The Polity

Neal Asher has written almost 20 books (if you include short story compilations) set within the universe of the Polity, an interstellar human civilization ruled by (mostly) benevolent AIs, all overseen by the most powerful AI of all: Earth Central. There are several distinct series within the larger Polity collection, as well as several standalone novels and short story collections. The Ian Cormac series follows a human agent of Earth Central as he investigates threats towards the Polity. The Spatterjay series explores the hostile world of Spatterjay and the lives of its hoopers: humans infected by an alien virus that grants its hosts functional immortality, immense strength, and incredible durability, but not without a cost. The Transformations series focuses on a rogue AI named Penny Royal capable of granting almost any wish, but its help is always a double-edged sword. His most recent series, Rise of the Jain, is about the re-emergence of an ancient and incredibly powerful alien race that disappeared after seeding the galaxy with technological seeds designed to destroy any intelligent civilization that came across one. All of Asher's Polity novels are chock full of amazing technology, vibrant characters, picture-painting prose, and themes that explore the nature and limits of humanity. I was tempted to put this series under the Hard Sci-Fi category, as Asher introduces very few technologies that can't be extrapolated from existing tech, but a few things (e.g. FTL travel) and the distance in the future in which the series is set convinced me it should probably not be included in the "hard" category. - @isochronous