Neal Asher


Neal Asher is an English science fiction writer. He lives near Chelmsford.

Career

Both of Asher's parents are educators and science fiction fans. 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.
Asher published his first short story in 1989. In 2000 he was offered a three-book contract by Pan Macmillan, 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.
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, these influences could place his work in the subgenre known as post-cyberpunk.
In 2017, Asher is set to write the "Rise of the Jain" trilogy, three novels based in the Polity universe.

Awards

In order of publication
Agent Cormac series
  2. The Line of Polity
  3. Brass Man
  4. Polity Agent
  5. Line War
Spatterjay series
  1. The Skinner
  2. The Voyage of the Sable Keech
  3. Orbus
Transformation series
  1. Dark Intelligence
  2. War Factory
  3. Infinity Engine
Rise of the Jain
  1. The Soldier
  2. The Warship
  3. The Human
Standalone novels
In internal chronological order
  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. War Factory
  11. Infinity Engine
  12. The Soldier
  13. The Warship
  14. The Human
  15. The Skinner
  16. The Voyage of the Sable Keech
  17. Orbus
  18. Hilldiggers

    Owner trilogy

  19. The Departure
  20. Zero Point
  21. Jupiter War

    Other novels

Collections

Footnotes