Neal Asher Explained

Neal Asher
Birth Date:	4 February 1961
Nationality:	British
Period:	2000–present

Neal Asher (born 4 February 1961) is an English science fiction writer. He lives near Chelmsford.^[1]

Career

Both of Asher's parents are educators and science fiction fans. Although he began writing speculative fiction in secondary school, he 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.^[2]

Asher published his first short story in 1989. In 2000 he was offered a three-book contract by Pan Macmillan,^[3] 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]

Awards

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

Bibliography

Polity universe

In order of publication

Agent Cormac series

1. Book: Gridlinked. Gridlinked. London. Macmillan. 2001. 0-333-90363-3.
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)
3. Infinity Engine (2017)

Rise of the Jain

1. The Soldier (May 2018)
2. The Warship (May 2019)
3. The Human (April 2020)

Standalone novels

• Prador Moon (2006)
• Hilldiggers (2007)
• Shadow of the Scorpion (Prequel to Gridlinked, 2008)
• The Technician (2010)
• Jack Four (2021)
• Weaponized (2022)
• War Bodies (2023) ^[7]

In internal chronological order^[8]

1. Weaponized (2300 CE)
2. Prador Moon (2310 CE)
3. Shadow of the Scorpion (2339 CE)
4. Gridlinked (2434 CE)
5. The Line of Polity (2437 CE)
6. Brass Man (2441 CE)
7. Polity Agent (2443 CE)
8. Line War (2444 CE)
9. The Technician (2457 CE)
10. Dark Intelligence (circa 2500 CE)^[9]
11. War Factory (circa 2500 CE)
12. Infinity Engine (circa 2500 CE)
13. The Soldier (circa 2750 CE)^[10]
14. The Warship (circa 2750 CE)
15. The Human (circa 2750 CE)
16. The Skinner (3056 CE)
17. The Voyage of the Sable Keech (3078 CE)
18. Orbus (3079 CE)
19. Jack Four
20. Hilldiggers (3230 CE)

Owner trilogy

1. The Departure (2011)
2. Zero Point (2012)
3. Jupiter War (2013)^[11]

Other novels

• Mindgames: Fool's Mate (1992)^[12]
• The Parasite (1996)^[13]
• Cowl (2004), Philip K. Dick Award nominee

Short fiction

Collections

• The Engineer (1998) – Contains the novella of the same name and six stories.
  • The Engineer
  • "Snairls"
  • "Spatterjay"
  • "Jable Sharks"
  • "The Thrake"
  • "Proctors"
  • "The Owner"
• Runcible Tales (1999)
  • "Always with You" (Polity Universe) (1996)
  • "Blue Holes" (Polity Universe)
  • "Dragon in the Flower" (Polity Universe) (1994)
  • "The Gire & the Bibrat" (Polity Universe)
  • "Walking John & Bird" (Polity Universe)
• The Engineer ReConditioned (2006) – Reprint of The Engineer with three additional stories.
  • The Engineer
  • "Snairls"
  • "Spatterjay"
  • "Jable Sharks"
  • "The Thrake"
  • "Proctors"
  • "The Owner"
  • "The Tor-Beast's Prison"
  • "Tiger Tiger"
  • "The Gurnard"
• The Gabble: And Other Stories (2008)
  • "Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck" (Cormac/Gabbleduck)
  • "Putrefactors" (Spatterjay)
  • "Garp and Geronamid" (Spatterjay)
  • "The Sea of Death" (n/a)
  • "Alien Archaeology" (Cormac/Gabbleduck)
  • "Acephalous Dreams" (Polity)
  • "Snow in the Desert" (n/a)
  • "Choudapt" (n/a)
  • "Adaptogenic" (Spatterjay)
  • "The Gabble" (Cormac/Gabbleduck)
• Africa Zero (2005)^[14] – Contains three novellas.
  • Africa Zero
  • The Army of God
  • The Sauraman
• Owning the Future: Short Stories (2018)^[15]
  • "Memories of Earth" (from Asimov's Science Fiction October/November 2013)
  • "Shell Game" (from The New Space Opera 2 2009)
  • "The Rhine's World Incident" (from Subterfuge 2008 and In Space No One Can Hear You Scream 2013)
  • "Owner Space" (from Galactic Empires anthology 2008)
  • "Strood" (from Asimov's Science Fiction December 2004 and Year's Best SF 10 2005)
  • "The Other Gun" (from Asimov's Science Fiction April/May 2013)
  • "Bioship" (from Solaris Book of New Science Fiction 2007)
  • "Scar Tissue"
  • "The Veteran"

List of short stories/novellas

width=25%	Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected	Notes
"Adaptogenic"	1992	Threads 2	The Gabble and Other Stories (Tor, 2008)
Mindgames: Fool's Mate	1992			Novella
The Parasite	1996			Novella
Mason's Rats	1999			Novella
Africa Zero	2001			Originally published as two novellas, Africa Zero and Africa Plus One
"Snow in the Desert"	2002	Spectrum SF 8	Year's Best SF 8 (2003) The Gabble and Other Stories (Tor, 2008)
"Watch Crab"	2003	Rick Kleffel's The Agony Column
The Other Gun	2013	Asher, Neal . Apr–May 2013 . The other gun . Asimov's Science Fiction . 37 . 4&5 . 14–45.		Novella
"Memories of Earth"	2013	Asher, Neal . Oct-Nov 2013 . Memories of Earth . Asimov's Science Fiction . 37 . 10–11 . 36–41.		An Owner story

References

• Neal Asher page at Authortrek. Online 25 March 2008.
• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. Document Number: H1000162683. Online. 25 March 2008.

External links

• Neal Asher's personal website
• Neal Asher's blog
  • Neal Asher's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online
• Infinity Plus profile
• The ZONE interview
• Story behind Zero Point – essay by Neal Asher

Notes and References

1. Web site: Neal Asher. Macmillan Publishers. 12 May 2015.
2. Web site: Q&A with Neal Asher. Natasha Lavender. 2 August 2012. 12 May 2015. The Bookseller.
3. Web site: Neal Asher biography. Fantasy Book Review. 12 May 2015.
4. Web site: The Skinner, Neal Asher. Macmillan. 2012-10-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20140518210344/http://us.macmillan.com/theskinner/NealAsher. 18 May 2014. dead.
5. Web site: Author Neal Asher Talks Dark Intelligence: Transformation's Dark Side. Debi. Moore. 17 February 2015. Dread Central.
6. Web site: Pan Macmillan. Dark Intelligence. 30 January 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150504113811/http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/nealasher/darkintelligence. 4 May 2015. dead.
7. Web site: War Bodies: Cover and chapter one of Neal Asher’s sci-fi revealed . SciFiNow . 8 July 2023 . 23 January 2023.
8. Web site: The Polity Books. Asher. Neal. The Skinner. 2009-03-22.
9. Web site: Polity Timeline – Neal Asher.
10. Web site: r/sciencefiction – I'm Neal Asher Science Fiction Writer AMA!. reddit.
11. Web site: Neal Asher – Jupiter War cover art and synopsis reveal. Upcoming4.me. 2013-05-28. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130623023231/http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/neal-asher-jupiter-war-cover-art-and-synopsis-reveal. 23 June 2013.
12. Web site: Mindgames: Fool's Mate . Neal Asher .
13. Web site: The Parasite . Neal Asher . Tanjen .
14. Web site: Africa Zero . Neal Asher . Wildside Press .
15. Web site: Owning the Future . Neal Asher .