New Releases by Neal Asher

Neal Asher''s second suspenseful space opera returns to the Polity universe, and this time, the stakes are even higher. ". . . Balls-to-the-walls levels of exuberance and inventiveness . . ." —Locus Magazine on Dark Diamond FORGE A NEW FUTURE. OR BE CONSUMED BY THE PAST. Captain Blite and Agent Cormac thought they had defeated the malevolent AI Straeger. But Straeger’s mission to plunge the galaxy into a devastating war is far from over. With a twisted p-Prador army bred from the Spatterjay virus, Straeger sets his plans in motion. Meanwhile, in the war-struck world of Yossander’s Hold, Blite and Cormac are trapped in a maelstrom of betrayal and violence. They must fight their way through the chaos as they seek to repair Blite’s damaged ship. But their escape requires resources from the Bracken, and aboard that ship, a terrifying transformation is underway . . . Recognizing the threat posed by the p-Prador, the Prador Kingdom and the human Polity’s ruling AI form an uneasy alliance. But with Straeger’s plans unfolding and reality itself under threat, the galaxy is poised on the brink of destruction. Can Blite and Cormac survive the escalating war and the collapse of time itself?

‘Balls-to-the-walls levels of exuberance and inventiveness’ Locus Magazine on Dark Diamond FORGE A NEW FUTURE. OR BE CONSUMED BY THE PAST. Captain Blite and Agent Cormac thought they had defeated the malevolent AI Straeger. But Straeger’s mission to plunge the galaxy into a devastating war is far from over. With a twisted p-prador army bred from the Spatterjay virus, Straeger sets his plans in motion. Meanwhile, on the war-struck world of Yossander’s Hold, Blite and Cormac are trapped in a maelstrom of betrayal and violence. They must fight their way through the chaos as they seek to repair Blite’s damaged ship. But their escape requires resources from the Bracken, and aboard that ship, a terrifying transformation is underway . . . Recognizing the threat posed by the p-prador, the Prador Kingdom and the human Polity’s ruling AI form an uneasy alliance. But with Straeger’s plans unfolding and reality itself under threat, the galaxy is poised on the brink of destruction. Can Blite and Cormac survive the escalating war and the collapse of time itself? From Neal Asher, Dark Agent is the second entry in the Time''s Shadow trilogy, following Dark Diamond. Set in Asher''s expansive Polity universe, this is unmissable military space opera from a master of the genre. * * * Praise for the series ‘The stakes are high, the pacing relentless, and the scale immense . . . Asher delivers again’ – 5* Goodreads Review ‘Filled with action, suspense, and mind-wrenching twists. You’ll love it!’ – 5* Goodreads Review ‘What the cosmos really needs is more megalomaniac artificial intelligences, belligerent alien crustaceans, and protagonists who treat death like a minor inconvenience’ – 5* Goodreads Review

Doomed to die. And die again. Captain Blite knows that someone, or something, is trying to kill him. But a device he possesses, known only as the dark diamond, won''t let that happen. After surviving a series of catastrophic accidents and assassination attempts, Blite realizes that whenever he dies the dark diamond reverses time to a moment before his death. He must go through the traumatic experience again and again until he escapes. . Every encounter Blite survives generates a time flash which reveals potential futures. This extraordinary phenomenon attracts the attention of Polity agents and the crab-like p-Prador who wish to acquire this power for themselves. Hunted across space and time, Blite must uncover the true nature of the dark diamond before it causes his destruction . . . .

Rebellion could be their salvation—or their doom. Long ago, the Cyberat left Earth to co-evolve with machines. Now, led by the powerful dictator Castron, their Old Guard believe that machines should replace the physical body. But these beliefs are upended with the arrival of the human Polity—and their presence ignites rebellion. Piper was raised as a weapon against the Cyberat, implanted with secretive hardware. When his parents are captured by the Old Guard, the Polity offer him unexpected aid. Piper knows the Polity want more from him, but at what cost? The rebellion also attracts the deadly prador, placing an entire world in peril. As war rages across the planet, Piper must battle with the unknown technology implanted in his bones. It may be the Polity’s answer to their relentless fight against the prador. It could also be civilization-ending Jain tech—or something far more extraordinary. War Bodies by Neal Asher is a gripping, high-octane standalone set in his expansive Polity world.

