Neal Asher was born 1961 in Billericay, Essex, the son of a school teacher and a lecturer in applied mathematics who were also SF aficionados.
Prior to 2000 the Asher had stories accepted by British small press SF and fantasy magazines but post 2000 his writing career took flight. Pan Macmillan offered him a three-book contract and have now published many more UK, America, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Japan Czechoslovakia and Romania. The majority of his novels are 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 and aliens.
"I have numerous favourite themes in my books so I’ll start off with the most obvious ones. Upgrading I think is a constant and important one. My characters are variously boosted – their muscles made more dense and powerful and bones strengthened to take the load – enhanced with joint torque motors and other technological additions, even given entirely knew Golem bodies. The Old Captains are physically enhanced by the Spatterjay virus to the point where they’re practically indestructible and as strong as bulldozers. Cormac, with his gridlink is an obvious example of mental upgrading, as are subsidiary characters with their various styles of aug. Then, of course, when you get to Alan Saul, you have a human mind amalgamated with an AI copy of itself and able to expand into, and utilize and control, computer networks."
Latest Book
Neal Asher's second suspenseful space opera returns to the Polity universe, and this time, the stakes are even higher.
". . . Balls-to-the-walls levels of exuberance and inventiveness . . ."
—Locus Magazine on Dark Diamond
FORGE A NEW FUTURE. OR BE CONSUMED BY THE PAST.
Captain Blite and Agent Cormac thought they had defeated the malevolent AI Straeger. But Straeger’s mission to plunge the galaxy into a devastating war is far from over. With a twisted p-Prador army bred from the Spatterjay virus, Straeger sets his plans in motion.
Meanwhile, in the war-struck world of Yossander’s Hold, Blite and Cormac are trapped in a maelstrom of betrayal and violence. They must fight their way through the chaos as they seek to repair Blite’s damaged ship. But their escape requires resources from the Bracken, and aboard that ship, a terrifying transformation is underway . . .
Recognizing the threat posed by the p-Prador, the Prador Kingdom and the human Polity’s ruling AI form an uneasy alliance. But with Straeger’s plans unfolding and reality itself under threat, the galaxy is poised on the brink of destruction. Can Blite and Cormac survive the escalating war and the collapse of time itself?