Neal Asher

Neal Asher
Born (1961-02-04) 4 February 1961
Essex, England
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Period 2000 – present
Genre Science fiction
Website
freespace.virgin.net/n.asher

Neal Asher (born 4 February 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England) is an English science fiction writer. He lives near Chelmsford.[1]

Career

Both of Asher's parents are educators and science fiction fans.[2] Although he began writing speculative fiction in secondary school, Asher did not turn seriously to writing until he was 25. He worked as a machinist and machine programmer and as a gardener from 1979 to 1987. Asher identifies The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other fantasy work including Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber series as important early creative influences.[3]

Asher published his first short story in 1989. In 2000 he was offered a three book contract by Pan Macmillan[2] and his first full length novel Gridlinked was published in 2001. This was the first in a series of novels made up of Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent, and Line War.

Asher is published by Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, in the UK, and by Tor Books in the United States.[4]

The majority of Asher's work is set in one future history, the "Polity" universe. It encompasses many classic science fiction tropes including world-ruling artificial intelligences, androids, hive minds and aliens. 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 post-cyberpunk.[5]

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)

Transformation series

  1. Dark Intelligence (2015)[6]
  2. War Factory (2016)

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[7]

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

The Owner Trilogy

  1. The Departure (2011)
  2. Zero Point (2012)
  3. Jupiter War (2013)[8]

Other novels

Novellas

Short story collections

Short fiction

Awards

References

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Neal Asher". Macmillan Publishers. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Neal Asher biography". Fantasy Book Review. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Natasha Lavender (2 August 2012). "Q&A with Neal Asher". The Bookseller. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "The Skinner, Neal Asher". Macmillan. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
  5. ↑ Neal Asher's Dark Intelligence: Transformation Book One: A tour de force of post cyber punk space opera
  6. ↑ "Dark Intelligence". Pan Macmillan. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Asher, Neal. "The Polity Books". The Skinner. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  8. ↑ "Neal Asher - Jupiter War cover art and synopsis reveal". Upcoming4.me. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
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