Polity Series - Filling the gaps in the reading order

[Steman]

Hello everyone,
I have just signed up to this forum.
I have started reading Neal Asher´s work one year ago.
Not having read anything from him before, I was kind of overwhelmed with the extent of the Polity series
so I decided to start from the latest, at the time The Soldier.
I have been an avid reader of SF for many years, mostly P.F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds and I was immediately
caught on with The Soldier. So of course I wanted to know more. Went on with Dark Intellingence trilogy. Loved it.
Amazing work. And then decided to start properly from the very beginning, in reading (not publishing order), from Prador Moon onwards.
I have just finished Line War and I have a couple of questions, which I hope the forum will be able to answer.

- Between Line War and The Soldier there is a gap (200 years according to Line War´s last pages). Is it meant to be like that or are there plot lines about those events in other books, maybe in the Spatterjay series? How did the former Legate came to be? What happens to Orlandine? The Dragon Spheres?
- About the Spatterjay series, is it a completely stand alone series, albeit in the same universe or are there also charachters from other books? I particularly like AIs, Drones, Golems much more than the humans. it would be nice to read about Penny Royal, Amistad, Crane, etc, again.
- About Penny Royal. Is there a sequel to its story after the end of Infinity Engine? I can´t recall where but I have read somewhere something about Penny Royal and the Brockle 3000 years after the events of the last book.

I want to take a litte break from Asher and the Polity, read something else (short stories and Hamilton´s second book in the Salvation series) and then reread The Soldier before going on with Warship. But if there are other stories or books that I should read in between, I´d like to know.

Thank you very much

Stefano

 

[Rodders]

Welcome to the Chrons.

Like you, I've been reading them out of order too. I don't think it really matters what order you read them, to be honest.

I'm currently half way through the Agent Cormac series.

I would totally recommend Neal's Transformation series. A phenomenal read from start to finish, in my opinion. Looking to get the hardback versions.

 

[tinkerdan]

This:

Neal Asher - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

:Has a chronological look at the series.

 

[Steman]

This:

Neal Asher - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

:Has a chronological look at the series.

Thank you,

In the links reported at the bottom of this wikipedia page there´s a Reddit AMA with Neal Asher. He also says that the Spatterjay series happens after the Rise of the Jain. I´t a bit confusing to me that the publishing order does not follow the internal chronological order.
So I´ll keep the Spatterjay Series for last.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Neal posted a graphic about his book order here, if of any help:

Where's the best place to start

I've just got two more Star Wars books to read and then i want to get a bit of a book haul in the new year. I've been eying up some of Asher's books over the last few months and just wondered where you thought the best book to start was?

www.sffchronicles.com