Collections

A novel that questions the beginnings of the human race. They moved suns and on some worlds were worshiped as gods. They had been gone from the galaxy for five million years. Then the science vessel Schrodinger's Box discovers one trapped in a sphere of ice drifting through deepest space ... but not everyone shares the scientist's joy. Also included six short stories from the master of science fiction horror.

Mason has a rat problem on his farm, a serious problem, for these rats are armed and dangerous. But he soon learns that rats in suits are even worse. What do you do when rats invade your barn? Kill them or negotiate? Mason finds out the hard way that force does not always work! An allegory of war and violence? A statement on the arms race? Neal Asher’s work takes Orwell’s Animal Farm into a grimly humorous future where evolution is outrunning humanity. You may never trust a rat again! “I’ve never read anything like MASON’S RATS before … it’s sharp, funny and highly inventive. There’s more fun in this one slim volume than in many a full-length novel!” – Stephen Gallagher

A spaceship hurtles into the unknown carrying humanity's last hope, but does it also carry the seeds of its own doom? The galaxy's ultimate facilitator finds himself pursued by relentless enemies, while, of greater importance, there's a puzzle to be solved. A trivial disagreement between two off-duty super soldiers out for some R&R escalates and escalates, eventually endangering an entire world... Thirteen tales of human striving, of ingenuity, brilliance, desperate action, violence, and resolution. Thirteen tales of Conflict, of Science Fiction at its absolute best. Includes stories by Neal Asher, Eric Brown, Andy Remic, Keith Brooke, Michael Cobley, Chris Beckett, Martin Sketchley, and many more.

I have a varied collection of short stories in my files and, of course, the temptation is there to dump them on Kindle, take the money and run. However, though I think some of them are great, some aren’t, and some are profoundly dated. I am aware that there are those out there, who will just buy these without a second thought, so I have to edit, be selective, and I damned well have to show some respect for my readers. Kindle in this respect can be a danger for a known writer, because you can publish any old twaddle and someone will buy it. Time and again, I’ve had fans, upon hearing that I have this and that unpublished in my files, demanding that I publish it at once because surely they’ll love it. No they won’t. A reputation like trust: difficult to build and easy to destroy. I’ve therefore chosen stories other people have published here and there, and filled in with those I really think someone should have published. Here you’ll find some Polity tales, some that could have been set in the Polity (at a stretch) and some from the bleak Owner universe. Enjoy! Neal Asher 04/06/18

Best-selling author Neal Asher was far from idle during the isolation of lockdown; he kept himself occupied in the best way possible: he wrote. And his imagination was clearly in overdrive. Five brand new novellas and novelettes and one novella reworked and expanded from a story first published in 2019. Together, they form Lockdown Tales, exploring the latter days of the Polity universe and beyond. What lies in wait for humanity after the Polity has gone? Six stories, 150,000 words of fiction that crackle with energy, invention and excitement. Within their pages you will encounter prador, hoopers, sassy A.I.s, resurrected Golem, a mutated giant whelk that can ravage an island, hooders, megalomaniacs, war drones, Penny Royal, an intriguing sfnal take on High Planes Drifter and another with echoes of Robinson Crusoe... In fact, everything you might expect from concentrated Neal Asher and more. Lockdown Tales: An introduction The Relict Monitor Logan Bad Boy Plenty Dr. Whip Raising Moloch

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 were set during the latter days of Neal's Polity universe, while others explored what came next. Contents: Lockdown Tales II: An Introduction Xenovore An Alien on Crete The Translator Skin Eels The Host Antique Battlefields Moral Biology Longevity Averaging

Fantastical: a short story collection. I’m known for science fiction and, generally, that work is what ends up as a book or in some story collection. But as over the years I scrabbled around to find my opening I also wrote fantasy, contemporary and stuff that doesn’t comfortably take any label. This stuff has been mouldering on my hard drive for years and I thought it time to scrub up the stories and put them out there. However, it concerned me that some of those stories were a bit duff. Publish them anyway, cried the readers, either out of genuine interest or eager to see me fall flat on my face. Some stories were duff, but I have rewritten and edited them into functionality, I think – there are a few here about which I have my doubts. The one about a twenty-something wannabe artist running away with elves still makes me cringe. I also said I would write waffly introduction to each. Do more waffle, the readers cried, so I did. I have here included the three Mason’s Rats stories mainly because the booklet on Amazon is too small to print and only available on Kindle. The first of these, along with a bit of the second, are what some of you saw in Love, Death & Robots on Netflix. Bad Travelling is here too, along with two further stories from that world. I’ve called this collection Fantastical because thought you’ll find fantasy here, there’s other stuff. I mean, what is Mason’s Rats? Is it fantasy or simple extrapolated science fiction? What is Bad Travelling for that matter, with its harpoons of ship metal and modified sea life about the islands? Enjoy. . .