A collection of nine novelettes and stories from best-selling SF author Neal Asher (150,000 words of fiction between them), all written during lockdown and including four that are original to this volume. Some of these thrilling and inventive narratives are set during the latter days of Neal''s Polity universe, while others explore what comes next. Contents: Lockdown Tales II: An Introduction Xenovore An Alien on Crete The Translator Skin Eels The Host Antique Battlefields Moral Biology Longevity Averaging

The seventeen stories that make up Volumes Two and Three of the Emmy(R) award-winning Netflix Original series Love, Death & Robots. Featuring best-selling authors and screenwriters from all over the globe, curated by filmmakers Tim Miller and David Fincher, and Supervising Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Stories by Neal Asher, Paolo Bacigalupi, J. G. Ballard, Alan Baxter, Justin Coates, Harlan Ellison, Joachim Heijndermans, Joe Lansdale, Rich Larson, Alberto Miego, Jeff Fowler & Tim Miller, John Scalzi, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick.

Brass Man is the third novel in Neal Asher''s popular Agent Cormac series. On the primitive world Cull, a knight errant called Anderson hunts a dragon, not knowing that elsewhere is a resurrected brass killing machine, Mr Crane, assisting in a similar hunt. Learning that this old enemy still lives, agent Cormac pursues, while scientist Mika begins discovering the horrifying truth about an ancient alien technology. Each day is a survival struggle for the people of Cull. Ferocious insectile monsters roam their planet, as they try to escape to their forefathers’ starship still orbiting far above them. But an entity with questionable motives, calling itself Dragon, assists them with genetic by-blows created out of humans and the hideous local monsters. And now the supposedly geologically inactive planet itself is increasingly suffering earthquakes . . .

The second volume in a no-holds-barred adventure set in Asher''s popular Polity universe, sequel to Dark Intelligence. One seeks judgement, another faces damnation and one man will have his revenge . . . Thorvald Spear is losing his mind as he drowns in dark memories that aren''t his own. Penny Royal, rogue artificial intelligence, has linked Spear with the stored personalities of those it''s murdered. And whether the AI seeks redemption or has some more sinister motive, Spear needs to destroy it. He feels the anger of the dead and shares their pain. As Spear tracks the AI across a hostile starscape, he has company. Sverl, an alien prador, has been warped by Penny Royal and hungers to confront it. But will the AI''s pursuers destroy each other or hunt it together? Sverl''s prador enemies aren''t far behind either. They plan to use his transition to prove human meddling, triggering a devastating new war. Clues suggest Penny Royal''s heading for the defective war factory that made it. So allies and enemies converge, heading for the biggest firestorm that sector of space has ever seen. But will Spear secure vengeance for his unquiet dead? PRAISE FOR THE TRANSFORMATION SERIES "One of his best works so far ... Asher is a modern master of Sci-Fi" Starburst magazine "Beautifully paced ... does just as well as at slam-bang action scenes as at painting frightening pictures" Publishers Weekly, starred review "Blends large portions of horror and mystery into an SF tale of revenge and redemption ... a complex and satisfying work" Library Journal, starred review "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" TheRegister.co.uk

