Can they flee a dying Earth? As the totalitarian Inspectorate tightens its grip, one man discovers the power to slip through the gaps and traverse alternate universes. World Walkers by Neal Asher is an exhilarating standalone novel set within the Owner Trilogy. Ottanger always believed his mutation to be chance or perhaps the actions of fate. Or even 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 . . .