🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Neal Asher
Both of his parents are fans of science fiction and are educators. Even though he started writing speculative fiction during his secondary school days, he didn’t take a serious turn toward writing until the age of 25. Neal points to fantasy works such as “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings”, and Roger Zelazny’s “The Chronicles of Amber” as important early creative influences on him. He published his first short story in the year 1989. He was offered a three book contract by Pan Macmillan in the year 2000. Gridlinked, his first full length novel, was published in the year 2001, and is the first novel in the “Agent Cormac” novels. Neal’s work has been published in America, the United Kingdom, Japan, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Russia, and France.
All Book Series by Neal Asher
The Gabble And Other Stories
Latest in the series · book 3 of 3 · published 2008
Story Behind the Book
Single-title series · published 2014 Co-authored · Ken Scholes,Jay Posey
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection
Book 2 of 20 · published 2006
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection
Book 14 of 20 · published 2014
Love, Death + Robots: The Official Anthology: Volumes 2 & 3
Book 19 of 20 · published 2022
Permutations: A Well World Anthology
Latest in the series · book 20 of 20 · published 2025
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Neal Asher?
Both of his parents are fans of science fiction and are educators. Even though he started writing speculative fiction during his secondary school days, he didn’t take a serious turn toward writing until the age of 25. Neal points to fantasy works such as “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings”, and Roger Zelazny’s “The Chronicles of Amber” as important early creative influences on him.
Which Neal Asher series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Polity Collections series, the earliest of Neal Asher's multi-book series: it opens with The Engineer Reconditioned (1998) and runs to 3 books across 1998–2008, ending with The Gabble And Other Stories (2008). Neal Asher's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.
How many books has Neal Asher written?
Neal Asher has 84 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1994 and 2026. 48 of them belong to 11 named series — the largest being the Agent Cormac series with 5 books — and 36 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Neal Asher's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Neal Asher's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Polity Collections (1998–2008, 3 books), Agent Cormac (2001–2008, 5 books) and Spatterjay (2002–2009, 3 books), plus 7 more.
How are Neal Asher's books organised into series?
This guide splits Neal Asher's 84 books into 11 named series and 36 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Agent Cormac (5 books, 2001–2008); Polity Universe (5 books, 2006–2023); Owner Trilogy (3 books, 2011–2013); Polity Collections (3 books, 1998–2008); Rise of the Jain (3 books, 2018–2020), plus 6 further series.