Thorvald Spear''s only goal was to get his revenge on the rogue artificial intelligence, Penny Royal. The AI apparently left him to die and killed thousands of his comrades in the process. But things aren''t as clear-cut as they seem. Can he truly rely on his own version of events? And has Penny Royal been meddling with his memories and his very identity? The alien prador Sverl also has to find Penny Royal, to make some sense of his own transformation. Is he turning into the thing his kind most loath - a curious hybrid incorporating human and AI elements. Meanwhile, the prador Cvorn plans to use Sverl''s changing biology for his own ends. If he can prove that humanity''s Polity alliance meddled with a prador, using one of its artificial intelligences, it could mean war. And there is nothing Cvorn would like more than another chance to battle with the Polity - however high the cost. As Spear and Sverl hunt Penny Royal, all roads seem to lead to a long-missing War Factory station. Penny Royal seems set on returning to the factory that produced its twisted intelligence. And the AI''s enemies will follow it to the bitter end. Their very sanity and a possible war, depend on it.

One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed... Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he''s been brought back from the dead. What''s more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago. Spear had been trapped on a world surrounded by hostile Prador forces, but Penny Royal, the AI inside the rescue ship sent to provide backup, turned rogue, annihilating friendly forces in a frenzy of destruction and killing Spear. One hundred years later the AI is still on the loose, and Spear vows for revenge at any cost. Isobel Satomi ran a successful crime syndicate, but after competitors attacked she needed power and protection. Negotiating with Penny Royal, she got more than she bargained for: Turning part-AI herself gave Isobel frightening power, but the upgrades hid a horrifying secret, and the dark AI triggered a transformation that has been turning her into something far from human… Spear hires Isobel to track Penny Royal across worlds to its last known whereabouts. But he cheats her in the process and quickly finds himself in her crosshairs. As Isobel continues to evolve into a monstrous predator, it’s clear her rage will eventually win out over reason. Will Spear finish his hunt before he himself becomes the hunted? Dark Intelligence is the explosive first novel in a brand new trilogy from military SF master Neal Asher and a new chapter in his epic Polity universe.

Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ... and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.

From 800 years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity and those coming through it have been sent specially to take the alien ‘Maker’ back to its home civilization in the Small Magellanic cloud. Once these refugees are safely through, the gate itself is rapidly shut down – because something alien is pursuing them. The gate is then dumped into a nearby sun. From those refugees who get through, agent Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by pernicious virus known as the Jain technology. This, of course, raised questions: why was Dragon, a massive biocontruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity; why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it? Meanwhile an entity called the Legate is distributing pernicious Jain nodes . . . and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself.

In the eight years since his first full-length novel Gridlinked was published by Pan Macmillan, Neal Asher has firmly established himself as one of the leading British writers of Science Fiction, and his novels are now translated in many languages. Most of his stories are set in a galactic future-scape called ‘The Polity’, and with this collection of marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, he takes us further into the manifold diversities of that amazing universe. No one does monsters better than Neal Asher, so be prepared to revisit the lives and lifestyles of such favourites as the gabbleduck and the hooder, to savour alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont.

The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada – but it is an order that the rebels of the Tidy Squad cannot accept, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is top of their hitlist. Tombs, meanwhile, has escaped his sanatorium. His insanity must be cured, because the near-mythical hooder, called ‘the Technician’, that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race. It’s up to the war drone Amistad to discover this information, with the help of an ex-rebel Commander, the black AI Penny Royal and the amphidapt Chanter. Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons . . .

Trade Paperback Halloween-themed science fiction anthology. Featuring a mix of classic science fiction reprints where the scary stuff happens in space. THE UNIVERSE MAY NOT BE A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD . . . _The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown,Ó the grand master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft, once wrote. And the greatest unknown is the vast universe, shrouded in eternal cosmic night. What things might be on other planets¾or in the dark gulfs between the stars? Giving very unsettling answers to that question are such writers as Arthur C. Clarke, George R. R. Martin, Theodore Sturgeon, Tony Daniel, Robert Sheckley, James. H. Schmitz, Clark Ashton Smith, Neal Asher, Sarah A. Hoyt, and more, all equally masters of science fiction and of terror. One might hope that in the void beyond the earth will be found friendly aliens, benevolent and possibly wiser than humanity, but donu0090t be surprised if other worlds have unpleasant surprises in store for future visitors. And in vacuum, no one will be able to hear your screams¾as if it would do any good if they could . . . At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Neal Asher takes on first contact, Polity style. This original novel recounts the first contact between the aggressive Prador aliens, and the Polity Collective as it is forced to retool its society to a war footing. The overwhelming brute force of the Prador dreadnaughts causes several worlds and space stations to be overrun. Prador Moon follows the initial Polity defeats, to the first draws, and culminates in what might be the first Polity victory, told from the point of view of two unlikely heroes. For the first time in the US in eBook format.

