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Zero Point  By  cover art

Zero Point

By: Neal Asher
Narrated by: John Mawson,Steve West
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Editorial reviews

After defeating the Committee and destroying its ability to further terrorize Earth and any other planet, Alan Saul departs for Mars to investigate the possibility that whatever attacked Earth is still lurking on the Argus Space Station. High-ranking Committee member Serene Galahad steps forward to take power, leaving a swathe of deaths in her wake, and pursues Saul to reclaim the Earth's genestores. Narrators Jim Mawson and Steve West infuse their performance with vitality, seamlessly transitioning between their voices without affecting their impeccable pace. Their energetic rendition of the story's twists and turns will jolt listeners and leave them stunned.

Publisher's summary

Earth’s Zero Asset citizens no longer face extermination from orbit. Thanks to Alan Saul, the Committee’s network of control is a smoking ruin and its robotic enforcers lie dormant. But power abhors a vacuum and, scrambling from the wreckage, comes the ruthless Serene Galahad. She must act while the last vestiges of Committee infrastructure remain intact and she has the means to ensure command is hers.

On Mars, Var Delex fights for the survival of Antares Base, while the Argus Space Station hurls towards the red planet. And she knows whomever, or whatever, trashed Earth is still aboard. Var must save the base, while also dealing with the first signs of rebellion. And aboard Argus Station, Alan Saul’s mind has expanded into the local computer network. In the process, he uncovers the ghastly experiments of the Humanoid Unit Development, the possibility of eternal life, and a madman who may hold the keys to interstellar flight. But Earth’s agents are closer than Saul thinks, and the killing will soon begin.

©2013 Neal Asher (P)2013 Audible Inc.

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The action and awesomeness continues

Neal Asher's Zero Point, book 2 of the Owner trilogy picks up immediately where book 1 left off. Saul and Argus station are heading to Mars to reconnect with his sister. In the shattered ruins of the Committee oligarchy, a surviving delegate, Serene Galahad executes her previously designed coup, by activating individual biochips to release an Ebola like disease that kills nearly half of Earth's population and most zero asset citizens, then she conveniently blames this on Alan Saul. With Saul in possession of the Earth's biobank data on extinct flora and fauna, she mounts a mission to retrieve the data and bring Saul to justice. At the same time, she institutes an even more ruthless and arbitrary totalitarian rule over Earth. Saul meanwhile continues his plans for transforming Argus space station, while Var on Mars is trying to triangulate between possible Earth and/or Argus attacks. The historical text interludes beginning each chapter do a wonderful job of detailing the societal stimuli driving this dystopic future that resembles "1984" for a digital age.

The action is nonstop, riveting, and daring with unexpected twists that slowly reveals the grand strategy Asher is unfolding. For sci-fi elements, Asher hints at the earliest implementation of artificial intelligence, the human / computer interface grows stronger. Robotics plays a key role. Finally, the Alcubbiere warp drive concept is developed along with other exotic matter based weaponry for future battle scenarios.

The narration is outstanding with a fantastic range of voices given the varied characters. The pace, tone, and mood make for a can't stop listening experience. While an action oriented thriller, this tale seriously explores the contradictions and limitations of humanity along with the possibilities for an evolutionary stage beyond human.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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The meat grinder continues

Impressively, Neal Asher has managed to up both the quantity as well as quality of the violence in this second installment to his near-future dystopian ‘Owner’ trilogy. Like a hydra, the ruthless ‘Committee’ of Earth’s rulers, quickly sprouts new leadership in the wake of anti-hero Alan Saul’s one-man revolution in ’The Departure’. Chief among these is Serene Galahad, whose Committee bloodletting efficiently secures her role as supreme ruler of Earth. For a genocidal tyrant, this character is surprisingly understandable in Asher’s hands. His first person segments taken from her POV connect the dots of her atrocities believably, while illustrating the progression of her stomach for violence. In order to level the playing field and restore dramatic parity, Asher contrives to incapacitate and diminish Saul’s abilities, which also allows some of his satellite characters to step out from his shadow a bit. Three or four other narratives alternate with these, and all of them overflow with yet more gruesome death. Delightfully, adolescent wish fulfillment comes via some new techno-tricks Saul has learned, and almost everyone gets their comeuppance, although enough loose threads remain to provide ample material for a third installment.

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2 people found this helpful

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Great science fiction saga

Neal Asher is easily becoming one of my favorite authors. Zero point is an amazing continuation to book one of The Owners Trilogy, just when I thought he couldn't do any better, Asher outdoes himself again. Well written and full of action from beginning to end. Well narrated by West and Mawson. Worth it.

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S Kaye

I’m impressed at how all these stories interact! Has made for a very interesting future story line. Thanks Neal Asher!
Narrative is very pro!

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Third time: still not charming

Too much torture porn; It feels like the author was seeing just how gratuitous he could get. Reminds me of Hamilton's early work with regard to the hilariously distended strawman made of socialism. Must be an authorial phase?

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  • CJ
  • 01-27-23

Too much detail.

When L Ron Hubbard wrote Battlefield Earth, it was stated that his goal was to try and produce a piece of pure science fiction, since a lot of science fiction today really isn’t that at all. It is science fact. There is no originality if a item already exists. And as a result, battlefield Earth suffered as a book. The author in this book attempts to produce a piece of pure science fiction by sharing with us original concepts of science. So if you’re looking for something truly imaginative, the series definitely delivers. The danger of this is the author gets caught up so much in the detail of creative original thought that the story lags. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be original. But the excessive originality of science in this series undermines the potential of what could be a truly beautiful plot. I give him credit for having the confidence to stick with a story that remain consistent. That to me was beautiful in its design. I could tell he believed in what he was writing. It was just a lot of detail.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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reader

just a bit slow in the reading takes a while to get to the point 👉 👈 but a great listen

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

BORING!!!!

struggled like hell!! narrator is dead... lulled me to sleep, and I'm a YANK!! WTF??

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Bloated middle.

An entertaining, if overlong, oppressive dystopian nightmare where *errbody* dies.

Asher's second book in his "Owners" trilogy has augmented Alan Saul occupying the oppressive "Committee's" orbital Argus Station while simultaneously cutting off several heads of said Committee. What springs forth from that is an even more demented adversary, Serene Galahad -- who is basically a Malthusian misanthropist who engineers a plot that ends up killing 9 BILLION "Zero Asset" people on earth because hey, omelets and eggs and whatnot.

The back and forth as Galahad tries to attack Saul/Argus is somewhat enjoyable, but the sheer evilness of Galahad's action on earth beggar belief. At one point we've got multiple floating islands of corpses in the oceans that, because of so much despoilation of the Earth's biosphere, aren't exactly decomposing as fast as they otherwise would (far fewer bugs to help out). It's so extreme at points that the authorial disconnect is palpable -- i.e. you expect there to be more of a REACTION from the remaining 7 billion people -- even if they have been largely oppressed into compliance.

While Asher's interstitial bits about how individuality, privacy, science, et al all came to become subservient to the state and its "elites" is interesting, the bang-bang shooty shooty action sequences as we battle over Argus station, Mars, and other bits of real estate leave much to be desired and other than Saul and Galahad, none of the characters are terribly memorable or interesting. There's some chatter about FTL drives and secret space warships and a little tease about Saul's mysterious history, but otherwise, the book is a little too bloated for its own good and slogs rather than drives along.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Much improved

Much more enjoyable than the first book in the series. The writing is more smoothed in this one and rapidly catching up to the quality of the story.

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