World Walkers
Neal Asher
Synopsis
Can they flee a dying earth?
Ottanger always believed his mutation to be chance, or perhaps the actions of fate. Or perhaps the result of pollution on a hellish overpopulated earth, ruled by a totalitarian Committee and its ruthless Inspectorate. But when Ottanger is captured, tortured and made the subject of a strange experiment by the Inspectorate, he discovers otherwise - his mutation allows him to walk between alternate worlds.
When Ottanger is thrown from his timeline from the far future, he meets the Fenris – humanity’s future form. Ottanger is a survivor of the Fenris’ altruistic experiment to create world walkers, their goal to help humanity escape their decaying version of Earth. But there are too few of Ottanger’s fellow world walkers to make a difference. And the multiverse has revealed an even greater threat than the Committee and its harsh regime.
There’s a form of humanity that functions as one mind, and it is anathema to the Fenris. Now the trillion-strong hive has noticed the Fenris’ experiments with world walkers. It wants this technology. And it won’t rest until it has it – even if this means a war across the multiverse . . .
Delivers plenty of thrills, and the climax also sets up a very intriguing status quo for the second volumeSFX on The Departure
Asher’s ability to write exciting set-piece action scenes featuring cool SF hardware is undimmed . . . Those who enjoy Neal Asher’s fast-paced, technologically rich SF stories will find a lot to likeConcatenation on Zero Point
This is a dizzying and unusually thoughtful space opera . . . The result is a challenging, extremely satisfying readPublisher's Weekly on Jupiter War