Neal L. Asher

A collection of stories set in Neal Asher's amazing Polity universe. In the parched, arid wastes of this far-flung Polity world, Snow is being hunted. With a prize on his head and his life in danger, trust is a luxury he can’t afford. Hirald, pale and deadly in the blistering heat, is an ambiguous presence. But who is she? What does she want from him? Mankind has sought Snow’s secret for thousands of years, and blood will flow in the desert before it’s revealed. This short tale is compelling, brutal and lingers long after the final word: the perfect introduction to Neal Asher’s Polity universe fiction.

"In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity's Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity nor the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they've placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman. She's assisted by Dragon, a mysterious, spaceship-sized alien entity who has long been suspicious of Jain technology and who suspects the disc is a trap lying in wait."--Book jacket.

Sequel to Zero Point

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.

Her mission is vital, her failure is unthinkable. A corner of space swarms with lethal technology, created by a long-dead race called the Jain. It's guarded by Orlandine, tasked with keeping it contained, or it could destroy entire civilisations. Dragon, an alien intelligence, shares her vigil, but she doesn't share everything with Dragon...Orlandine plots to obliterate this tech swarm, for some will do anything to exploit it - including activating a Jain super-soldier. This could breach even Orlandine's defences. Meanwhile, humanity and the alien prador empire also watch this sector of space, each blocking the other from claiming its power. However, things are about to change. The Jain might not be as dead as they seemed and interstellar war looms closer then ever.

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.

A Jain warship has risen from an ancient prison, wielding lethal technology. The ship's goal is to catch its old adversary, the Client, and to destroy all who stand in its path. Humanity and the prador thought the Jain were long extinct. But their nemesis is back, and Orlandine must prepare humanity's defence. She'll need the Client's knowledge to do this - but is the enemy of your enemy a friend?

Sequel to War Factory. Several forces pursue rogue artificial intelligence Penny Royal - hungry for revenge or redemption. And the Brockle is the most dangerous of all. This criminal swarm-robot AI has escaped confinement and is upgrading itself, becoming ever more powerful ahead of their showdown.