Jupiter War by Neal Asher – Book Review

Steph P. Bianchini May 10, 2014 5 Comments

Jupiter War is the third and last book of the Owner trilogy, where the adventures of the rebel Alan Saul, his sister Var, the despotic Earth’s dictator Galahad and the Argus Space Station now come to an end. It’s difficult to say more without announcing spoilers – so I can only add here that I did not hope for a better conclusion. It meets all my expectations in terms of rigour, pace and compelling narrative. Neal Asher is a real SF professional, and you won’t be disappointed. You’re not in for any surprise, though: if you have followed the story, you won’t imagine anything different. And if you haven’t, and this is the first book of the trilogy you read, well, the good news is that you will be able to appreciate it nonetheless: the plot makes sense even without knowing what comes first. You will pick up quickly enough what everything is about.

For people familiar with other Asher’s series, like Polity, for example, this one distinguishes itself for being set in a nearer future, and presenting therefore a different kind of problematics, especially re: the likelihood of the technology displayed. I am happy to say the author did a great job here, and nothing seems out of place – even when talking of FTL.

I liked the style, too. While it has been said that “Asher’s love of the gruesome kill (…) is sometimes reminiscent of Iain M. Banks in a sadistic mood, but notably lacking is Banks’s sense of humour, irony, and flair for the absurd.”, I would observe it’s generally true, but not for this specific book: most of the action is about starship fights anyway, where human component has a smaller space. Sure, you have the strong feeling Alan Saul is not squeamish and his dear sister Var is a full-fledged killer ready to execute whoever is on her way – she will even give you a fine taste of it: but the focus of this novel is elsewhere.

I had a look at Goodreads:  it’s true I don’t often agree with what expressed there, but these views are, collectively considered, an excellent way to pick up issues people have noticed. If twenty readers mentioned a specific point, you can be sure there’s something worth exploring. In Jupiter War a sore point is, apparently, the lengthy description of spacecrafts, the space station in the making, and the sophisticated technology they employ: sorry, I plainly disagree. It may sometimes detract from the pace of the action, but it’s so accurate and visionary that it represents, in my view, one of the highest value of the story. Too much of hard SF? (I would argue here that Asher is more of space opera genre, but then the discussion would become endless….) Whatever it is, get yourself something different. There’s plenty out there, to suit all tastes.

On a more general level, the inherent cynicism and the whole dystopian approach of Jupiter War – I should say of the whole Owner trilogy – gained Asher substantial criticism, especially from his habitual readers (and fans). I only partially concede the point – while the dictator Serene Galahad is too black-and-white, boring and lacking any real characterisation (an observation that could be made for the previous instalments of the trilogy as well. Have a look at this review of  Zero Point. On another end, her bodyguard Sacks is great), the overall political view doesn’t seem too extreme. History proves just the contrary, and nothing assures us that the current evolution toward a less violent and comparatively more democratic society will continue, especially with the formidable challenges ahead. If there is a consideration to make, it lies in the excessive, simplistic version of this dystopia, not in the dystopia itself. But this is a novel, not a political essay, so people, give the author some slack…Otherwise, just pick up a Culture’s novel – we all love that Iain M. Banks series – for a taste of a different fictional universe. It’s where Neal Asher could “quite happily spend the rest of eternity” anyway, and I do concur. But beware the Empire of Azad.