Zero Point (Owner Trilogy 2)

by Neal Asher

  She continued staring at him for long minutes, as reality returned along with its aches, pains and other glorious discomforts.

  ‘What kept you?’ she asked.

  By Neal Asher

  Cowl

  The Technician

  The Owner

  The Departure

  Zero Point

  Agent Cormac

  Shadow of the Scorpion

  Gridlinked

  The Line of Polity

  Brass Man

  Polity Agent

  Line War

  Spatterjay

  The Skinner

  The Voyage of the Sable Keech

  Orbus

  Novels of the Polity

  Prador Moon

  Hilldiggers

  Short story collections

  Runcible Tales

  The Engineer

  The Gabble

  Novellas

  The Parasite

  Mindgames: Fool’s Mate

  Acknowledgements

  As always, many thanks to all those who have helped bring this book to your shelves, Kindle, iPad, fancy phone, computer screen or whatever. At Macmillan these include Julie Crisp, Bella Pagan, Chloe Healy, Louise Buckley, Amy Lines, Catherine Richards, Ali Blackburn, Eli Dryden, Neil Lang, James Long and others whose names I simply don’t know. Thanks also to Jon Sullivan for his consistently weird cover pictures capturing the spirit of the books and to Peter Lavery for his consistently meticulous editing. And always, thank you, Caroline.

  I also have to mention all those fans whose comments, criticisms and accolades help maintain my enthusiasm for what I’m doing. Of course, on many levels, I couldn’t do it without you. Thanks also to all those unpaid keepers of websites and message boards, and the contributors both to them and the social networks, who have invigorated debate on all subjects under the sun, and who are steadily cutting the ground away from underneath moribund and tribal media organizations. With the excellent tool that is the Internet they have truly taken things back to ‘grass roots’ and we are certainly seeing their effect in the world today.

  For this book I also have to thank all those who have written on zero-point energy, possible space drives and weird energy sources. It’s good to know that some are prepared to think outside the box, even if they are falling off the far side of weird.

  First published 2012 by Tor

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

  Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Basingstoke and Oxford

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 9780230765443 EPUB

  Copyright © Neal Asher 2012

  The right of Neal Asher to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.