Tag: Books

New Brass Man Cover

Posted on by Neal Asher

Mr Sullivan has done the book proud:

The knight errant Anderson is hunting a dragon on the primitive Out-Polity world of Cull, little knowing that far away a man has resurrected a brass killing machine to assist in a similar hunt that encompasses star systems. When agent Cormac learns that an old enemy still lives, he sets out in pursuit aboard the attack ship Jack Ketch … whilst scientist Mika begins discovering the horrifying truth about that ancient technology ostensibly produced by the alien Jain, who died out five million years ago.
On a planet roamed by ferocious insectile monsters the people of Cull must struggle to survive, while they build the industrial base to reach their forefathers’ starship still orbiting far above them. An entity calling itself Dragon assists them, but its motives are questionable, having created genetic by-blows of humans and the hideous local monsters before growing bored with that game. And now Cull, for millennia geologically inactive, suffers earthquakes…
Meanwhile a brass killing machine seeks to escape a bloody past it can neither forget nor truly remember. So mindlessly will continue its search for sanity, which it might find in an instant or not for a thousand years.

Polity Games

Posted on by Neal Asher

Jeff Johnson here has been pondering how to occupy his time between reading my books:

After having read a number of Asher’s books about the Polity Universe, it occurred to me that this would be an excellent backdrop for a massive online game. Much like how World of Warcraft brings people together online to interact and battle monsters, I think a similar game could be fashioned for the Polity Universe, albeit much larger.

The first place to start is the character that the player would use throughout the game. One could choose between playing the game as a human, golem or war drone, with different advantages depending upon which was selected. Then select a few specialized skills and place personal touches on the appearance of their character. Once in the game, the player will have to rely on those skills to survive, gain additional points to increase their current skills or gain new ones, and of course earn credits to purchase equipment.

During game play, the player could travel to any number of planets within the polity, primarily through runcible gates. Once there they could interact with local inhabitants or deal with the local fauna. Depending on the location, a number of different scenarios could be open to the player. On some worlds, the player could engage in battling the Prador, while on other worlds they could hunt down separatists. For example, the player could opt to travel to Masada and help the rebels fight against the Theocracy government, all while dodging hooders and gabble ducks.

As mentioned before, it would be a large universe within which the player could explore, preferably a large number of planets with vast areas to explore and interact with fauna. Among those, the planets of Spatterjay, Cull and Masada would be an absolute must. Space stations such as Elysium, Miranda and Ruby Eye could be destinations.

Throughout their travels and battles, the player’s character will gain experience that will help boost their skills to higher levels. Should they choose to join a faction, their exploits can earn them a higher rank. While not required to join a faction upon first entering the game, the player will have the chance to work for ECS, one of the Hive minds or even become a separatist.

Of course there is one problem I can foresee should such a game become available. When would I ever sleep again?

N and P for Niven and Pournelle

Posted on by Neal Asher

LARRY NIVEN
THE WORLD OF THE PTAVVS
TALES OF KNOWN SPACE
NEUTRON STAR
THE PATCHWORK GIRL
A GIFT FROM EARTH
THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE
COVERGENT SERIES
A WORLD OUT OF TIME
LIMITS
THE LONG ARM OF GIL HAMILTON
A HOLE IN SPACE
LARRY NIVEN & JERRY POURNELLE
OATH OF FEALTY
FOOTFALL
EDGAR PANGBORN
DAVY
PAUL PARK
SUGAR RAIN
SOLDIERS OF PARADISE
JERRY POURNELLE
BLACK HOLE
TIM POWERS
THE ANUBIS GATES
CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
INDOCTRINAIRE

Who Reads My Books? Daniel Ware.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Ok so I finally got my thumb out of my bum and wrote something coherent (well almost) for you, Neal…

My name is Dan and I am 31 years old, married with a 2 1/2 year old son who I named Gaius after Gaius Baltar in new Battlestar Galactica (hopefully he won’t grow up and destroy our society, though)

I am currently an Export Manager at a small fuel company, after doing stints working in IT for HSBC and then the MET/Essex Police as a project manager, before coming to my senses and getting out of the latter before the bureaucracy and political meddling drove me completely insane. I did actually come from a science background, my youthful obsession with dinosaurs turning into a Degree in Palaeobiology and Evolution after University, but sadly there are no jobs in hard science fields these days not already taken by entrenched minds and beings…

I guess I have my mother to thanks for my interest in Science Fiction – she is a big Alan Dean Foster fan – so I read a lot of his stuff from a young age (Cachalot and Sentenced to Prism being ones I remember). I never really left science fiction, though my continued interest in hard science meant most of my time was spent reading journals throughout my teens and 20s, so I dropped a lot of literature, coming back to it eventually several years ago.