Ein Krieg zwischen den Menschen und einer blutrünstigen Spezies Ein Agent, der nicht weiß, wo er herkommt Und eine Kriegsdrohne, die die Form eines Skorpions besitzt Ian Cormac ist Agent der Earth Central Security. Er soll dabei helfen, die Ordnung auf den Planeten wiederherzustellen, die durch den Krieg gegen die außeridrischen Prador verwüstet wurden. Dabei stellt er fest: Die Prador sind noch so barbarisch wie eh und je. Doch der brutalste Feind lauert dort, wo Cormac ihn nicht vermutet. In den eigenen Reihen.

Das Polis-Kollektiv verkörpert den Gipfel der raumfahrenden Zivilisationen. Geprägt durch die Wissenschaft, reicht sein Einfluss von Earth Central bis in die unergründlichen Fernen der galaktischen Leere. Doch eines Tages trifft die Polis auf ausserirdisches Leben, in Gestalt feindseliger krabbenähnlicher Karnivoren, die als die Prador bekannt werden. Und diese Entdeckung kann nur einen Ausgang zeitigen - totalen Krieg.In epischem Massstab und mit unerbittlicher Action bietet Prador Mond vernichtende Schlachten. Es ist Ashers erschreckendster Ausflug in das Polis-Universum - eine brillante Space Opera!

The Voyage of the Sable Keech returns to Neal Asher''s water-bound world of Spatterjay, teeming with bizarre characters and gruesome monsters. Taylor Bloc is a walking dead man, determined to live again. He also wants adulation, power and control – and will do anything to get them. Of Bloc’s kind, Sable Keech alone has achieved resurrection. So Bloc will retrace Keech’s journey across Spatterjay’s wild seas, with his crew of killers, to grasp his secret. Erlin wanted solitude to understand her eternal life, until an attack prompts her own strange journey. And Janer returns, with forbidden weaponry. He must stop an agent controlled by a hive mind with a death fixation. But a wider crisis will overshadow personal missions. In the deeps, an alien Prador is stirring, horribly transformed by Spatterjay’s immortality virus. And an enemy ship would destroy the planet to keep this secret. Continue the science fiction adventure series with Orbus, or start at the beginning with The Skinner.

Discover action, intrigue and mind-bending science in Hilldiggers, a gripping science fiction novel from Neal Asher where four siblings holding the keys to unthinkable power. Two planets, bound by the same solar system, were once locked in war. Then a cosmic super-string overflowing with alien technology - or life - was discovered. For safety, it was stored within a maximum-security space station. Sometime later, a female scientist from the station became pregnant and gave birth to quadruplets. But she inexplicably committed suicide by walking directly out into space. When war finally ends, one planet is devastated. It has been decimated by the other planet''s hilldigger weaponry, so named as their blasts are capable of transforming landscapes into mountains. As the remnants of their society rebuild, the quadruplets, adults now, begin their ascension to power. One of them has his sights set on claiming the hilldiggers and their power for himself. But with what consequences for humanity? Set in the aftermath of Neal Asher''s Spatterjay trilogy, Hilldiggers is an action-packed science fiction story.

Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn’t remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance.

