Monday, January 17, 2011

The Departure Cover.

Here is the cover of The Departure along with a couple of blurbs:


Like Wellsian war machines the shepherds stride into riots to grab up the ringleaders and drag them off to Inspectorate HQ for adjustment, unless they are in shredding mode, in which case their captives visit community digesters, or rather whatever of them has not been washed down the street drains.

Pain inducers are used for adjustment, and soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human beings need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online…

Alan Saul has taken a different route to disposal, waking as he does inside a crate on the conveyor into the Calais incinerator. How he got there he does not know, but he does remember the pain and the face of his interrogator. Janus speaks to Saul through the hardware implanted in his skull, sketching the nightmare world for him. And Saul decides to bring it all crashing down…



There are no more wars, just police actions, though sometimes the truncheon used weighs in at about a kilotonne and the undertakers have to wear hazmat suits. Nobody goes hungry, so there certainly aren’t any food riots – just ‘dissident actions’ which end abruptly when the Inspectorate reduces the crowd to a writhing screaming mess using pain inducers.

And didn’t Chairman Alessandro Messina himself say that we are more free than ever before; community political officers conducted a survey only last year to prove this point. The Press has greater freedom too, now being government run and unburdened by financial concerns. People don’t disappear, see, they always come back from Inspectorate cells, ready to sing the praises of the Committee.

But Alan Saul knows that twelve billion are due to die, that the Committee has decided the Safe Departure clinics, the ‘sectoring’ of zero asset communities, the reader guns, razor birds and nightmarish shepherds will not be enough. The Argus satellite laser network is their answer, and he intends to take it away from them.

18 comments:

Roger said...

Can't wait to see how it fits all together into the Polity Universe. When will it be released?

PS. sounds bloody and brutal but that is one of the reasons I like your books - no glorification of war; well not obviously ;-)

Disco Stu said...

Like the look of this. When's it out?

Simen K. said...

Totally awesome!

I am really looking forward to this.

Phil M said...

September!! How can I survive that long?
You may have mentioned this already Neal, but is this the start of a new series or a stand alone novel?

Anonymous said...

Neal, Neal, Neal - about bloody time!

I've been waiting for this new series since you said you'd written this first book, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels like this.

Woohoo!

The Kat said...

Yeah first book for my Christmas 2011 list!

Neal Asher said...

Roger, it's not the Polity - doesn't fit at all. And yes, it is bloody brutal.

September, Disco Stu.

I do hope you all like it. Certainly the publisher does and a few others who have read it.

Neal Asher said...

Ah yes, I've just noticed. When making a new cover they use an old one to first base it on. They need to lose the words 'A Polity Novel' from this. It isn't.

Spencer said...

Awesome!! Cant wait, i know itl be bril. Pukka!!!

Jebel Krong said...

"twelve billion human beingS need to die before Earth can be stabilized"

apart from needing a proof-reader, looks great except for waiting till september, that is :(

Neal Asher said...

Corrected Jebel, thanks. These were the blurbs before I sent them off.

vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...

two things you got wrong. in the u.s. they dont use 'shredders', they have torture taxi airplanes. also we call them 'hazmat' suits over here.


otherwise i guess the MAKE ROOM MAKE ROOM! Judge Dread Leopold II Mao is running the HALF PAST HUMAN earth circa 1984's neocon Bush cabinet. that's how my brain sees it, slobbering and rubbing it's grey noodly hands together.

Disco Stu said...

So will you be about signing in Sept?

Coming to North Wales?

Neal Asher said...

Shit HAZMAT! How did I miss that!

KJ Mulder said...

Can't wait for this. As soon as it gets to the pre-order stage I'm ordering mine!

Anonymous said...

Oh, tasty!
Doubleplusgood!
Any gratuitous violence will be gratefully accepted.
I want - like now.

Will the books come already covered in mylar? 'Cos I may just drool over it.

Alex Cull said...

Excellent, looking forward to this.

Unknown said...

Very excited to read something new from you Neal. I love your Polity books but it will be nice see your storytelling prowess build another universe for us to live in vicariously.

I hope it's crunchy!