
Moving on to "Zero Point", we see a new character enter; Serene Galahad. Easily the best character in this book (not so much in "Jupiter War"), she has a power complex and she is prepared to do anything to get it. Using her custom-made virus, the Scour, she wipes out huge portions of the human population, and blames it all on Alan Saul. This alone would not be enough to make me enjoy her character more than that of Saul or Professor Rhine; it is her fascination with nature and restoring Earth to what it once was. To do this, she needs the Gene Bank which is, you guessed it, aboard the Argus Station. Sending her faithful bodyguard, Clay Ruger, and a team of soldiers to Argus, she orders them to kill Saul and get the Bank.
Meanwhile, Argus isn't faring so well. Saul collapses into a mini-coma whilst trying to expand his mind beyond human capacity, which lowers morale across the Station. Hannah is fretting over near enough everything as it falls apart. But, before Saul slipped into his mini-coma, Professor Rhine gives Saul plans for a "Rhine Drive", which makes space exploration travel possible due to moving faster than light. Commissioning this to be made, the machines Saul commands quickly get this underway. However, going around the station are the two clones of Chairman Mesina. These are great characters, and I enjoyed them throughout, especially Alex, so I was glad that he survived.
This all resolves itself nicely. Saul wakes up before Clay arrives in The Scourge. Clay tries to board Argus, but it doesn't quite work out that way. Clay reveals to the captain of the ship, Scotonis, that Galahad is responsible for the Scour, but not before Saul is able to hack into the implants that contain the plague and set them off, killing most of the crew. The Scourge returns to Earth, mission to kill Saul failed, but Saul did transfer the Gene Bank to The Scourge as a bargaining chip. After that, Saul gets a call from Var, revealing that they are siblings and that she is in trouble. Saul goes to Mars to save her before her oxygen runs out, leaving Argus in the hands of Hannah.
Finally, we move on to "Jupiter War". This was a brilliant book aside from Var's character. After Saul saves everyone on Mars, he moves them to Argus and scavenges what he can from the base there. Alex, the Mesina clone is captured, but Saul lets him go under a measure of faith. Alex soon infiltrates a group of Mesina-loyalists who wish to assassinate Saul. Hannah and the other doctors get to work on a "human backup" project, which worked with Saul's mind before he went comatose in "Zero Point"; this essentially grants eternal life. This makes for some interesting drama, especially when Saul reveals his big plan: to leave the Solar System and begin a new life among the stars. Some crew members aren't too pleased with this, understandably, but Saul offers them a choice; they are free to return to Earth. Commanding his machines, Saul recreates Argus into a form a Spacecraft and gets as far as Jupiter before things start going wrong.
Serene Galahad is pretty pissed; Clay failed his mission. So she recreates a Rhine Drive and sends three warships with a "vortex missile" to engage Saul. Meanwhile, Scotonis is planning a suicide run on Galahad, wishing to crash The Scourge into her base, detoning all of the nuclear warheads on board. Clay doesn't want that, because it means that thousands, maybe millions will die. Instead, he arranges for a meeting with Galahad to discuss the Gene Bank, where he should be able to tell the world the truth about the Scour. It doesn't work, and he is soon carted off to a torture cell, but not before he could tell the truth. In the end, her new bodyguard burns her alive and that's pretty much that.
The three ships eventually catch up with Saul, and as Argus sustains pretty heavy damage, it crashes on one of Jupiter's moons. Luckily, by that point only one of the three ships is left. After sacrificing the Rhine Drive in a sneaky, yet brilliant, tactic, he defeats all three of Galahad's troops. Fixing the Rhine Drive, and creating another, better drive, he finally leaves the solar system. But, while all this is happening, Alex stops an assassination attempt on Saul, but the rebels kill Var before Saul kills all of them. Var is a constant pain through this book, and is always undermining Saul which throws Argus into jeopardy all too many times. But, while Saul believes himself to be free of emotions, just before the entire crew of Argus are cryogenically frozen for the long journey, his subconscious controls the machines to rechristen the Argus as the VarDelex. A lovely ending for a brutal series.
The Departure
+Solid plot
+Brilliant action sequences
+Saul, Smith and Hannah are great characters
-Var Delex and the Mars plot
-Difficult to get in to
7/10
Zero Point+Great plot
+Serene Galahad
+Var is better this time around...
- But I still hated her
9/10
Jupiter War+Brilliant plot
+Lovely ending
+Serene Galahad gets what she deserves
-Var Delex; I cannot stress how much she annoys me in this book, more so than in the other two
8/10
Series Whole
8/10
A cracking read, would definitely recommend for fans of Sci-FiThe next review will be for Hellhole and Hellhole Awakened by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert; they're pretty good.
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