Im All öffnet sich ein Portal, aus dem Besucher dringen ═ 800 Jahre aus der Zukunft. Sie haben den Auftrag, einen außerirdischen │Erschaffer╩ zurück in die Heimatzivilisation zu bringen. Das Zeittor wird geschlossen, sobald die Besucher hindurch sind, und in eine Sonne geworfen. Was niemand ahnt: Noch etwas ist durch das Portal gelangt. Und ehe Agent Cormac weiß, wie ihm geschieht, schwebt er in größter Gefahr ...

This is an eclectic collection of all-original science fiction stories from some of the foremost luminaries in the genre. Featuring new tales of far future murder, first contact, love and war from such well-regarded and award winning authors as Peter F. Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Adam Roberts, Jeffrey Thomas, Eric Brown, Paul Di Filippo, Neal Asher, Jay Lake and Ian Watson, this collection is sure to delight all fans of good science fiction.

The latest high-octane galactic adventure from Britain''s new master of wide-screen science fiction. In the far future, the Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the solar system, after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the enemy have escaped into the past, intent on wreaking havoc across time. The worst of these is Cowl, an artificially forced advance in human evolution but one who is no longer human. Polly, desperate to obtain funds to support her habits, is unprepared for her involvement with Nandru Jurgens, a Taskforce soldier, and the killers pursuing him. Nor can resist the the alien ''tor'' which she feels impelled to attach to her arm. But she must learn fast, as she is dragged back through time, not least that to the denizens of some earlier eras, she is little more than a convenience food. Initially, the fragment of tor imbedded in Tack''s wrist sums up his value to the Heliothane-a point brought home to him with bloody abruptness. But, as a vat-grown programmable killer employed by U-gov, he is no stranger to violence. His long journey into the lethal world of the Heliothane is only beginning, the extent of his mission just becoming apparent. Meanwhile, hunting throughout time and the alternates, Cowl''s pet, the torbeast, grows vast and dangerous. And the beast continues to feed.

Im vierten Jahrtausend herrscht das Heliothan-Dominium uneingeschränkt über das Sonnensystem. Einer seiner Feinde ist Cowl, der einen künstlich erzwungenen Entwicklungssprung in der menschlichen Evolution verkörpert - und bösartiger ist als jedes prähistorische Ungeheuer. Cowls Haustier, das Torusbiest, wächst zu gewaltiger Größe und Gefährlichkeit heran und verstreut seine Schuppen auf Geheiß des Meisters - Schuppen, die ihrerseits organische Zeitmaschinen sind, dazu konstruiert, Menschenproben aus allen Zeiten zu sammeln und zu Cowl zu bringen. Dann kann das Ungeheuer fressen ...

Spatterjay : une planète recouverte par les océans et grouillant créatures marines hostiles. Sur l''un de ses rares îlots vit l''Ecorcheur, une entité monstrueuse semant la terreur parmi les pêcheurs qui sillonnent ses eaux. Des pêcheurs qui, bien décidés à détruire cette abomination une fois pour toutes, unissent leurs forces... Ainsi débute une cour poursuite planétaire, une traque dans laquelle seront embarqués trois personnages pour le moins curieux : Erlin, une scientifique à la recherche d''un capitaine immortel, Keech, un flic ressuscité après 700 ans dans le but de retrouver un criminel, et Janer, en mission pour les Frelons, espèce terrestre ayant développé une intelligence communautaire. Mais ce qui les attend sur les traces de l''Ecorcheur, est bien plus qu''une aventure d''une rare violence. Car Spatterjay, aux confins de galaxie, loin du couvert des lois gouvernementales du Polity, réserve d''autres surprises...

Three unusual travelers arrive on the remote ocean planet of Spatterjay, braving the perils of the world''s voracious wildlife as they pursue their individual quests, unaware that their paths are about to converge as the palnet threatens to erupt into chaos.

On the brink of burnout, Cormac disconnects his brain from the artificial intelligence network that enables rapid interstellar travel and is forced to track and elude a vicious psychopath while uncovering fiercely guarded secrets.