Neal Asher

Neal Asher
Neal Asher
Born Essex, England
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Period 2000-Present
Genres Science fiction
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Neal Asher (born February 4, 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England) is an English science fiction writer. Both his parents are educators and science fiction fans. Although he began writing Science Fiction and Fantasy in secondary school, Asher did not turn seriously to writing till he was 25. He worked as a machinist and machine programmer from 1979 to 1987 and as a gardener from 1979 to 1987. He published his first short story in 1989. His novel, Gridlinked was published in 2001, the first in a series of novels made up of Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent, and Line War.

The majority of Asher's novels and most of his short fiction, are all set within one future history, known as the "Polity" universe. The Polity encompasses many classic science fiction tropes including world-ruling artificial intelligences, androids, hive minds, aliens and time travel. His novels are characterized by fast paced action and violent encounters. While his work is frequently epic in scope and thus nominally space opera, its graphic and aggressive tone is more akin to cyberpunk. When combined with the way that Asher's main characters are usually acting to preserve social order or improve their society (rather than disrupt a society they are estranged from), these influences could place his work in the subgenre known as postcyberpunk.

He is published by Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, in the UK. He is published by Tor Books in the United States.[citation needed]

Contents

Works

Polity universe

In order of publication

Agent Cormac series

  1. Gridlinked (2001)
  2. The Line of Polity (2003)
  3. Brass Man (2005)
  4. Polity Agent (2006)
  5. Line War (2008)

Spatterjay series

  1. The Skinner (2002)
  2. The Voyage of the Sable Keech (2006)
  3. Orbus (2009)

Stand alone Polity novels

  1. Prador Moon (2006)
  2. Hilldiggers (2007)
  3. Shadow of the Scorpion (Prequel to Gridlinked, 2008)
  4. The Technician (2010)

In internal chronological order[1]

  1. Prador Moon
  2. The Shadow of the Scorpion
  3. Gridlinked
  4. The Line of Polity
  5. Brass Man
  6. Polity Agent
  7. Line War
  8. The Technician
  9. The Skinner
  10. The Voyage of the Sable Keech
  11. Orbus
  12. Hilldiggers

The Owner Trilogy

  1. The Departure (2011)
  2. Zero Point (2012)
  3. Jupiter War (tentative title, forthcoming)

Other novels

Novellas

  • Mindgames: Fool's Mate (1992)
  • The Parasite (1996)
  • Mason's Rats (1999)
  • Africa Zero (2001), originally as two novellas: Africa Zero and Africa Plus One

Short story collections

  • The Engineer (1998) - Containing novella of the same title, and short stories.
  • Runcible Tales (1999)
  • The Engineer ReConditioned (2006) - Reprint of The Engineer with three additional stories.
  • The Gabble: And Other Stories (2008) - short story collection

Short fiction

Title Year First published in Reprinted in
Adaptogenic 1992 Threads 2 The Gabble and Other Stories (Tor, 2008)
Watch Crab 2003 Rick Kleffel's The Agony Column
Snow in the desert 2002 Spectrum SF 8 Year's Best SF 8 (2003)

The Gabble and Other Stories (Tor, 2008)

Awards

  • British Fantasy Society Award nomination, 1999, for stories "Sucker" and "Mason's Rats III";
  • SF Review Best Book designation, 2002, for The Skinner.

References

External links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Asher, Neal. "The Polity Books". The Skinner. http://theskinner.blogspot.com/2009/03/polity-books.html. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 


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