Neal Asher page

Neal Asher was born in Billericay in 1961. His parents, one a schoolteacher, and the other a lecturer in applied mathematics, both life SF, so it wasn’t long before Neal began enamoured by “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”. Neal first started writing SF and Fantasy at the age of 16 after being praised for an E. C. Tubb inspired story by one of his English teachers. Before he started writing more seriously at the age of 25, all he’d ever won from his writing was a sandwich toaster for a rhyme, and £5 for a story about adolescent suicide. He also took up karate, which has proved useful in writing fighting scenes ever since. Neal went on to write the “Hadrim” fantasy series, the first book of another fantasy trilogy, called “Creatures of the Staff”, the first book of “The Infinite Willows”, and the contemporary novel, “Frog Wine”, all of which remain in Neal’s files. Neal Asher also had a go at writing TV scripts: a 3 part series called “Trines”, and the one-hour drama “The Executioner’s Lie”, although neither of these have been filmed as yet. By 2000, Neal Asher was building a considerable reputation as a brilliant short story writer, and had had several books published by small presses: “Mindgames: Fool’s Mate” (1992), “The Parasite” (1996), “Mason’s Rats” (1999), and the short story collections “The Engineer” (1998) and “Runcible Tales” (1999), with “Africa Zero” following later (2001). Neal Asher really hit the big time after 2000, when he was snapped up for a 3-book deal by Pan Macmillan, which led to the publication of “Gridlinked” (2001), “The Skinner” (2002), and “The Line of Polity” (2003). Pan have continued to release Neal Asher novels since “The Line of Polity” was the first to be published under their Tor UK imprint, with the publication of “Cowl” (2004), “Brass Man” (2005), “The Voyage of the Sable Keech” (2006), “Polity Agent” (2006), and “Hilldiggers” (2007).