Neal Asher

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Neal Asher

Born
Essex, England
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Writing period 2000-Present
Genres Science fiction

Neal Asher (born 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England) is an English science fiction writer. Asher was born in Billericay in 1961. His parents both are educators and science fiction fans. Although he began writing Science Fiction and Fantasy in high 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.

Neal Asher's work 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 the subgenre known as postcyberpunk.

He is published by Tor Books in the United States.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Works

[edit] Polity Universe

  • Ian 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)
  • A Novel of the Polity Series
  1. Prador Moon (2006)
  2. Hilldiggers (2007)
  3. Shadow of the Scorpion (2008)

[edit] Short Stories

  • Adaptogenic(1994) - short story
  • Runcible Tales (1999) - short story collection
  • Watch Crab(2003) - short story

[edit] Novellas

  • The Parasite (1996)
  • Mason's Rats (1999)
  • Africa Zero (2001)

[edit] Other

  • Mindgames: Fool's Mate 1992 - Novella
  • The Engineer (1998) - Short story collection. Reprinted with three additional stories as The Engineer ReConditioned (2006). Although this collection does include stories set in the Polity Universe, others are set in a different universe.
  • Cowl (2004), Philip K. Dick Award nominee

[edit] Awards

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

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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