Neal Asher

Image of Neal Asher
Neal Asher

14 Quotations from Neal Asher

aerocab n. 2011 N. Asher Departure 60 He strode right across the lounge to the exit doors, beyond which taxis were drawing up, loading up with passengers and puling away. Escalators also led up to aerocar and aerocab platforms but…he chose ground taxi instead. Even with his status rated high, he wanted his profile to remain low, and those arriving at the Inspectorate Headquarters here by aerocar would become the subject of much scrutiny.
autodoc n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent i. 20 When no pain became evident, he opened his eyes to observe the tangle of limbs and implements on the underside of a pedestal autodoc, just as it swung aside.
biotechnician n. 2013 N. Asher Other Gun in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 39 The Client is a hive creature and a hive all in one, perpetually conjoined, being born and dying all in one and able to meddle at genetic levels with its parts. It is a natural bio-technician, geneticist, and makes forms like this to interact with environments outside its preferred one.
contraterrene adj. 2015 N. L. Asher Dark Intelligence 14 This is filled with both inert missiles and CTDs—contra-terrene devices—because nothing says ‘gigadeath’ quite so effectively as those flasks of anti-matter.
Dyson sphere n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent i. 34 This particular fragment of the nascent, fully enclosing Dyson sphere was diamond-shaped, 160,000 miles long and 100,000 wide.
Earth-normal n. 2007 N. Asher Alien Archaeology in Asimov’s Science Fiction June 98 I realized I was in my own bedroom, and that my house had been sealed and the environment controls set to Earth-normal.
gate n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent Prol. 14 Shutting down such a link resulted in all the absorbed energy exploding from one gate…in the form of a blast wave of subatomic particles forced from the quantum foam.
graser n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent ix. 200 Massive weapons turrets protruded from it out into space: housing racks of missiles as large as attack ships; thinking bombs whose prime purpose had been to fight their way to exotic-metal hulls and detonate; particle-beam cannons gaping like cavern throats; rail-guns that could fill nearby space with swarms of ceramal projectiles travelling at near-c; lasers, grasers, masers.
ion drive n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent i. 27 The H-shaped craft drew to a sudden halt above them, then began to descend.…One strut of the H contained the ion drive, and possibly its controlling AI—though such ships were usually telefactored—and crew quarters if necessary.
light-century n. 2015 N. Asher Dark Intelligence xx. 383 [A] couple of light centuries might be needed, if we want to observe comfortably.
planet-buster n. 2007 N. Asher Alien Archaeology in Asimov’s Science Fiction 125 Penny Royal doesn’t look likely to be escaping, so maybe it can hold off on the planet busters.
posthuman n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent xv. 363 The reality, he felt sure, was that the AIs were the genuine post-humans.
ramscoop n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent ix. 213 The ship surfaced from U-space one astronomical unit out, and travelling at three quarters the speed of light, it used ramscoop to decelerate: opening out orange wings radiating from the abundant hydrogen being dragged in around it, soon followed by the sun-bright ignition of a fusion drive.
terraformer n. 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent iii. 72 Here then was an attempt to allow a terraformer to create something not quite so homogeneous as many worlds in the Polity.