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
Can they flee a dying Earth? As the totalitarian Inspectorate tightens its grip, one man discovers the power to slip through the gaps and traverse alternate universes. World Walkers by Neal Asher is an exhilarating standalone novel set within the Owner Trilogy.
Ottanger always believed his mutation to be chance or perhaps the actions of fate. Or even the result of pollution on a hellish overpopulated Earth, ruled by a totalitarian Committee and its ruthless Inspectorate. But, when Ottanger is captured, tortured and made the subject of a strange experiment by the Inspectorate, he discovers otherwise - his mutation allows him to walk between alternate worlds.
When Ottanger is thrown from his timeline from the far future, he meets the Fenris – humanity’s future form. Ottanger is a survivor of the Fenris’ altruistic experiment to create world walkers, their goal to help humanity escape their decaying version of Earth. But there are too few of Ottanger’s fellow world walkers to make a difference. And the multiverse has revealed an even greater threat than the Committee and its harsh regime.
There’s a form of humanity that functions as one mind and it is anathema to the Fenris. Now the trillion-strong hive has noticed the Fenris’ experiments with world walkers. It wants this technology. And it won’t rest until it has it – even if this means a war across the multiverse . . .
Praise for Neal Asher
'Neal Asher's books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain' – John Scalzi
'Without a doubt the most entertaining science fiction author writing today' – SFF World