I am also a keen gamer – rarely watching TV these days (since BSG went down the tube in season 3 I haven’t watched anything except The Shield and the odd Fringe episode), but thankfully there are plenty of science fiction games to be had these days – Mass Effect 2 being a standout for any science fiction nut.

As for Neal’s stuff, well I often looked at the cover of Line of Polity in my local Waterstones not long after it came out, but it was actually after I read Peter Hamilton’s awesome Pandora’s Star that I actually snatched up Gridlinked looking in desperation for something similar, and never looked back. Reading Gridlinked I was blown away by the quality of the writing and science fiction and I immediately went back and bought as many as I could in the same shop (including that copy of Line of Polity which I enjoyed even more).

After that, well there’s no looking back I guess – found Neal’s site, went to his signing in Lakeside (which he probably remembers as I dragged my wife and son along and we were the first ones there) and then went out for beers with the man himself at the next signing in London.

To date my favourite book is still probably Prador Moon, closely followed by all of the Polity series – it really defines how I think about science fiction now, the fact that I’ve met Neal and discussed it all in person is the absolute awesome sauce on top.

Well finally I guess, I do run a blog: http://jebelkrong.blogspot.com/ which focuses a lot on gaming, but I do post the occasional bit of Asher news and the odd review (but nothing like Walker of Worlds site, which is awesome, btw) – just something to keep me sane at work more than anything, but I like it!

If anyone games on XBL, my gamertag is, yep: Jebel Krong; and you will currently find me playing the hell out of Mass effect 2 most nights!

Regards

Dan

p.s. I can’t submit a photo of my book collection because I still don’t have a bookcase. I keep them all in boxes, as between kids and life, a nice bookcase is always at the bottom of the priority list… *sigh* maybe this year…

Library Thing

Posted on by Neal Asher

I’ve just joined up on The Library Thing, which seems pretty lively. Masses of reviews on there from the readers and lots of handy book suggestions. I rather like one comment I got there from a poster called ‘andyl’ (emphasis mine):

Yeah apart from Cowl Neal’s books fall into two broad camps

1) Fast-paced super-spy secret agent types.
2) Very visceral novels about the alien environment of Spatterjay which someone summed up as “Blood, guts, and hundred-ton-sentient-mollusc rape.” and which if I was Neal I would insist appear on the covers of all the Spatterjay novels.

However apart from those I really like the Mason’s Rats short stories which are completely divorced from the Spatterjay / Polity setting.

Editor Interview

Posted on by Neal Asher

Here’s Mark Charan Newton interviewing Julie Crisp – his editor and mine.

You’ve been on the throne at Tor UK for over a year now, and have inherited an established author list from the legendary Peter Lavery. What was that like for an introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy publishing?

I did work on some SFF books previously – the Dune books by Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert, and Ben Bova’s novels when I worked at Hodder and Stoughton many years ago. So the Tor list wasn’t really my first introduction to SFF publishing.
However, taking over from the ‘legend in his own lunchtime and he of the terrifying red pencil’ Mr Lavery was, admittedly, rather intimidating. He’d been working in publishing for years and knew pretty much everything there was to know about the genre, so he left some big shoes to fill and they’re still feeling rather loose around the ankles a year on. But I think I’m getting there…

Where's My Banner?

Posted on by Neal Asher


 
Now let’s play a game of ‘Where’s My Banner?’

The first place I find it is at Mark Chitty’s Walker of Worlds.

The next place is at Gecko Mines, Railguns and Crab-Paste the website belonging to the poster here Jebel Krong (where does he get these outlandish names?)

I’m told it should be appearing at Civilian Reader, but it hasn’t yet.

Anywhere else?

Update: now on http://www.sffnews.com/