Neal Asher divides his time between Essex and Crete, mostly at a keyboard and mentally light-years away. His full-length novels are as follows. First is the Agent Cormac series: Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent and Line War. Next comes the Spatterjay series: The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus. Also set in the same world of the Polity are these standalone novels: Hilldiggers, Prador Moon, Shadow of the Scorpion and The Technician. The Transformation trilogy is also based in the Polity: Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine. Set in a dystopian future are: The Departure, Zero Point and Jupiter War, while Cowl takes us across time.
A superb novel and Asher has an amazing talent for world-building, for writing larger-than-life characters, for weaving gripping plots and for imagining exotic alien races and wonderful technologies. Huge ships! Big weapons! Space battles! Ground battles! Treason! Revenge! This is New Space Opera at its best -- <i>SenseofWonder</i> Perpetually on the knife's edge, and this constant tension works wonders for creating a page-turning atmosphere. It's a damningly gripping and infecting book -- <i>Upcoming4</i> As you all should know, Neal Asher is one of Britain's leading science fiction authors, best known for his Polity universe series. Dark Intelligence has everything science fiction needs, and much, much more -- <i>TheBookPlank</i> Dark Intelligence is an imaginative, epic space opera that manages to present a dark future universe full of vibrant spaceships, people, creatures and intelligence. Highly enjoyable and highly addictive -- <i>SFBook</i> Hardboiled, fast-paced space opera epic . . . Asher's books are similar to the world of Iain M. Banks' Culture universe, but the Polity is arguably a much darker and more vicious environment - and all the better for it -- <i>TheRegister</i> An exciting, intricate, and unabashedly futuristic story rife with twists and turns . . . Asher returns to his popular far-future series, Polity Universe, with another fast-paced space opera filled with his trademark technological marvels and elaborate world building -- <i>Booklist</i> Blends large portions of horror and mystery into an SF tale of revenge and redemption . . . a complex and satisfying work -- <i>Library Journal</i> starred review Beautifully paced . . . does just as well as at slam-bang action scenes as at painting frightening pictures . . . This is space opera at a high peak of craftsmanship -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i> starred review One of his best works so far . . . Asher is a modern master of Sci-Fi -- <i>Starburst</i> What Asher delivers here is state-of-the-art SF on so many levels . . . a compelling, smart read -- <i>Locus</i> Asher rocks with XXX adrenaline while delivering a vivid future -- David Brin